Chinese Android Phones

Cantona's Collars

This arrived today (no customs) http://www.pandawill.com/wmcc-x5-smartphone-android-42-mtk6589-quad-core-50-inch-hd-screen-3g-white-p88474.html

Literally only got to mess with it for 5 minutes but it's impressive.Cost me $99 when I ordered it and it took less than 3 weeks to arrive.

Sam Mac

can someone help me install the rom? The buttons do not seem to load any rom menu

Thargor

Going to need more info than that! What rom are you using and what tutorial are you following, is the phone rooted? Im going into a meeting now in case I dont reply, have to pretend to do some work lol.

Sam Mac

Thargor wrote: »

Going to need more info than that! What rom are you using and what tutorial are you following, is the phone rooted? Im going into a meeting now in case I dont reply, have to pretend to do some work lol.

http://www.needrom.com/mobile/redmi-note/

Not rooted.

RossieMan

I wonder does he mean the power button and Volume + button?

theres usually a walkthrough for the ROM you're installing.
You can install MTKMobileuncletools from the play store and reboot into recovery that way.
I'd suggest doing an IMEI backup when you download MTK tools too, just incase its needed in future.

loyatemu

anyone ever returned a faulty phone to one of the chinese stores?

Mine appears to be bricked (tried a number of different fixes without success) wondering if its worth trying to RMA it.

RossieMan

Did it ever work? What store did you get it from?

Strange they'd send a phone that doesn't even turn on.

loyatemu

RossieMan wrote: »

Did it ever work? What store did you get it from?

Strange they'd send a phone that doesn't even turn on.

It worked until last week - its about 6 months old.

Bought from Focalprice.

Thargor

Sam Mac wrote: »

http://www.needrom.com/mobile/redmi-note/

Not rooted.

You're obviously pressing them wrong if nobody else is reporting the problem in the comments there, pop the battery, wait 10 seconds then try again.

Its a single long press of the power and volume+, it could take a while, ~2 minutes, or it could happen instantly, varies from phone to phone.

Isnt your link the official ROM thats probably already on the phone from the factory though?

pauleoin

Sam Mac wrote: »

can someone help me install the rom? The buttons do not seem to load any rom menu

As RossieMan says do back up your IMEI, also you may want to do a nandroid backup of your existing rom so that if anything goes wrong you can get back to where you started, guide here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1716511 there may be newer and easier ways if you search google.

Info on getting your phone into recovery mode:

http://webcazine.com/10115/how-to-get-to-android-system-recovery-on-xiaomi-redmi/


The rom you are flashing seems to be Chinese market based without gapps.

There is a good forum here: http://en.miui.com/thread-11242-1-1.html
http://en.miui.com/thread-26472-1-1.html

Good luck

Thargor

loyatemu wrote: »

It worked until last week - its about 6 months old.

Bought from Focalprice.

Were you trying to do something to it or did it die of its own accord? Sometimes an Android device can appear completely dead but the battery is just very flat and might need a good long charge before it shows any signs of life again...

RossieMan

loyatemu wrote: »

It worked until last week - its about 6 months old.

Bought from Focalprice.

Does it turn on at all? Seems a bit strange to just break without a fall or damage of some sort. Never heard of focalprice. Don't know how they work.

MidlandsM

Barr wrote: »

First Hexa Core phone I have come accross :pac:

Interesting looking camera


http://www.etotalk.com/inew-v8_p6157.html

Similar to this ?http://www.focalprice.com/MK0234W/Pre_Sale_iNew_V8_207_Free_Rotation_Camera_5.5_Capacitive_IPS_HD_Touch_Screen.html

loyatemu

It is charged.

I turned it on and it said "Encryption unsuccessful" with the only option to factory reset the phone. This I did but it just returns to the "Encryption unsuccessful" message. Google suggests this is a corrupt partition.

I've downloaded the MTK flash tool and tried to flash a factory ROM - the tool recognises the phone but any attempt to load the ROM throws up an error message "SDMMC_WRITE_FAILED"

I've spent a fair bit of time trying to get it working without success, & I've now ordered a new phone anyway so RMAing it or binning it are my remaining options.

pauleoin

loyatemu wrote: »

It is charged.

I turned it on and it said "Encryption unsuccessful" with the only option to factory reset the phone. This I did but it just returns to the "Encryption unsuccessful" message. Google suggests this is a corrupt partition.

I've downloaded the MTK flash tool and tried to flash a factory ROM - the tool recognises the phone but any attempt to load the ROM throws up an error message "SDMMC_WRITE_FAILED"

I've spent a fair bit of time trying to get it working without success, & I've now ordered a new phone anyway so RMAing it or binning it are my remaining options.

Have you tried the phone manufacturers website, if they have an English forum you may be able to get some help there.

loyatemu

pauleoin wrote: »

Have you tried the phone manufacturers website, if they have an English forum you may be able to get some help there.

Its all in Chinese - google translate is not much help.

Just checked Focalprice's RMA policy and it looks like 6 months is the limit so I'm out of luck there.

This is the main risk with these chinese phones I guess - even if I was within warranty I'm not sure whether it would be worth trying to RMA it. An Post won't take packages containg batteries so I've no idea how I would have got it back to China anyway.

Thargor

Tried it with a different SD card or no SD card? SDMMC_WRITE_FAILED would imply that's the problem.

loyatemu

Thargor wrote: »

Tried it with a different SD card or no SD card? SDMMC_WRITE_FAILED would imply that's the problem.

it's the internal memory - with/without external card makes no difference.

chisel

I ordered a Redmi 1s last thursday from etotalk. Phone was delivered today via DHL (4 days) with no hassles - pretty quick I think!

I'm well impressed with the phone - mind you that's only after playing with it for an hour. I bought it with the etotalk mod installed and a 16g card. One hitch was that the language was set to thai or something, so I had to google a bit to find how to set the language back - which was easy enough. The phone feels pretty good in your hand, not too heavy, just a touch of plasticky feel to it, but not overly slippy or glossy. There are 3 touch buttons on the bottom of the screen for home, back and menu, and while these are coloured red, they don't light up which is a little odd. The other buttons and access ports all seem very standard. The ROM seems nice enough to use. I got used to it very quickly, coming from the HTC sense UI. One thing thats a little odd is that on the HTC phones you put your most used apps on the screens, but theres a menu button that shows you a list of all your apps. Here, the apps just install to one of the side screens. No biggie, but just a little different from the HTC. Everything else seems pretty user friendly. There are a few apps left on (a poker game and some etotalk shop app) that I need to figure how to get rid of (they don;t offer an option to uninstall from the apps menu) but they're probably not doing much harm either. I dida very brief test with maps/satellite and it locked on within about 10-15 secs. I'll have to see yet how accurate that is, and how it fares when driving.

I installed and ran Antutu benchmark and it gave 21000 odd. Not too bad I think. So first impressions are good. I'll take it with me tomorrow and see how battery life is, reception and so on. The wifi reception is stronger than with my HTC1x and I can't see any evidence of lag etc on regular app use. I'll test out the camera too tomorrow to see how it fares.

So far so good, but early days.

RossieMan

look at installing a launcher like Nova or apex to get the app drawer back.

Can be tough getting used to MIUI.

Digital Solitude

I'm using a Miui based rom on my THL, and I couldn't go back to stock Android, I love it. Using Nova Launcher with it, the lack of a drawer was my only complaint, which is easily fixed. It is very quick and easy to get around once you've grown used to it, and it looks much nicer than any other rom I've ever used.

MiUi is updated weekly as far as I know Sam Mac, so if you just left it alone for a couple of weeks, it might be a bug on their end

amby666

chisel wrote: »

I ordered a Redmi 1s last thursday from etotalk. Phone was delivered today via DHL (4 days) with no hassles - pretty quick I think!

I'm well impressed with the phone - mind you that's only after playing with it for an hour. I bought it with the etotalk mod installed and a 16g card. One hitch was that the language was set to thai or something, so I had to google a bit to find how to set the language back - which was easy enough. The phone feels pretty good in your hand, not too heavy, just a touch of plasticky feel to it, but not overly slippy or glossy. There are 3 touch buttons on the bottom of the screen for home, back and menu, and while these are coloured red, they don't light up which is a little odd. The other buttons and access ports all seem very standard. The ROM seems nice enough to use. I got used to it very quickly, coming from the HTC sense UI. One thing thats a little odd is that on the HTC phones you put your most used apps on the screens, but theres a menu button that shows you a list of all your apps. Here, the apps just install to one of the side screens. No biggie, but just a little different from the HTC. Everything else seems pretty user friendly. There are a few apps left on (a poker game and some etotalk shop app) that I need to figure how to get rid of (they don;t offer an option to uninstall from the apps menu) but they're probably not doing much harm either. I dida very brief test with maps/satellite and it locked on within about 10-15 secs. I'll have to see yet how accurate that is, and how it fares when driving.

I installed and ran Antutu benchmark and it gave 21000 odd. Not too bad I think. So first impressions are good. I'll take it with me tomorrow and see how battery life is, reception and so on. The wifi reception is stronger than with my HTC1x and I can't see any evidence of lag etc on regular app use. I'll test out the camera too tomorrow to see how it fares.

So far so good, but early days.

Did you get caught with customs? Mine has just left HK. Also, what colour did you get? Just curious about the red buttons.

seannash

These could be interesting

http://www.gizchina.com/2014/07/08/nubia-launch-3-new-nubia-z7-phones-dual-sim-2k-snapdragon-801/

GSMARENA are listing the prices as
The Nubia Z7 Max CNY 2,000 ($320 / €240).
The Nubia Z7 Mini CNY 1,500 ($240 / €180).

Thargor

If those prices are accurate that Z7 could be my new phone.

RossieMan

those prices can not be right.

Iseedeadpixels

seannash wrote: »

These could be interesting

http://www.gizchina.com/2014/07/08/nubia-launch-3-new-nubia-z7-phones-dual-sim-2k-snapdragon-801/

GSMARENA are listing the prices as
The Nubia Z7 Max CNY 2,000 ($320 / €240).
The Nubia Z7 Mini CNY 1,500 ($240 / €180).

Thargor wrote: »

If those prices are accurate that Z7 could be my new phone.

Yeh but its no Moto G :rolleyes:

seannash

RossieMan wrote: »

those prices can not be right.

Just quoting GSMARENA

http://www.gsmarena.com/zte_unveils_nubia_z7_z7_max_and_z7_mini-news-8972.php

smileyj1987

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

Yeh but its no Moto G :rolleyes:

The offical partner to boards.ie

podgey1992

smileyj1987 wrote: »

The offical partner to boards.ie

feck yiz i'm buying it anyway

cathyledger

seannash wrote: »

These could be interesting


GSMARENA are listing the prices as
The Nubia Z7 Max CNY 2,000 ($320 / €240).
The Nubia Z7 Mini CNY 1,500 ($240 / €180).

Great prices for these phones.