Chinese Android Phones

Fescue · 23-04-2014 4:43pm

I am wondering if some any of you guys can help me out.

I ordered a Lenovo phone from China through amazon. Everything was great, phone arrived in 5 days, straight out of the box it works great, looks great etc...While I'm installing some apps through Google Play store, it prompts me to update the Lenovo software. Without thinking I clicked ok and it began to update. As soon as the update completed it has discarded all my apps and I am left with a Chinese phone with no access to google products.

Can you advise me on overcoming this problem and reinstalling google play and android as I know it.

Thanks in advance.

tallaghtmick · 23-04-2014 4:50pm

Fescue wrote: »

I am wondering if some any of you guys can help me out.

I ordered a Lenovo phone from China through amazon. Everything was great, phone arrived in 5 days, straight out of the box it works great, looks great etc...While I'm installing some apps through Google Play store, it prompts me to update the Lenovo software. Without thinking I clicked ok and it began to update. As soon as the update completed it has discarded all my apps and I am left with a Chinese phone with no access to google products.

Can you advise me on overcoming this problem and reinstalling google play and android as I know it.

Thanks in advance.

AAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHHHH happened to me, you will have to flash GAPPS. Google it to find out how

Fescue · 23-04-2014 4:52pm

tallaghtmick wrote: »

AAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHHHH happened to me, you will have to flash GAPPS. Google it to find out how

Cheers Mick...I asked the seller about returning it and they said it wouldn't be worth my while!

So if its possible to get it back working I would love to keep it. Really nice phone.

tallaghtmick · 23-04-2014 5:13pm

Fescue wrote: »

Cheers Mick...I asked the seller about returning it and they said it wouldn't be worth my while!

So if its possible to get it back working I would love to keep it. Really nice phone.

Whats the exact model and what Android is it running now? Have you changed the language back to English?

Fescue · 23-04-2014 5:22pm

tallaghtmick wrote: »

Whats the exact model and what Android is it running now? Have you changed the language back to English?

Lenovo S650

Yeah its running in english.

tallaghtmick · 23-04-2014 5:30pm

Fescue wrote: »

Lenovo S650

Yeah its running in english.

What version of Android? google GAPPS android version 4.2.1 or 4.2.2 what ever your phone is running, put the zip file in the root of your SD card(sometimes it has to be put on the internal SD card) turn off the phone boot into recovery and look for install from ZIP look for GAPPS and install

Fescue · 23-04-2014 5:36pm

tallaghtmick wrote: »

What version of Android? google GAPPS android version 4.2.1 or 4.2.2 what ever your phone is running, put the zip file in the root of your SD card(sometimes it has to be put on the internal SD card) turn off the phone boot into recovery and look for install from ZIP look for GAPPS and install

Its android 4.2.2

Can you explain putting the zip file into the root of the sd card Mick? This is all new to me!

tallaghtmick · 23-04-2014 6:17pm

Fescue wrote: »

Its android 4.2.2

Can you explain putting the zip file into the root of the sd card Mick? This is all new to me!

Download it but dont extract it, connect your phone, you should get pop ups one is your phone the other is your sd card, click the sd card and copy the zip file onto it,loads of vids on youtube about it.

Fescue · 23-04-2014 6:22pm

tallaghtmick wrote: »

Download it but dont extract it, connect your phone, you should get pop ups one is your phone the other is your sd card, click the sd card and copy the zip file onto it,loads of vids on youtube about it.

Ok thanks Mick I'll get busy with that and let you know how I get on.

The Governor · 23-04-2014 6:30pm

It's my first time looking at one of these Chinese phones and I'm wondering if you all would help.

What are the best phones to be got at the moment according to your opinions?

I ideally want a good camera and fast processor and RAM, I don't want to encounter any lag as I had that before with a Samung and it drove me mad.

Fescue · 23-04-2014 6:44pm

tallaghtmick wrote: »

Download it but dont extract it, connect your phone, you should get pop ups one is your phone the other is your sd card, click the sd card and copy the zip file onto it,loads of vids on youtube about it.

Having tried to install the update from the sd card it just says install fail...

pauleoin · 23-04-2014 7:11pm

Fescue wrote: »

Having tried to install the update from the sd card it just says install fail...

You will need to enter Recovery mode to flash Gapps, (hold Volume+/- and power, then release power button), once in recovery choose "install zip from sd card", use volume key to move up/down select gapps zip, scroll down to accept option that says "this cannot be undone" and press power button to install. If your recovery is in Chinese Google the recovery for an image in English. Should look similar to this page http://www.simplehelp.net/2012/02/07/how-to-install-google-apps-on-your-android-device/

If you have mobileuncle app installed on your phone you can also use this to enter recovery mode.

Fescue · 23-04-2014 7:18pm

pauleoin wrote: »

You will need to enter Recovery mode to flash Gapps, (hold Volume+/- and power, then release power button), once in recovery choose "install zip from sd card", use volume key to move up/down select gapps zip, scroll down to accept option that says "this cannot be undone" and press power button to install. If your recovery is in Chinese Google the recovery for an image in English. Should look similar to this page http://www.simplehelp.net/2012/02/07/how-to-install-google-apps-on-your-android-device/

If you have mobileuncle app installed on your phone you can also use this to enter recovery mode.

Yeah I got that far. So I am on the Lenovo Recovery screen.

I have 4 options...

reboot

install update package

wipe user data

poweroff

I chose install update package but it fails each time.

pauleoin · 23-04-2014 7:21pm

Having read about this update on the Lenovo forum you may need to reinstall an earlier version of your rom as the update has a large amount of useless Chinese applications, rom is available here http://www.needrom.com/mobile/lenovo-s650/ free to join and download, lenovo forum here http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-Phones/Lenovo-s650-google-playstore-not-working/td-p/1391071

pauleoin · 23-04-2014 7:22pm

Fescue wrote: »

Yeah I got that far. So I am on the Lenovo Recovery screen.

I have 4 options...

reboot

install update package

wipe user data

poweroff

I chose install update package but it fails each time.

Does it give a recovery name and version?

Fescue · 23-04-2014 7:24pm

pauleoin wrote: »

Does it give a recovery name and version?

nope....I am trying to rename the file update.zip to see if this works...

pauleoin · 23-04-2014 7:28pm

Fescue wrote: »

nope....I am trying to rename the file update.zip to see if this works...

Have a read of the lenovo forum as you may be wasting you time flashing gapps if you are going to need to reinstall the earlier version of the rom. If you do reinstall your rom read the comments on the rom page as there are a few important bit of info there. Good luck.

Fescue · 23-04-2014 7:29pm

pauleoin wrote: »

Have a read of the lenovo forum as you may be wasting you time flashing gapps if you are going to need to reinstall the earlier version of the rom. If you do reinstall your rom read the comments on the rom page as there are a few important bit of info there. Good luck.

Thanks Eoin for the help... I am trawling through pages of forum stuff but I don't think there are any surefire answers. What a pain.

tallaghtmick · 23-04-2014 7:34pm

Fescue wrote: »

Thanks Eoin for the help... I am trawling through pages of forum stuff but I don't think there are any surefire answers. What a pain.

Dowload aptoide, great alternative to the playstore.

RossieMan · 23-04-2014 7:53pm

f-droid is good too, amazon play store has some of the apps on the playstore too.

loads of roms on NeedRom too for most chinese phones.

T-Bird · 23-04-2014 8:31pm

try searching Google for play store.apk install it on its own then install all the other apps you need via that.

rovoagho · 24-04-2014 1:53am

rovoagho wrote: »

90sBla, are you saying the aliexpress seller sent fake info to whoever is handling the dispute? Mixeshop have done that to me, tracking data from a completely different site to the one they sent originally, looks genuine but I still don't have the phone. Paypal are reviewing it for days now, I only hope they don't take it at face value.

I ended up having to buy a Chinese phone from an eBay seller in the UK, it's ridiculous.

A final update on this, PayPal asked the seller for more information on the 18th of this month, presumably a signature, and decided in my favour today, making it exactly 2 months I was down €200 because of Mixeshop. I'm not sure I'll ever buy from China again, but if I do, it won't be from this shower.

AtticusFinch86 · 24-04-2014 8:10am

I bought an iOcean7 elite online a few months ago and recently changed from an o2 prepay to Three prepay sim with free data, free calls to other Three customers and free texts etc. (as long as you top up by 20e per month). The problem is I'm having trouble connecting to the internet (it works fine on wifi and it also worked fine when I was on o2 prepay - although I only tried it once or twice on o2 prepay). The free phone calls and free texts work fine, the only issue is internet connectivity.

I've called Three customer service but because the model is quite uncommon in Ireland they don't seem to know how to help me or what instruction settings to send me, I was wondering has anyone else any experience of this and how did they solve it?

I've also noticed that the new Three sim card seems to be set to roaming and I have no idea why this is the case or whether or not it's a factor in the poor internet connection.

mqq · 24-04-2014 8:30am

AtticusFinch86 wrote: »

I bought an iOcean7 elite online a few months ago and recently changed from an o2 prepay to Three prepay sim with free data, free calls to other Three customers and free texts etc. (as long as you top up by 20e per month). The problem is I'm having trouble connecting to the internet (it works fine on wifi and it also worked fine when I was on o2 prepay - although I only tried it once or twice on o2 prepay). The free phone calls and free texts work fine, the only issue is internet connectivity.

I've called Three customer service but because the model is quite uncommon in Ireland they don't seem to know how to help me or what instruction settings to send me, I was wondering has anyone else any experience of this and how did they solve it?

I've also noticed that the new Three sim card seems to be set to roaming and I have no idea why this is the case or whether or not it's a factor in the poor internet connection.

oh,sorry to hear that,and i have met almost the same problem with you.Wait for helping

tallaghtmick · 24-04-2014 8:57am

AtticusFinch86 wrote: »

I bought an iOcean7 elite online a few months ago and recently changed from an o2 prepay to Three prepay sim with free data, free calls to other Three customers and free texts etc. (as long as you top up by 20e per month). The problem is I'm having trouble connecting to the internet (it works fine on wifi and it also worked fine when I was on o2 prepay - although I only tried it once or twice on o2 prepay). The free phone calls and free texts work fine, the only issue is internet connectivity.

I've called Three customer service but because the model is quite uncommon in Ireland they don't seem to know how to help me or what instruction settings to send me, I was wondering has anyone else any experience of this and how did they solve it?

I've also noticed that the new Three sim card seems to be set to roaming and I have no idea why this is the case or whether or not it's a factor in the poor internet connection.

mqq wrote: »

oh,sorry to hear that,and i have met almost the same problem with you.Wait for helping

Good luck guys, im with 3, they will do feck all to help, sure it switches to vodafone when no 3G/H. As you said before they will say they dont know the handset etc mine loses data for a few mins but it always comes back.

seannash · 24-04-2014 9:47am

Its more than likely a case of the APN's from O2 are still set in your phone

Go to settings/more/Mobile networks/access point names

Then hit the bottom left captive button and select reset to default.

If this doesn't work you can select New APN and enter the APN details in manually.
You should be able to get those from your provider or on there website.

It wont matter what make of phone you have the APN settings for android are all the same on each network.
That should hopefully fix it

mistress_gi · 24-04-2014 1:09pm

Hi everyone! Got the Newman today but I didn't get a charger so I am using another brand of charger to get it up and running but, it's been on now for an hour and I can't get the phone to turn on. Is this normal?

T-Bird · 24-04-2014 1:19pm

mistress_gi wrote: »

Hi everyone! Got the Newman today but I didn't get a charger so I am using another brand of charger to get it up and running but, it's been on now for an hour and I can't get the phone to turn on. Is this normal?

There is probably a plastic sticker on the battery that needs removing before charging (it will also prevent charging as well).

mistress_gi · 24-04-2014 1:25pm

never mind, like the nitwit I am I never noticed the protection on the battery! Fully working now.
I love the screen definition but can already see a small lag when going into the apps. I was happy to find out that it came with google play installed though!

tallaghtmick · 24-04-2014 1:27pm

mistress_gi wrote: »

never mind, like the nitwit I am I never noticed the protection on the battery! Fully working now.
I love the screen definition but can already see a small lag when going into the apps. I was happy to find out that it came with google play installed though!

Has happened to me so many times, panic sets in.....oh the plastic thing.....for the 5th time!

Chinese Android Phones

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