Chinese Android Phones

RossieMan

Download Nova launcher. much better laucher than any crap that comes on the phone. Will give you a completely lag free experience.

Have been using it for years, best one out there. I've tried them all.

irishproduce

I am going to be lazy folks, but can anyone recommend a phone similar to Note 3, in terms of size and useability etc.
I am not in the form for anything other than minor tweaking/ rooting so preferably something that doesn't need new roms/ contact from seller every month. Preferably something that has periodic updates like my current S3.
I am being very ambitious here but do these phones come with car holders/ can holders be bought? I actually bought the Infuse 4G holder from Samsung's phone and as some of you will know, it actually fits the S3 and is absolutely brilliant in terms of a car cradle that charges it and activates the car mode too.
Any help?
I will probably buy in next 24 hours as need it in next three weeks urgently

Thanks a million
irish

brimal

irishproduce wrote: »

I am going to be lazy folks, but can anyone recommend a phone similar to Note 3, in terms of size and useability etc.

Thanks a million
irish

What's your budget? Does it have to be 5.5 inch and with a stylus?

irishproduce

I don't have a budget but I am obviously not willing to pay €500 - €700 for a note.
No, I have no use for stylus. It is the screen and reliability that I am after. My s3 seems to have gone to the dogs for what was once a fantastic unit (slow, delayed responses etc). Obviously now I am going to go for a bigger screen, having played with a Note 3 recently.

Thanks

AlmightyCushion

irishproduce wrote: »

I don't have a budget but I am obviously not willing to pay €500 - €700 for a note.
No, I have no use for stylus. It is the screen and reliability that I am after. My s3 seems to have gone to the dogs for what was once a fantastic unit (slow, delayed responses etc). Obviously now I am going to go for a bigger screen, having played with a Note 3 recently.

Thanks

The OnePlus One might be the best job. Comes with CM11 on it which should get good updates and it's very high spec with a 5.5" screen. Not out yet though. It's meant to be 300 euro for the 16GB and 350 euro for the 64GB so it's more expensive than most Chinese brand phones but it's a better spec and it'll get updates.

AtticusFinch86

tallaghtmick wrote: »

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.

For anyone that's interested, I found out how to fix it. THere's probably a much simpler way to do this but I reset the phone to factory settings. This erases all the data (apps, contacts, messages, etc) - but you can save it to your google account before you erase it. My phone was reset to the Chinese language which took a bit of navigating around. You can download an app at the google play store which makes it very easy to change the language settings on the phone. Not sure on the name but if you do a google play search on "language change android" it should come up with something. Phone is now working fine. Free calls, texts and internet.

irishproduce

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

The OnePlus One might be the best job. Comes with CM11 on it which should get good updates and it's very high spec with a 5.5" screen. Not out yet though. It's meant to be 300 euro for the 16GB and 350 euro for the 64GB so it's more expensive than most Chinese brand phones but it's a better spec and it'll get updates.

Thanks AC,
Anything out there at the moment though.
I am in a pickle and have three weeks roughly to get one in my hand and my apps on it.

Thanks
irish

seannash

AtticusFinch86 wrote: »

For anyone that's interested, I found out how to fix it. THere's probably a much simpler way to do this but I reset the phone to factory settings. This erases all the data (apps, contacts, messages, etc) - but you can save it to your google account before you erase it. My phone was reset to the Chinese language which took a bit of navigating around. You can download an app at the google play store which makes it very easy to change the language settings on the phone. Not sure on the name but if you do a google play search on "language change android" it should come up with something. Phone is now working fine. Free calls, texts and internet.

I'm fairly sure its an APN issue that I postedthe fix to. Shouldnt have needed to reset to factory settings. But happy you got it sorted

AtticusFinch86

seannash wrote: »

I'm fairly sure its an APN issue that I postedthe fix to. Shouldnt have needed to reset to factory settings. But happy you got it sorted

No doubt, but I had been messing around so much with a variety of settings that quite a few things would have been a little off. I thought I'd go for the nuclear option to make sure of it.

mistress_gi

Ok! So I've been playing around with the newman and I have to say for what I paid it is a great phone.
A few issues though, maybe you can help.

1. The roaming notification is always on (I am on 3)
2. The screen keeps turning itself on after 2 or 3 mins without any interaction
3. GPS is appalling!

Apart from that as I said before a small bit of lag every once in a while, may also be because it doesn't have any physical keys i may miss them!

Great phone for 85 quid though!

Blade

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

The OnePlus One might be the best job. Comes with CM11 on it which should get good updates and it's very high spec with a 5.5" screen. Not out yet though. It's meant to be 300 euro for the 16GB and 350 euro for the 64GB so it's more expensive than most Chinese brand phones but it's a better spec and it'll get updates.

It was unveiled yesterday but you can only order it now if you have an "invite" which I should be able to get. But I'm waiting for a friend of mine to get one so I can have a look at it. Those prices you mention were actually in US dollars, so the 64GB will be 300 Euro in Europe and you'll really want that as there's no memory card slot. Looks great: http://oneplus.net/one

Dimensions compared to a Samsung S4 which is 5", I make it out to be 16mm longer, 6mm wider and 1mm thicker.

AlmightyCushion

Blade wrote: »

It was unveiled yesterday but you can only order it now if you have an "invite" which I should be able to get. But I'm waiting for a friend of mine to get one so I can have a look at it. Those prices you mention were actually in US dollars, so the 64GB will be 300 Euro in Europe and you'll really want that as there's no memory card slot. Looks great: http://oneplus.net/one

Dimensions compared to a Samsung S4 which is 5", I make it out to be 16mm longer, 6mm wider and 1mm thicker.

I am very tempted by it even though I have a Nexus 5 already.

Blade

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I am very tempted by it even though I have a Nexus 5 already.

One thing to note is that the first lot will not have band 20 which I think only affects 4g on certain carriers, you might want to look into that first! I think the plan there is that if you get one of those early ones and want band 20, you'll need to send it off to the UK to be modified. A friend of mine is a mod on their forum and this is what he's been telling me anyway. I honestly haven't read up on anything myself, I just get the latest news off him in the pub every night!

irishproduce

What should I buy tonight though???
I am willing to trust your advice guys!

rovoagho

I've asked before and I'll ask again because I'm dying to pick one up: Does anyone have a Huawei / Honor Mediapad X1, or know a good, trustworthy place to source one? I'd love a go off one.

irishproduce

Just realised most of the phones on those sites don't do mhl. Thats a bummer, I use that a lot on my current s3.

Have whittled it down to Etotalk website, impressed by the various phones they have and they have their own rom @ $4.99 so I am assuming there is good support and out of the box useability on their stuff.
Anyone able to make a recommendation on a good 5.5' or 6' off that sight <$300? I don't see anything with MHL unfortunately

EDIT: Think I found my phone here.

He says it accepts Note 3 accessories too. I will ask him a couple of questions regarding whether or not google app store is on it, any chinese crap, whether GPS etc works but it seems fine for the price.
Am I ok with that one lads? Anything I am missing? I will basically use it this summer for gps while on holidays, watching stuff on tv via mhl etc.

Anyone have it? If no one has it and its a go-er then I will review it for you all once I get and use it.
Strange actually that the price is so different on different sites!

seannash

irishproduce wrote: »

Just realised most of the phones on those sites don't do mhl. Thats a bummer, I use that a lot on my current s3.

Have whittled it down to Etotalk website, impressed by the various phones they have and they have their own rom @ $4.99 so I am assuming there is good support and out of the box useability on their stuff.
Anyone able to make a recommendation on a good 5.5' or 6' off that sight <$300? I don't see anything with MHL unfortunately

EDIT: Think I found my phone here.

He says it accepts Note 3 accessories too. I will ask him a couple of questions regarding whether or not google app store is on it, any chinese crap, whether GPS etc works but it seems fine for the price.
Am I ok with that one lads? Anything I am missing? I will basically use it this summer for gps while on holidays, watching stuff on tv via mhl etc.

Anyone have it? If no one has it and its a go-er then I will review it for you all once I get and use it.
Strange actually that the price is so different on different sites!

I'm not sure if you looking for a direct match with the note but the specs are very different on that Phone.

For starters the screen is a lower resolution spread across a big screen its not going to look as crisp as the note or many other phones.
The is a 2gig ram difference between the note and the No.1
The processor isn't as powerful either.

Camera wont be as good either.

I'm not saying don't get it but I think your money would be better spent elsewhere. The OPO would be ideal if you could wait a while IMO

Theres also the Iocean g7 to consider although it might be a little big for you

Also the X8 is looking to be quite a good option but both are unreleased right now but should be released soon

http://www.gizchina.com/2014/04/17/iocean-x8-hopes-ultimate-selfie-device-auto-focus-front-camera/

seannash

Also if your looking to use it for GPS the mediatek chips are notorious for not having good GPS.
Unsure if this particular chip is one of those that suffers from it

irishproduce

This exercise is proving to be more difficult than I thought!!
I will have to look at your recommendations later, although I am keen on having something that is actually able to use all the Note accessories, which iocean won't be obviously because of it's size/ design. I am at work now but thanks for the input Sean, I appreciate you took the time to advise before I went and bought this morning.
Even accounting for the lower specs, I am not sure if it will be a big put off because I am not going to be doing much other than calls, texts, sat nav/ gps, mhl displaying stuff on tv etc.
I am a little worried about your GPS reference, that is a big thing for me as we drive in France quite a bit each year!

Thargor

mistress_gi wrote: »

Ok! So I've been playing around with the newman and I have to say for what I paid it is a great phone.
A few issues though, maybe you can help.

1. The roaming notification is always on (I am on 3)
2. The screen keeps turning itself on after 2 or 3 mins without any interaction
3. GPS is appalling!

Apart from that as I said before a small bit of lag every once in a while, may also be because it doesn't have any physical keys i may miss them!

Great phone for 85 quid though!

Try the solution AtticusFinch86just posted...

RossieMan

If its GPS you're after say away from MTK phones. Better off elsewhere.

brimal

Definitely agree on avoiding any phone using Mediatek (MTK) if you want top GPS performance.

Snapdragon or Exynos are the best chips out there and they are inside a lot of nice Chinese phones if you are willing to pay a bit more.

irishproduce

Ok, I will look at that, thanks guys.
Lucky ye replied to me this morning, I was going buying the No1 earlier on. Would have been so let down if the GPS had caught me on the hop.

tallaghtmick

GPS on the Quad core 1.5T chipset is grand

irishproduce

tallaghtmick wrote: »

GPS on the Quad core 1.5T chipset is grand

Thanks Mick, and is that in the phone that I was looking at in my earlier post?

tallaghtmick

irishproduce wrote: »

Thanks Mick, and is that in the phone that I was looking at in my earlier post?

I cant see the chipset on that ad sorry

eamonnq

Says MTK6589T in the ad, but other sites have it with only the MTK6589 chip.

http://www.geekbuying.com/item/NO-1-N3-5-7Inch-IPS-HD-Screen-MTK6589-Quad-Core-1-5GHz-1GB-8GB-12-6MP-Android-4-2-Air-gesture-Eye-induction-OTG-write-3G-GPS---White-323318.html

irishproduce

Thanks guys
Just so I am clear, if it has MTK6589T and not MTK6589 then I can go for it based on my need to just have GPS satnav, music player, mhl function, and not expecting the phone to be exactly like the Note 3?
I will ask the website involved whether or not it is MTK6589T but I will also look for reviews tonight when I get the chance and check things like AnTuTu for user reviews which will surely show whether or not it has the chipset that has good gps function.

tuborg_man

Just received my iocean x7 from merimobiles, ordered on april the 8th and the tracking number still had it in singapore. I asked to put it as mp4 and they put 30 $ value on it and I got through with no customs. (went for free delivery and an post handled it here)
First impressions are great, nice and snappy screen everything works the way it should,, play came loaded on it, one Chinese app that I might leave on because I haven't a notion what it is.
For €100 euro i'm delighted so far.

mintydan

Yipee! Got the Newman N2 today from mixeshop. Took 15 days by EuEXP so not too bad.
Love the screen and the OS seems to run smoothly and snappily.
Haven't managed to find the right windows 7 drivers yet though.
Anyone else have driver issues?