Chinese Android Phones 2 - Read First Post!

RossieMan

1st day of the battery on the xiaomi, 23% left and I've been on it about an hour today. Not impressed, maybe it's the ROM I'm on.

fixXxer

That elephone Vowney looks amazing. Has anyone ordered off elephone.cc before?

eamonnq

fixxxer wrote: »

That elephone Vowney looks amazing. Has anyone ordered off elephone.cc before?

Was having a look at it on Geekbuying.

fixXxer

eamonnq wrote: »

Was having a look at it on Geekbuying.

I see its the same price there. Bought a couple of things from them before with no problem but nothing this expensive :-/

delph09

RossieMan wrote: »

1st day of the battery on the xiaomi, 23% left and I've been on it about an hour today. Not impressed, maybe it's the ROM I'm on.

how you use the phone, play game, watch video or only use some app? any overheating issue?

fixXxer

I'd be curious to Hear how Rossieman is getting on with the Redmi Note 2. Looking for a dual SIM phone at the moment, and that one seemed to fit the bill in the Price/Specs region.

Iseedeadpixels

RossieMan wrote: »

1st day of the battery on the xiaomi, 23% left and I've been on it about an hour today. Not impressed, maybe it's the ROM I'm on.

Might need a few charges and the battery to be calibrated.

RossieMan

Will give a full review this evening. At work at the moment. But, Miui7 is ****e. Can't wait for some decent roms to show up.

baingal nancer

Ten Pin wrote: »

Only thing with xiaomi is no LTE 800MHz band, they do have 1800MHz so they will work but 800 used for rural areas, see this for explanation.

not sure what this means? will the phone still work ok on 3 network in dublin

Digital Solitude

baingal nancer wrote: »

not sure what this means? will the phone still work ok on 3 network in dublin

Yeah it'll be fine

Iseedeadpixels

Just no 4G I think, never worked for me.

RossieMan

review time for the redmi Note 2:
After using it a couple of days it has its good points and bad points.
Screen:
The screen is beautiful, really crisp clear in any lighting, i've had to keep it low because the battery has been so bad in the first few days use, going to try calibrate it and see will that sort anything.
Camera:
Has been more than sufficient. can take time to focus which is a bit of a pain, other than that it seems very good. Wouldn't be a major point of buying for me so haven't tested it a whole pile.
IR Blaster:
Great for the first 5 minutes, not sure how practical it is. Wouldn't imagine i'll use it much.
Processor:

The Mediatek MT6795 Helio X10 is performing as expected, absolutely no lag going into anything, its instant. has handled everything i've thrown at it. The phone has heated up slightly while charging and playing games, but nothing hot enough to cause concerns.

Storage:
I've got the 32gb version, so have roughly 24gb free at first install. A couple of backups later im down to about 14gb remaining. Should be fine for general use but will be getting a larger SD card for storage.

Miui7:
****e. Power hungry crap, its why i hate miui. It always eats RAM and battery life, i've done everything i can think of to try and prolong it. Any tips would be appreciated. It crashes at random stages too, has rebooted itself 2-3 times since i got it while doing simple tasks.

Now i bought from Chinon technology on aliexpress, my only issue is that i specially ordered an FDD-LTE version of the phone, what i recieved is a TD-LTE version, or so it says on the box and below the battery. This hasn't casued me any issues so far and i've been connecting to both 3G, 4G and 2G networks here. seems to be strange as the specs sheet says TD-LTE shouldn't work here.

Build quality for the phone is all around very good, speakers are loud but not overpowering.
Call quality seems good with the little testing ive done on it.
Flashing different ROM's and GAPPS has been easy, TWRP took about a minute to put on it.

I think when/if they release the source code and get rid of MIUI, it'll be a beast of a phone.
For now, i wouldn't be so certain if its worth it over some of the alternatives.
I'm impressed by it, don't get me wrong, its just the battery is so terrible at the moment its not worth it for me.

I've had 2.30 hours SOT today and i've 26% left. that for me, is not good enough.


Anything i've missed give me a shout and i'll try and test it out.

Digital Solitude

MiUi 5 and 6 aren't too bad for battery use afaik.

Could be a while before the source is released, Xiaomi don't want let it go.

RossieMan

anytime i've used them on my previous phones i've had them a week maximum and given up.
I just don't get along with it.

I do have Nova Launcher installed already on the Redmi note.
Couldn't manage without an app drawer.

eamonnq

RossieMan wrote: »

review time for the redmi Note 2:



Anything i've missed give me a shout and i'll try and test it out.

Did you have a chance to check out the GPS function ?

uck51js9zml2yt

I had a be touch 2 bought at launch but the reviews from those who already had them were so bad that I cancelled and got the new Vodafone handset.

RossieMan

Just the once so far, and it didn't work out so good. Went on a quick 3k run and it said I went on 4.6k, was all over the place on the map. Will give it another run tomorrow evening.

Iseedeadpixels

Steven Numerous Flare wrote: »

I had a be touch 2 bought at launch but the reviews from those who already had them were so bad that I cancelled and got the new Vodafone handset.

Any use might get it.

uck51js9zml2yt

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

Any use might get it.

At 175 including unlock code it was a no brainer ..nice phone too

Jayop

I'm really looking hard at the Elephon P8000 from geekbuying. €152.00 including shipping.

I hate buying stuff from companies I've never heard of online before though.

http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Elephone-P8000-5-5-inch-FHD-4G-LTE-Android-5-1-3GB-16GB-Smartphone-64bit-MTK6753-Octa-Core-13-0MP-Touch-ID-4160mAh--Black-346597.html

Digital Solitude

Geekbuying are sound.

All companies are unheard of at some point

Jayop

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Geekbuying are sound.

All companies are unheard of at some point

It's the same price on aliexpress from a really well rated seller.

Which would you go and would you recommend using debit card? I have a paypall account but I generally find it a ball ache.

Also, what about the phone? For 150 quid it looks unreal. My mate has the P7000 which he's raving about but this one has better features and is 50 cheaper.

Digital Solitude

Both are fairly secure afaik? I've only had 2 or 3 orders from Geekbuying and its all be fine, I've gotten tonnes of stuff from AiExpress, one issue for something that was like $4 so it wasn't even worth complaining about.

As per the phone, I know elephone make good stuff, I'm not as invested as some of the regulars so I've no idea of even the specs :pac: If push comes to shove it shouldn't be hard to sell

Jelle1880

Jayop wrote: »

It's the same price on aliexpress from a really well rated seller.

Which would you go and would you recommend using debit card? I have a paypall account but I generally find it a ball ache.

Also, what about the phone? For 150 quid it looks unreal. My mate has the P7000 which he's raving about but this one has better features and is 50 cheaper.

For 150 I think it's a great deal.

I always recommend to check sites like Android Authority for reviews. They tend to go over all the necessary specs and possible issues.

http://www.androidauthority.com/elephone-p8000-review-634638/

eamonnq

Jayop wrote: »

It's the same price on aliexpress from a really well rated seller.

Which would you go and would you recommend using debit card? I have a paypall account but I generally find it a ball ache.

Also, what about the phone? For 150 quid it looks unreal. My mate has the P7000 which he's raving about but this one has better features and is 50 cheaper.

Sign up for REVOLUT and purchase in the USD dollar price on the website, as it is usually cheaper than the Euro equivalent, so that would be about 146 euro.

Allyall

Geekbuying are okay, I often find them far more expensive than their competition. But in the case of this, their pricing seems decent.

They also have European Warehouses.
So your duty fees are already paid, and in theory it should be a much faster delivery.
For example €171 from their Spanish Warehouse.

If the phone gets stopped coming from their International warehouse, you can expect another €30 at least, to be paid upon delivery at your door, which brings it over €180.

Some other EU warehouses (There are loads):
http://www.tinydeal.com/uk-direct-px2oh6h-c-610_1857.html
http://www.antelife.com/spainwarehouse.html
http://eud.dx.com/ - (Not shipping from Europe, but pay your fees).
http://www.coolicool.com/local-sale-c674.html

Allyall

RossieMan wrote: »

review time for the redmi Note 2:

Anything i've missed give me a shout and i'll try and test it out.

I pulled the trigger on this a few days ago. It was that or the Lenovo K3 note.
The Camera and the MIUI OS had me sold on the K3, but I changed my mind again at checkout.
The battery life on the K3 gets great reviews too.
I might end up with both

Kenny Logins

Quick one - doesn't the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 kick the sh!te out of most of the Chinese phones in that price bracket? Is there a solid alternative? I like Xiaomi but the absence of a rural 4G band is a deal breaker for me.

Iseedeadpixels

Steven Numerous Flare wrote: »

At 175 including unlock code it was a no brainer ..nice phone too

Post a review when you get a chance, main thing Im looking at is battery life.:)

uck51js9zml2yt

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

Post a review when you get a chance, main thing Im looking at is battery life.:)

Take a look at BArgain Alerts for the thread.

@kennyLogins. You're right in your assessment. Great phone for the money and definitely beats the Chinese at that price.