The Chinese Phones Thread
 

There are so many different Chinese phones available, some made by big name manufacturers, some by no name manufacturers.

The main selling point is that the specs to price ratio is extremely attractive compared to the phones available from the carriers here. The trade-offs are question marks about the build quality and support of the devices.

Some of the brands are Lenovo, Xiaomi, Cubot, Kingzone, Huawei, Doogee, uleFone, Jiayu, Elephone, ZTE, Leagoo, Meizu. There are a ton more that are even less known.

Technically Oneplus One is a Chinese phone as well, but they've just been the most successful at penetrating into the mainstream so far, probably due to the phone being so well spec'ed at a very reasonable price, and the marketing behind it.

A lot of the other companies listed are trying to do get their name established as well, so they're not just pumping out crappy phones to make a quick buck.

When my Note II suddenly died on me three weeks ago, I had no idea what phone to get as a replacement. I was considering all your standard options like Nexus 6, Note 4, M8, etc... but then I ended up getting a uleFone Be Pro.

This is the flagship model from uleFone, and it has a 5.5" 1280x720 IPS screen, MTK6732 1.5GHz Quad Core (64-Bit) CPU, 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM, and dual SIM support at a regular price of USD170.

I found a deal and ended up getting it for USD120, or a total of about CAD150.

I only received it yesterday, so haven't had too much time to use it yet, but so far so good.

I originally had some issues connecting to Rogers LTE, but that seems to have been resolve now.

The only complaint I really have at this point is the USB port, which is fairly recessed into the body, so the cable connection is pretty poor. Any slight nudge of the cable will knock the cable loose.

Hard to complain for a $150 unlocked phone with these specs though.

It shipped with 4.4.4, but Lollipop should be available on this device within the next few days.

It has a 2600mAh cell, but the battery life seems pretty decent so far. Will take more time to get a true evaluation, but I think this will run longer than my Note II with the 3100mAh cell.

Here's a review of it:

Ulefone Be Pro Review - You Won't Believe It's Only $160 - Mobile Geeks

Has anyone else gone outside of the box and bought one of the many Chinese phones available from online sellers?

i always thought about it but was not knowledgable enough of which ones are good vs junk and what was a reputable site to purchase from.

i'd be interested in suggestions for sites as well as different models of tablets people have had good experience with. i'm looking for an 8" one.

Low end brand I would never touch - Teclast, ONDA, Ramos.
I go through these tablets from 2 to 12 months, and they end up going into the trash can. Battery, display, rom, buttons, speakers all have problem. They are the best to stay in the bathroom to browse the web while taking a dump

Mid tier brand that I tried and satisfied - PIPO, Ainol, Hyundai
These brand do not update their rom as frequent as above, probably it is more stable and no need to do things about it. They are more expensive, but still embarrassing to show off your tab. I am using PIPO dual boot (Win8 x android), so far I am loving it.

High end brand - Lenovo, Huawei, Alcatel, Xiaomi
Even though they are the most expensive, that does not mean they are flawless.

inb4 gululu posts about honger arrogance, WASP stupidity, and china #1

I have a Huawei honor 6 that I use when I go back to China. Honestly though the phone isn't bad. The UI is a lot like Iphone so is the design. The speaker needs work(even at max volume I could barely it ringing in a quiet room). Battery seems great.

The only thing that stops me from using it in Canada is that it doesn't have the band to connect to LTE and 3G, leaving it only at 2g which sucks.

I have an Oppo Find 7 and it's decent. Great speakers, great audio, The OS sucks but the device is heavily supported by third party developers.

My iPhone 6+ is made in China

Does that count?

GTFO :suspicious::gtfo:

I've been using this uleFone Be Pro for the past 4-5 days now, so obviously still much too early to have any long-term impressions of it, but the short-term impressions are quite favourable.

More about the two issues that I had originally, but have been resolved:

The first one was after manually adding the Rogers LTE APN, it had a tough time actually connecting to 4G. It was almost a showstopper because every time I enabled WiFi and then disabled it, the phone would have problems connecting properly to mobile data. Turned out all I needed to do was reboot the phone, and now it connects to 4G flawlessly.

The second was is the USB port, which seems to be fairly recessed into the body. The first few micro USB cables I tried fitted very loosely, and while they charged the phone fine, any slight movement of the cable would unseat the connection. Turns out it depends on where the "latches" are on the USB cable, because subsequently I found another cable I had actually hooked properly, as does the cable the phone came with.

Battery life has been very reasonable so far. I think I'm getting slightly longer battery life out it than my Note II. Would have been nice if it had a 3000mAh or bigger battery, but the 2600mAh battery it has is satisfactory.

I have absolutely zero complaints about the usability and features of this phone.

The only thing that will determine whether this was a good purchase is how durable it is, and/or when/if things go wrong with it. If it works for more than a couple years without issue, then this phone is an absolute steal.

I'd like to point out that Huawei should not be clumped with the rest of the clone-type manufacturers.

In terms of operational scale and innovations; Its ranked like the following:

1. Huawei
2. Xiaomi
3. Lenovo/Motorola
4. ZTE
5. TCL/Alcatel
6. meizu, smartisan, vivo, oppo, opo, coolpad, etc
7. clones and the rest

huawei is worlds biggest telecommunication firm. holds more patent than cisco, siemens, ericsson. every cell tower in Canada all use Huawei equipments

You know what, you're probably right... I guess I really just listed any Chinese phone manufacturer, big or small... but what I said about the price to specs ratio doesn't necessarily apply to all of them. Huawei and some of the other big names actually make some really good phones, but the prices are right up there with the handsets we have readily available here in Canada.

It really would be some of the smaller companies trying to establish themselves that are offering some remarkable specs to dollar value right now. The few that I've seen get some attention lately are Elephone, CuBot, uleFone, Jiayu, Doogee, KingZone, etc.

just cuz there big doesnt mean there good, i have had bad experiences with huawei phones

im using a mi3 right now, the phones not that great in general but the small details is quite good

im working in china & im on a CDMA network, which limits me on phones choices, as well prices for the same phone (cdma phones costs more)

i have only used a coolpad, huawei & xiaomi, i had a OPO that got for free but i gave it back once i phone out it was not compatible with my network

i normally would tell u guys to stay away from chinese made phones due to the fact that u dont really get a lot of aftermarket support outside of chinese

note: i dont completely hate chinese phones

I am surprise no one mention One plus one. It is a Chinese company and its phone was successful last year. Let's see how well it will do this year.

The only chinese phone that is beyond "barely useful" is the iphone

It's because there is a huge thread dedicated to the Oneplus One already, so this thread was made with the intention of talking about the literally hundreds of other Chinese phones out there.

For one, clearly iPhone doesn't belong in this discussion. By Chinese phone, we're talking about phones that were made by companies based in China, designed in China, and solely operate out of China. Yeah, iPhones might be manufactured and assembled in China, but that's about the extent of their connection there.

The specs of the OnePlus one at USD350 is probably comparable to those from the big names at CAD600-700.

The specs of the uleFone Be Pro I got at CAD150 is probably comparable to those from the big names at CAD300-400.

It's true that support and longevity is questionable at best for these Chinese phones, I'm not very impressed that my Note II completely died on me out of the blue after two years of use.

I guess if I get two years out of this Chinese phone, I'll be more than satisfied with the return.

I'll just have to see how it goes...

oneplus one ? as Cyanogenmod is partnering with other brands, and its OS is the only attractive element, I doubt it will have growth in 2015. The oneplus two rumour spec isn't really drawing much attention.

Obviously I was kidding about the iphone. The thing is, specs don't make a phone. People constantly fall into that trap, and end up with crappy china phones. You think it's great, and it might be for a few weeks or even months. Then it starts to degrade and you wish you had just spent the money for a better quality phone.

See how it goes... I think you'll agree eventually.

Definitely possible, and time will tell.

However, I think it's also possible that some China manufacturers might be trying to make devices that are better built now and trying to establish themselves as reputable names - maybe like the Kia of the mobile world.

If the phone lasts me more than two years, I'll be more than satisfied.
If it lasts me one year, I'll be okay with that.
If it lasts me less than a year, I'll be disappointed.

Prepare to make the Sherman Face ;)

i feel like this could be your new sig :lol

I'm right every time :troll:

this is a website that's part of my daily read now.
Gizchina.com - Chinese phone, Android smartphone, tablet news and reviews | Gizchina.com

sounds pretty nsfw when you pronounce it as 'jizz-china' :troll: :lawl:

huawei is rumor to be the next nexus phone maker

Huawei supposedly confirmed as the next Nexus phone maker - GSMArena.com news