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

[Guest deuse]

Any of you guys used merimobiles or used their DHL 3-6 delivery service?

[Guest kieranswhite]

Any of you guys used merimobiles or used their DHL 3-6 delivery service?

Yes I have but only their free delivery and its just reached Beijing ;)

[Guest dakok]

GravityBox for MTK6589 with 4.2.1 roms

[Guest deuse]

Yes I have but only their free delivery and its just reached Beijing ;)

When did you order it? I think DHL will charge me custom tax(UK) no way round that :(

[Guest ChrisPNE]

I used the free delivery from Merimobiles. It got here in 5 days and I didn't get charged by customs.

I believe there's a greater chance of a customs charge with DHL.

[Guest deuse]

I used the free delivery from Merimobiles. It got here in 5 days and I didn't get charged by customs.

I believe there's a greater chance of a customs charge with DHL.

I need it asap as I bricked my other one. I think it maybe down to chance :)

I've emailed them on Sunday to ask if they have it in stock delivery ect haven't heard back as yet.

[Guest kieranswhite]

When did you order it? I think DHL will charge me custom tax(UK) no way round that :(

I ordered it on the 14th no idea about tax as I haven't received it yet

[Guest bryfly]

I used the free delivery from Merimobiles. It got here in 5 days and I didn't get charged by customs.

I believe there's a greater chance of a customs charge with DHL.

Which post service did they use china or Singapore or?, going to order another one for the wife, do not want Sweden mail again took 22days....

Edited June 24, 2013 by bryfly

[Guest ChrisPNE]

Which post service did they use china or Singapore or?, going to order another one for the wife, do not want Sweden mail again took 22days....

China Post EMS. Was just the free delivery option.

[Guest aliaird]

In my sample of one, I used DHL with Merimobiles for my V5 and once it was shipped only took a couple of days, I was really impressed. I didn't get asked to pay any extra duty. the delivery slip from Mm said something like 'phone parts' or the like.

The only thing I would say was that it took a little longer for Mm to get it to DHL, possibly due to stock issues?

[Guest aliaird]

Duplicate post

Edited June 24, 2013 by aliaird

[Guest Maringer]

I believe there's a greater chance of a customs charge with DHL.

I've no experience of ordering from Merimobiles but last year, I bought a Tablet from a Chinese seller on Aliexpress and ordered via DHL. Although the supplier stated the value as less than $30 (though I'm based in the UK), I subsequently received a VAT (or possibly duty?) invoice from DHL a week or so after the tablet had been delivered. Obviously, this only added a few quid to the order and was hardly disastrous but my point would generally be that don't assume you've got away with avoiding any customs charges when ordering by DHL if you don't receive an invoice immediately!

Personally, I think the 5 inch phones are simply too big for my liking. I currently have an Atrix with a 4" screen but reckon I could be tempted with a compact phone with a 4.5" screen. Before reading through this thread, the best match I'd seen was the Huawei Ascend D as this is by far the most compact 4.5" screen phone I've seen though the price of this device remains pretty high. However, the FAEA F1 looks like it may well be worth a try. Possibly worth a punt for not much over a hundred quid? The only potential problems would be the average battery size (as I'd originally planned to get a phone with a larger battery) and also I'm not overly excited by the white case of this phone.

It will be interesting to see if anyone on this board buys one and provides their thoughts.

[Guest Sere83]

I've no experience of ordering from Merimobiles but last year, I bought a Tablet from a Chinese seller on Aliexpress and ordered via DHL. Although the supplier stated the value as less than $30 (though I'm based in the UK), I subsequently received a VAT (or possibly duty?) invoice from DHL a week or so after the tablet had been delivered. Obviously, this only added a few quid to the order and was hardly disastrous but my point would generally be that don't assume you've got away with avoiding any customs charges when ordering by DHL if you don't receive an invoice immediately!

Personally, I think the 5 inch phones are simply too big for my liking. I currently have an Atrix with a 4" screen but reckon I could be tempted with a compact phone with a 4.5" screen. Before reading through this thread, the best match I'd seen was the Huawei Ascend D as this is by far the most compact 4.5" screen phone I've seen though the price of this device remains pretty high. However, the FAEA F1 looks like it may well be worth a try. Possibly worth a punt for not much over a hundred quid? The only potential problems would be the average battery size (as I'd originally planned to get a phone with a larger battery) and also I'm not overly excited by the white case of this phone.

It will be interesting to see if anyone on this board buys one and provides their thoughts.

If you want 4.5 inches get a Xiaomi Mi2A. Its more expensive at around £190 but the cpu is much more powerful than MTK6589 phones, it will be better built than most and will have much better software support as Xiaomi and MIUI rom have a huge english community and weekly rom releases.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Sere83

[Guest JetKun]

I'm giving up, i can't find a jiayu g4 from a reliable seller that doesn't spam forums for under £145 ...had anyone bought from a reliable vendor yet?

[Guest dakok]

If you promise to praise me for the next, let`s say, 2 months, I`ll find you one for £133 (slim one)

Fat version is a bit more - £162.

:D :D :D

Really. Store is reasonably reliable, i checked on several forums today.

[Guest Maringer]

If you want 4.5 inches get a Xiaomi Mi2A. Its more expensive at around £190 but the cpu is much more powerful than MTK6589 phones, it will be better built than most and will have much better software support as Xiaomi and MIUI rom have a huge english community and weekly rom releases.

I'd definitely be interested in the Xiaomi (and I use a MIUI ROM on my Atrix) but will have to give it a miss for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is a little more 'bulky' than the FAEA phone or the Ascend D - both longer and wider. Ideally, I'd prefer as compact a phone as possible as I carry it in my trouser pocket at all times and like to be able to sit down now and again! Regardless of that, it might still be an option but for the fact that I need microSD card support. I use my phone as a portable media player and have around 20GB MP3 files before I even consider videos (the HDMI output of my Atrix is useful). Unfortunately, 16GB or even 32GB internal storage is no use to me without microSD support as I need (well, want) more space!

[Guest tillaz]

I've no experience of ordering from Merimobiles but last year, I bought a Tablet from a Chinese seller on Aliexpress and ordered via DHL. Although the supplier stated the value as less than $30 (though I'm based in the UK), I subsequently received a VAT (or possibly duty?) invoice from DHL a week or so after the tablet had been delivered. Obviously, this only added a few quid to the order and was hardly disastrous but my point would generally be that don't assume you've got away with avoiding any customs charges when ordering by DHL if you don't receive an invoice immediately!

Personally, I think the 5 inch phones are simply too big for my liking. I currently have an Atrix with a 4" screen but reckon I could be tempted with a compact phone with a 4.5" screen. Before reading through this thread, the best match I'd seen was the Huawei Ascend D as this is by far the most compact 4.5" screen phone I've seen though the price of this device remains pretty high. However, the FAEA F1 looks like it may well be worth a try. Possibly worth a punt for not much over a hundred quid? The only potential problems would be the average battery size (as I'd originally planned to get a phone with a larger battery) and also I'm not overly excited by the white case of this phone.

It will be interesting to see if anyone on this board buys one and provides their thoughts.

the Faea F1 has a bigger battery than the Ascend D, and a better Display as its OGS (with 2.5mm narrow bezel) as well as NFC for £150 less.

the Ascend D has a better Soc but is no way worth the extra £150, the Snapdragon S4 8225Q is more than capable.

sadly now that huawei is recognised world wide your paying for the band name... just like Samsung and the rest with inflated prices... :(

Ascend D Specs

Li-Ion 1800 mAh battery

8 GB ROM, 1 GB RAM

720 x 1280 pixels, 4.5 inches IPS (~326 ppi pixel density)

Quad-core 1.5 GHz Huawei K3V2 (huaweis own soc)

Android OS, v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, dual-LED flash

1.3 MP, 720p front camera

price £260 http://www.merimobil..._p/meri4406.htm

http://www.gsmarena....d_quad-4568.php

Faea F1 Specs

Li-Ion 2000 mAh battery

4 GB ROM, 1 GB RAM

720 x 1280 pixels, 4.5 inches IPS - OGS (~326 ppi pixel density)

Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 8225Q 1.2 Ghz quad-core processor

Android 4.2 OS

8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus,- LED flash

2 MP, front camera

NFC

price £110

hands on http://www.gizchai.c...apest-quad.html (english)

offical website

http://www.faeamobil...aea-f1-techspec

[Guest bryfly]

I'm in the same boat.. well almost. I lent my brother my V5 for the evening, big mistake lol, and ever since he's been pressuring me to give him my V5 and order another one. I'm not sure I want to order two phones that are exactly the same just in case.. G4 would be an option if it was available, although yes it has a thinner bezel but the trade off is a very thick phone, and right now priced too high.. Damn not sure what to get.. I do like the V5 though..

Well rightly or wrongly took the plunge and ordered another V5 tonight for the other half.........

[Guest tcpaulh]

Ordered a v5 too ;-)

[Guest tillaz]

I need it asap as I bricked my other one.

i'm pretty sure you can un-brick any MTK phone with the flash tool (similar to NV flash for tegra)

since the stock ROM is avalible you should be to bring it back to life.. even if hard bricked

i would give this ago before buying another http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1943442

[Guest Rico_89]

Well rightly or wrongly took the plunge and ordered another V5 tonight for the other half.........

Ordered a v5 too ;-)

I ordered another V5 too.. My brother got the one I was using so I had to ordered another one today.. :D Had a close look at the rest and although the K1 is a nice phone the V5 is thinner and has a few features I really like.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Rico_89

[Guest deuse]

i'm pretty sure you can un-brick any MTK phone with the flash tool (similar to NV flash for tegra)

since the stock ROM is avalible you should be to bring it back to life.. even if hard bricked

i would give this ago before buying another http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1943442

I tried all that mate. My comp can't see it now(don't know why) I tried MTK Tools but that doesn't find it either.

Maybe this could be a project and keep a post on it :)

I have ordered another one from merimobile but the funny thing with them is the cash has come out of my bank

but the web site says "Awaiting Fulfilment" so god knows lol.

Edited June 24, 2013 by deuse

[Guest kieranswhite]

I tried all that mate. My comp can't see it now(don't know why) I tried MTK Tools but that doesn't find it either.

Maybe this could be a project and keep a post on it :)

I have ordered another one from merimobile but the funny thing with them is the cash has come out of my bank

but the web site says "Awaiting Fulfilment" so god knows lol.

Double post

Edited June 24, 2013 by kieranswhite

[Guest Maringer]

the Faea F1 has a bigger battery than the Ascend D, and a better Display as its OGS (with 2.5mm narrow bezel) as well as NFC for £150 less.

the Ascend D has a better Soc but is no way worth the extra £150, the Snapdragon S4 8225Q is more than capable.

Yeah, I was more thinking about the Ascend D XL with the 2600 mAh battery. As you say, however, a 2000 mAh battery isn't too bad at all so that wouldn't necessarily be an issue.

However, I've just noticed that the 8225Q uses Cortex-A5 CPUs, not A7s (which the competing MediaTek chips use), as I initially thought. I realise that performance of a quad-core A5 ought to be decent enough, but, for single-threaded apps (i.e. many of them), it is likely to be as slower than my 2 year-old Atrix using the venerable Tegra 2. I have also seen some mentions of app compatibility problems with the Cortex-A5. The Adreno 203 GPU will also be considerably slower than the PowerVR GPU used in the MediaTek competitor so gaming may well be a problem at a 720p resolution.

Ultimately, I think the Cortex-A5s in the FAEA rule it out for me as an option, which is a pity because much of its other specification is ideal for my uses. The A5s are reportedly very low-power so the battery life ought to be OK, but I'd prefer the higher performance of an A7/A9 or even Krait.

[Guest kieranswhite]

I tried all that mate. My comp can't see it now(don't know why) I tried MTK Tools but that doesn't find it either.

Maybe this could be a project and keep a post on it :)

I have ordered another one from merimobile but the funny thing with them is the cash has come out of my bank

but the web site says "Awaiting Fulfilment" so god knows lol.

You have to give them 4 worknig days to process it :P I was unlucky because i ordered on a friday and they dont work on the weekends so mine was shipped on thursday last week and it changed from Awaiting Fulfilment to shipped.

Hope that helps