Buying a Chinese phone....

[The Minertaur]

Was interested in the Xiaomi MI 5 for a while - specs look amazing on it.

 

It seems to be taking forever to come across here so will be getting a Samsung or an LG instead.

[Njord]

Time for another for me, and thinking in juayu S3+ for @£120 .

Can do LTE 800mhz in UK but doesn't support VOLTE which rules it out for 3 network support for the 800mhz.

Probably still go for it in a month or two as the 4g will never get here in the lifetime of the phone anyroads.

Can't stress enough how good the removable battery option is, deal breaker for me these days.

[KnightswoodBear]

My dad was looking for a cheap smartphone and I picked him up one of these

 

http://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_218382.html

 

£86 quid.  It's really not too shabby and ideal for what he wants it for.

[Gaz]

I'm after one as well but not a fan of 5"+ smartphones.

Any around that are 4.5" in size? I'm thinking the same size as my old iPhone 4s?

[greyman]

One of the best phones I bought was a China direct one. A haipai x720d. Lasted well until it was dropped and the screen smashed. No-one was able to replace it. Got it from dracotek. They sell tons of electronic consumables.

[Njord]

Well.....onto Chinese junk #3

 

Ordered last weekend, processed Monday and dispatched from Shenzen, it arrived in Inverness Thursday and delivered North on Friday.

 

 

This time I went for the Umi Super as I wanted the ability to get 800 MHz 4G as I believe that is what's about to get turned on bigstylee up here by EE and maybe 3.

Build quality is great and the spec is blinding for the cash, so once I know what network will work best for my locations, I'll whip out the 2nd sim and pop in a 256 card giving 288 giggidy gigs of memory

http://www.umidigi.com/page-umi_super_overview.html

 

Still to properly muck around with stuff as getting used to android 6.0 but it has the feel of a really good bit of kit.

 

I did make the rookie error and bought from a site (gear best) that I hadn't used before so got hit with £38 Customs, but even then it was still below my budget of £200.

Phone £140+£12 shipping +£3insurance + £38 customs = £193 I think.

 

 

 

Oh, and there is one by Ulhans or something on the go for $50 which will do the 4G bands over here. Might even get one just to see. Do as a prezzie after I've had a swatch.

[Boostin' Kev]

Quite like the idea of whatever company it is that makes the bigger screens than Samsung.  Don't know much about the Chinese phone market though and am not due an upgrade until next summer but will look into them then.

[Homer Thompson]

2 hours ago, Njord said:

Well.....onto Chinese junk #3

 

Ordered last weekend, processed Monday and dispatched from Shenzen, it arrived in Inverness Thursday and delivered North on Friday.

 

 

This time I went for the Umi Super as I wanted the ability to get 800 MHz 4G as I believe that is what's about to get turned on bigstylee up here by EE and maybe 3.

Build quality is great and the spec is blinding for the cash, so once I know what network will work best for my locations, I'll whip out the 2nd sim and pop in a 256 card giving 288 giggidy gigs of memory

http://www.umidigi.com/page-umi_super_overview.html

 

Still to properly muck around with stuff as getting used to android 6.0 but it has the feel of a really good bit of kit.

 

I did make the rookie error and bought from a site (gear best) that I hadn't used before so got hit with £38 Customs, but even then it was still below my budget of £200.

Phone £140+£12 shipping +£3insurance + £38 customs = £193 I think.

 

 

 

Oh, and there is one by Ulhans or something on the go for $50 which will do the 4G bands over here. Might even get one just to see. Do as a prezzie after I've had a swatch.

Thats looks a cracking phone. 

Ive got really used to having the stylus on the Note Im not sure I could go back to a normal phone. However, the Notes are so expensive its very tempting to go for something like this

[Njord]

 

Will give a proper lowdown after a week or so (on 2G at house so not put apps on to check screen etc etc) and they also have launched the similar Umi Max which has/is being offered cheaply in flash sales at places.

 

The 'next big thing' is 2 rear cameras and this doesn't have it, but not too bothered by that this time. Had looked at one that did have them, did VoLTE but didn't do the 800 band unfortunately. It would've been dearer too.

 

One downside of the Umi is an integral battery , but if it lasts a year then fine. Impressed by the fast charging though, about 70 mins from flat out to full, and that gave @ 7 1/2 hours browsing on near full brightness.

And I like the turbo download mode (is that an android feature?) , ie WiFi and cell download at the same time.

It doesn't even have the handfull of Chinese apps preinstalled that the Jiayu had, so very 'light' and fast.

 

Pleased so far.

[THE KING]

Doogee pro6 from Amazon £70 ... perfect.

[John Lambies Doos]

Huawei. Direct from China... dual sim

[THE KING]

1 hour ago, John Lambies Doos said:

Huawei. Direct from China... dual sim

Most Chinese phones are dual sim, Huawei now being one of the largest suppliers in the world have become too expensive, as above Doogee ,one plus, etc etc are currently less known so still dirt cheap, I've said years ago on here ,anyone buying a contract phone is a Fukin mug.

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

I'm tempted to go down this road for my next phone but I'm pretty clueless about them. What specifications should I be looking for that confirms compatibility with UK networks? I'm with 3 network just now so most likely to stick with them. Any other tips would be most welcome. Probably looking to spend £150-£200.

[Njord]

I'm with 3 as one of my sims and they are 2100mhz for texts and calls.

 

For 4g , it is bands 1,3 and 20 from memory and band 7 for gsm/3g (8 if you with, lol, Vodafone)

 

This a is big electronics show over there just now with loads of new launches, so there is bound to be price reductions on the go for models released only recently , and with the pound strengthening again it is a better time to buy than when I did a fortnight ago.

 

Re customs,  this time I bought from 'gearbest' and got hit the charges as detailed a couple if posts above. My fault as I was doing it from a neighbours PC and didn't want to take up too much time. 'If' I had gone for the slightly dearer silver model from their EU warehouse, then no customs...

Or if I had used my usual SpeMall , they have sent previous phones from HK labelled as 'picture frame repair' or 'phone warranty repair' and again no customs.

 

Brands I have bought have been Jiayu and the current Umi so I could only speak for them (jiayu have been taken over so no new phones for a while though the S3+ you can get verrry cheaply on eBay at the mo and XDA have a marshmallow ROM out for it this week, and the Umi I like. A lot).

 

Brands I haven't but 'would' , xaomi , miezu, oppo, honor, top end huwaie or however you spell it.

 

 

Got an ota update already for the Umi which ironed out a couple of minor bugs, which promising for the future.

 

 

One small issue was the sound was very low on full volume, but I have had this before on one of my jiayu phones (the other had a Yamaha audio setup so was mint) and is common with mediatek phones. I'm sure my HTC was the same too.

2 minute fix that I did then still works, call up the phone keypad as if making a call, enter a code which opens the engineering menu, ram up the parameters on the audio part and bingo. Speaker sound now more than acceptable.

 

Feel free to ask more, I've probably missed out a lot at this time of day...

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

I'm with 3 as one of my sims and they are 2100mhz for texts and calls.

 

For 4g , it is bands 1,3 and 20 from memory and band 7 for gsm/3g (8 if you with, lol, Vodafone)

 

This a is big electronics show over there just now with loads of new launches, so there is bound to be price reductions on the go for models released only recently , and with the pound strengthening again it is a better time to buy than when I did a fortnight ago.

 

Re customs,  this time I bought from 'gearbest' and got hit the charges as detailed a couple if posts above. My fault as I was doing it from a neighbours PC and didn't want to take up too much time. 'If' I had gone for the slightly dearer silver model from their EU warehouse, then no customs...

Or if I had used my usual SpeMall , they have sent previous phones from HK labelled as 'picture frame repair' or 'phone warranty repair' and again no customs.

 

Brands I have bought have been Jiayu and the current Umi so I could only speak for them (jiayu have been taken over so no new phones for a while though the S3+ you can get verrry cheaply on eBay at the mo and XDA have a marshmallow ROM out for it this week, and the Umi I like. A lot).

 

Brands I haven't but 'would' , xaomi , miezu, oppo, honor, top end huwaie or however you spell it.

 

 

Got an ota update already for the Umi which ironed out a couple of minor bugs, which promising for the future.

 

 

One small issue was the sound was very low on full volume, but I have had this before on one of my jiayu phones (the other had a Yamaha audio setup so was mint) and is common with mediatek phones. I'm sure my HTC was the same too.

2 minute fix that I did then still works, call up the phone keypad as if making a call, enter a code which opens the engineering menu, ram up the parameters on the audio part and bingo. Speaker sound now more than acceptable.

 

Feel free to ask more, I've probably missed out a lot at this time of day...

That's very helpful, thank you. I have the very same problem just now with my HTC One X, very quiet, even though volume is turned up full. I think the problem has happened through wear n tear, probably dropping it one time too many. I'm definitely going to look into the Chinese market, athough I'll need to do a bit of research first. It seems like a good way to go these days if you know what you're doing.

[THE KING]

21 hours ago, YER SISTERS YER MAW said:

I'm tempted to go down this road for my next phone but I'm pretty clueless about them. What specifications should I be looking for that confirms compatibility with UK networks? I'm with 3 network just now so most likely to stick with them. Any other tips would be most welcome. Probably looking to spend £150-£200.

 

 

http://www.doogee.cc

 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Upgraded-Android-Unlocked-FDD-LTE-Smartphone/dp/B01C3YVL5S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472810754&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=Upgraded+Doogee+x6&psc=1

Edited September 2, 2016 by THE KING

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

8 hours ago, THE KING said:

 

 

http://www.doogee.cc

 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Upgraded-Android-Unlocked-FDD-LTE-Smartphone/dp/B01C3YVL5S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472810754&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=Upgraded+Doogee+x6&psc=1

It's seems really good spec for the paltry pricetag. The reviews are mostly 4 or 5 stars too. Thanks for the link. I'm going to do a bit of reading up and compare phones on the chinese market & see what the best deals are. 

[Njord]

One word of caution.... If HD voice/VoLTE is an important feature to you , don't buy Chinese. The phone you buy might/may support it, but the networks here won't.

 

I think one network has one plus two but that's it, and the same for UK released phones. IPhone 6 and up, some Samsungs, Sony xperias, LG G5 etc  will have access, legacy UK phones which have the feature will get bumped for the foreseeable.

 

The rest might not.

 

I had toyed with buying the LG4 as is it cheaper than the 5 and a better bit of kit all round, but if no network support then why bother?

Hence binning VoLTE as a desirable feature and going Umi.

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

On 9/2/2016 at 09:50, YER SISTERS YER MAW said:

That's very helpful, thank you. I have the very same problem just now with my HTC One X, very quiet, even though volume is turned up full. I think the problem has happened through wear n tear, probably dropping it one time too many. I'm definitely going to look into the Chinese market, athough I'll need to do a bit of research first. It seems like a good way to go these days if you know what you're doing.

I've just fixed the low sound issues on my HTC One X. Tried googling to see if there was a fix and someone suggested cleaning the speaker grilles with a soft toothbrush and it worked wonders.

[THE KING]

15 hours ago, YER SISTERS YER MAW said:

I've just fixed the low sound issues on my HTC One X. Tried googling to see if there was a fix and someone suggested cleaning the speaker grilles with a soft toothbrush and it worked wonders.

Or Google engineer mode for whatever handset you have.