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

[Guest JetKun]

are there any other discussion forums on buying chinese mobes

Keep this topic alive, and we might just see lol

[Guest metal.mickey]

just found this article on gizmochina website suggesting steps to follow to enhance "time to first fix"

i cantseem to paste links via my tab2 so youll have to google it.

how to set up gps on MTK phone

maybe the vowney owners can check it out

mm

[Guest Rico_89]

Hey what happened to dakok? He must be so busy playing with his new phone he has forgot about us lol :D

[Guest dakok]

Cheers!

Vacations, family troubles and slow post office.

I`m lurking anyway :D

Here`s an update:

http://ips.posta.hr/IPSWeb_item_events.asp?itemid=RF149647265SG&Submit=Submit[/CODE]

I didn`t ecsape from tax :angry:

Invoice sent to post office, now I`m waiting for my package.

Discussion on domestic china phone forum brought few attractive

phones:

Xiaocai x9 (1.5GHz, 2Gb phone - for little bit over $200)

THL W11 Monkey King - great specs, too; price a bit higher

It seems that [email protected] is becoming a standard ~$200 buy....

ZTE v987 (phone I got and wait) went down $20, just few days after I bought it at Hotmid.

Damn.

[Guest Rico_89]

Cheers!

Vacations, family troubles and slow post office.

I`m lurking anyway :D

Here`s an update:

http://ips.posta.hr/IPSWeb_item_events.asp?itemid=RF149647265SG&Submit=Submit[/CODE]

I didn`t ecsape from tax :angry:

Invoice sent to post office, now I`m waiting for my package.

Discussion on domestic china phone forum brought few attractive

phones:

Xiaocai x9 (1.5GHz, 2Gb phone - for little bit over $200)

THL W11 Monkey King - great specs, too; price a bit higher

It seems that [email protected] is becoming a standard ~$200 buy....

ZTE v987 (phone I got and wait) went down $20, just few days after I bought it at Hotmid.

Damn.

Bad luck with the tax.. Wasn't free China post an option? Anyway even with the added tax these phones are still a great deal.

Edited July 22, 2013 by Rico_89

[Guest Maringer]

Well, my FAEA F1 has just arrived. I ordered directly from FAEA last Sunday using the $5 option for the registered HK Post airmail service and I think 9 days delivery (I'm based in the UK) is pretty decent.

The customs label stated value as $15 so, fingers-crossed, it looks as though I've managed to avoid any import duty!

First impressions are of a very solidly-built phone. It's going to replace my Atrix which is kept within a small hard case and the dimensions work out pretty well - it's thinner than the Atrix, about the same width and just 1cm taller. Not at all bad considering it packs a much larger, HD screen.

I'm at work so haven't had chance to play with the FAEA much as yet. I put in an Ovivo SIM and have set that up easily enough but I'll be looking to transfer my main Giffgaff SIM and data across from the Atrix during the next couple of days as well.

Very impressed so far, especially when you consider it cost me less than £110!

[Guest yaqh]

Well, my FAEA F1 has just arrived. I ordered directly from FAEA last Sunday using the $5 option for the registered HK Post airmail service and I think 9 days delivery (I'm based in the UK) is pretty decent.

The customs label stated value as $15 so, fingers-crossed, it looks as though I've managed to avoid any import duty!

First impressions are of a very solidly-built phone. It's going to replace my Atrix which is kept within a small hard case and the dimensions work out pretty well - it's thinner than the Atrix, about the same width and just 1cm taller. Not at all bad considering it packs a much larger, HD screen.

I'm at work so haven't had chance to play with the FAEA much as yet. I put in an Ovivo SIM and have set that up easily enough but I'll be looking to transfer my main Giffgaff SIM and data across from the Atrix during the next couple of days as well.

Very impressed so far, especially when you consider it cost me less than £110!

nice, let us know how you get on with it, please post review, main thing is gps as china phones have issues with this, nice size and look good.

[Guest Northstandhero]

Is the general consensus that the Vowney/Verne V5 is still the best sub $200 Chinese handset or is there something else out there in this price bracket?

[Guest JetKun]

nice, let us know how you get on with it, please post review, main thing is gps as china phones have issues with this, nice size and look good.

faea f1 runs Qualcomm soc, gps should be fine

Vowney v5 mired in problems, there are many better phones out there now, but it does have an active community here

[Guest Maringer]

An initial browse of the FAEA forum seems to indicate that there might be a bug with GPS on the F1 at the moment. Apparently, GPS drops connection as soon as you leave an app or if the screen switches off. Not ideal. Not sure if this is the case or not as yet. I'll investigate during the next few days.

[Guest Sere83]

What is it with these Chinese phones and GPS. It's not bloody rocket science, My Nexus 7 locks within a few seconds even inside my house. Really annoying as the V5 is a nice phone but crippled by the fact that GPS esentially doesn't work. Kind of pissed as well as i'd like to sell it on but not sure who would buy with such a big issue. Will be interested to see how MIUI handles GPS on these mediatek phones when it is released

Edited July 23, 2013 by Sere83

[Guest akarana]

What is it with these Chinese phones and GPS.

http://www.gizchina.com/2013/07/23/how-to-fix-poor-gps-on-mediatek-phones/

Nope, I haven't tried it

[Guest Maringer]

Most of the Mediatek phones around reputedly don't bother with much of an antenna, even though the chips themselves support all the necessary standards. Hence the issues.

Not had the chance to play around with my FAEA yet but I'll report on the GPS performance of this later. Some people indicate it locks on quickly (as you'd expect from a Qualcomm chip) but I've seen others report that the GPS lock drops when the screen is off. If this is the case, it sounds like a software bug to me. I'll see what GPS does later on.

[Guest Maringer]

I've just had a quick fiddle around with my FAEA F1 and there does appear to be some problem with GPS at present. Specifically, the phone locks onto 5 or 6 satellites quickly (testing using GPS Test), but GPS lock itself is not found for some time. Not quite sure what is happening there to tell the truth. In Maps, the notification bar often flickers when attempting to get a lock. I've used FasterFix to change my GPS pool which should help, but no real joy as yet.

I see that another ROM is available on the FAEA forum so I'll update to that when I get the chance. Not sure if it is any different to the one already installed on the phone, however.

A chinese CWM for the F1 appears to be available but I'm not installing that! Too risky. Hopefully, somebody will be able to create an English version of CWM to install in due course.

Any GPS lock does drop entirely when the screen of the phone switches off so some work obviously needs to be done on the software by FAEA.

[Guest uchihas]

I just got a MLais MX58 PRO 2 days ago, 200€ with accesories (phone itself cost 160€, joint buy). GPS Works great:

Wi-Fi + GPS

GPS Alone:

You can see my unboxing here (it is in spanish);

Edited July 24, 2013 by uchihas

[Guest]

I just got a MLais MX58 PRO 2 days ago, 200€ with accesories (phone itself cost 160€, joint buy). GPS Works great:

Did GPS work properly straight out of the box or did you have to tweak it?

[Guest uchihas]

Did GPS work properly straight out of the box or did you have to tweak it?

Straight out, just installed all my apps, rooted the phone, installed gps test and put it on the window. Took about 1 minute to get the first satellites. This one comes with the SiRF III, that comes with some GPS like TomTom One.

No gps.conf editing, no gps fix app, it's great.

Edited July 24, 2013 by uchihas

[Guest]

Straight out, just installed all my apps, rooted the phone, installed gps test and put it on the window. Took about 1 minute to get the first satellites. This one comes with the SiRF III, that comes with some GPS like TomTom One.

No gps.conf editing, no gps fix app, it's great.

Thats great! Do you get a solid blue arrow in google maps, or does it wobble a bit like some of the Vowney V5 owners describe?

[Guest uchihas]

Thats great! Do you get a solid blue arrow in google maps, or does it wobble a bit like some of the Vowney V5 owners describe?

The compass works great, pretty sensitive I would say. Just opened maps now and leaving the phone on the table the arrow looks solid. As soon as I rotate the device, it changes it direction. Having it in my hand makes the arrow move a bit even when I try to stay still.

Edited July 24, 2013 by uchihas

[Guest]

The compass works great, pretty sensitive I would say. Just opened maps now and leaving the phone on the table the arrow looks solid. As soon as I rotate the device, it changes it direction. Having it in my hand makes the arrow move a bit even when I try to stay still.

Sorry, I meant that one V5 owner said the blue arrow in google maps jumped around, so it was hopeless for navigating in a city as the roads are closely packed. It was ok for motorway driving though. From what you describe it sounds like your phone might be ok.

[Guest uchihas]

Sorry, I meant that one V5 owner said the blue arrow in google maps jumped around, so it was hopeless for navigating in a city as the roads are closely packed. It was ok for motorway driving though. From what you describe it sounds like your phone might be ok.

It doesn't look like moving, it stays in place, pretty accurate. Had a Star x26i that was a complete s*** for GPS navigation, so I'm pretty happy with this one.

[Guest trashbat]

where did you buy the mlais from?

[Guest uchihas]

We did a joint buy from an authorized distributor, Red Light Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Branch (Chigon Shenzhen Technology Co., Ltd.).

http://chigon.en.aliSPAM.com/

[Guest dakok]

Will be interested to see how MIUI handles GPS on these mediatek phones when it is released

MIUI v5 4.2 goes official for dual SIM phones next week.

http://www.gizchina....rt-coming-soon/

For next models:

ZTE V987, N986, V967S i

Lenovo A820, A820T, S920.

Other popular brands will probably follow soon (Jiayu G4, Zopo ZP980, Umi X2,...)

ZTE v987 is a first model used for this new MTK MIUI v5.

Original article

P.S. Anyone knows what happened to Anzhi forum. Can`t access it for the last three days?

Edited July 24, 2013 by dakok

[Guest Rico_89]

We did a joint buy from an authorized distributor, Red Light Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Branch (Chigon Shenzhen Technology Co., Ltd.).

http://chigon.en.aliSPAM.com/

Nice one.. looks great :) . May I ask you a couple of questions?

How many people were in your joint buy? Merimobiles has it for £161 but that site you linked to has a minimum buy of 10 pieces at $203-223 / piece.

Also, did they deliver to individual addresses or did your group distribute the phones from the one delivery address once they arrived?

Thanks for any info. :)