Chinese Android Phones

eamonnq

savemejebus wrote: »

I saw that alright but I thought the 'manky screen' bit was about fingerprints and that the battery calibration issue was solved with lollipop which is supposedly shipping on the new handsets and is being released for older within the next few days.

For the specs and at $119 i thought it was worth a punt (though came to $150 with insurance and dpd). I hope it's not a lemon when it arrives.

Fair leap of faith to be taking, but for the price it could work out.

Am getting a TCL M2U for myself.

Iseedeadpixels

Wait until Lollipop is out via ota and ill review it then.

eamonnq

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

Wait until Lollipop is out via ota and ill review it then.

Someone wants to buy a phone and you expect them to wait ?? You must be new here!!

Have just ordered the TCL M2U and am looking out for the delivery guy already!!!

savemejebus

haha sadly, i've already bought it a few days ago, just seemed the best option for the price, cellular reception and screen size.

UnitedIrishman

Cheers for the feedback. Going to look into one or two of the above, may avoid the Elephone for now. Is there any makes/models you'd say to definitely avoid?

jimjamcoolio

Hello again guys.
So I gave up on my mission to find a good under 5" screen in a phone and went for the THL T11.
I've had it for about 2 weeks and am getting used to the size already. Nice vibrant 720p screen. GPS seems to work fine but only tried it in the city really. Oh and Battery seems to last me just under 2 days but thats with a great stock live wallpaper i can't bare to get rid of
For €200 and free shipping from a seller on adverts I'm very happy with it.
If anyone wants to ask any questions about it Id be glad to answer

messinkiapina

savemejebus wrote: »

I saw that alright but I thought the 'manky screen' bit was about fingerprints and that the battery calibration issue was solved with lollipop which is supposedly shipping on the new handsets and is being released for older within the next few days.

For the specs and at $119 i thought it was worth a punt (though came to $150 with insurance and dpd). I hope it's not a lemon when it arrives.

I had the same issue with my battery at first. It would drop to 82% within a half hour of full charge, without even using it! Then it would last for ages on 1%.... very annoying.

I seem to have sorted it with a battery calibration app (touch wood). The battery indicator has been spot on since, about 4 charges on. I find the overall battery life decent. I think it's a very good value at $150. The only slight let down is the camera. It's pretty good outdoors in decent light, but not so great in low light.

abarkie

messinkiapina wrote: »

I had the same issue with my battery at first. It would drop to 82% within a half hour of full charge, without even using it! Then it would last for ages on 1%.... very annoying.

I seem to have sorted it with a battery calibration app (touch wood). The battery indicator has been spot on since, about 4 charges on.

Which calibration app please?

messinkiapina

abarkie wrote: »

Which calibration app please?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nema.batterycalibration&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dbattery+calibration&pcampaignid=APPU_1_r-AwVdvKIMmQ7AafmYDgCA

Make sure the phone is properly rooted. If its not, the program won't actually do anything. I THOUGHT mine was rooted the first time I used the program, but I was mistaken. Yes, SuperSU was installed, but the binaries needed to be updated.

So make sure root is up to date. Charge it fully, wait until the mv number in the calibration app rises no further. Hit the calibration button. Unplug phone and use it until it goes completely dead..... That seems to have sorted things for me anyway. I've seen others complain that nothing seems to work for them. Whether they're doing something wrong or I just got lucky, I've no idea.

Ardennes1944

I really hope the Jiayu S4 gets released with the rumoured specs, it would be perfect.

If a manufacturer released a 4.7 inch phone with a good camera and battery and a relatively good SoC they'd make a killing

bondja80

Hi, can you tell me yours expirience with pandawill.com and their Import Tax & VAT Insurance? Do they return as much money as the customs duties paid?
Also they claim, that they have repair service in Spain. So you don't need to return faulty phone to China.
http://www.pandawill.com

savemejebus

bondja80 wrote: »

Hi, can you tell me yours expirience with pandawill.com and their Import Tax & VAT Insurance? Do they return as much money as the customs duties paid?
Also they claim, that they have repair service in Spain. So you don't need to return faulty phone to China.
http://www.pandawill.com

I dont think they'll cover the handling fee and if you choose the insurance you are forced to take their DPD shipping option (18$) which isn't as fast as DHL or fedex.

I think they will only repair in spain if it fails within 30 days or something.

bondja80

savemejebus wrote: »

I dont think they'll cover the handling fee and if you choose the insurance you are forced to take their DPD shipping option (18$) which isn't as fast as DHL or fedex.

I think they will only repair in spain if it fails within 30 days or something.

How much is handling fee and how much is vat tax for the phone from 100-150e?

eamonnq

bondja80 wrote: »

Hi, can you tell me yours expirience with pandawill.com and their Import Tax & VAT Insurance? Do they return as much money as the customs duties paid?
Also they claim, that they have repair service in Spain. So you don't need to return faulty phone to China.
http://www.pandawill.com

How much is the 'insurance' from Pandawill ?? Probably close to the Vat you would get charged if your parcel is stopped by customs.

savemejebus

Insurance is 12% for Ireland at the min there.

bondja80

eamonnq wrote: »

How much is the 'insurance' from Pandawill ?? Probably close to the Vat you would get charged if your parcel is stopped by customs.

Insurance is 10% of value of the phone. Before it was only 5%, but they rise up to 10%.

bondja80

Just bought THL4400 for 101,98e on geekvida.de Happy hour. It was only 1pc, now price is back to 160e plus dhl delivery 11.90e. Stock is in Germany, so I don't need to pay custom duty charges. Is not good as THL5000, but I think that is ok for this price.

eamonnq

bondja80 wrote: »

Just bought THL4400 for 101,98e on geekvida.de Happy hour. It was only 1pc, now price is back to 160e plus dhl delivery 11.90e. Stock is in Germany, so I don't need to pay custom duty charges. Is not good as THL5000, but I think that is ok for this price.

Geekvida = Pandawill

stansgone

Have Elephone p5000 about 3 weeks now. Most things about it are great. I'm still not sure the battery life is much better than any other smartphone. That one to me, is yet to be proven. I've tried discharging fully, charging to 100% and I've tried calibrating it with an app. No different. I am with Emobile, who uses the meteor network. Everywhere else, other than at home in my house has good reception. Its defo a good idea to check the 3g frequency before buying. Last problem I'm having is, I can't send a text message. I can receive them but can't send them. I'm sure its an APN issue, by have tried inputting details manually, but still no joy. I will prob have to go into a store to get it sorted, unless someone can offer me an alternative. There are a lot of plusses about this phone, plenty of memory for apps, WiFi perfect, network perfect, when not at home. Takes decent photos, videos.

bondja80

eamonnq wrote: »

Geekvida = Pandawill

I know, Geekvida is Pandawill's company in Europe. Most of the phones are in warehouse in Germany or in Spain, and it will come faster and without custom charges.

UnitedIrishman

What buyers would people recommend buying off? Had a look around pandawill and collicool and there are some varying prices on different things. Are there any sellers based in Europe for quicker delivery?

bondja80

UnitedIrishman wrote: »

What buyers would people recommend buying off? Had a look around pandawill and collicool and there are some varying prices on different things. Are there any sellers based in Europe for quicker delivery?

You can try geekvida.es or geekvida.de. The most of the phones are in Germany or in Spain warehouse. There are also some phones in China. But is writing if they send phone from Germany, Spain or from China.
I ordered one phone on geekvida.de on sale today. And they send it same day with dhl from Germany. I used them first time today. I will tell you later about everything, when I get the phone.

UnitedIrishman

bondja80 wrote: »

You can try geekvida.es or geekvida.de. The most of the phones are in Germany or in Spain warehouse. There are also some phones in China. But is writing if they send phone from Germany, Spain or from China.
I ordered one phone on geekvida.de on sale today. And they send it same day with dhl from Germany. I used them first time today. I will tell you later about everything, when I get the phone.

Cheers that'd be great. My phone is currently on it's last legs - hence the low waiting time required!

bondja80

UnitedIrishman wrote: »

Cheers that'd be great. My phone is currently on it's last legs - hence the low waiting time required!

But if you buy in Happy hour on their site, you should be very quick, because they have only 1 or 2 phones with discount price. And also it is very important, that when you go to paypal site to pay phone, they will return you to geekvida site to confirm address, and you need to confirm and click on jetz kaufen. So if you dont understand german or spanish, it can be problem for you. Also I sent you private message with some more explenations.

eamonnq

bondja80 wrote: »

I know, Geekvida is Pandawill's company in Europe. Most of the phones are in warehouse in Germany or in Spain, and it will come faster and without custom charges.

Are you connected to them in any way ??

bondja80

eamonnq wrote: »

Are you connected to them in any way ??

no, but I got phone yeasterday for 102 e in germany, and that phone cost in china 140e. so I think, it is better to buy phone in europe then in china. I hope that they sent me new and unused phone.

presuki

I had a bad experience with Geekvida recently. I tried to buy an Elephone p6000 during happy hour for €149.99 but the price increased to €169.99 (after I had confirmed a payment of €149.99 on paypal.com).

I asked for a refund as the page stated that sometimes the price goes up even though the happy hour price is still shown & if this happens they will offer a full refund.

We had a few emails back and forth with them claiming that they had issued a refund when they hadn't. I ended up having to wait the 7 working day period required before filing a complaint with paypal. Paypal have sorted the refund finally, but it took a lot of my time to do it all, so beware!

Iseedeadpixels

presuki wrote: »

I had a bad experience with Geekvida recently. I tried to buy an Elephone p6000 during happy hour for €149.99 but the price increased to €169.99 (after I had confirmed a payment of €149.99 on paypal.com).

I asked for a refund as the page stated that sometimes the price goes up even though the happy hour price is still shown & if this happens they will offer a full refund.

We had a few emails back and forth with them claiming that they had issued a refund when they hadn't. I ended up having to wait the 7 working day period required before filing a complaint with paypal. Paypal have sorted the refund finally, but it took a lot of my time to do it all, so beware!

The P3000s is 144 on etotalk now, ill be buying it tomorrow, I really do not like the P6000.

presuki

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

The P3000s is 144 on etotalk now, ill be buying it tomorrow, I really do not like the P6000.

Thanks for the info, what don't you like about the p6000? I'm not decided on any model yet, so it'd be good to know!

GBX

I never bit the bullet on the P3000s .. and have just seen the P7000 ... Damn. Cant make up my mind