[OFFTOPIC] China Phone Discussion - UPDATED 30/10/2013

[Guest dakok]

All white is ugly and I really like that Panda looks. Much better than boring black (it melts in sun here where Im from :-))

[Guest Sere83]

Hey guys,

I ordered Vowney V5 on friday from Merimobiles, I went for the rooted option and told them to install google play as it does NOT come pre installed with this phone. Went for singapore post as slightly more reliable apparently, got a 4% off coupon too, so total spend was around £125 all in.

I currently use a Xiaomi Mi One and had contemplated Mi2s but wanted a larger display and to try something new and will also probably get either an Mi3 which is rumored to be appearing in August or perhaps nexus 5 if it turns up towards the end of the year, so just wanted a cheap phone to tide me over and was intrigued by the MT6589 devices.

Incidentally anyone looking to pay as much as $300 on a chinese device I would not even look at a Jiayu/Umi/Zopo etc. I would go straight for a Xiaomi Mi2A (which actually looks very similar to the vowney) as the dual core Snapdragon S4 obliterates the MT6589, and even with only 1GB ram and only a 720p display it will easily out perform any MT6589 phone in all areas and will be better built.

Also there is a a whole heap of info about the vowney v5 over at the official vowney forums...

http://bbs.v5zn.com/...d-9612-1-1.html

http://bbs.v5zn.com/...-10174-1-1.html

http://bbs.v5zn.com/...ypeid&typeid=39

http://bbs.v5zn.com/...-14997-1-1.html

You have to sign up to see all images and info but its all straight forward just use google translate. A load of images from one of the links shown below for those who cant be bothered to register.

From what I gathered from the reviews it seems camera performance is pretty good (for a low end 8mp camera). The front facing 1.3mp camera is not great. Screen light leakage was an issue but has improved on final retail models, the screen is extremely bright and light but the blacks are not super dark, overall its apparently a pretty nice screen though with good viewing angles. It has hardly any pre installed apps at all, the android build is very clean and smooth. It also has OTA updates, although I'm not sure any have actually started pushing them yet. Retail packaging lists 850/900/1900/2100 WCDMA bands, id take that with a pinch of salt though. Sim cards are GSM dual standby but only one of them supports WCDMA.

I agree the white/black colour combo isn't ideal, would have preferred all black, but not a deal breaker for me. It's a bit annoying that the bezels are so thick as well in comparison to Jiayu G4, Umi X2, iocean X7 etc but I guess that is reflected in the price. Whats even more bonkers is China RRP for this phone is under £100

Also what is going on with this poll? The Oppo find 5 is one of the best built phones you can get it also obliterates all the others spec wise, it's in a completely different league, how you could like any of the others more baffles...each to their own though I guess. haha

Camera Samples...

Edited May 28, 2013 by Sere83

[Guest tillaz]

the dual core Snapdragon S4 obliterates the MT6589, and even with only 1GB ram and only a 720p display it will easily out perform any MT6589 phone in all areas

you will be surprised at how capable the MTK6589 actually is... it out performs the dual core S4 (MSM8930) on benchmarks... by at least 2000 points

HTC one VX (MSM8930) Clocked at 1.2Ghz with 1GB RAM = 10699 (and that's with a 540 x 960 display)

http://www.antutu.co...w.shtml?id=5933

MTK6589 Clocked at 1.2Ghz with 1GB RAM = 12500 to 13000 (and that's with 720p displays)

https://www.youtube....pXlGgTRk#t=143s

the Xiaomi MI2A (MSM8930) scores around 18000 but that's clocked at 1.7Ghz

which is clearly overclocked as the recommended max frequency is 1.4Ghz

http://pdadb.net/ind...gon_400_msm8930

[Guest aliaird]

Looking at the photo above, is the dual SIM on the V5 one normal size and one mini SIM? If so, which one is the 3G slot? Any idea?

[Guest blaster99999]

Looking at the photo above, is the dual SIM on the V5 one normal size and one mini SIM? If so, which one is the 3G slot? Any idea?

Yes I need to know that too, I best order a sim cutter a all y Sims are full size.

Edited May 28, 2013 by blaster99999

[Guest bryfly]

Yes I need to know that too, I best order a sim cutter a all y Sims are full size.

snap ...just ordered on ebay....

[Guest blaster99999]

I was searching for this thread in the "other phones" section...never thought to look in the G300 section :D

Great thread by the way and I'm hoping the regulars on this thread will give some advice on the following...

I've been looking to get a Chinese phone just to play around with, and now I've decided to get one out of necessity.

These are a must:

Dual sim

1GB ram

Between 4" and 4.6" inch screen (don't want 5")

Camera with flash (not too bothered about front camera)

Around £100 is my budget (but with delivery costs at some sites, I might have to pay more)

Rootable and with (at least some) community support

With these in mind, I've shortlisted to these ones:

ZTE V970 (has some support on xda)

Newman N1

THL W100

What are the pros and cons of the above?

Others I have looked at:

UMI X1S

Jiayu G2S

Lenovo A820

Any others you could recommend?

I can only comment on the zte v970, I bought one from merimobile and had it two weeks now, I rooted it and installed Bruno v3.1 rom which is based on official android 4.1. I like the screen the speed the dual sim all very nice, I've been using with two sim cards together and it does eat the battery , you can still get the day out of it and the battery is improving with every charge, it only as a 1600 mah battery. I'm comparing the phone to the g300 which is next best phone I have screen Res is a little better and is nice and bright touch is about as good , the build quality is miles better the back cover fit is lots better and also the buttons are very sturdy and look better, I've found the top button a little hard to press sometimes as I've got a gel case on , If I could find a volume on mod I would install, there's not a lot of mods available I've found 4 different roms based on 4.04 and 4.1 , the UI is fast and very smooth no lag at all , I have also found the signal strength is lots better than the g300, I bought with a discount code for about £80 and its well worth every penny of that.

Edited May 28, 2013 by blaster99999

[Guest Sere83]

you will be surprised at how capable the MTK6589 actually is... it out performs the dual core S4 (MSM8930) on benchmarks... by at least 2000 points

HTC one VX (MSM8930) Clocked at 1.2Ghz with 1GB RAM = 10699 (and that's with a 540 x 960 display)

http://www.antutu.co...w.shtml?id=5933

MTK6589 Clocked at 1.2Ghz with 1GB RAM = 12500 to 13000 (and that's with 720p displays)

https://www.youtube....pXlGgTRk#t=143s

the Xiaomi MI2A (MSM8930) scores around 18000 but that's clocked at 1.7Ghz

which is clearly overclocked as the recommended max frequency is 1.4Ghz

http://pdadb.net/ind...gon_400_msm8930

I was under the impression the Mi2A uses the newer MSM8960T which is not overclocked it just runs at 1.7ghz and uses the newer adreno 320 GPU as opposed to the MSM8930 in the HTC one X, which is an less powerful architecture using Adreno 305. The MI2A Cpu is basically the same as the cpu in the Nexus 4 it just has less cores. The MT6589T turbo which is clocked higher is said to hit 15,000 on antutu but still don't think its in the same league. It's not just the cpu though, Xiaomi are basically a top tier manufacturer in china with some of their manufacturing being done by foxconn. In terms of quality control and firmware stability I still think they are a much better bet than jiayu/Umi/zopo etc if you are spending $300. Obviously for lower end phones MT6589 is the one, will easily smash up those cortex a5 cpu's like snapdragon 200 etc.

Well think I will email them see if I can buy a few backs from them direct , would be cool to have one black and a blue cover for that price

Yeah let me know blaster, would love to get hold of a black and a blue for mine.

Looking at the photo above, is the dual SIM on the V5 one normal size and one mini SIM? If so, which one is the 3G slot? Any idea?

The Middle slot is definitely the one that supports WCDMA. I'm not sure about size but they look about the same to me.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Sere83

[Guest kaizoku_san]

I can only comment on the zte v970, I bought one from merimobile and had it two weeks now, I rooted it and installed Bruno v3.1 rom which is based on official android 4.1. I like the screen the speed the dual sim all very nice, I've been using with two sim cards together and it does eat the battery , you can still get the day out of it and the battery is improving with every charge, it only as a 1600 mah battery. I'm comparing the phone to the g300 which is next best phone I have screen Res is a little better and is nice and bright touch is about as good , the build quality is miles better the back cover fit is lots better and also the buttons are very sturdy and look better, I've found the top button a little hard to press sometimes as I've got a gel case on , If I could find a volume on mod I would install, there's not a lot of mods available I've found 4 different roms based on 4.04 and 4.1 , the UI is fast and very smooth no lag at all , I have also found the signal strength is lots better than the g300, I bought with a discount code for about £80 and its well worth every penny of that.

Thanks for that blaster99...

Would happen to have that discount code? ;)

I'm moving on from g300 as well, so your device is useful.

Battery could be better, but I suppose you can't have everything for this price eh?

[Guest bryfly]

Thanks for that blaster99...

Would happen to have that discount code? ;)

Not sure what code blaster used but I used VIP which gave 5% off, not sure if it is still valid, give it a try...

[Guest tillaz]

I was under the impression the Mi2A uses the newer MSM8960T which is not overclocked it just runs at 1.7ghz and uses the newer adreno 320 GPU as opposed to the MSM8930 in the HTC one X, which is an less powerful architecture using Adreno 305. The MI2A Cpu is basically the same as the cpu in the Nexus 4 it just has less cores. The MT6589T turbo which is clocked higher is said to hit 15,000 on antutu but still don't think its in the same league. It's not just the cpu though, Xiaomi are basically a top tier manufacturer in china with some of their manufacturing being done by foxconn. In terms of quality control and firmware stability I still think they are a much better bet than jiayu/Umi/zopo etc if you are spending $300. Obviously for lower end phones MT6589 is the one, will easily smash up those cortex a5 cpu's like snapdragon 200 etc.

i just did a quick Google for the MI2A specs and got this, so assumed it did use the MSM8930

http://priceinfo.pz10.com/2013/04/xiaomi-mi2a-price-in-india.html

if it uses the MSM8960T i agree.

But yeah, i was just talking about the two chipsets in general not the manufactures, i think the same if spending $300.

[Guest Wacky.ddw]

I would have gone for the nexus 4 if it had a 13mp camera and if it costed €150 less but in my opion it just cost to mutch the only reall benifit of the phone is that it will always have latest android support. It has a "low" antutu score compaired to the xiaomi's it begins from €470 here in Belgium. And i only paid my xiaomi mi-2s €328 but i have no reference offcourse since i've never seen a nexus 4. The design looks great tough.

The only thing that i dont like about the Mi-2s is the 4.3 screen 4.7 or 5 would have been mutch better. If there would have been MI-2a with a 13mp camera and 32gb or a sd slot i would have bought that. And the other thing that could have been an argument not to buy i xiaomi is that i am going to be stuck with MIUI but i can convert to stock JB in case i get tired of it wich i highly doubt.

And from as far as i understand now it also has 2 system partitions so i think it would be possible to put stock on 1 partition and MIUI on the other but i am not sure about that tough since it shares 1 data partition. Anyone knows this?

If the jiayu g4 would have been released months ago like they said they would i would have bought that one for sure. But i think i will be mutch happier with the Mi-2s

@tillaz: what rom do you use on your nexus or just stock?

Edited May 28, 2013 by Wacky.ddw

[Guest Rico_89]

All white is ugly and I really like that Panda looks. Much better than boring black (it melts in sun here where Im from :-))

I agree.. I prefer all black but the Panda theme is pretty good too, as long as the front is black then I'm good to go. My G300 has a black front and white/silver back and it looks awesome.. although I have a black case so it pretty much looks all black ;) . But all white equals white front and that is a show stopper for me.

Regarding MIUI roms; can't you just install something like nova launcher, or are third party launchers not compatible with miui?

[Guest tillaz]

I would have gone for the nexus 4 if it had a 13mp camera and if it costed €150 less but in my opion it just cost to mutch the only reall benifit of the phone is that it will always have latest android support. It has a "low" antutu score compaired to the xiaomi's it begins from €470 here in Belgium. And i only paid my xiaomi mi-2s €328 but i have no reference offcourse since i've never seen a nexus 4. The design looks great tough.

The only thing that i dont like about the Mi-2s is the 4.3 screen 4.7 or 5 would have been mutch better. If there would have been MI-2a with a 13mp camera and 32gb or a sd slot i would have bought that. And the other thing that could have been an argument not to buy i xiaomi is that i am going to be stuck with MIUI but i can convert to stock JB in case i get tired of it wich i highly doubt.

And from as far as i understand now it also has 2 system partitions so i think it would be possible to put stock on 1 partition and MIUI on the other but i am not sure about that tough since it shares 1 data partition. Anyone knows this?

If the jiayu g4 would have been released months ago like they said they would i would have bought that one for sure. But i think i will be mutch happier with the Mi-2s

@tillaz: what rom do you use on your nexus or just stock?

the real benefit of a nexus device is also the openness of them... been able to build fully working custom ROM from source like

CyanogeMod / AOKP / ParanoidAndroid / ReVolt / Rootbox / etc...

MIUI have even just announced it will be getting official MIUI v5 re-based on 4.2.2

https://twitter.com/...933879703281665

on my Nexus 4 i build my own AOKP from source with various cherry picks from other ROMs like PA / CM

But i will soon be selling my N4 as i want a Tegra 4 device when one is released...

the 72 core GPU is insane and has support for 4k :)

[Guest kieranswhite]

I must say the umi s1 looks very appealing. it has the MTK6589, Cortex A7 Quad Core, 1.2 GHz processor with a 5 inch screen (720p) and an 8 mega pixel rear sensor.

plus its only £135 and its thinner than the x2 which i was considering !!!

http://www.gizchina.com/2013/03/25/exclusive-renders-of-the-the-umi-s1-all-new-5-inch-quad-core-smartphone/

http://www.merimobiles.com/umi-s1-android-4-2-1-mtk6589-quad-core-1-2-ghz-5-0-inch-hd-8gb-rom-1gb-ram-smartphone_p/meri7424.htm

[Guest Sere83]

I would have gone for the nexus 4 if it had a 13mp camera and if it costed €150 less but in my opion it just cost to mutch the only reall benifit of the phone is that it will always have latest android support. It has a "low" antutu score compaired to the xiaomi's it begins from €470 here in Belgium. And i only paid my xiaomi mi-2s €328 but i have no reference offcourse since i've never seen a nexus 4. The design looks great tough.

The only thing that i dont like about the Mi-2s is the 4.3 screen 4.7 or 5 would have been mutch better. If there would have been MI-2a with a 13mp camera and 32gb or a sd slot i would have bought that. And the other thing that could have been an argument not to buy i xiaomi is that i am going to be stuck with MIUI but i can convert to stock JB in case i get tired of it wich i highly doubt.

And from as far as i understand now it also has 2 system partitions so i think it would be possible to put stock on 1 partition and MIUI on the other but i am not sure about that tough since it shares 1 data partition. Anyone knows this?

If the jiayu g4 would have been released months ago like they said they would i would have bought that one for sure. But i think i will be mutch happier with the Mi-2s

@tillaz: what rom do you use on your nexus or just stock?

Yeah the small screen size of the Mi2s is also what put me off, really wanted something bigger. Also not a major issue but Xiaomi do tend to make quite thick phones by todays standards and wanted something a bit slimmer.

I have been using my Mi One for quite a while and even though there are many aspects of MIUI I love it does annoy me at times as its such a highly customized UI it means they are still stuck on 4.1 and they are constantly having to fix little bugs (it is very stable though). Weekly rom updates are nice though and its still one of the best and fastest roms out there. The mi3 is rumored for august with a 5 inch 1080p display, snapdragon 800 etc, I will definitely consider it along with the nexus 5 hence why I bought a cheap phone just to tide me over until later in the year.

In terms of system partitions I don't think you can have separate OS builds (eg stock and miui) running on different partitions. I also do not think they continuously update the original stock JB rom. To be honest though mi2s is a great phone and i'm sure you will love MIUI, I have never felt the need to switch roms on my Mi One. The devs at miuiandroid.com also do a great job fixing bugs and translating the MIUI builds.

I was also very tempted by the nexus 4 as here in the UK it is only £279 a very similar price to the Mi2S actually. Stock android optimized by google is just so damn smooth and unclutered. There's a few vids on youtube that show in terms of real world use it's actually smoother, loads many aspects of the UI and loads apps etc just as fast as a Galaxy S4. Its also relatively slim and obviously updates straight from google are great. However I think you will probably get a slightly improved camera experience on mi2s which can also shoot slow motion video at 120fps.

Jiyu G4 is nice, the ultra slim bezels are super sweet, but decided on the vowney as it was a very similar spec and quite a bit cheaper. G4 is also in very limited supply.

i just did a quick Google for the MI2A specs and got this, so assumed it did use the MSM8930

http://priceinfo.pz1...e-in-india.html

if it uses the MSM8960T i agree.

But yeah, i was just talking about the two chipsets in general not the manufactures, i think the same if spending $300.

Yeah I think that site got the specs wrong its definitely MSM8960T. With all the hype around the likes of the 2gb ram jiayu G4. UMi X2, and other 1080p MTk phones etc etc I think the Xioami MI2A has been somewhat overlooked, definitely seems like the best bang for the buck there is in that price range....in fact probably the best price to performance ratio of any android phone period.

I agree MT6589 is definitely a great chipset though, all mt6589 phones also boot very quickly and I have always been a fan of PowerVR SGX GPU's. Why more big names aren't using the 6589 in lower end models baffles me. Incidently all MT6589 phones seem to have 'burst mode' in the camera software which not even the stock android camera app on the N4 has.

I must say the umi s1 looks very appealing. it has the MTK6589, Cortex A7 Quad Core, 1.2 GHz processor with a 5 inch screen (720p) and an 8 mega pixel rear sensor.

plus its only £135 and its thinner than the x2 which i was considering !!!

http://www.gizchina....ore-smartphone/

http://www.merimobil..._p/meri7424.htm

Yeah I like the X2 a lot but didn't want to spend that much. The S1 looks ok but it looks too much like an HTC clone for my liking, and the vowney v5 is slimmer and cheaper.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Sere83

[Guest kaizoku_san]

Not sure what code blaster used but I used VIP which gave 5% off, not sure if it is still valid, give it a try...

Cool. Thanks for that bryfly. I'll use this if I don't find any other discount codes.

[Guest blaster99999]

Thanks for that blaster99...

Would happen to have that discount code? ;)

I'm moving on from g300 as well, so your device is useful.

Battery could be better, but I suppose you can't have everything for this price eh?

Not sure if its still working but used the vip And got 5% off didn't pay for root option as found a easy guide and added gapps myself too, main reason for battery use is using 2 Sims so sure most dual Sims phones won't be too good on battery, I found s wave gel case on eBay for less than £2 for the v970 (tip search for u970 same case) , for around £80 for a major brand don't think you can get better, will let you know how it compares to the budget £60 hero v6888 when it gets here ,

[Guest Wacky.ddw]

In terms of system partitions I don't think you can have separate OS builds (eg stock and miui) running on different partitions. I also do not think they continuously update the original stock JB rom. To be honest though mi2s is a great phone and i'm sure you will love MIUI, I have never felt the need to switch roms on my Mi One. The devs at miuiandroid.com also do a great job fixing bugs and translating the MIUI builds.

Ok i allso asked this on the http://miuiandroid.com/ and they also said this is not possible but why would i ever want stock android :D :P

I have kind of an offtopic question but this kind of a offtopic topic :P:D

When i put 3G on my battery is empty in a few hours but when i turn it off i dont have any connection to internet what so ever. My friend who have iphone say that when they turn 3G off they still have mobile data and that shows a E sign that it doesnt consume as mutch battery but that they still have internet connection. Now sometimes when i am connected to 3G it also shows a E sign isnt that just 2G? and is there a way to always put mobile data on so you can just toggle between 3g and mobile data? I never really understood this.

[Guest kaizoku_san]

Not sure if its still working but used the vip And got 5% off didn't pay for root option as found a easy guide and added gapps myself too, main reason for battery use is using 2 Sims so sure most dual Sims phones won't be too good on battery, I found s wave gel case on eBay for less than £2 for the v970 (tip search for u970 same case) , for around £80 for a major brand don't think you can get better, will let you know how it compares to the budget £60 hero v6888 when it gets here ,

Thanks for the code, but it no longer works. And I've searched around couldn't find anything that did work for merimobiles. :-p

£92 isn't so bad I guess. Now to wait for it to arrive.

Edited May 28, 2013 by kaizoku_san

[Guest tillaz]

Ok i allso asked this on the http://miuiandroid.com/ and they also said this is not possible but why would i ever want stock android

I have kind of an offtopic question but this kind of a offtopic topic

When i put 3G on my battery is empty in a few hours but when i turn it off i dont have any connection to internet what so ever. My friend who have iphone say that when they turn 3G off they still have mobile data and that shows a E sign that it doesnt consume as mutch battery but that they still have internet connection. Now sometimes when i am connected to 3G it also shows a E sign isnt that just 2G? and is there a way to always put mobile data on so you can just toggle between 3g and mobile data? I never really understood this.

your friend is using 2G only, which E (EDGE) comes under. this will save battery but your internet will be painfully slow.

its Google services that drains the battery on 3G, i found this when i flashed my build of AOKP without Gapps and left them out for a day.

was amazed at how little the battery had dropped after one day usage (just texts, calls and camera usage)

obviously we need Gapps installed to enjoy android but i was quite surprised at this.

you could try ticking this box, and turning off auto sync...

not ideal if you use instant messaging services like skype

[Guest kieranswhite]

Thanks for the code, but it no longer works. And I've searched around couldn't find anything that did work for merimobiles. :-p

£92 isn't so bad I guess. Now to wait for it to arrive.

FACEBOOK gives you $10 off

[Guest blaster99999]

If ever in dought and can't find a discount code always try to Google one that's what I did. £92 is still cheap compared to UK shops , see what you get in UK shops for £92 and won't be anything like as good, just a tip I recommend you contact merimobile and tell them to send your parcel as a gift with $30 value will more then likely get away with import taxes then.

[Guest]

Merimobile seem to offer different codes all the time. I've looked on there several times today an been offered $10 for facebook like, 5% off VIP code, 4% off code. I've not bought from them yet, but it does seem to be time-of-day dependent.

[Guest tillaz]

Merimobile seem to offer different codes all the time. I've looked on there several times today an been offered $10 for facebook like, 5% off VIP code, 4% off code. I've not bought from them yet, but it does seem to be time-of-day dependent.

so can we use both? $10 facebook and 5% VIP code ? that would be sweet lol

also i was just looking at this as i have spend around $500 at merrimobiles over the last year

http://www.merimobiles.com/mm-rewards-program/

but i cant seem to see if i have any rewards :(