This thread is for the discussion of smartphones from China, Hong Kong or Taiwan. It includes both single SIM and dual SIM discussion and you can post here to ask questions or give your opinion on the devices. I'll try and update this thread every time a major announcement is made that is interesting. China is certainly a country to watch at the moment. It'll be interesting to see how 2014 goes for Chinese manufacturers.

When people think of Chinese phones they often get an image of a cheap knock off phone that costs about £20 and performs worse than a Samsung Galaxy Ace that has been thrown against a wall 10 times. Whilst this may have been true a number of years ago, Chinese phone manufacturers have come a long way and are now making better phones at better prices than most other worldwide companies. Xiaomi for example, the 4th largest phone manufacturer in China, created a smartphone with specs more powerful than the Note 3 at a quarter of the Note 3's price. The phone is already one of the best selling in China but Xiaomi aren't the only Chinese manufacturer making top end smartphones at great prices. Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, YuLong, Oppo, Meizu, BBK, TCL, Jiayu etc.. are just some of the names in China making amazing phones that rival those of Samsung or Sony or LG. Not only do Chinese phone makers make top end smartphones now, they also make great mid range and budget smartphones at a cheaper price than others. Chinese manufacturers are now looking to go international, many already have such as Huawei and ZTE, but we are seeing more and more such as Oppo, Lenovo, Xiaomi and others make their way into the international market.

One great thing about the Chinese market is also the abundance of dual SIM phones. These have become very popular thanks to Mediatek solutions who power the phones. Premium top end smartphones along with budget dual sim phones has allowed China to gain over 1.25 billion subscribers in the country. The Chinese market has grown with surprising speed and is now the largest in the world. Chinese smartphone shipments within China and from Chinese manufacturers is expected to grow again this year with the likes of Huawei aiming for 100m smartphone shipments worldwide. Almost up there with Apple. With the addition of 4G LTE in China, more and more Chinese phones are coming out with LTE bands that work in the UK. So now is a great time to look into buying a smartphone from China. Whilst not for everyone, it's hard to ignore these phones coming out that boast better specs than the flagships sold in this country.

Vivo XPlay 3S

The first major phone I want to talk about from China is the Vivo XPlay 3S. This phone pushed technology to the limits as it was the first phone in the world with an ultra-high resolution of 2560 x 1440. With a 6 inch screen IPS LCD screen, it has a PPI of 490. One of the highest on market. Not only this but the phone comes with the ultra powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 8974AB processor which is more powerful than the one used in the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and is the same as the one used in the new HTC One M8 and Sony Xperia Z2. One thing that Vivo has always done well is sound, the phone has two stereo speakers which offer the best sound quality possible. The phone has 3GB of LPDDR3 memory and 32GB of storage on board with the option of a memory card slot to expand storage if needed. The Xplay 3s has a rear 13 mega-pixel camera with f1.8 aperture and wide-angle 5 mega-pixel camera on the front. The software allows for a large amount of customisation when it comes to taking pictures or shooting HD video. The phone has a 3200mAh battery and a unique fingerprint scanner. As you can see just by the specs alone this is one of the best built phones in the world with specs better than that of todays flagships. The phone will work on 2G & 3G but only on EE/Three 4G services. And at just £349 the price is excellent. This is just one example of how powerful smartphones are coming out of China and just how much value you get for the price you pay. The downside is Vivo do not have an international store just yet and so you'd have to look to import the phone which can cost more than the local price.

Oppo Find 7a

The second phone I want to talk about is the Oppo Find 7a. Oppo established themselves in Europe and the USA with the very popular Oppo Find 5. Oppo is a part of BBK and is the leading maker of next-generation digital electronics, dedicated to enriching people's digital lifestyles with technology and innovation. OPPO markets a comprehensive portfolio of high-quality DVD players, DVD recorders, home theatre systems, LCD TVs, Smartphones and portable DVD players. Oppo has been very innovative with such phone as the N1 and their new flagship the Find 7 is no different. The Find 7a comes with a 5.5" 1920x1080 screen, 2GB RAM, 16GB memory and a powerful Snapdragon 801 processor. It also has a 13 megapixel rear camera, 4G LTE, 2800mAh battery and only costs £330. The Find 7 is one of the best designed smartphones and takes on a similar design to the previously released Find 5. It has gorilla glass 3 protection and the screen can be used with gloves or wet fingers, the Sony built camera can shoot 4k video and the rapid charge technology allows you to charge 75% of the phone in just 30 minutes. Not only that but the phone comes with Oppo's amazing MAXX audio which really makes audio sound great. A second model of the Oppo Find 7 will be released later in the year which bumps the specs to better than that of the Galaxy S5. The 7a releasing this month already rivals the HTC One and Z2.

You can buy the Find 7 from Oppo's international store here for £330 with no import fees and a 2 year guarantee-
https://en.oppo.com/products/find7/

As you can see, these two phones really show how great some of the phones coming out of China are. So like I said, feel free to discuss about Chinese phones here whether it be dual sim or single sim devices.
(This thread is mainly to combine the other two threads into one)

I wish you the best of luck with this thread.

i often think about it. but never do.

I have a ThL W200 as my second phone. Had it about 5 months. Lovely dual sim phone with a 5 inch screen.

My Chinese phone is sitting in a drawer unused. The power button fell off and the home button stopped working. With the arrival of the Moro G I can't see the need for these phones over here. And once you get above £200 devices like the Nexus 5 and LG G2 come into play so they are not for me. 12 months ago it was different but not now. And they have the worst skins. The Find 7 is horrible.

I'll just echo the points I made before on a similar thread ages ago. If you expect to buy a "well known" branded phone from China at a bargain price, then its going to be counterfeit, and it will end in disappointment. Contrary to the belief of some bargain hunters, however tempting it is, you can't buy the top brand names from China for less than you see in Europe or the UK, unless of course its a poorly made counterfeit fake. Sadly its the people falling into this trap and their eventual disappointment, who have contributed to giving China its poor reputation, but just like anywhere else in the world, there are good and bad manufacturers and honest traders and cowboys, and China is no exception, but it does have legit brands too, which are manufactured in factories to acceptable Western quality standards.

So, if you buy a Chinese 'own brand' (which inevitably means buying a brand name you have never heard of) then there are usually some very good bargains to be had with features which are not that different from branded phones, costing two or three times as much. So if you are not bothered about the name on the front of the case then you are likely to save a decent amount of cash.

But before buying, its your responsibility to do the research. There are plenty of android & technology based forums around with people reviewing and sharing their experiences of various Chinese brands, choose a Chinese phone which already has several good and indepth reviews and whose models keep appearing for positive discussion on regular basis and you won't go far wrong and the risk is lowered. I researched for several days before buying my Chinese phone, and found that it was already a popular choice in both China and Eastern Europe, a fact that gave me a lot more confidence in the longer term reliability of my purchase.

So based on these findings, I purchased a Cubot GT-99 last year. This phone is not only used for the usual phone calls and texts, email checking etc but serves as a three based tethered internet hotspot for my entire house (as I don't have a landline / ADSL).

Occasionally I read threads on the internet regarding owners of various phones who are having difficulty tethering their phone or complaining that it overheats or drops out when being used as a hotspot for an extended period. Ive never experienced anything like this with the Cubot, and effectively being my only means of internet connection, its tethered daily, often for 12+ hours per day at the weekends, continuously serving the internet via its built in wi-fi hotspot.

I've also not had any issues with battery capacity problems either, despite still being fitted with its own branded Chinese battery from the factory, it seems to last just as long when out and about, as it did several months ago.

In all honesty, it was the best £100 I ever spent. It was supplied unlocked and with a screen protector fitted, There was no service provider logos, bloatware or apps. It came already set to English language and with Google play etc installed, and it was really easy to root.

I also paid a princely $6 for a protective leather look case at the time of purchase, rather than try and source one locally (difficult to do with some models). Even the case has stood up pretty well so far and hasn't fallen to bits. As such the phone still looks new and the case has protected the phone from the odd knock when its fallen out of my pocket etc.

The only thing that I bought for it, was a UK spec 3 pin charger from Ebay for about £4, as I don't trust the 2 pin Chinese style charger which was supplied with the phone as generally they lack internal fusing and overheat protection, and won't really comply with stringent UK safety Standards. The un-shuttered 'shaver' style adaptor supplied, is another aspect that doesn't comply with our electrical safety standards either and so the whole 2 pin adaptor /charger situation is best avoided from the start. However £4 will put this right, and get you a UK spec 3 pin 5v 1A usb plug in mains charger.

So don't try and buy a £500 "branded" phone from China, it will end in tears. However if you buy something like a Cubot Xiaomi, THL and Jiayu brand, then you will get something reliable, and save a significant amount of money.

THL are a good brand for anyone looking toward dual sim phones. Using the Mediatek platform they are able to make powerful smartphones at a budget price that is affordable worldwide. A lot of their phones are in the £80 to £160 price point and can rival top end phones with the added ability of dual sim use.


I agree and disagree. As you say, cheap phones from China are well worth the money and there are plenty of great brands out there who can give great bang for buck in a reliable smartphone. But larger well known Chinese brands such as HTC, Huawei, ZTE and Oppo are releasing their phones overseas at "premium" price points and so a £500 or less phone isn't really that bad when a lot of these premium Chinese manufacturers are building better phones than other worldwide manufacturers.

But I do agree that importing an expensive phone can end in tears. And thus I really wouldn't recommend importing an expensive branded phone from China as import tax can be high and usually there is a better alternative in the UK.

Thanks for the excellent post as well. What you said makes a lot of sense and proves that all Chinese phones aren't just low quality knock offs. A lot of the cheap budget phones perform a lot better than phones in the UK at the same price. Maybe only the Moto G is the closest rival I would say.

I would argue that HTC, Huawei and ZTE are international brands rather than "Chinese" brands and have official support in Europe or the USA. To justify the others by comparing them to the international brands is a little unfair.

The more unknown Chinese brands are not built to the same standard, have no after sales service in the UK, and tend to be built down down to their low price point.

I've seen a few shops think they could make money selling the likes of Oppo or iNew and it invariably goes wrong, half the units end up coming back faulty, there are no spares readily available and the complaints about radio performance seem to be a lot more prevalent than with the international brands.

For a cheap, disposable smartphone that you don't mind if it dies and can't be fixed within 6 months of buying, they are OK, but I have yet to see any "domestic" Chinese phone that I would be confident would last even 12 months.

When you buy any imported phone from outside of the EU, you are essentially paying for its entry into the UK, within the retail price. It may not be immediately as obvious as any duty invoice and handling fee which comes in the form of an invoice from UPS and DHL as a result of a personal import being stopped, but believe me you are still paying for it, as well as bundled fractions of the various other logistical costs such as container storage, freight handling etc. Nobody works for free, especially in sea freight importation and retail bulk buying and often there can be several middleman each taking a profit along the chain which is involved in the phone being bought from a manufacturers' factory and reaching the stock room of your local store, and yes, it all gets added to the end user price, transparently perhaps, but trust me, its in there and its covered.

The costs on a single £100 import *IF* it does get stopped by customs is relatively low. The VAT element is charged at 20% as with any UK purchase, so thats a potential £20 addition. On purchases with a declared value of under £135, then there is no import duty to pay. So if your Chinese phone costs under £135, there is no duty element risk, just the VAT (which you also pay on UK phones at the counter).

So, as an example, if my £100 Cubot got stopped, the most you are going to pay is £20 in import VAT, and £120 for a dual sim phone with the spec of the GT-99 is still a bargain, at least I can't find anything close in specification and unlocked for £120 in the UK.

Also avoid the cheaper EMS / China Post service routinely offered by Chinese vendors, inevitably it gets delivered by the UK Royal Mail / Parcelforce service, who will charge you a handsome £8 admin fee for dealing with the HMRC on your behalf. Use DHL instead, as they only charge a £5 admin fee for dealing with customs charges relating to duties levied on deliveries to domestic residential addresses , its also much quicker and safer as it also offers online tracking.

Chinese vendors are often more open to haggling compared to ones in the West, especially on sites with fierce competition like Ali express, so don't be scared to negotiate a bit of a discount on the DHL upgrade cost .

There is of course, the question of warranty issues should they arise and in all honesty you should consider a broken £100 Chinese phone as being destined for a skip if it should break and not be easily user repairable. But then again, some warranties from UK vendors isn't exactly the last word with stories of people waiting weeks / months for their phones to be repaired,

I think a lot of broken phone issues also arise due to accident (certainly broken screens and water damage aren't the fault of the manufacturer), and in this respect, a case is a common sense inclusion, regardless of whether your phone costs £100 or £400, sadly many are still being balanced perilously on the edges of bars or just being chucked like used tissues back into handbags, then people wonder why their screens break or their phone stops working

In the meantime, i'm happy with my purchase, and if it stopped working after 12 months, then I would still say that I had still got my monies worth from the original £100 outlay, given its also acting as a router / internet wi-fi point. Plus I could use its failure as being an excuse to upgrade to the latest Chinese model, as most people seem to routinely change their phones after 12 - 18 months anyway.

But yes, its very true that you should weigh up all of the odds, throw around ideas and opinions in order to fully understand what is involved with buying from Asia and the risks which come with it. For me they were viable, for others who don't buy into it, or trust the Chinese brands, then a UK purchase is probably the best option.

I would say they are Chinese brands. In the same way Samsung and LG are Korean and Sony are Japanese. Just because they sell internationally doesn't make them any less Chinese. Plus this thread isn't just about the discussion of budget Chinese phones, it's about all Chinese phones as well as the Chinese phone industry in general.


I would say mid tier Chinese brands are built to a good standard but the lack of support outside China is a huge negative for importing. And I do agree that unknown Chinese brands do have build quality issues which is why you need to research the phone model number before buying the phone. I would say there are plenty of Chinese phones that are well worth the budget price. My dual SIM phone for example I've had for over 21 months with zero issues at all (apart from the home button getting slightly sticky). It's lasted the same time a 24 month contract phone would but at a quarter of the price and with the added dual SIM capability that was useful for me.

Of course Chinese phones are not for everyone. And this thread isn't saying everyone should buy Chinese phones. These phones are for select groups of people who live in China or know what they're buying from outside China. Also this thread is to follow the Chinese phone industry and see how tech/price is getting better and how shipments are growing and which brand is the most popular within and outside China etc... It's more of an enthusiast thread than a everyone should buy Chinese phones thread.

Is it really worth the financial risk and hassle to save a bit of money ?

What happens when it falls to bits and you have to post it back to China .

Someone has already pointed out that there's a shift towards cheaper hardware over here anyway .

The new Moto G , possible new Nexus and Amazon's much rumoured phone won't be over £300 in all likelihood

But this thread isn't advocating everyone to buy Chinese phones.
It's a thread for people who like buying/want to buy/or have an interest in the Chinese phone market.

One reason I bought my phone from China was due to the dual SIM factor.
A poster above bought their phone from China for under £100 because it was the cheapest phone at the time (and still is to some extent) to support DC-HSPA+. People buy Chinese phones for a reason.

And please don't have the stereotypical view that all phones made in China fall to bits. All phones are manufactured in China pretty much.

And what if it doesn't?. Mine hasn't, and I doubt that my experience is unique. Even my own initial concerns regarding the longevity of the supplied battery have so far proven groundless (as the Chinese do have a tendency to over exaggerate battery capacities)


Agree 100%, Its wrong to assume that just because something is built in China, that it will immediately fall to pieces, I work in a purchasing role and a large part of my Job is to find new suppliers and to source raw materials and components directly from Countries which include Singapore, Ghana and China and in all honesty we couldn't compete in a competitive manufacturing environment if we didn't. In fact, around 65% of all of our materials including PCB's are all imported from these areas, and have been for the last ten years, and I think that many consumers would be surprised (or indeed shocked) at just how many manufacturers in this Country and indeed Europe have to do exactly the same thing, regardless of what products they are making.

I find that despite the whole negative public perception towards offshore sourcing , our instances of failures from this sector are no greater than from anywhere else in the world, the UK included, and we do record this for quality purposes. As I said earlier, there are good and bad manufacturers and good and bad levels of workmanship in products supplied all over the world.

I also agree that from a consumer point of view its not worth, sending a faulty phone back to the manufacturer under warranty as the shipping cost wouldn't make it viable, but that is taking the attitude that every product from China is going to need returning.

If you don't want to risk buying a Chinese mobile phone, then don't, but don't use the speculation that "its from China so it MUST be poor quality" as the sole reason - 15 years ago, perhaps, but not these days. China have had to sharpen their game and diversify into a Western marketplace, as they quickly worked out that as an economy they can't make a living selling counterfeits and poor quality goods forever.

Of course I don't take this view .

I was just expressing my opinion that a £100 Star Note 3 is probably more likely to have issues than a Samsung Note 3 .

I'm not talking about the actual geography of where it's assembled, I'm talking about the quality of the materials used .




Having said that I'm sure Lenovo will cook up some goodies in the next year after spending $3 billion buying Moto .

Well that is a given based on pricing alone. (there are exceptions ofc)
But I haven't had any problems by researching a well built phone at a low price and buying it. Plus, mid tier or top end Chinese phones are surprisingly well built. Just look at Oppo for example, or Vivo or even HTC for an example that everyone can relate to.

Lenovo are already massive in the market as the number one desktop PC supplier worldwide and the 5th largest smartphone supplier worldwide. This is thanks to their great premium products that are priced well and sell within China, Asia and eastern Europe. So with Motorola they will continue to grow and could easily enter the top 3 if you combine Moto shipments with Lenovo.

Worlds first QHD screens from China

Once again China are demonstrating just how far ahead of the curve they are. Whilst some manufacturers such as Samsung and Sony have released phones with 1080p screens (same as last year). Manufacturers in China are gearing up to launch their first QHD (2560 x 1440) phones. In fact, as you may remember from above, Vivo have already launched their "2K" screen phone back in February and it's been selling out ever since. Oppo and others will shortly release their products onto the market once supply is sorted out.

But that's not all. In Taiwan, AU Optronics have announced the worlds first AMOLED QHD display in two sizes at 5.7" and 6.0". Samsung were hoping to bring one out first but it looks like they've been beaten in the end. Whilst QHD really isn't needed on a mobile, it seems the Chinese are ahead and are already adopting this tech in their high end phones during the first part of the year. AUO do have a somewhat good relationship with Samsung so we could see this Taiwanese built screen in the Note 4 later this year.

Smartphone shipments in China account for over 1/3rd worldwide.

According to the IDC, over 350m smartphones were shipped in China during 2013. That means that over 1/3rd of the number of smartphones shipped worldwide last year went to China. An amazing number that is expected to keep growing year on year. China is now bigger smartphone market than North America and Europe combined in terms of smartphone volumes. There are now over 1.22 billion mobile subscribers in China at the moment. In 2014, Samsung are still the biggest seller in China followed by Lenovo and then Apple. Xiaomi come in 4th with Huawei, Yulong and ZTE just behind. Smartphone shipments account for 88% of the total market so this means that feature phones are pretty much dead in China now. In China 70% of the market belongs to Chinese brands while the remaining 30% goes to International brands. Samsung and Apple take up a combined 26% of that 30%.

I Had a UK Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3, swapped it for an S3, and Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, sold the S3, then just bought a Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 GT-i9152 Duos. Duel SIM. £234.99 from ebay.

Loving it.

Samsung are Korean?

Yeah, I though about that after I'd posted

(But it does come with the Taiwan Stock Android 4.2.2 Rom on it (Galaxy Mega 5.8 GT-I9152 BRI I9152ZSUAMG5 4.2.2 30.07.2013), So I can get away with my post

Haha, fair enough then.

ZTE makes 4G affordable in China

ZTE have released their Redbull V5 smartphone in China allowing Chinese citizens to pick up a 4G smartphone for under 1000 RMB (£95). The phone comes with a 5 inch 720p screen, a 13mp front camera, 5mp rear camera, Snapdragon 400 processor with China's own TD-LTE. The phone has a 2400mAh battery and it's one of the first 4G phones with dual SIM support. With 1GB of RAM the phone costs 799RMB (£75) and with 2GB of RAM the phone costs 999RMB (£95).

A bargain for anyone living in China. Unlike other dual SIM phones, ZTE have decided to go with Qualcomm over Mediatek. And that's due to the fact that Mediatek's 4G solution is still in development. Mediatek have grown considerably in China but Qualcomm also want a piece of the pie within China's dual SIM market and both companies know that 4G compatible chipsets are the way to go. This means great competition for the consumer and hopefully we will start to see more 4G Dual SIM devices coming out of China with Qualcomm and Mediaktek solutions at low prices with support for UK frequencies. Meaning that those who need a dual SIM device in the UK won't have to settle for just 3G or 2G but can also get 4G services on their phone as well.

my No1 N3, (Note 3 Clone) is great. Had it two months now, and cant fault it. Yes its not a Note 3 and is not the same spec, but it looks like one, and does everything a note 3 does, just not to the same level.

Sounds alright. Manufacturers such as No1 and Goophone are known for their "knock off" designs.

China's 4G roll out is bigger than all European networks put together.

China is showing the world how to roll out 4G. In the UK EE have enabled over 5,000 masts with 4G. In China, China Mobile have enabled 300,000 masts with 4G in just 4 months since launch. Yes, you did read that correctly. There are currently 300,000 masts with 4G on China Mobile and that number is expected to grow to over 500,000 by the end of the year. Including China Telecom and China Unicom, it is estimated that over 1 million masts will have 4G in China by the end of the year. China's TD-LTE is planned to cover 340 cities by the end of the year as well. China Mobile have also introduced a new 50GB data plan for postpay subscribers and they have plans to introduce VoLTE by the end of this year. An estimated 100 million 4G smartphones will be shipped by China Mobile alone in 2014.

China Mobile is touting itself as an operator able to combine the communication capability of mobile phone terminals with the experience of mobile internet. New Calling, New Messaging and New Contacting are the three major highlights of China Mobile's RCS. New voice experience will be created based on VoLTE, such as HD voice/video calling, sharing multimedia during the call and one click for multi-party call; new messaging service will enable multiple formats of messaging and group messaging with an integrated interface; new contacting service allows more flexible contact management covering grouping, personal card, etc.

China Mobile is planning to construct a more faster, efficient and converged network with enhanced performance, they will promote the evolution to LTE-A and increase the data rate from 100Mbps to 200Mbps, then up to 400Mbps or even 1Gbps. As you can see China are leading the way with 4G at the moment and have the fastest roll out of 4G worldwide. They are closely catching up to the Korean and US markets.

I have the THL W200 and I am more than happy with it. Purchased off Amazon. In fact I will probably always buy Chinese phones from now on, read into that what you will......

Interesting industry Article on Xiaomi, one of the previously "unknown" (in the West) Chinese own brand smartphone manufacturers who was mentioned in one of my other posts.

http://www.electronics-eetimes.com/e...s_id=222920819

As you can see consumers in Asia, demand just as much reliability and features from their Smartphones as Western Consumers, and just because its cheap and half the price of the top 'brands' it doesn't mean that it will fall apart when you take it out of the box.

You will also find that some of the other names, Cubot, THL etc are also following the same success path as Xiaomi. Just because a certain brand of phone isn't widely available in this Country, or has the marketing budget of the big brands to promote and launch it internationally, doesn't automatically mean that it isn't any good. Far from it.

My Thl W200 is still going strong and I have dropped it numerous times.