For Those Of You Who Have Bought A Chinese Branded Smartphone, Would You Buy Again ?

RoadsterUK

I was thinking about getting an Mi3, but may wait for the Mi4 64GB FDD-LTE black model to be released.

Out of interest what made you buy the Mi3 (this is the phone I was seriously contemplating buying, and still might)

Dave X

Same here, I wouldn't make a blanket statement of "never again", but the iNew phone I bought lasted about 4-5 months and it was impossible to get sorted. A friend bought a Star phone and that only lasted 4 months.

I would only buy from a brand if they became more mainstream and offered official backup in the UK.

jaybro187

What problem did you have with the inew? And which model did you have

Dave X

It just wouldn't turn on, I had 2 batteries which tested fine on a tester, the phone appeared to be totally OK, even had it stripped down to check by one of the techs at one of my old shops, no damage, no problems with switches. Just a general failure.

Being cheap Chinese there was no diagnostics available, no parts in the UK, and sending back to China and hoping they might be honest enough to fix it (if they even admitted to it arriving when posted) just wasn't worth the expense.

It went into the bin.

I can't remember the model number now, it was a model launched about 12 months ago IIRC.

jaybro187

ok well got mine from digitalplayworld and with 12months guarantee so hopefully should be ok

old_bloke

I'd been looking at the Mi 3 since the launch last year, but just couldn't get one at the time.  All the sellers were out of stock or waiting for stock so I gave up.

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing the AV classified forum....after several beverages, and saw it on sale there.  Couldn't resist it, for the missus of course, so made a purchase.

I'm so impressed i want the Mi 4; I've got a wanted advert out there but no takers as yet, so I'll give it a couple of days then head to Aliexpress.  Miui just feels 'right'. It's very smooth and has no bloat ware so runs very quickly.

It's a cracking phone so I hope the Mi 4 will be even better!!

Dave X

I hope so for your sake, if you are referring to digitalplayworld.co.uk I would still worry, it appears to be a fly by night type site, that website isn't UK law compliant and probably run by a 'one man band'. If he folds or disappears, so does any promised warranty.

And to add, the warranty isn't actually all that good. It's an RTB manufacturers warranty so you could still be hit with postage charges (and without any real contact details, good luck trying to pursue a consumer protection case). I hope you paid for the phone directly with a credit card.

goldshirt9

Have had numerouss phones and tablets from Digital Playworld with no problems.
Easy to contact and friendly. Ddresse is easily available for the Doncaster area.
The only problem i had was a broken star phone ( daughter smashed)
and a IOcean which i smashed falling of a bike lol
Be nice if he could repair  on site I agree.
His quarantee is same as most shops,Even currys ask you to contack the suppliers now (friend had 3 sony Tv's which HE had to liase with Sony, Currys were not interested )

RoadsterUK

Cool. On the Mi3 are you running MIUI v5 or the latest v6 (if so have you encountered any bugs with v6 ?)

RoadsterUK

Apparently iNew are releasing a V7, but forget that, they also have an L1 model which is even better: