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

[Guest metal.mickey]

i had this issue with my skate when i ran out of memory to install apps. i had to uninstall summut or use links to sd.

 

is the new rom too big or your partition sizes correct.

 

Ive just ordered one of these

 

 

ill let yall know when it arrives

 

MM

[Guest mnupea]

I'm thinking of buying a china phone, I think the MI3 is the best now, with a price starting at 310€

[Guest Maringer]

I'd say the issue with the basic MI3 is the low storage space - 16GB with no SD expansion slot seems a bit limited with such an otherwise high-end device.

Obviously, software support doesn't get better than from Xiaomi but lots of phones do seem to get MIUI ROMs so it all really depends what you would like.

We are apparently close to the release of the MI3s and other high-end devices so it may perhaps be worth waiting another month or two to see what else is released? For example:

http://www.gizchina.com/2014/03/04/10-amazing-chinese-phones-can-expect-see-month/

[Guest 陰莖:)]

I'm thinking of buying a china phone, I think the MI3 is the best now, with a price starting at 310€

 

That's a good choice!

[Guest metal.mickey]

Doogee DG 2014 bought from Merimobiles.

First impression of the phone that it is sleek and incredibly light although has a substantial feel in the hand, maybe its because i have a Newman K1a 5.3inch phone that weighs in at a 242g compared with the featherlight 180g of the dg2014 which makes it feel so light. The Doogee have incorporated the new OGS (one glass system) in its display thus relieveing the unit if an unncessary weight.

The second thing that one cannot fail to notice is the ear splitting boot animation music. It definately wants to draw attention to itself and is bold and brash in every sense. Its so loud i immediately rooted the unit using Vroot and hunted down the offending file (system/media/bootmusic.wav and shutdownmusic.wav) and renamed the files so they no longer offend those of a nervous disposition. The external speaker gave an excellent rendition of Kasabians "Shoot the runner" when tested at full tilt. A little distortion but for a phone it held its own. A discernable tune at full volume.

In call sound was also crisp and audible on the Tmobile network and the 3G operated fine over the WCDMA 2100 frequency. Im guessing Orange, EE and Virgin mobile sims would also fair well on this band.

Once booted a quick check of the Android OS ver 4.2.9 includes the Playstore. The OS is a pretty much uncluttered vanilla version of android with few bundled apps which is great not having to unburden it of its bloatware. The quad core 1.3GHz MTK chip is slick with no lag and was very responsive.

Further exploation revealed the unit utilises smart SomatoSensory gestures  which allow users to unlock the device or flick between gallery photos with just a wave of the hand albeit at very close proximity to the sensor. The only useful feature to my mind was maybe answering calls handsfree whilst driving. Ill admit its a rather useless feature but did give the feeling of having a device from the future although its acually from shenzhen.

The casing design of crisp lines and square edges give the phone a professional feel and its bright and sharp 5.0 inch 1280x720 screen doesnt fail to deliver. The power and volume buttons are again well defined like the unit and have discernable edges that are easliy located within ones grasp. The rear camera though is a rather unwelcome protrusion which would easily become scratched over time with placing the phone down face up. Only the supplementary case ($6.99) could prevent the carbuncle being erroded over time.

The 13mega pixel (8 meg interpolated) camera however does shape up as suitable substitute from your digital slr, but only in good/fair daylight conditions. The LED flash isnt really upto the job of illuminating pooly lit subjects in evening or clubland conitions.

Under the bonnet the DG2014 has dual sims (primary 3G micro and 2G nano) and dual standby so no more carrying a work phone and a personal phone. Ill admit it did take me a while to locate the primary slot. Its located directly waifered underneath the nano/sd card level and not immeidatley obvious to a non tecky like myself. Dual sim Ringtone from the playstore might help you differentiate between work and play and the onboard Sim management option offers to keep contacts on separate sims as opposed to an amalgamated hotch potch of duplicated contacts.

The GPS on initial start up locked on to my location quite quickly although was rather inaccurate. Ill put this down to it being set up to look for chinese satellites which ill see if i can resolve via mobile unlkle later. Resetting them to UK base stations was a reletively straight forward task for my Newman K1A so ill give the Doogee the benefit of the doubt for the sort term.

The battery, rated at 1750mah gave my about a day and a half of heavy use so stood up well for a 5 inch screen.

Overall a great unit for £108 although the extras do rather add up upon reflection. The case, pre installed screen protector and shipping (£17) brought the final total to about £130. The final hammer blow was struck by DHL with a £19 charge for import duty although i escaped last time so "ya win some ya lose some"

All in all i doubt youd get an unlocked, dual sim 5.0 inch quad core phone in the uk for anything around the same price.  So over all im pleased with the unit and wouldnt hesitate to buy again from overseas.

[Guest Maringer]

Thanks for the review.

Can you let us know how effectively/quickly/accurately the GPS works? Earlier MTK chips were often pretty poor when it came to GPS so I'm wondering if the MT6582 is better than the previous generation 6589 chips?

[Guest metal.mickey]

Will reset gps this eve and report back

[Guest metal.mickey]

OK,

 

Reset region, dload eurozone EPO and delete MTK data.

 

Cold start = 13 seconds

Full start = 21 seconds

AGPS =  20 seconds

 

Ive not tested google navigation yet but will test tomorrow.

 

on the Newman K1a Google maps shows me in the front garden of my house.

on the Doogee DG2014 google maps puts me in the back garden.

 

both accurate to about 10 meters sat at a window with only part of the sky visible.

 

Pretty good i guess. hope that helps

 

MM

[Guest Maringer]

Sounds pretty decent and an improvement on the previous gen of MTK chipsets.

[Guest GOlteanu]

What do you guys think of Inew V3 (http://www.gizchina.com/2014/02/03/complete-inew-v3-review/)?

I'm thinking of buying it for my girlfriend.

[Guest ovecka]

I ordered one 2 weeks ago. Still waiting. Great specs for a good price. There are some problems, though. Especially the charging troubles me. From what I've read, the phone charges to no more than 85(6,7?)%( even if it shows full) and for a full charge you must use an external charger. That itself combined with a suboptimal battery capacity can make some trouble for heavy-users.

If you want you can try google translate on http://androidforum.cz/zavady-a-problemy-s-inew-v3-t51885-120.html . It's a thread dedicated to V3 problems.

[Guest scarba]

OK,

Reset region, dload eurozone EPO and delete MTK data.

Cold start = 13 seconds

Full start = 21 seconds

AGPS = 20 seconds

Ive not tested google navigation yet but will test tomorrow.

on the Newman K1a Google maps shows me in the front garden of my house.

on the Doogee DG2014 google maps puts me in the back garden.

both accurate to about 10 meters sat at a window with only part of the sky visible.

Pretty good i guess. hope that helps

MM

Where to reset region and download eurozone EPO?

This is how my EPO.xml looks like

[Guest dalyer]

What do you guys think of Inew V3 (http://www.gizchina.com/2014/02/03/complete-inew-v3-review/)?

I'm thinking of buying it for my girlfriend.

 

My Haier W910 beats all of the benchmark scores in that review - bar Antutu which it nearly matches. :D

[Guest GOlteanu]

My Haier W910 beats all of the benchmark scores in that review - bar Antutu which it nearly matches. :D

So does my N4 :D :D :D , but she likes the design of it

[Guest daz1107]

What do you guys think of Inew V3 (http://www.gizchina.com/2014/02/03/complete-inew-v3-review/)?

I'm thinking of buying it for my girlfriend.

 

My wife has this phone and she loves it - it has a good feel to it and the screen is great also.

 

It charges up with no problems, but does seem to take a while to get from 85% to full, but it gets there eventually.

 

She has had it for a couple of weeks with no issues.  For the price, it seems to be a winner!!

[Guest apple2005]

I bought coolpad 9967a few days back. It's a fantastic device. But it is very big in size. Not everyone likes a big phone like me. But I am really impressed by the build quality of coolpad. It is definitely at par with Apple products.

[Guest dakok]

Where did you buy it?

[Guest smweb]

Out of curiosity, do you guys check the SAR value before buying? I have seen that most of the Chinese phones do not adhere to the standards or provide incorrect / varied values in the specs. 

[Guest apple2005]

Where did you buy it?

I bought it from merimobiles.com for 413 dollars shipped. But now it may be cheaper from there or other sellers.

[Guest metal.mickey]

for fixing your gps follow this guide

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnY_425NgB0

[Guest dakok]

Ok, after some digging I found a very promising device:

Octa Core Coolpad F1 (wcdma version) for 190USD

Coolpad is well known chinese brand and F1 (older, TD-SCDMA version) has great user reviews on several china mobile portals

It has 2GB RAM + 8GB ROM + Gorilla Glass screen + 2500mAh battery + 13MP camera with OV sensor and f/2.0 aperture

It should be in stock next week...

Edited March 29, 2014 by dakok

[Guest dakok]

Sorry, double post :(

Edited March 29, 2014 by dakok

[Guest apple2005]

Coolpad is having fantastic build quality. The best phone I ever owned.

[Guest scarba]

Did any of you china smartphones users encountered this nasty display problem? Someone told me it appeared because of the heat on mine.

[Guest bryfly]

When is this china phone topic coming back?

Edited April 6, 2014 by bryfly