**** The Official Chinese Phones Thread ****

Soldato
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Hi all,

I'm getting pretty fed up with my Xperia T... support from Sony stopped ages ago, the current Lollipop builds on XDA run pretty poorly for me and are infrequently updated and I never seem to have enough app space despite moving everything I can to SD card. On the plus side I drop it almost daily and it's never cracked - build quality is amazing from that point of view.

I'm looking at replacing it and feel a bit miffed to have missed out on the super cheap Elephone P7000 pre-sale. Is there anything else out there in the £100-150 bracket worth looking at?

Also not sure where's best to buy from really - the best prices inevitably seem to come with the risk of import taxes.

Not fussed about camera quality, just want a nice snappy smooth experience and decent build quality. Good XDA developer support would be a bonus (or at least coming with lollipop). I'm on Three.
 
Soldato
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Moto G? It gives a pretty good Nexus like experience and there are plenty of developers for it.

As for Chinese branded phones, they're usually fine if you stick with the right brands, but if you're looking for XDA support, that may be a tad tricky as the SoC manufacturer usually doesn't supply any source code to make development easier on them. From what I've seen, Qualcomm based phones tend to have the longest XDA development.

Haven't really checked Chinese phones recently but perhaps hunt around for the Xiaomi Mi3?
 
Soldato
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Cheers chaps. My gf has a Moto G which seems perfectly fine, but the P7000 just seems like ridiculous value for money... actually it looks like I misunderstood the Elephone pre-sale thingy. Have registered for a code in the hope of snagging one for £108 in the next few weeks but who knows what availability will be like.

Failing that, any thoughts on the Lenovo K3 Note?
 
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Associate
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Xiaomi Mi4i should hopefully be available soonish, that would probably be my choice at the moment. The standard Mi4 isn't bad either, although probably slightly out of budget.

Then there is, Lenovo K3 Note, ZTE Blade S6, Jiayu S3, Meizu Note.

There are a few phones incoming, Bluboo X550 & the LeTV phones come to mind.

Just take a look through: http://www.gizchina.com/
 
Soldato
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Yeah the Bluboo X550 (love these names :p) doesn't look bad with that massive battery, but seems to have lesser screen res and processor than most of the competition. Mi4 out of budget. Jaiyu S3 looks like a possibility now it's getting Lollipop. Think I like the P7000 and K3 Note best still.
 
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Associate
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The P7000 looks stunning!

I have had a Leagoo Lead 1 for around 10 months and it has been a great phone for £55. I only bought it as I needed a cheap dual sim phone with a largish screen for work but it has performed well. Think I will have to start thinking about a new phone soon as I need more than 1GB ram and a longer lasting battery.
 
Associate
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thl t6 pro (my dad has one and its fluid and you cant complain for £80), asus zenfone 2(ebay &import are your only choice, they dont sell it here), lenovo k80 - not out yet- acer liquid x2- not out yet

they are all affordable phones and withing the range

ps: just had a look at p7000 and looks awesome!
 
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Soldato
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Well, I got bored of deliberating and ordered a K3 Note (in lemony lemon colour) from GearBest for £116 including shipping insurance. I'll probably still try and get a P7000 as well to compare if I get a sale code. Now the long wait for el cheapo shipping via the Netherlands...
 
Soldato
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I looked into cheapy chinese brands previously and found the ulefone be X at ~£65 to be super spec for the money. Reviews seems to indicate it is okay although not sure about support/lollipop for it though.



:eek: That Elephone p7000 looks amazing. Makes my PC look like a 486 PC.
 
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Associate
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Well, I got bored of deliberating and ordered a K3 Note (in lemony lemon colour) from GearBest for £116 including shipping insurance. I'll probably still try and get a P7000 as well to compare if I get a sale code. Now the long wait for el cheapo shipping via the Netherlands...

Didn't you consider the Mi4i ? Or is it needed urgently?
 
Soldato
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Didn't you consider the Mi4i ? Or is it needed urgently?

Well I didn't want to wait around too much longer seeing as delivery is going to take weeks anyway, and it wasn't immediately obvious when the Mi4i would be available. Plus it's about 30% more expensive than the K3 Note with very similar performance.
 
Soldato
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where did you order?

You can go here - http://www.elephone.hk/ and register for a reservation sale code (you also need to pick which etailer you want to reserve stock with). However, reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis (I think) and 150k+ people have already registered. Then on May 11th, 13th, 20th and 23rd Elephone will send out an unknown number of codes which will allow you to order at the sale price of $159.99 from your chosen etailer. Alternatively, you can just order at the normal price of $229.99 from elephone or from whatever etailer you like. If you order from elephone and subsequently get a sale code then they'll refund you the difference, but you might stand a better chance of avoiding import charges (shush!) if you order from GearBest/coolicool/wherever.

Or something...
 
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