Chinese Android Phones

eamonnq

tallaghtmick wrote: »

Perfect condition means perfect working order

but then what was wrong with it ?

tallaghtmick

eamonnq wrote: »

but then what was wrong with it ?

He claimed the inbound calls wouldn't work.

eamonnq

tallaghtmick wrote: »

Perfect condition means perfect working order

but not being able to receive calls doesn't ?

tallaghtmick

eamonnq wrote: »

but not being able to receive calls doesn't ?

It worked for me through the phone, Viber and Skype, no idea what the issue was, im still convinced it was a bogey sim card after one of the previous posters were saying they had a issue with theirs.

irishproduce

Thargor wrote: »

Are GPS issues still present in the quad and octa core phones? Jiayu 4/5/6 specifically but in general?

No, not on Elephone P6s.
I am at work now but I will write up my review after two days use tonight.
Hold tight

irishproduce

So, been using the Elephone P6s from banggood.com for two days now.

On opening the box, it was well wrapped, like any samsung device I suppose, it comes with a little booklet on android, not sure if it is specific to this version of android as I haven't read it yet. Earphones, screen cover (although it already has a perfectly placed screen cover on it also) and a charger with an irish three pin adaptor. Google play straight out of the box too with no crapware.

Phone is solid, sturdy and robust. Nothing on it feels cheap, maybe just the little home button feels a little clickier than a samsung home button but its not a major issue. Rocker and power button are solid and feel robust. The phone is heavy, I will say that, and a little fat. I like that though, it feels better in the hand.

The audio speaker in the earpiece is not as loud as any other phone I have used. I turned the volume all the way up but still it isn't as good, I suspect this is going to be an issue when trying to talk somewhere where there is noise around me. I am not sure if this is hardware related or software/ android related and whether or not it can be improved.
Two recipients told me today that I sounded quite low on their phones so maybe the part that you speak into isn't that powerful either, time will tell.

Bluetooth is ok, I paired with Parrot Mki9200 in the car and it works fine, nothing different than my samsung s3. One thing I noticed though, previously when getting into the car and starting it up, samsung s3 connected almost immediately whereas this elephone takes about 5 minutes to pair. Again, not a big thing but would be better if it was as fast as s3.

Spent about 2 hours straight browsing on the phone this evening and noticed the back of it became hot. The s3 would do this too but I thought the elephone was a little hotter.

It says that it is USB OTG but it isn't. At least when I plug in the usb stick nothing happens and when I installed OTG checker it said phone isn't OTG either so that is a pain. I thought it was! I think though that this is doable if I can root the device. I will look into that another time.

Wi-fi is really good. At the back of the house, where s3 couldn't retain wifi connection, the elephone has two bars so that is impressive.

The onboard speaker isn't very loud either but it is fine. It is a little less than the s3 and it is noticeable alright.

GPS is solid, picked up 9 satellites last night when I ran the satellite app. This was instant, no delay, it locked on to me really quickly and followed me out around the street. Will get the chance to check it out more over coming days. Compass was impressive too.

The hd quality is very impressive when looking at a video, the camera also is very good. Can't really see any difference from my s3 there. Showed some people at work and they were very impressed with screen quality. The touch is bang on too, nothing to report there, exactly the same as s3, very smooth. One thing though, when I slide down fast on a webpage on my s3, it flings through a whole page and you can fly through a long page in seconds watching the page fly by. Not on this though, fast swiping doesn't do anything so you have to keep putting your finger back on and sliding down/ upagain. Not a big thing though but would be better without that missing option.

I can't get it to plug into the pc either so that is something I have to work on. Windows says it cannot install a driver and I get the little yellow exclamation in device manager. I need to work on that asap.

The android version is 4.3.1 kernel 3.4.39 and it is marked January 9th 2014 - 11.48 whatever that means.

I am let down by the android version compared to the s3. I am unable to change vibration intensity as there is no option.
When I receive an sms, the screen does not light up and there is no flashing from the little light at the top either. Same goes for email. I have to periodically check the phone at work whereas previously with s3, when on silent, it would flash the little bulb to tell me an sms or call or email was received.
When typing in any app be it messaging, internet, email whatever, there is haptic vibrating which there is no option to turn off. That is annoying.
Also, hte volume when receivng calls/ sms etc isn't very loud and nor is the vibration alert. Pain in the arse that.

The gesture thing works brilliant, it is really accurate but again, that is more gimmicky, not sure that it is an important feature.

All in all, it is a good buy, certainly better than €600 for a galaxy mega which it is modeled on.

I'd be glad to answer questions anyone has and if anyone spots something that is letting me down that I can change, I would be grateful to hear it.

corpo3030

About the best thing I can say about the Cubot is that it's definitely USB OTG, I've used it to download a few shows I watch while my laptop is charging and transferred them to USB in a few seconds. So that's one good point in it's favour.

tallaghtmick

How long do Mixeshop usually take from processing to shipped?

eamonnq

tallaghtmick wrote: »

How long do Mixeshop usually take from processing to shipped?

A few days.

RossieMan

a day or 2 from my experience.

tallaghtmick

Thanks guys, dying to get my hands on the phone

pauleoin

@irishproduce, this app may help with your volume issues: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.omegacentauri.SpeakerBoost

irishproduce

pauleoin wrote: »

@irishproduce, this app may help with your volume issues: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.omegacentauri.SpeakerBoost

Thanks for the suggestion Paul but I had a read of the app there and it says it is not compatible with versions of android 4.2.1 or higher. Mine is sadly higher than that.

My main thing for the moment is to get the audio on the earpiece/ speaker part up a bit.

I am going to have to learn how to root/ install ROMs I think because while the stock rom is fine, there are little annoyances on it that I would prefer to change.

tallaghtmick

irishproduce wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestion Paul but I had a read of the app there and it says it is not compatible with versions of android 4.2.1 or higher. Mine is sadly higher than that.

My main thing for the moment is to get the audio on the earpiece/ speaker part up a bit.

I am going to have to learn how to root/ install ROMs I think because while the stock rom is fine, there are little annoyances on it that I would prefer to change.

My Xiaomi isnt great for sound either, well on calls its perfect but media its not great.

pauleoin

irishproduce wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestion Paul but I had a read of the app there and it says it is not compatible with versions of android 4.2.1 or higher. Mine is sadly higher than that.

My main thing for the moment is to get the audio on the earpiece/ speaker part up a bit.

I am going to have to learn how to root/ install ROMs I think because while the stock rom is fine, there are little annoyances on it that I would prefer to change.

I am using it on android 4.2.2 and it works fine so it may be worth trying.

pauleoin

RE Rooting: came across this site, I have not used it as my phone came rooted but it seems staightforward, as always do some research and backup your phones original rom and your IMEI number very important. (XDA is a good place to get information about doing this)

http://androidxda.com/download-root-genius

irishproduce

Thanks Paul.
I will mark your post for another day.
I need some evening at home to spend time learning how to do it. I have discovered that it may be possible to make the phone USB OTG once rooted. If I get it done over next couple of weeks, I will post here how to do it for other posters who purchased chinese androids.

Edit: Just read that link you gave me Paul.
Seriously, is that all that is needed to root the device? that looks like a piece of piss!
I am going to do it tonight or tomorrow night.
Is backing up the current android/ imei/ rom hard?
What do I use to do that?

Thargor

Good review thanks irishproduce, with regards to "flinging" webpages I know what you mean and Im pretty sure that is an option in Browser settings for whatever browser you use, 90% sure anyway...

pauleoin

irishproduce wrote: »

Thanks Paul.
I will mark your post for another day.
I need some evening at home to spend time learning how to do it. I have discovered that it may be possible to make the phone USB OTG once rooted. If I get it done over next couple of weeks, I will post here how to do it for other posters who purchased chinese androids.

Edit: Just read that link you gave me Paul.
Seriously, is that all that is needed to root the device? that looks like a piece of piss!
I am going to do it tonight or tomorrow night.
Is backing up the current android/ imei/ rom hard?
What do I use to do that?

Quite a while since I did any of that and I would be hazy on the the process but if I did it it can't have been difficult, I got all of the info from XDA and would suggest that you look there for the most up to date way of doing it if no one on here has any better info. The rom & iemi backups are in case anything goes wrong (unlikely) so that you can restore your phone.

irishproduce

Thargor wrote: »

Good review thanks irishproduce, with regards to "flinging" webpages I know what you mean and Im pretty sure that is an option in Browser settings for whatever browser you use, 90% sure anyway...

If you come across it, let me know.
I checked the phone there and did a google search but nothing obvious comes up. Lots of talk of people who would like to have a back to top button etc but nothing specific to what I struggle with.

tallaghtmick

Mixeshop sent me a mail saying order shipped but their site says processing, is that normal with them

pajor

tallaghtmick wrote: »

Mixeshop sent me a mail saying order shipped but their site says processing, is that normal with them

Have they given you a tracking code yet?

tallaghtmick

pajor wrote: »

Have they given you a tracking code yet?

Not yet ill copy and paste the email here.

wholesale smartphone tablet pc dvb-mix order save shipping

---

Order Number: 20144369

Detailed Invoice:
http://www.mixeshop.com/index.php?main_page=account_history_info&order_id=20144369

Date Ordered: Monday 12 May, 2014

The comments for your order are: 332014815900200000000000009661

Your order has been updated to the following status:
New status: Shipped

If you need further information about our products or you have any question,
please feel free to email us at . You will enjoy our 100% satisfied
service.


If you need further information about our products or you have any question,
please feel free to email us at sales@mixeshop.com. You will enjoy a full
range of service.

This email address was given to us by you or by one of our customers. If you
feel that you have received this email in error, please send an email to us.
This e-mail is sent in accordance with the US CAN-SPAM Law in effect
01/01/2004. Removal requests can be sent to this address and will be honored
and respected.

pajor

How is it being posted?

Lucas Hood

tallaghtmick wrote: »

Not yet ill copy and paste the email here.

wholesale smartphone tablet pc dvb-mix order save shipping

---

Order Number: 20144369

Detailed Invoice:
http://www.mixeshop.com/index.php?main_page=account_history_info&order_id=20144369

Date Ordered: Monday 12 May, 2014

The comments for your order are: 332014815900200000000000009661

Your order has been updated to the following status:
New status: Shipped

If you need further information about our products or you have any question,
please feel free to email us at . You will enjoy our 100% satisfied
service.


If you need further information about our products or you have any question,
please feel free to email us at sales@mixeshop.com. You will enjoy a full
range of service.

This email address was given to us by you or by one of our customers. If you
feel that you have received this email in error, please send an email to us.
This e-mail is sent in accordance with the US CAN-SPAM Law in effect
01/01/2004. Removal requests can be sent to this address and will be honored
and respected.

That's your tracking number.
332014815900200000000000009661

Track it using these
http://www.sendfromchina.com/track/track/
http://www.bpostinternational.com/en/e-shipper/track_and_trace.html

tallaghtmick

Lucas Hood wrote: »

That's your tracking number.
332014815900200000000000009661

Track it using these
http://www.sendfromchina.com/track/track/
http://www.bpostinternational.com/en/e-shipper/track_and_trace.html

Cool cheers I was wondering what comment number was :pac:

Works on Bpost, just says item recieved, hopefully it arrives next week.

Thargor

Sh111111111111111111t, just stood on my phone while it was charging and now it refuses to charge or connect, looks like the microusb is broken, tried a load of different leads.

Do you think one of the guys in the phone shops would fix it or should I just bite the bullet and order a new one?

tallaghtmick

Thargor wrote: »

Sh111111111111111111t, just stood on my phone while it was charging and now it refuses to charge or connect, looks like the microusb is broken, tried a load of different leads.

Do you think one of the guys in the phone shops would fix it or should I just bite the bullet and order a new one?

Ouch,best just ask them first before you buy.

Thargor

Slammed it on the table and it started working again

tallaghtmick

Thargor wrote: »

Slammed it on the table and it started working again

Well that escalated quickly lol