Chinese Android Phones 2 - Read First Post!

satguy wrote: »

I paid €9.74 to DHL already, they seem to have a very high detection rate as regards the customs, and if they are adding on €12 per package, it seems the more they report to customs, the more they earn.

I have used just the normal post in the past, most get through just fine, once I had a phone nabbed by customs, I was able to pay the dues online, and An Post only added a charge €6 ,,

Can you pay AnPost online? As far as I am aware you can only pay (in cash) to the postman when he delivers the package.

I would imagine that most parcels that come via DHL would be above the 22euro ?? threshold also, as it would hardly be worthwhile paying for DHL delivery on anything of a lower value. So I would expect that almost every parcel they handle would be likely to be subject to a charge, which may not be the case with AnPost as a lot of the items would be low-value with free carriage from the sellers.

Finally got my Jiayu S3 from geekbuying, took them an age to ship it but once they did it got here very quick. Have to say though it was packaged really badly. I ordered an extra battery & charger, tempered glass screen and a silicon cover. The cover wasn't in any packaging and was just stuck to the phones box with tiny bit of bubble wrap and cellotape, as a result the cover is damaged and doesnt sit on the phone properly, the whole package was just in a DHL bag and not boxed at all! Will need to order a new cover as the rear cover of the phone is very smooth and phone is really slippy and easy to drop!!

Phone itself so far after playing with it for the last hour seems very good, came with Google Play store pre installed.

First time having a chinese phone and have never rooted a phone or anything like that before. Is it worth doing and is it easy enough to do? Is there a way to check for malware/bloathware and remove it if there is?

A friend mentioned not using a chinese phone for doing online banking, is that something I should be concerned with?

Sorry for all the questions!!

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Xiaomi have an app for testing. I think. Might be antutu either, google for the apk

Yeah I downloaded the app and unfortunately you're right- its a fake. I verified it twice to be certain. I bought it from a Chinese ebay seller with almost 10,000 positive feedbacks with 99% satisfaction so I've emailed him now with the test results to see what they say. In any case I'd suspected it might be fake earlier today, when I got it I charged to full and barely touched it in the last 48 hours yet when checked today the battery was at 12%. Then when charging again it took almost 5 hours to get to 96% which again seemed very slow.

I wanna return the phone, anyone know what my rights are in terms of posting it back? Are they obliged to pay, especially given the phone was fake and I didn't get what was ordered? Paid via Paypal if that makes a difference.

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I've a Xiaomi Mi3 for example, can be used perfectly with no custom ROMs, massive community behind it, 5" 1080p screen and a powerful snapdragon processor. Antutu score is about 35000. €250 for a 64gb new

I've a TCL M2U for example, can be used perfectly with no custom Roms, NO COMMUNITY behind it, 5.5 in screen, dual sim, 4G, and a powerful MTK processor and a microSD slot. Antutu score is about 39000. :P

MarkY91 wrote: »

So you guys wouldnt buy a samsung again?

If an S5 was going for 250-300 then yes, I got the S4 and was so disappointed.

Anyone with a Jiayu S3 not picking up 4G and any idea why it might not be connecting to 4G? Settings on the phone are all enabled for it to be able to pick up 4G..

_Tyrrell_ wrote: »

Having trouble rooting my Ecoo E04, Tring kingoroot and a few others and they all say root succeeded and I reboot the phone etc, but rootchecker and the terminal both say it still isn't rooted. Any idea on what to do?

Are they apps on the phone or PC apps?

_Tyrrell_ wrote: »

Tried both, kingoroot on the pc, kingroot on the phone

Best check out XDA

Muahahaha wrote: »

I searched Mi Recovery on the phone and it came back with a Baidu search pae only. Its not there as any kind of app on the home screens either. I also took a look at this
http://en.miui.com/thread-35092-1-1.html
and from those comparison pictures I'm pretty sure its miui 5 I'm on. In the 'About Phone' menu the version comes back as JHECNBF30.0 which doesnt seem to mean a whole lot but the pics on the link above convince me its miui 5

Regards the battery, I'm even more frustrated with it today. I charged it for a good 5 hours yesterday, it went up to 97 and after an hours light web browsing (no vids or music) it was down to 80. This morning I used it for the same again for about 2hrs and its now down to 8% which is pretty woeful imo I think it'll have to go back regardless of what line the retailer might try to spin. I'm gonna charge it up again now but I'm not that optimistic tbh

Sounds fake to me, sorry you got stung like that.

Phibsboro wrote: »

Just as a follow up to my search for a cheap Chinese phone to tide me over until new phone announcements later in the year - as I mentioned in old thread I wanted an ECOO E04 but couldn't get it in blue (!) so I order an MLAIS M52, just to try an even cheaper phone. In the end I didn't like the overall feel of it and ended up doing an impulse buy of the ECOO E04 when it popped up on adverts in blue (from the lad who posted here a few times since, nice guy, he let me open the phone packaging and confirm it started up etc before money changed hands). Delighted with the E04, the better screen and extra 1 GB of ram seems to make a difference for my fairly heavy usage.

As an aside, that means there is a virtually brand new MLAIS M52 for sale! Search adverts for MLAIS or M52 to see it. I'm throwing in a tempered glass screen protector, unopened as it arrived after I got the ECOO. I've just today put the very latest stock lollipop update on the phone and it feels great - maybe I should have waited for that

There's a lad selling his for 60 quid cheaper than yours on adverts as well

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

Its fecked has a invalid IMEI.

Ah right.

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

Tell him not me

Woops..