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

RoadsterUK

I think they are slightly more expensive.

safcalibur

Anyone has or is thinking of buying the xiaomi mi4? Really like the look of it but lack of 32gb model and micro SD card put me off a little. Very very tempted though as its one of the premium Chinese phones that rivals the big boys over here!

RoadsterUK

A 64 GB version should be coming out very shortly in the new year. I was initially very tempted by the Mi3, I'll see how things go January/February time.

safcalibur

That's the thing, for me at least 16gb seems to little and 64gb too much, I wish they had made a 32gb model as well or at the least given it expandable memory via micro SD. I'd love to be able to test and handle one before I buy, the design of the mi3 and mi4 look very different with the mi3 being more angular.  Love MIUI interface though, blends iOS and android very well by the looks of it. Look like great phones.

The upcoming Chinese company No.1 (who are known for making clones of popular phones but with their own branding) have made a mi4 replica called no.1 mi4. Looks identical to the xiaomi mi4 and is made by using very premium materials, also has a ROM which runs a very heavy MIUI skin but that's where the similarities end, it has a quad core mediatek 6582 processor clocked at 1.3ghz with a Mali 400 GPU iirc, also camera isn't very good.. Imported from China via dhgate or coolicool it costs less than £100.  Might be a cheapish way of seeing if I get on with its design and if so, pass the replica to a family member and buy the original...hmm what to do lol!

RoadsterUK

The problem with Chinese phones (not Xiaomi) is: Will they last at least 12 months or pack in after a month or two.

RoadsterUK

In terms of storage you could always buy one of these:

Allcam 32GB Micro USB Flash Drive / Memory Stick for Smartphones & Tablets (featuring USB OTG ): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

goldshirt9

New 2013!!! Smart Phone USB 2.0 Flash Drives pen drives OTG external storage micro usb memory stick for Samsung Free shipping-in USB Flash Drives from Electronics on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

I have one of these. cheaper by far and works great. option of full and micro usb

safcalibur

I started buying phones from China both branded and non branded just over a year ago, I had a spate where I was ordering about 2-3 phones a month for about 4 months lol, customs must have loved me! Tbh I've had a mainly positive experience, sure some phones were terrible and stopped working after 6 months or so but there were others that, whilst relatively unknown, are still working now a year or so later. I bought a pulid f17a year and a half ago which still works amazingly to this day. The star g9000 and the ulefone u9592 still going strong, I bought a few goophones and a couple zophones which also work really well now. I also bought a couple of No.1 S7 which are the galaxy s5 replicas and they also work really well. What I've learnt is that its usually the after sales which is lacking and by that I mean no regular software updates etc...

I like to think I'm tech savvy enough to sort out most problems both software and hardware related and for the stuff I don't know then Google and Google translate are my best friends lol! I tend to root my phones anyway with v root or sp flash tools so warranty gets voided anyway!

My honest advice for someone wanting to buy Chinese phones would be, if you are competent enough with software tools and flashing etc... then you can even take your chance with some of the lesser known brands, use a marketplace like dhgate and check seller feedback. Ask lots of questions, you can usually judge by the responses whether a company is worth spending your money on, I've dealt with a number of sellers on there and only had one bad experience out of numerous trades.

If you're not that tech savvy and you still want to buy from China, buy from an established brand like xiaomi, zoppo, jiayu etc... or buy from a UK reseller who will at least provide some level of support.

But yeah you're right @RoadsterUK it can be one hell of a lottery buying from abroad in terms of product quality and sales support!

RoadsterUK

Yeah I agree if you are a tech geek, and you like "messing" by all means go for it. Otherwise it maybe best to stick with established or well know brands if you don't want any hassle (which may or may not occur). Also if you want updates this maybe a problem, although more and more chinese brands are apparently going to provide updates now.

Also if you buy from China, you have to think what happens if a fault occurs ?

I may well end up going for the Huawei Honor 6 Plus, apparently it will get Lollipop update in Q1 2015.

limegreenzx

IMO phones like the Honour 6 are no good for tech geeks.  Mediatek and custom in house processors tend to have no western 3rd party development.