Chinese Android Phones 2 - Read First Post!

Wombatman

Solid phone for the presale price.

https://www.kimovil.com/en/where-to-buy-doogee-mix

The XiaoMi Mi5 does not have LTE band 20 800mhz. I would need it living in the sticks.

Berberis

Wombatman wrote: »

Solid phone for the presale price.

https://www.kimovil.com/en/where-to-buy-doogee-mix

The XiaoMi Mi5 does not have LTE band 20 800mhz. I would need it living in the sticks.

Thanks for reply, Whats LTE band 20 800mhz. I also live in the sticks and only decent providers that give coverage are Three and vodafone sometimes get as high as 3g

Sinister Kid

Is anyone else having issues with the Redmi not 4 after automatic updates?
Every time there is an update the proximity sensor stops working & I can't hang up after a call. Even worse, if a call goes to voicemail, I can't hang up & end out leaving a long voicemail! It's really starting to piss me off!!

Wombatman

Berberis wrote: »

Thanks for reply, Whats LTE band 20 800mhz. I also live in the sticks and only decent providers that give coverage are Three and vodafone sometimes get as high as 3g

http://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057505159

Berberis

Had a look around to see if the XiaoMi Mi5 64GB 4G could be sourced from EU warehouse and the only one I could find was from Teknistore for €257.99 plus an extra €20 shipment.
But even then I'm not sure if it includes vat and taxes etc, as on Kimovil it says;
Store country : China
Shipment from: Netherlands

If I order it from Gearbest with the promo code it works out at €183 which includes shipping and insurance and then from what others are saying I will be hit by a 23% customs charge €42 plus handling upto €15. So total from gearbest €240

Besides the fact that this phone does not have Band 20 which I think I could live with seems as 4g is never going to get to my home anytime soon. Is there any other cons I should be looking at.

4

914

Has anyone found the mi5 in black? I was never a fan of white phones!

CatInABox

Just got an mi5s from Honorbuy, very good service I have to say. The delivery was expensive, but at least it was coming from europe, so I didn't have to worry about potential customs charges.

Phone seems great, the only issue I have is that android Pay doesn't seem to work, it thinks I've got an unlocked/custom rom on the phone. Still investigating, but it's the only disappointing part of it so far.

914

Thanks for the feedback catibthebox, you might keep us posted and how you progress with the phone and let us know what the camera and battery are like?

ED E

CatInABox wrote: »

Just got an mi5s from Honorbuy, very good service I have to say. The delivery was expensive, but at least it was coming from europe, so I didn't have to worry about potential customs charges.

Phone seems great, the only issue I have is that android Pay doesn't seem to work, it thinks I've got an unlocked/custom rom on the phone. Still investigating, but it's the only disappointing part of it so far.

Thats "Safetynet". Not sure about Xiaomi but lots of chinese phones dont have google services built into the system partition so I suspect they can't pass.

Custom roms use Magisk or other to "hide" this fact from google apps.

sydthebeat

anyone any comments on the Vernee Apollo Lite 4G+ Phablet ??

has the necessary LTE 4g bands for meteor, good price, good camera.. metal build...

fixXxer

Redmi Note 4 arrived yesterday morning after ordering on Friday Morning. Everything working out of the box, no needing to add play services myself. There was an update to MIUI 8.2 ready as well, so I must look in to that to see what's changed as I'll be the one providing technical support on this thing. The black model is pretty nice actually. Sleek. The back reminds me a little of the HTC One M8 from a few years back, but not as slippy.

CiDeRmAn

I'm due an upgrade.
After an eventful journey of brand phones, S6Edge, Chinese brand phones, Elephone, and Nexus, 6 and now 6p, I'm on the lookout for a decent replacement.
The media are trumpeting as loudly as possible about the S8 but I just can't bring myself to invest in one, I never liked the UI and who wants the the same phone as everyone else?
There's a great deal there for the Huawei Mate 9, which really pushes my buttons.
The P10 plus looks great too, but I think the the Mate 9 is better.
My biggest issue is I really love the basic vanilla Android experience, it's what I love about the Nexus range.
And the UI on the Huawei has me concerned.
Any opinions?

fixXxer

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I'm due an upgrade.
After an eventful journey of brand phones, S6Edge, Chinese brand phones, Elephone, and Nexus, 6 and now 6p, I'm on the lookout for a decent replacement.
The media are trumpeting as loudly as possible about the S8 but I just can't bring myself to invest in one, I never liked the UI and who wants the the same phone as everyone else?
There's a great deal there for the Huawei Mate 9, which really pushes my buttons.
The P10 plus looks great too, but I think the the Mate 9 is better.
My biggest issue is I really love the basic vanilla Android experience, it's what I love about the Nexus range.
And the UI on the Huawei has me concerned.
Any opinions?

What's your price range? Motorola and Nokia are the only non nexus phones I can think of that offer stock android. A oneplus 3/3T/5 runs Oxygen OS which is pretty close to stock.

CiDeRmAn

Thought about it.
Not in the position to make a big spend on a handset.
I've a new contract period beckoning, and Huawei have some nice devices.
I loved my MotoG a couple of years ago too.
Please
Do Huawei have anything else on the horizon I wonder?

fixXxer

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Thought about it.
Not in the position to make a big spend on a handset.
I've a new contract period beckoning, and Huawei have some nice devices.
I loved my MotoG a couple of years ago too.
Please
Do Huawei have anything else on the horizon I wonder?

The P10 Plus? They won't release any big name phones until next year as the P10 is only just out. The P9 is a year old but got good reviews at the time. Went looking for one myself on Meteor PAYG but couldn't find one anywhere.

CiDeRmAn

fixxxer wrote: »

The P10 Plus? They won't release any big name phones until next year as the P10 is only just out. The P9 is a year old but got good reviews at the time. Went looking for one myself on Meteor PAYG but couldn't find one anywhere.

I'm on three and they have them at the same price point as the S8

Berberis

Hi sorry for ask ing a question that has probally been asked before. But I have searched this thread and google and am even more confused than before I started.
What is the difference between International and Global versions of phones. Is it just that the gobal can be used straight from the box and the international does not have Ireland as a region
Which version is the best to go for

RossieMan

It's to do with different bands the phone supports. Always check to make sure they support the band's here, band 20 is the major one missing from some phones.

ED E

RossieMan wrote: »

It's to do with different bands the phone supports. Always check to make sure they support the band's here, band 20 is the major one missing from some phones.

Half right.

International, China, US - Bands, the frequencies the phone uses

Global - Global ROM, a english variant of chinese software.

Berberis

Right changed my mind again and think I will go for this one from gearbest.
Xiaomi Redmi 4X 4G Smartphone  - GLOBAL VERSION 3GB RAM 32GB ROM BLACK
Comes in at $132 us dollars (€118) after promo and expedited shipping 3 to 7 bussiness days and shipping insurance so with customs and handling should come to around €160.
Same phone on Honorbuy with delivery is €225

CatInABox

914 wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback catibthebox, you might keep us posted and how you progress with the phone and let us know what the camera and battery are like?

It's not scientific or anything, but I've been messing around with it all day, and the battery is currently on 75%, so I'm liking that a lot.

Camera is incredibly fast when taking pictures, I've taken loads in quick succession and it took every one.

In comparison to my previous Nexus 5X, it's been much better with the battery and camera speed so far.

I don't know enough about picture quality to tell you much really, they seem grand to me.

Another downside is the kinda funky fingerprint scanner. It's failure rate is much worse than the 5X, sometimes it takes 5 tries to get in. Not a problem if you're not going to use it, but it is frustrating of you are.

914

CatInABox wrote: »

It's not scientific or anything, but I've been messing around with it all day, and the battery is currently on 75%, so I'm liking that a lot.

Camera is incredibly fast when taking pictures, I've taken loads in quick succession and it took every one.

In comparison to my previous Nexus 5X, it's been much better with the battery and camera speed so far.

I don't know enough about picture quality to tell you much really, they seem grand to me.

Another downside is the kinda funky fingerprint scanner. It's failure rate is much worse than the 5X, sometimes it takes 5 tries to get in. Not a problem if you're not going to use it, but it is frustrating of you are.

Ye I read in a few reviews about the dodgy finger print button, most likely it's something I would bother using.

Once the camera took nice looking pictures in bright and low light id be happy. Have a Sony phone at the moment at it suffers from flash bleed which is very annoying as it makes low light and night time pictures impossible

Scotty #

Berberis wrote: »

Right changed my mind again and think I will go for this one from gearbest.
Xiaomi Redmi 4X 4G Smartphone  - GLOBAL VERSION 3GB RAM 32GB ROM BLACK
Comes in at $132 us dollars (€118) after promo and expedited shipping 3 to 7 bussiness days and shipping insurance so with customs and handling should come to around €160.
Same phone on Honorbuy with delivery is €225

They're not the same phone at all. Ones a Redmi 4x and the other is a Redmi Note 4x. The second one is also a higher spec.

fixXxer

Scotty # wrote: »

They're not the same phone at all. Ones a Redmi 4x and the other is a Redmi Note 4x. The second one is also a higher spec.

Also the honorbuy phone comes to €187.67 with shipping from the EU warehouse. There won't be any customs charges to pay on it so the price you see is the price you pay.

Berberis

Scotty # wrote: »

They're not the same phone at all. Ones a Redmi 4x and the other is a Redmi Note 4x. The second one is also a higher spec.

Also the honorbuy phone comes to €187.67 with shipping from the EU warehouse. There won't be any customs charges to pay on it so the price you see is the price you pay.

Thanks lads I was just about to order the first one from gearbest.
Never even noticed that the honorbuy one said Note 4x.
haven't a clue when it comes to phones My current phone is a windows lumina 625 which I've had for an age so I know nothing about Androids (or phones to be honest).

So to be sure then is the Note a phone (not a tablet). Just noticed that it does not have band 20.

Edit just seen the global version of the note does have band 20.
Ah decisions
Should I keep looking around

fixXxer

Berberis wrote: »

So to be sure then is the Note a phone (not a tablet). Just noticed that it does not have band 20.
Should I keep looking around

Note is the name they give to the 5.5 inch phones the regular Redmi phones tend to be 5.2 inches and a little lower spec. that's not always a bad things as it depends on what you use the phone for. If its only calls/sms/whatsapp/viber then there's no reason to pay more.

No band 20 means you will have less 4G coverage outside of major population centres. Again, how you want to use your phone will tell you if that's a problem or not.

Berberis

fixxxer wrote: »

Note is the name they give to the 5.5 inch phones the regular Redmi phones tend to be 5.2 inches and a little lower spec. that's not always a bad things as it depends on what you use the phone for. If its only calls/sms/whatsapp/viber then there's no reason to pay more.

No band 20 means you will have less 4G coverage outside of major population centres. Again, how you want to use your phone will tell you if that's a problem or not.

Cheers fixxxer,
I usuall only use it for emails,calls/sms/whatsapp/ etc but would like to broaden my use/knowlegde of phones, so the slightly bigger screen and 4g would be nice to have. Also it might make my 17yr old a bit envious as apparently I will be buying a pig in a poke from china.
Reading the description of the note further dowm it mentions things lie flashing to make it a note 4x but theres a link for more info an it brings me to the international version for €9 more.

If I buy that one would it mean I could just use it out of the box and not have to worry abot having to flash or download stuff which I haven't a clue about.
Cheers

X6.430macman

Is it international or global Rom id be looking at if I want 4g but after reading last few pages im all confused again...

fixXxer

Berberis wrote: »

Cheers fixxer,
I usuall only use it for emails,calls/sms/whatsapp/ etc but would like to broaden my use/knowlegde of phones, so the slightly bigger screen and 4g would be nice to have. Also it might make my 17yr old a bit envious as apparently I will be buying a pig in a poke from china.
Reading the description of the note further dowm it mentions things lie flashing to make it a note 4x but theres a link for more info an it brings me to the international version for €9 more.

If I buy that one would it mean I could just use it out of the box and not have to worry abot having to flash or download stuff which I haven't a clue about.
Cheers

The one you linked is the one I got for my wife and it works straight out of the box, no flashing needed. It also gets updates no problem which Xiaomi put out fairly frequently.

For the money I would say its easily better than anything you would find here unless you go on a long contract.

fixXxer

X6.430macman wrote: »

Is it international or global Rom id be looking at if I want 4g but after reading last few pages im all confused again...

Its the hardware, not the software that means you can use 4G.

Have a look here http://willmyphonework.net/