Chinese Android Phones 2 - Read First Post!

Iseedeadpixels

Lads got quoted 30 euro from I.T spot in Tallaght to replace my Umi Super screen (I bought the parts and waved responsibility) Ill keep you updated

Suckit

I thought Tomtop had stopped shipping via NL after a lot of their items went missing and they had to replace many of them.

They had a big banner on their blog a few months back stating something like "Please bare with us, there may be delays on some items while we fix our new shipping methods" and linked to the problems.

They must have sorted it all out. As it was, the new shipping methods were much faster

T-Bird

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

cranefly wrote: »

hope you are right, mine shipped from the netherlands also with gearbest, still got caught for vat and handling charge.

You should appeal that as still in Europe. There is no way you should get charged.

Edit: wondering if they are pulling a fast one and getting a load of NL courier stickers, taking them back to China and posting them from there?

Suckit

T-Bird wrote: »

You should appeal that as still in Europe. There is no way you should get charged.

I think he meant via - not from.

Donal55

T-Bird wrote: »

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

You should appeal that as still in Europe. There is no way you should get charged.

That's what I cannot ubderstand. Why would anyone be liable for duties etc when purchasing from anither EU country?

Suckit

Donal55 wrote: »

That's what I cannot ubderstand. Why would anyone be liable for duties etc when purchasing from anither EU country?

did he purchase it from EU?
Or from China via NL?

T-Bird

Suckit wrote: »

Donal55 wrote: »

That's what I cannot ubderstand. Why would anyone be liable for duties etc when purchasing from anither EU country?

did he purchase it from EU?
Or from China via NL?

Actually that makes more sense. A lot of their whe European sites also show product from hk or chi. They say shipping from... One could easily be caught out I think.

smilerf

Lads I need to get a USB adaptor so my USB cable will work on my xioami mi max 2.

Are they all the same or are some better than others

wiz569

smilerf wrote: »

Lads I need to get a USB adaptor so my USB cable will work on my xioami mi max 2.

Are they all the same or are some better than others

Think they're all the same m8, I got 5 from China and they all work fine,

I presume you're talking about the usb-c adaptors.

smilerf

wiz569 wrote: »

Think they're all the same m8, I got 5 from China and they all work fine,

I presume you're talking about the usb-c adaptors.

yeah thanks for that

CiDeRmAn

Some of those adaptors can be ropey.
I had one that worked for a time before deciding to try and burn a hole in my car upholstery.

wiz569

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Some of those adaptors can be ropey.
I had one that worked for a time before deciding to try and burn a hole in my car upholstery.

Your supposed to charge your phone with them not your seat

CiDeRmAn

wiz569 wrote: »

Your supposed to charge your phone with them not your seat

So that's where I've been going wrong!

But cheap usb c adaptors are hazardous at times.
Just be careful what you plug them into.

mikeybrennan

I've switched to wsken magnetic leads for micro usb devices

Is magnetic available for usb-c or is there too much currently draw

cranefly

T-Bird wrote: »

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

You should appeal that as still in Europe. There is no way you should get charged.

Edit: wondering if they are pulling a fast one and getting a load of NL courier stickers, taking them back to China and posting them from there?

With gearbest and banggood unless it says the item is from their eu store, they mainly ship from china via netherlands post, as i suppose most of their items will enter europe that way, then it is up to the destination country to charge vat or not, usually if the item is worth 22 euro or less, an post does not pass it on to customs, as revenue dont charge vat for those items, but phones they know they cost a fair bit more, so i suppose they automatically send them to customs, i have had small items delivered without vat, phone cases, razor blades, and even a replacement android box that was worth 60 euro, that came without having to pay vat, whether they missed it or not i do not know, or they knew it was a replacement product, as i paid vat for the defective one.

CiDeRmAn

Well, I'll find out in a week or so.
I'm ready to get the bill, so if I don't it's a bonus.

Either way, I'm quite positive about the phone.

That said, I've had reason to have to return two phones out of the last 6 I've owned and that's going to be more difficult with this handset, should something be at fault.

cranefly

The maze alpha is a really nice phone, you get two tempered screen protectors as well, i was hoping the second one was for the back of the phone, as that is made of glass as well, but they are both for the front, the fast charger is not that fast, i find it takes as long as phones with out a quick charge facility, i got a leather case delivered this morning from aliexpress, not the kind of case i wanted, but having a case is a must for this phone, one drop and the back can crack, one or two on facebooks users page had this happen, luckily aliexpress do sell a alpha glass back replacement for 17 euro, if the worst should happen, the leather case i got has the magic sticker that glues the back of the phone in, i have to admit it seems to work fairly well, and the case seems good quality, so i will keep it in the case until maze get some decent cases with gel type moulding that the phone fits into, like most other mobile companys seem to have for their phones.

Suckit

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Some of those adaptors can be ropey.
I had one that worked for a time before deciding to try and burn a hole in my car upholstery.

These adaptors can be trusted -
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=103788496&postcount=151

mikeybrennan

Do the new xiaomis come with a recovery for backing up and restoring the phone?

or do i have to go the twrp route?

corkie

mikeybrennan wrote: »

Do the new xiaomis come with a recovery for backing up and restoring the phone?

or do i have to go the twrp route?

You more than likely will need to unlock bootloader and use TWRP!


Although there is a recovery partition on the device, you would need Mi PC Suite to make use of it. But that has not been update to work with newer roms (Pre Marshmallow where the last to work with it.)

MIUI has built in app for backing up system settings, account info and apps!

mikeybrennan

corkie wrote: »

You more than likely will need to unlock bootloader and use TWRP!


Although there is a recovery partition on the device, you would need Mi PC Suite to make use of it. But that has not been update to work with newer roms (Pre Marshmallow where the last to work with it.)

MIUI has built in app for backing up system settings, account info and apps!

Thanks
I've a new redmi note 4x

Will I need to apply to xiaomi to get the bootloader unlocked or is it done manually

corkie

mikeybrennan wrote: »

Thanks
I've a new redmi note 4x

Will I need to apply to xiaomi to get the bootloader unlocked or is it done manually

You need to apply, instructions here: - https://www.reddit.com/r/Xiaomi/wiki/advanced/bootloader

Q&A

mikeybrennan wrote: »

Thanks
I've a new redmi note 4x

Will I need to apply to xiaomi to get the bootloader unlocked or is it done manually

You're going to have to go down the application route. If my recent experience is anything to go by you'll have to use a VPN to get approved by Xiaomi to unlock the bootloader.

I followed the steps and got the the verification code via text message. However, I kept getting an error message when I tried to enter it. The erorr message was in Chinese, it said something about number of IP request exceeded. After looking around I found this post which basically suggested you needed to use a Chinese VPN.

Once I did it through the VPN authorisation was almost instantaneous (no text but running the app I had the option to unlock the bootloader). I did get stuck but that was because the phone wasnt registered with the account for 72 hours.... So now I wait.

Hope it helps

wiz569

Suckit wrote: »

These adaptors can be trusted -
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=103788496&postcount=151

That's just links to stores m8, anyway I got 5 from wish and they are fine,I would be more worried about dodgy cables tbh

Suckit

wiz569 wrote: »

That's just links to stores m8, anyway I got 5 from wish and they are fine,I would be more worried about dodgy cables tbh

Yeah sorry, i meant the adaptors and cables in those stores. (Those make of cables and adaptors etc.).

Guy:Incognito

How are people finding ulefone phones in the sub 200 bracket? My experience isn't great.i got a ulefone armour for use on the sites. It's been about 3 months since I used it but as far as I remember is was a bit glitch and prone to slowness. I picked up a power 2 about 3 weeks ago and due to breaking her phone the missus is using it. It's very prone to freezing when using things like Facebook .it'll regularly stop responding and she wants rid. I'm wondering is this a trait of their devices or am I being unlucky. The annoying , or more to the point annoying to find a replacement for , charging cable for the armour has soured me a bit too. There's no issue getting long tipped micro usb cables , but the plastic on them is too big and they catch the side of the armour shell so won't go fully in. Is the slowness just down to mediatek cpus maybe?

In contrast , for similar money I'm using a redmi note 4x (3gb model) and it's been excellent. I'd have happily paid much more for it. So much so I've ordered her the 4gb model.

I came across the armour 2 and like the look of it but I'm reluctant to give them another go.

CiDeRmAn

Quick question to those who import phones from China on a regular basis, my device is tracking via UPS as Order Processed Waiting for UPS.
I wonder, does that suggest the phone is coming from HK to the Netherlands where it'll continue its journey via UPS?

Suckit

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Quick question to those who import phones from China on a regular basis, my device is tracking via UPS as Order Processed Waiting for UPS.
I wonder, does that suggest the phone is coming from HK to the Netherlands where it'll continue its journey via UPS?

So your tracking is not active yet?
It often means that UPS will take the parcel when it gets to NL and tracking will begin.
Sometimes tracking can begin from HK and then disappear. Many use different methods and it can be extremely different from one to the next (even within the same company.)
Similar to Amazon fulfilled (or not fulfilled), some sellers will be responsible for the shipping themselves. They might try to avoid customs (not to be helpful, but because they can charge a higher price if successful and they will also avoid a ton of abuse from people that were not expecting VAT charges on top of the original price.).

So.... i am guessing that the phone will begin its tracking from NL once it reaches there.
You could try tracking it using any of these, and sometimes, rarely they may give the tracking info that UPS have before it arrives in NL.

https://en.trackitonline.ru/
https://www.17track.net/en
https://www.aftership.com/courier/oneworldexpress (better than their site)
https://www.packagetrackr.com/

smilerf

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

How are people finding ulefone phones in the sub 200 bracket? My experience isn't great.i got a ulefone armour for use on the sites. It's been about 3 months since I used it but as far as I remember is was a bit glitch and prone to slowness. I picked up a power 2 about 3 weeks ago and due to breaking her phone the missus is using it. It's very prone to freezing when using things like Facebook .it'll regularly stop responding and she wants rid. I'm wondering is this a trait of their devices or am I being unlucky. The annoying , or more to the point annoying to find a replacement for , charging cable for the armour has soured me a bit too. There's no issue getting long tipped micro usb cables , but the plastic on them is too big and they catch the side of the armour shell so won't go fully in. Is the slowness just down to mediatek cpus maybe?

In contrast , for similar money I'm using a redmi note 4x (3gb model) and it's been excellent. I'd have happily paid much more for it. So much so I've ordered her the 4gb model.

I came across the armour 2 and like the look of it but I'm reluctant to give them another go.

I wouldn't go near them again I had awful trouble with my power

Doctor Nick

Had an update over the weekend. Xiaomi pushed out Nougat on the redmi note 4x. Wasn't aware they were going to do that so sweet. I believe it's just the 4X for now, the 4 will be staying on Marshmallow.