Chinese Android Phones 2 - Read First Post!

Missymoohaa wrote: »

I nearly dread to say it GBX, but I bought it from Gearbest, they were having a promo with €20 or something off.

If you took the expedited shipping option (DHL) be prepared for VAT and DHL handling charges of around €40

I haven't posted here in a while. I got an Umi Rome in Jan 2016 and it worked well for a budget phone and I held on to it for a few months until June 2016 when my GF broke her phone and I gave the Rome to her and got myself an Umi Super for €216 from Coolicool in Spain. The Umi Rome survived a further year and worked fine until my GF dropped it.

I was impressed with the Super and the service I had from Coolicool so I ordered an Umi E Plus from Spain for her. Unfortunately, after only a couple of months the battery started to overheat and bulge. Coolicool Spain and Umi didn't help at all. There was no customer service whatsoever. Even though it was bought from Spain, Coolicool insisted that it be returned to China. Instead, I ordered a replacement battery on aliexpress (Coolicool said they couldn't send one). When I fitted it the phone worked connected to a computer, data was retrieved and the phone could be flashed etc. BUT the screen stayed black no matter what I did. As a stopgap, she's currently using an older Jiayu G4 which is still working perfectly.

The battery life of my Umi Super is beginning to reduce from charge to charge. The experience with the Umi Plus put me off Umi - a pity as I was looking at the S2. So instead I ordered a Maze Alpha from Gearbest (EU) before Christmas. After a fortnight, it still hadn't shipped and I cancelled the order. The refund was quick.

The Maze Alpha X was available after Christmas and I ordered it from Gearbest China. It was still slow to ship but I held on and it arrived last week with Belgian Post and no customs :-) So far I'm pleased with it. It's almost the same size as the Umi Super but a bigger screen. Battery life is excellent and I'm getting two days. It did an OTA when I switched it on. The screen is excellent and the phone came with a tempered glass protetor. GPS quick.

The only quibble I have, to date, is that the glass back is really slippy. Place it on a sofa and it'll slide away. So far there are very limited options for a case.

DANNY2014 wrote: »

Purchased redmi note 4 global version 4gb 64gb off geekbuying Friday europe warehouse delivered today... Just wondering about the ce mark on the box... It just basically says CE whereas any reviews videos has a number after the ce (e.g ce1315)... Should this be of concern???

No.

CE just means that the manufacturer is declaring it passes any applicable standards. There is no registration required or available for the CE mark so there is no corresponding CE number or id. Whatever number you saw starting with ce has no relevance to the CE mark. As it's 'self-certifying' with no independent testing, the CE mark is actually pretty meaningless.

I've had one of these phones a few months and have bought for others. Great phone!

Scotty # wrote: »

Anyone thinking of buying a Xiaomi phone, I highly recommend www.honorbuy.com. I've bought 4 or 5 from them at this stage and I have to say, they're after sales service is excellent.

I bought a phone from them for a work colleague's daughter before Christmas after she wrecked her previous phone and it wasn't long until she wrecked her Redmi Note 4 either. I sent it back to them last week with the screen smashed to pieces. I've asked several times for the repair cost to which they replied "we'll let you know". Got the following this morning...

We are glad to tell you that your phone now is repaired well.
The technician help you replace the touch screen for free (although the bottom of the phone had ever touch water, it did not influence the vice-board)
We want to return it to you,
But you need to pay freight to us,it need 20 usd.
This is our paypal account:wonderfone@gmail.com
If we receive your payment, EU warehouse will send it to you via DHL asap.
Best regards!

They are more expensive to buy it from in the first place though and replacement screens cost under 20usd. Its nice of them not to charge the fee to change it but its only a few minutes work. And did the shipping really cost them 20usd? :P

Scotty # wrote: »

The shipping is DHL express. It'll be dispatched this afternoon from Italy and in my hand before lunch tomorrow.

They are a few euro more expensive granted but you have your phone in a day or two as opposed to a week or two from others. That, coupled with the after sales service, is worth it for me.

Ignoring the much cheaper stores on aliexpress that offer eu tax free shipping (first china->uk then uk->you) approx 5-8 days, they are still more expensive than other stores which have a dedicated EU warehouse such as ibuygou

ibuygou mi6 in eu warehouse = $399 + $18 shipping, 2 year warranty with warranty repairs also carried out in europe
honorbuy mi6 in eu warehouse = $410 + $34 shipping, 1 year warranty


ibuygou mia1 = $223 + $18
honorbuy mia1 = $240 + $34



Now if they had that kind of service with more competitive pricing then I'd be impressed but when they're already making more money on the phone... meh. Funny how it cost $34 shipping to buy the phone but only $20 to return it to you after repair.

Have gizchina stopped selling? Had to order a Xiaomi for a friend and couldnt find them, used honorbuy in the end I think.

Redmi 4x finally officially updated to Android 7.1.2 and MIUI Global 9.2
New version seems OK but can anyone suggest how to make apps larger on screen, they have shrunk from Android 6.
TIA

howdoyouknow wrote: »

Pinch the screen so the the screen edit mode comes on. Press settings and choose your preferred grid size

Thanks, get as far as settings but no option for grid size variation?

howdoyouknow wrote: »

Home screen layout

Nope, sorry, only option here is "Lock Home Screen Layout" and that is toggled off.

Dec4 wrote: »

Redmi 4x finally officially updated to Android 7.1.2 and MIUI Global 9.2
New version seems OK but can anyone suggest how to make apps larger on screen, they have shrunk from Android 6.
TIA

I use ADW launcher which has an option to change icon sizes but strangely this option doesn't work with miui.

pickarooney wrote: »

I had the P3000S for two years, if that's of any use. Excellent phone for the money with one drawback - the cheap plastic back. I had to replace the battery a couple of times too.

I had a G6 for a while myself but it was 1gb/8gb so pretty useless for daily stuff. I'll keep an eye on the U Pro and see where it lands in user reviews.

I thought others might find this interesting too..

Suckit wrote:

I thought others might find this interesting too..

The parts bit is very interesting

Hello folks,

I bought Zuk Z2 in about January last year based on the recommendations from this forum, and I must say that until very recently I was very happy with it.

But in the last couple of weeks the battery has begun to drain really fast. And it switches itself off once the battery gets to about 35%.

Any guesses as to what my be causing this? I tried looking in the ROM controls (Dirty Unicorn) to see if there were any apps that were causing it, but there didn't appear to be.

Thanks,
El. T