Chinese Android Phones

fixXxer

Anyone going for a Asus Zenphone 2? It seems like amazing tech for the price.

corwill

fixxxer wrote: »

Anyone going for a Asus Zenphone 2? It seems like amazing tech for the price.

A lot of problems with battery life, screen quality, camera quality and others being reported, on thread for it on this forum and elsewhere. For the money, depending on version, something the 1+1 or the Honor 6 Plus look like better bets, unless Asus do a lot with updates.

It's a shame, because it promised a lot.

eamonnq

ballybro wrote: »

If I wanted to buy an Elephone P6000 is there any way of avoiding the tax/customs charges or recommendations from other buyers of sites to buy from.

No, allow for it in the price and in the unlikely event that you get 'lucky' and don't get charged, consider it a bonus.

Asking about avoiding tax/customs can also get you in trouble on boards.ie

Colemania

I don't know if this is shilling or whatever you call it but if anyone wants an Elephone p3000s, I have one for sale on adverts. Will do a fairly good deal on it.

Mods: feel free to move if inappropriate

Dan_Solo

eamonnq wrote: »

No, allow for it in the price and in the unlikely event that you get 'lucky' and don't get charged, consider it a bonus.

Asking about avoiding tax/customs can also get you in trouble on boards.ie

Not to mention the customs lads probably learn all the best tricks here!

eamonnq

http://www.adverts.ie/other-mobiles/new-cheap-4g-64bits-octa-core-5-5/8052990

Ecoo E04 on adverts, brand new, as cheap as buying from China ( I think ) allowing for vat etc.

If someone is in a hurry for one.

ballybro

For anyone that has purchased the Elephone P6000 what websites did ye end up buying from and was phone ok.I am looking to replace an S3 and looking to spend a bit over the €100.And alternatives to the P6000.Without having to read the whole tread.

jeffk

I got mine from Etotalk and love the phone.

Loads of space to put apps on

Overall just fast, press an app it opens, no wait for it
Using it from 830am yesterday morning till 12am and had just under 20% left(I use greenify,leandroid,inteli 3g to help), that was using it properly(texing/facebook/installing apps etc)

Mine came with Lollipop (good and bad as xposed does/doesn’t work which limits some apps)


I got a case off Bangood in two days for less than six euro for it

As people say factor in the vat and DHL charging a tenner for the pleasure into the total price. From what I got for €180 comparing it to someone I know a Huawei Ascend Mate 7, I get more or less same spec for €70 less.

Iseedeadpixels

ballybro wrote: »

For anyone that has purchased the Elephone P6000 what websites did ye end up buying from and was phone ok.I am looking to replace an S3 and looking to spend a bit over the €100.And alternatives to the P6000.Without having to read the whole tread.

Another poster mention hes selling a P3000s would you not go for that and save a bit?

eamonnq

jeffk wrote: »

From what I got for €180 comparing it to someone I know a Huawei Ascend Mate 7, I get more or less same spec for €70 less.

but if his develops a fault, he can probably just bring it back to the store.

jeffk

eamonnq wrote: »

but if his develops a fault, he can probably just bring it back to the store.

IF

Plus im sure Elephone will repair the phone and from what I seen it costs a tenner to send back.

eamonnq

jeffk wrote: »

IF

Plus im sure Elephone will repair the phone and from what I seen it costs a tenner to send back.

Yes, of course they will, but it is still handier to be able to bring it back to a store and that is what some people are willing to pay the extra for.

https://ie.trustpilot.com/review/etotalk.com

jeffk

eamonnq wrote:

Yes, of course they will, but it is still handier to be able to bring it back to a store and that is what some people are willing to pay the extra for.

Wouldn't be surprised if other sites left some reviews.

Order Monday, have phone Friday with everything I ordered.

Plus worse case you bypass them and get the manufacturer to fix it.

Worse worse case, get onto PayPal and open a dispute

cardwizzard

90sBla wrote: »

Z9 mini just arrived. Will mess about with it and post a review soon, need to get my Sim cut down to size first.

My Thl 5000 is on adverts for 140. Perfect condition if anyone is interested. Heading to the states next tuesday , need the cash.

Is this still available?

steirishrover

jeffk wrote: »

Wouldn't be surprised if other sites left some reviews.

Order Monday, have phone Friday with everything I ordered.

Plus worse case you bypass them and get the manufacturer to fix it.

Worse worse case, get onto PayPal and open a dispute

I ordered mine jeff on Sunday night and still got no dispatch mail or anything from geekbuying yet? I went for the dhl option and paid extra $10 for it. How you get yours so quick?

jeffk

steirishrover wrote: »

I ordered mine jeff on Sunday night and still got no dispatch mail or anything from geekbuying yet? I went for the dhl option and paid extra $10 for it. How you get yours so quick?

I bought mine(at a recommendation) from Etotalk, there is two versions of the phone, I bought the one marked ships in 24 hrs

I used DHL as well($15)

Iseedeadpixels

cardwizzard wrote: »

Is this still available?

Im 1st in line :pac:

eamonnq

jeffk wrote: »

Wouldn't be surprised if other sites left some reviews.

Order Monday, have phone Friday with everything I ordered.

Plus worse case you bypass them and get the manufacturer to fix it.

Worse worse case, get onto PayPal and open a dispute

I wouldn't be suprised either, you also have to factor in that only people that have bad experiences post about them on the web, people who have no problems generally don't bother.

I don't think you will be too successful bypassing the Vendor and going straight to the manufacturer, especially if you have sent the phone back to the vendor and are waiting a few months for them to sort it.

Paypal will not do anything if your phone develops a fault, they may do if you actually receive a faulty item in the first place.

In my own opinion, if you run into trouble with a Chinese bought phone, you may as well suck it up and forget about it, that is one of the reasons I have a low threshold that I would not like to go over when buying a phone from China, although my threshold has been rising slightly of late as I think the TCL M2U is a cracking phone ( for the money!).

Hayezer

Anyone have an experience with these "Clean Master" and "Speed Booster" apps and such? My Z9 Mini arrived yesterday and its got a few of them, worth keeping or are they just gimmicks?

jeffk

eamonnq wrote: »

I wouldn't be suprised either, you also have to factor in that only people that have bad experiences post about them on the web, people who have no problems generally don't bother.

I don't think you will be too successful bypassing the Vendor and going straight to the manufacturer, especially if you have sent the phone back to the vendor and are waiting a few months for them to sort it.

Paypal will not do anything if your phone develops a fault, they may do if you actually receive a faulty item in the first place.

In my own opinion, if you run into trouble with a Chinese bought phone, you may as well suck it up and forget about it, that is one of the reasons I have a low threshold that I would not like to go over when buying a phone from China, although my threshold has been rising slightly of late as I think the TCL M2U is a cracking phone ( for the money!).

Very true, remember similar said about eircom when efibre came along, easier to bash and moan than give praise and credit. Which is a shame as I know I found it very hard to pick a phone/site from advice given here (eventually I got somewhere)

That’s very true; suppose id make sure before I sent the phone off and then have some reassurance they won’t have my phone forever. Plus if they did id hound them till its fixed or a new one was sent out.

I would not just give up on €180(minus the postage/import etc), that’s a week’s wages to me. I’d try all options, even if I knew it didn’t work, at least id know and say ok I tried everything and can’t go further.

I got a Huawei G510 last January when they weren’t as popular and I used and abused it (software abuse with new roms/kernels etc) and it’s still going (using as a satnav now).
So I have experience and expect (and hope) my Elephone will at least give me what the Huawei did

I’d love a sticky done up of a voted by here list of the best phones and maybe even sites(probably not going to happen with shilling etc)

jeffk

Hayezer wrote: »

Anyone have an experience with these "Clean Master" and "Speed Booster" apps and such? My Z9 Mini arrived yesterday and its got a few of them, worth keeping or are they just gimmicks?

Rubbish,take them off

I and most use

Greenify(some options paid)
Sd Maid(some options paid) or Ccleaner(all options free)
Amplify(some options paid)


From using Andoird a basic cache cleaner will do most people, so Ccleaner

spix

Hayezer wrote: »

Anyone have an experience with these "Clean Master" and "Speed Booster" apps and such? My Z9 Mini arrived yesterday and its got a few of them, worth keeping or are they just gimmicks?

I disabled them all and the 2 browsers since neither are the original one, Cleanmaster could be useful though. Noticed the original calender app is missing, here's the apk if you want it http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=39963728002135059560

Trying to figure out how to update it to newest rom, specifically asked the seller to leave original rom installed, they said yes but still put their modified one on so makes it more difficult to update. Here's a link to the roms http://www.needrom.com/category/zte/serial-nubia/nubia-z9-mini/ If you manage to update it let me know, have no clue what I'm doing

fixXxer

corwill wrote:

A lot of problems with battery life, screen quality, camera quality and others being reported, on thread for it on this forum and elsewhere. For the money, depending on version, something the 1+1 or the Honor 6 Plus look like better bets, unless Asus do a lot with updates.

Well that's made me sad

Hayezer

spix wrote: »

I disabled them all and the 2 browsers since neither are the original one, Cleanmaster could be useful though. Noticed the original calender app is missing, here's the apk if you want it http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=39963728002135059560

Trying to figure out how to update it to newest rom, specifically asked the seller to leave original rom installed, they said yes but still put their modified one on so makes it more difficult to update. Here's a link to the roms http://www.needrom.com/category/zte/serial-nubia/nubia-z9-mini/ If you manage to update it let me know, have no clue what I'm doing

Haha your asking the wrong person, this is my first Chinese phone and I've no experience with ROMs and rooting and flashing and all that craic! If you eventually find a way to make the phone experience better I'd love to know How are you finding the phone? Taken some cracking photos out the garden

Ardennes1944

Hayezer wrote: »

Anyone have an experience with these "Clean Master" and "Speed Booster" apps and such? My Z9 Mini arrived yesterday and its got a few of them, worth keeping or are they just gimmicks?

Can you do a quick review of it please?

Hayezer

Ardennes1944 wrote: »

Can you do a quick review of it please?

Phone feels really great, solid build and good to hold and not too thick. I was a bit skeptical of even going 5 inch because my last phone was around 4 inches which I thought was perfect but I actually much prefer this. The screen is amazing, so clear and bright.

The phones quick and responsive I haven't really had any slow down with it so far while browsing or playing games, only been playing Hearthstone which was a bit slow the first time I played but was running very smooth earlier. Android 5.0.2 out of the box, 2gb RAM, Snapdragon 615 octacore processor etc (admittedly this doesn't mean much to me but it's getting the job done!) MicroSD card slot and 4G which is very handy. Haven't played around with it enough to have an opinion on battery life but I could see myself getting a day out of it.

16 MP back and 8 MP front cameras are both excellent, I'll try upload a photo or too that I took out the window yesterday. Only problems I'm having so far is that it seems I'm not getting all my notifications or getting them late but I'm sure this can be fixed by playing around with it, and theres a few dodgy Chinese translations but nothing bad at all.

Really happy with it as my first Chinese phone and I'd definitely recommend it for around 250e! I know a few others here got it too so they could probably provide some more technologically informed opinions too!

http://i.imgur.com/7qJ104r.jpg
http://imgur.com/wYq14pZ

90sBla

Hayezer wrote: »

Phone feels really great, solid build and good to hold and not too thick. I was a bit skeptical of even going 5 inch because my last phone was around 4 inches which I thought was perfect but I actually much prefer this. The screen is amazing, so clear and bright.

The phones quick and responsive I haven't really had any slow down with it so far while browsing or playing games, only been playing Hearthstone which was a bit slow the first time I played but was running very smooth earlier. Android 5.0.2 out of the box, 2gb RAM, Snapdragon 615 octacore processor etc (admittedly this doesn't mean much to me but it's getting the job done!) MicroSD card slot and 4G which is very handy. Haven't played around with it enough to have an opinion on battery life but I could see myself getting a day out of it.

16 MP back and 8 MP front cameras are both excellent, I'll try upload a photo or too that I took out the window yesterday. Only problems I'm having so far is that it seems I'm not getting all my notifications or getting them late but I'm sure this can be fixed by playing around with it, and theres a few dodgy Chinese translations but nothing bad at all.

Really happy with it as my first Chinese phone and I'd definitely recommend it for around 250e! I know a few others here got it too so they could probably provide some more technologically informed opinions too!

http://i.imgur.com/7qJ104r.jpg
http://imgur.com/wYq14pZ

review of my Z9 mini too. Received it in 5days from aliexpress, no customs as warehouse was in gatwick. Charged it fully last night so I got to have a full days go at it. Firstly yes for a 5inch chinese phone it feels great in the hand, not too big. beautifully designed too with the red neon glowing home button.( i used to have a z5 mini) Mine came with a free case and 32gb micro sd. Unfortunately another poster somewhere back was saying micro sds from sellers were muck which has never happened me before until now. It just disconnects every few minutes or so. But it works perfectly fine in other devices I have so im not sure what the problem is. So i just put in my 3 year old 16gb and its been fine ever since. Yes there were some rubbish apps that were unremovable but I followed a rooting guide and got titanium backup to remove all the crap I didn't want. I installed buzz launcher and just installed a backup of my theme from another phone so it was setup and ready in a few minutes.

The camera is in my opinion THE BEST you can get for that price and all other specs included. It's just absolutely brilliant. No lag, just tap the screen and it's an instant snap. Getting great photos at night too. There's also some incredible features with the camera as part of the nubia ui such as electronic mode, slow stutter, star tracking, light painting and more. Light painting and electronic are very cool. The front camera is also excellent and very clear. There's some nice after editing effects too, all part of the nubia ui.

I too am having issues here and there with notifications but that is down to me being a new lollipop user. I use an app called AC display for my notifications and lockscreen. it's pretty much bug free. I think i may need to disable all notifications on the normal lockscreen and let AC display take over perhaps. Will fiddle around a bit more with that.

In terms of speed. This little phone is very snappy indeed. I've just come off a thl 5000 which had an excellent custom rom for max speed and it's almost on the same level. I think we may have to wait a little bit longer for some people to start pumping out the really good custom roms for this phone as it's so new.

Battery life. Now again i've come from thl 5000 which as you know has the mammoth 5000mah battery which was literally impossible to kill in a day so any phone with a 2900 battery is going to feel crap to me. I'm quite a heavy user but I don't play games. I had the screen at half brightness today. I only managed to remove all the crapware about 3 hours ago so I think tomorrow the battery life may fair better for me. (see screen shot). I think when the right custom rom comes out for this I will get the battery life I have been looking for.

Sound: my z5s mini, when I recorded clips at gigs or festivals for work the sound was just fuzz. This time there is an extra mic on top i think and the sound is perfect. Also hooking this up to the radio via aux cable in my car vs thl 5000 , the difference in sound is incredible. Blows thl out of the water.

GPS
This was non existant on my thl so praise jesus! It works flawless on this phone.

Bluetooth, working perfectly too.

Screen: Beautiful and very vibrant vs my thl.

Call quality is crystal clear, my wifi is stronger than thl as is the signal from 3 at my house.

Preinstalled browsers like baidu etc were all rubbish. Removed. I've always used cm browser, super speedy, like a few mb big and has an auto night time filter for tired eyes.

That's all i can think of for now, if any other z9 mini users or future buyers have any Qs, hit me up!


http://imgur.com/bix4k3j

http://imgur.com/Ofcf3Ue

http://imgur.com/tEQkaDj

Hayezer

^ What he said !

presuki

ballybro wrote: »

For anyone that has purchased the Elephone P6000 what websites did ye end up buying from and was phone ok.I am looking to replace an S3 and looking to spend a bit over the €100.And alternatives to the P6000.Without having to read the whole tread.

I bought it on Aliexpress from a seller called blackswan, it came to €141 including the customs charge. I put a link somewhere in this tread.

eamonnq

Hayezer wrote: »

16 MP back and 8 MP front cameras are both excellent, I'll try upload a photo or too that I took out the window yesterday.

Just one question regarding the photos, is there any chance you could come around and do my garden for me??