Mobile Phone - Merchant and Phone recommendations

[Blue88]

Has anyone here purchased one of these obscure PRC brands? Any good comments/reviews?

Any reliable merchants in HK?

Thanks!

[Blue88]

does ANYONE have one of those PRC non-brands?

[tparker]

Tried a K-Touch ... looked nice but software was awful (this was pre-smartphone). When it snapped in two, stupidly bought another K-Touch just out of curiosity to see if they had improved (*note, all this is for my secondary phone). Answer was yes - but not much.

Colleague had some Chinese brick with amazing battery life (that you can believe - Chinese battery technology is pretty good), but rest of it was very unexciting.

The bottom line with most things Chinese (and this goes beyond mobile phones) - looks can be great, and even hardware may be good, but when it comes to software they just don't get it. They need a lot of lessons on interface design.

So how about Xiaomi? They have poached Hugo Barra (ex-Google Android team), and the phones get rave reviews. I came close to buying one - till I discovered a friend complain that he couldn't run any Google apps on the phone (gmail etc...) . Indeed, search online, this is a known issue. Pressure from the government to block perhaps (how else did Xiaomi become so successful so quickly?), or their own anti competitive practices? Either way - this is how you do business in China, and now that I've smelt the rat, I won't buy it. On principle.


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[imparanoic]

xiao mi and oppo are decent competitors, beware most are crap, some are ok, few are excellent,
remember, support is non existent or rare, if it breaks, officially not so great support, also low spec android is very sluggish and frustrating to use, minimal would be the low end mediatek 1.2ghz quad core ( similar to snapdragoo 400) that's ok, any other crap weak processor is like having a 1litre natural aspirated 70bhp trying to move a 1500kg car,

on the other hand, motorola moto g is the best budget yet decent android, it's performance (it's as powerful as galaxy s3) yet less than HK$1800, but has compromises, limited storage only 16gb. so so camera, but it's bargain of the century

[Proplus]

So how about Xiaomi? They have poached Hugo Barra (ex-Google Android team), and the phones get rave reviews. I came close to buying one - till I discovered a friend complain that he couldn't run any Google apps on the phone (gmail etc...) . Indeed, search online, this is a known issue. Pressure from the government to block perhaps (how else did Xiaomi become so successful so quickly?), or their own anti competitive practices? Either way - this is how you do business in China, and now that I've smelt the rat, I won't buy it. On principle.


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Xiaomis can run Google apps. If only you could Google search properly.

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[tparker]

- did you buy yours in Mainland China?


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[imparanoic]

- did you buy yours in Mainland China?


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i don't own any china brand phones, i currently own a sony xperia tx ( great support, orginally 4.0, then 4.1 upgrade, now 4.3 jelly bean upgrade) , my future phone will be the forthcoming sony flagship, z2, digital noise cancellation, large sensor 20 mega pixel camera, ps3 dual shock 3 controller support, aluminium frame, waterproof, high end snapdragon 800 with 3gb ram, also 5.2 inch screen

[Blue88]

thanks for all the info guys.

also checked out the google apps issue - indeed, there are a few brands which don't run google apps.

ok, so does anyone have any experience of jiake, star and cubot???

[imparanoic]

thanks for all the info guys.

also checked out the google apps issue - indeed, there are a few brands which don't run google apps.

ok, so does anyone have any experience of jiake, star and cubot???

probably worst than your previous phone incredible s

[Blue88]

probably worst than your previous phone incredible s

the spec for the models i have looked at is better than my HTC though...

how long should a mobile phone typically last before it starts wearing out (i know there are many variables but assuming it isn't plunged in water)?