Chinese Android Phones 2 - Read First Post!

RossieMan

Still no decent roms for the note 2 though so miui is the only viable option. It's grand nothing to shout home about.

Páid

Digital Solitude wrote: »

MiUi is ****e.

Why do you say this? Is there a reason?

corwill

Páid wrote: »

Why do you say this? Is there a reason?

It's a pig for RAM, gobbles it all up.

Colemania

After a long wait, my Xiaomi Mi4c is finally being delivered this afternoon.

Had a Xiaomi Mi3 before and didn't really have to do much with it to set it up so is there anything I should be doing with this phone to set it up? Should I leave Miui on it or get a different OS? I can't remember if the play store is installed but I've installed it before so shouldn't be too bad

Páid

corwill wrote: »

It's a pig for RAM, gobbles it all up.

There is no point in having ram if it is not used. I find MIUI to be good (I would not say brilliant) but it certainly isn't s****e especially if you use other Xiaomi products like the Ants cam, sensors, etc.

It's no frills but it's fast and gets regular updates. Backups are easy if you use the MIUI PC Suite.

When I bought my Redmi 1s it had MIUI 5. There have been at least 4 OTA updates since then. Now it runs MIUI 7 and is faster than the day I bought it. There are not many companies that provide software updates for 2 year old phones.

corwill

Páid wrote: »

There is no point in having ram if it is not used. I find MIUI to be good (I would not say brilliant) but it certainly isn't s****e especially if you use other Xiaomi products like the Ants cam, sensors, etc.

It's no frills but it's fast and gets regular updates. Backups are easy if you use the MIUI PC Suite.

When I bought my Redmi 1s it had MIUI 5. There have been at least 4 OTA updates since then. Now it runs MIUI 7 and is faster than the day I bought it. There are not many companies that provide software updates for 2 year old phones.

On the Mi3, MiUi 6 couldn't handle Spotify or any other audio player while surfing on Chrome or using twitter, etc. On a device with 2 gigs of RAM, that's nonsense; that's a far from challenging bit of multi-tasking. No such issues on the same device with an AOSP ROM. Maybe later updates helped.

Páid

corwill wrote: »

On the Mi3, MiUi 6 couldn't handle Spotify or any other audio player while surfing on Chrome or using twitter, etc. On a device with 2 gigs of RAM, that's nonsense; that's a far from challenging bit of multi-tasking. No such issues on the same device with an AOSP ROM. Maybe later updates helped.

I've been using Spotify, the stock audio and video players, shuttle, vlc and soundcloud on MIUI 5, 6 & 7 without problem on device with 1GB ram.

Digital Solitude

It doesn't run smoothly on my Mi3, which is crazy given the power in it. It's not cutting edge I know but its still more powerful than like 70% of phones.

And its a disaster on the MiPad. It has a laptop processor with 2gb RAM. It's just baffling how it doesn't work smoothly. The CM11 ROM that was mashed onto it is a buggy, unstable mess and its still a better OS than MiUi on their own device.

Applications should be eating all of your RAM, not the base system.

I'm not launching an attack on Xiaomi, I love their devices and will buy them in future, but only if I don't have to use MiUi.

corwill

Digital Solitude wrote: »

It doesn't run smoothly on my Mi3, which is crazy given the power in it. It's not cutting edge I know but its still more powerful than like 70% of phones.

And its a disaster on the MiPad. It has a laptop processor with 2gb RAM. It's just baffling how it doesn't work smoothly. The CM11 ROM that was mashed onto it is a buggy, unstable mess and its still a better OS than MiUi on their own device.

Applications should be eating all of your RAM, not the base system.

I'm not launching an attack on Xiaomi, I love their devices and will buy them in future, but only if I don't have to use MiUi.

Yeah, the hardware is class, I loved the Mi3.

Digital Solitude

corwill wrote: »

Yeah, the hardware is class, I loved the Mi3.

I bought that stupid Kickstarter Ubik Uno that may not actually happen, but I've decided im going to sell it immediately and keep my Mi3.

I must have replaced the screen and body 4 times, I'm going to be heartbroken to leave it behind

Mezcita

Colemania wrote: »

After a long wait, my Xiaomi Mi4c is finally being delivered this afternoon.

Had a Xiaomi Mi3 before and didn't really have to do much with it to set it up so is there anything I should be doing with this phone to set it up? Should I leave Miui on it or get a different OS? I can't remember if the play store is installed but I've installed it before so shouldn't be too bad

Depends. My Mi4C came with google apps installed but a sh.it load of bloatware installed on it which included random ads appearing every few seconds.

I stuck a clean version of MiUi7 on it via this:

http://en.miui.com/download-293.html

Then installed Google Play Services onto it.

Link here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgdsvrtFji0


No problems with MiUi.

delph09

compare to the doogee X5, how about the homtom ht7, a new chinese cellphone brand. I found that it's not so hot on hotukd, although the specs are almost the same with doogee X5, it's said that homtom is the sub brand of doogee, I don' t know it's ture or not.

Allyall

ZTE Grand S2 on Aliexpress for €120 :eek:

Admittedly it may get stopped, which by my reckoning brings the price to €120 + €27.60 + €7 An Post handling = €154.60 Delivered if it does get stopped. which is still a good price.

tok9

I'm thinking of picking up the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. Is there much difference between the normal and prime/advanced version?

I'm just curious is it relatively easy to stick something like the Cyanogen mod onto it or am I stuff with the default rom on the phone?

I need to send it to Australia so I'm just going to have a look at the best sites for that now.

RossieMan

Youll be stuck with miui for a while with any of the redmi note ranges. No decent ROM support yet as xiaomi haven't releases the source codes.

D_turbo

RossieMan wrote: »

Youll be stuck with miui for a while with any of the redmi note ranges. No decent ROM support yet as xiaomi haven't releases the source codes.

Iv a redmi note 3 orderd to.

I dont mind the look of miui ..but can i install a cleaner verison? Less bloatware etc

Iseedeadpixels

Got an email from dealsmachine, TCL M2U for 112 and 10 delivery, wasnt really in the market unless I got a good deal so went for it

Allyall

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

Got an email from dealsmachine, TCL M2U for 112 and 10 delivery, wasnt really in the market unless I got a good deal so went for it

I found them the worst store/site I have ever dealt with. I tried them three times with three completely different orders.
Their FB page is also among the worst (read the comments) I've seen. I had to fight for my money back on one order.
All items were the slowest delivery, and one item came without a unique plug. They fobbed me off until I gave up. I never got the plug for it.

I'm not referring to bad experiences, I've searched and read forum after forum, and with the exception of a French forum which mentioned them last month (and have yet to have their orders fulfilled), every place has the same opinion about them.

No matter how low their prices get, add free fast shipping with tracking, you couldn't pay me to use them.
And I have used bad Chinese stores before.

That said, I hope it all goes smoothly for you, but I wouldn't risk using them again.

Iseedeadpixels

Allyall wrote: »

I found them the worst store/site I have ever dealt with. I tried them three times with three completely different orders.
Their FB page is also among the worst (read the comments) I've seen. I had to fight for my money back on one order.
All items were the slowest delivery, and one item came without a unique plug. They fobbed me off until I gave up. I never got the plug for it.

I'm not referring to bad experiences, I've searched and read forum after forum, and with the exception of a French forum which mentioned them last month (and have yet to have their orders fulfilled), every place has the same opinion about them.

No matter how low their prices get, add free fast shipping with tracking, you couldn't pay me to use them.
And I have used bad Chinese stores before.

That said, I hope it all goes smoothly for you, but I wouldn't risk using them again.

Eh cheers

Allyall

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

Eh cheers

They've changed a lot in the past 6 months, You will get your phone, and you can open a dispute anyway, but I'd check everything there before signing for it, and you may be waiting a while for delivery.

If it hasn't been dispatched, I'd cancel.
Only two stores stick out in my head to never go near ever again.

Dealsmachine and Moonlooker.

tok9

RossieMan wrote: »

Youll be stuck with miui for a while with any of the redmi note ranges. No decent ROM support yet as xiaomi haven't releases the source codes.

I take it that's the same story with the Xiaomi Mi4 too so?

Are there any chinese phones that come with the stock android?

eamonnq

Allyall wrote: »

They've changed a lot in the past 6 months, You will get your phone, and you can open a dispute anyway, but I'd check everything there before signing for it, and you may be waiting a while for delivery.

If it hasn't been dispatched, I'd cancel.
Only two stores stick out in my head to never go near ever again.

Dealsmachine and Moonlooker.

I have bought a few things from Dealsmachine with no issues, mostly Android boxes and remotes, the TCL M2U at that price is a steal (I might even buy another one!!).

Iseedeadpixels

eamonnq wrote: »

I have bought a few things from Dealsmachine with no issues, mostly Android boxes and remotes, the TCL M2U at that price is a steal (I might even buy another one!!).

How long do they normally take to send a product out?

Allyall

eamonnq wrote: »

I have bought a few things from Dealsmachine with no issues, mostly Android boxes and remotes, the TCL M2U at that price is a steal (I might even buy another one!!).

I could go on about them. They're not the only ones, but they are terrible. Most of the Chinese popup sites are set up by students. It is a licence to print money, and Dealsmachine never seemed to grasp that there is also some work involved.
Although I am aware that some group bought a few of them up and Dealsmachine may have been one of the bought up ones.
The items will arrive, and it's unlikely they'll just take the money. But they were painfully slow for me and anything that may arrive broken/damaged/defective/missing parts seems to get a giant tough sh*t, or a never ending correspondence that leads nowhere.

Digital Solitude

tok9 wrote: »

I take it that's the same story with the Xiaomi Mi4 too so?

Are there any chinese phones that come with the stock android?

Mi4 is compatible with Ivan's AOSP anyways

Few with Cyanogenmod, haven't heard of any launching with AOSP

tok9

Hmm I feel like I'm more likely to pick up the mi4c now instead. Has anyone had much experience with either phone?

I assume Gizchina has a warehouse in asia also? As I'm currently living in Australia.

eamonnq

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

How long do they normally take to send a product out?

Just checked there and I did buy a phone of them, earlier this year. Took them 4 days to ship it, but it was NL post and as far as I recall it arrived fairly quickly.

Iseedeadpixels

eamonnq wrote: »

Just checked there and I did buy a phone of them, earlier this year. Took them 4 days to ship it, but it was NL post and as far as I recall it arrived fairly quickly.

Cheers

Mattyking

lots of online stores based in China, but the quality of after sale service varies, I know DX is the oldest one, offering decent after sale service.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

delph09 wrote: »

yes, xiaomi is well known Chinese cellphone brand, but it's said that Letv is also a well known brand in China for online video site, i don't think we need to concern about its quality, but for system, maybe you right, Mi-UI will much better.

Are you living in China by chance? Genuine question.