Chinese Android Phones 2 - Read First Post!

eamonnq

https://www.kimovil.com/en/opinions/xiaomi-mia1

A few reviews of the MI A1 starting to show up on Kimovil.

One says the cameras are great:
Unbeatable price / quality ratio, Android One.
A terminal with a price / quality ratio difficult to overcome, the cameras are great, the selfie camera surprised me compared to my old terminal a Samsung S5. The battery lasts a day with a normal use and with little use a day and a half. The best of all Android One, layer-free and junk programs, plus receive monthly updates from Google. I recommend it without a doubt.

but another says:
Good phone with horrible camera!
Xiaomi should be ashamed to call this a flagship camera phone! The rear Omnivision OV12A10 [telephoto] and OV13880 [wide] camera sensors are the worst combination. They take such poor photos that a Mi4i or even a Redmi 2 camera is much better than them. They're absolutely no match to the Sony IMX or even Samsung sensors. The front cam is also a huge letdown even though it's by Samsung [s5k5e8]. Another gripe is headphone output - an irritating hiss is audible when using low impedance (<32 ohms) headphones. Other than this, the phone is fast and great for calls and other uses thanks to the stock Android experience.


Will wait for more reviews I think before ordering.

Lucas Hood

Heres Xdas review.
https://www.xda-developers.com/xiaomi-mi-a1-xda-review-android/

Might take you a while to read as it's quite detailed.

eamonnq

Lucas Hood wrote: »

Heres Xdas review.
https://www.xda-developers.com/xiaomi-mi-a1-xda-review-android/

Might take you a while to read as it's quite detailed.

Thanks for that, will read it all at some stage but............

Camera Summary:
Wrapping up, the overall experience with the camera has been pleasant. Xiaomi claimed to compete against the likes of the iPhone 7 Plus in this department, and it really doesn’t by a good margin. But when we consider its price, the Mi A1 may easily be Xiaomi’s best camera smartphone in that price range. Other competitors like the Moto G5S Plus could have an advantage (as we cannot make a definitive statement without using the device ourselves), but the Mi A1 puts in an effort to let itself be known as a good camera smartphone in the mid-end segment. If you are limited on budget and want a smartphone that can take photographs, the Mi A1 does check that box.

AlmightyCushion

It's a pity they didn't include NFC in the Mi A1.

sydthebeat

my order for the ulefone Tiger has reached ireland yesterday and is with an post.
order made on 29/09 from ulefone official on aliexpress.

hopefully an post dont sit on it for ages

kevin306

For the people who have purchased the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4. Where did you buy the device and how long before you received it. My Vodafone Ultra 6 battery is giving up on me and I need a new phone by the 10th Nov (flying to England). If I ordered today would it be here in time? It seems I need to make sure it has band 20 support. Could anyone post a link to a reliable site that has the global rom with the band twenty support?

Kenny Logins

kevin306 wrote: »

For the people who have purchased the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4. Where did you buy the device and how long before you received it. My Vodafone Ultra 6 battery is giving up on me and I need a new phone by the 10th Nov (flying to England). If I ordered today would it be here in time? It seems I need to make sure it has band 20 support. Could anyone post a link to a reliable site that has the global rom with the band twenty support?

FWIW I put a new battery in mine last week. Cost about €20 from eBay and took about 20 minutes to fit.

kevin306

Kenny Logins wrote: »

FWIW I put a new battery in mine last week. Cost about €20 from eBay and took about 20 minutes to fit.

Great! This may be better option then because funds are tight at the minute. Is it difficult to replace. Could you send on link to ebay. Mine would just die all of a sudden at 80/90% if I went into certain apps.

funrunner95

Ive got a Xiaomi Mi X5 (A1) if anyone has any questions, I can post some photos from the dual camera if needs be because seems to be what the interest is in

kevin306

kevin306 wrote: »

Great! This may be better option then because funds are tight at the minute. Is it difficult to replace. Could you send on link to ebay. Mine would just die all of a sudden at 80/90% if I went into certain apps.

Found this link on vodafone ultra 6 thread https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cameron-Sino-3000mAh-Replacement-Vodafone/dp/B01J3PBZ06

I'll go ahead and buy this and replace my battery. I'll hold off until after xmas for the redmi note 4. Thanks again for suggesting this, I thought the battery was non-removable.

sydthebeat

funrunner95 wrote: »

Ive got a Xiaomi Mi X5 (A1) if anyone has any questions, I can post some photos from the dual camera if needs be because seems to be what the interest is in

have you checked to make sure the dual camera isnt fake?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZOtwRoyDBI

Kenny Logins

kevin306 wrote: »

Found this link on vodafone ultra 6 thread https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cameron-Sino-3000mAh-Replacement-Vodafone/dp/B01J3PBZ06

I'll go ahead and buy this and replace my battery. I'll hold off until after xmas for the redmi note 4. Thanks again for suggesting this, I thought the battery was non-removable.

Technically, it's not removable, but can be removed. :pac: PM'd

funrunner95

sydthebeat wrote: »

have you checked to make sure the dual camera isnt fake?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZOtwRoyDBI

Yeah it's definitely not fake, I'm struggling to see the big advantage of it buts it's real for sure.

sydthebeat

sydthebeat wrote: »

have you checked to make sure the dual camera isnt fake?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZOtwRoyDBI

I don't think Xiaomi would do something naff like put in a sh1t fake camera. from the reviews that I've seen the A1 camera is decent but not good in low light.
There is no budget phone that is going to give you great results in low light unfortunately. The better sensors cost more money (as of today's date in any case) and therefore are found on the more expensive phones. Also the higher end companies put a lot of money into the software side for getting the best out of the sensor.
you have to go upper mid-range pricing to get something that will be decent in low light. e.g. honor 8/9.
even then you're not going to get results as good as apple's top phones (they really are the best for photos and I don't like apple products).

Lucas Hood

I'd expect Google to make their camera app compatible with dual cameras soon enough seen as it's getting popular now so the A1s camera might improve over time.

Lucas Hood

Lucas Hood wrote: »

I'd expect Google to make their camera app compatible with dual cameras soon enough seen as it's getting popular now so the A1s camera might improve over time.

dual cameras in their own right don't necessarily mean better pictures. the main difference is the ability to do bokeh effects. (e.g. background blur in potraits).
two cheap camera sensors still mean not great photos.

Bahanaman

The Note 4 is getting hard to come by from a European warehouse. Does anyone know where there are any in stock?

Lucas Hood

glasso wrote: »

dual cameras in their own right don't necessarily mean better pictures. the main difference is the ability to do bokeh effects. (e.g. background blur in potraits).
two cheap camera sensors still mean not great photos.

I'd still expect a Google camera app to out peform a mi camera app.

cranefly

Bahanaman wrote: »

The Note 4 is getting hard to come by from a European warehouse. Does anyone know where there are any in stock?

tinydeals european warehouse have a few left i think, just give it a check for the model you want.

Ardennes1944

Im guessing the lack of note 4s is due to the rumours of the note 5 coming in the coming weeks

Autochange

kevin306 wrote: »

For the people who have purchased the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4. Where did you buy the device and how long before you received it. My Vodafone Ultra 6 battery is giving up on me and I need a new phone by the 10th Nov (flying to England). If I ordered today would it be here in time? It seems I need to make sure it has band 20 support. Could anyone post a link to a reliable site that has the global rom with the band twenty support?

I bought from Honourbuy and received the phone in 3 days. Eu warehouse, global version with 4 ram and 64gb
200 euro delivered

X6.430macman

Ardennes1944 wrote:

Im guessing the lack of note 4s is due to the rumours of the note 5 coming in the coming weeks

Is that not coming until January I though?

funrunner95

glasso wrote: »

dual cameras in their own right don't necessarily mean better pictures. the main difference is the ability to do bokeh effects. (e.g. background blur in potraits).
two cheap camera sensors still mean not great photos.

Nail on the head. Was comparing this with my mates new Samsung model that has the dual camera (one of the notes I think) and they're in a different league. Still very good mind. I've the model for the Chinese market also that comes with miui so maybe it'll be different with android software?

Ardennes1944

X6.430macman wrote: »

Is that not coming until January I though?

From looking at the usual sites yesterday and it today it appears to be coming in the next month or so

Digital Solitude

funrunner95 wrote: »

Nail on the head. Was comparing this with my mates new Samsung model that has the dual camera (one of the notes I think) and they're in a different league. Still very good mind. I've the model for the Chinese market also that comes with miui so maybe it'll be different with android software?

MiUi is android, in the same way Samsung's TouchWiz or HTC Sense is android. They're all just heavily modified versions of the same thing. Install GNL or Nova and you wouldn't know the difference.

I don't know much about cameras so I don't know if you need a ROM change for big changes in the sensor or an app change can do it.

fixXxer

Digital Solitude wrote:

I don't know much about cameras so I don't know if you need a ROM change for big changes in the sensor or an app change can do it.

If you're shooting in jpeg then the camera app makes certain decisions about how the image data is converted from raw which is why different apps can have different image outcomes.

ImARebel

hey guys - for anyone that has tried to contact tomtop - what email addresses did you use? I've tried both support and wholesale. Getting nothing back. I've tried live chat but it's not working it just says invalid mobile, no matter what I fill in for mobile.

10 working days tomorrow and still no sign of my phone, raging because other places have had it in an EU warehouse while I'm waiting on this crew. I can't find a way to even cancel the order

eamonnq

ImARebel wrote: »

hey guys - for anyone that has tried to contact tomtop - what email addresses did you use? I've tried both support and wholesale. Getting nothing back. I've tried live chat but it's not working it just says invalid mobile, no matter what I fill in for mobile.

10 working days tomorrow and still no sign of my phone, raging because other places have had it in an EU warehouse while I'm waiting on this crew. I can't find a way to even cancel the order

Was there a Chinese holiday period last week? May have something to do with it.

sydthebeat

eamonnq wrote: »

Was there a Chinese holiday period last week? May have something to do with it.

Yes, there was a 7 day holiday....

sgarvan

Anyone looked at or picked up one of these? Looks decent and are available from Amazon

https://www.cubot.net/smartphones/x18