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

[mortals]

I have a redmi note pro 3 and im really happy with it.
I certainly will be looking at them for my next phone.

I was also looking at that model as I want a snapdragon.

Are you using the stock miui rom?

I also noticed when looking last night that there is now a redmi note 4x with a snapdragon 625, altho it seems pretty expensive at the moment as I think it only just came out

 

[Whoop]

I really liked my Redmi Note 3 Pro and I'm not convinced the digitizer failure wasn't down to water damage but the warranty said it was fine and issued me a credit...

Which got me an Oukitel K6000 Pro and a bunch of chinese junk as I'd already replaced the Redmi with an Elephone P9000 as an emergency UK purchase while the Redmi was away.

I don't rate the Elephone, wouldn't buy one again... for a lot of reasons which I'll list if it interests people.

The Oukitel is an interesting beast though, heavy (6000mah battery), but a lovely screen, fast fingerprint recognition, great sound from the internal speaker AND the headphones (which the Elephone was awful at).

I feel a bit lost without a notification LED! But overall I'm very happy for £120 delivered.

 

[Mobius 1]

I wouldn't touch an elephone with a barge pole. (Even if I was phoneless and offered one for free)

Interesting to hear why you rate it so badly though !

 

[Whoop]

I wouldn't touch an elephone with a barge pole. (Even if I was phoneless and offered one for free)

Interesting to hear why you rate it so badly though !

Hmmm... Well

• The power button is in the wrong place on the middle right, the same place my thumb rests.
• There is a button on the middle left at the same height (disabled by default) so you could easily hold the phone upside down in the dark and not understand why the power button didn't do anything.
• A single navigation button was interesting for Android, tap once for back and twice for home... I got used to it but I'm not sure it's a good plan.
• The notification light is at the bottom of the screen so most of the time I had the phone upside down so I could see it.
• The internal speaker is terrible and if you turn on the audio boost it distorts even more.
• Using headphones with this phone was the worst audio I have heard from a phone.
• The camera takes forever to focus due to the 'laser focusing' and isn't great anyway (it also has a terrible selfie mode!).
• Although a personal dislike, I don't want USB-C yet as nobody has a charger for it.
• The organisation of photos in the gallery was weird and not in the order I took them.
• The software was OK once you realised the automatic task cleanup they added was shutting Messages/WhatsApp/Messenger. Which took some Google searches to find out why after an update I wasn't getting any messages until I opened the apps.

I'm sure there are more points but I felt the overall experience was lacking and it wasn't that cheap for the 4Gb ram version. I wouldn't rule them out in the future but I wouldn't get that model again.

 

[Mobius 1]

That's a lot of negatives against a phone with not many positives I don't think I'd risk getting a phone again from a lesser known brand.

Got burnt by a cheap Chinese branded phone before. (Not literally) but it was rubbish. Screen was fantastic though. I guess. I think it was just shy of 100 quid for 4gb ram etc.

 

[FTM]

I went for a huawei P9 and have to say I am very impressed

it looks and feels nice, and I am very pleased with the results you can get from the camera..cheap deals with the p10 due

it seems a very capable handset

 

[maj]

Not sure if this is a MIUI or specifically Mi5 but I can't seem to rotate photos unless I use an app from Google store. Same for anyone else?

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

Just checked on my mi5 (usually have rotate off), and the default gallery app rotates as I turn the phone.
MIUI 8.1.2.0

Hadn't been keeping on top of updates so put it on 8.1.4.0, rotation still behaves the same way in non-Google apps.
On a side note, the phone seems quicker... Placebo affect?

 

[panyan]

I'm still loving my Mi Max, but sometimes wish it had an AMOLED screen.

Having said that, the new Samsung S8+ looks almost perfect, apart from that fact that my max budget for phones is £250...

 

[james.miller]

Although a personal dislike, I don't want USB-C yet as nobody has a charger for it.

it should be backward compatible, no? Or are you talking specifically about mediatek pump express chargers? i share your pain if thats the case, but it hasnt stopped my charging my phone on any usb 2 chargers.

 

[tres]

I've had the Xiaomi Mi Max for a week now. I absolutely love it.
When it arrived and I compared it next to the SU6, I thought it might be too big, despite loving big phones. But now, going back to the SU6 feels like going to a kids toy.
The Mi Max build quality is great. The fingerprint reader, my first on a phone, is brilliant. Probably gets it right 95% of the time.
MIUI is very, very smooth and swift. The only downside was the lack of app drawer, but Nova Launcher fixed that. The little MUIU 'bits' which just make the android experience so much better.
Battery is astounding. 50% left after a long day of using it.

 

[maj]

Just checked on my mi5 (usually have rotate off), and the default gallery app rotates as I turn the phone.
MIUI 8.1.2.0

Hadn't been keeping on top of updates so put it on 8.1.4.0, rotation still behaves the same way in non-Google apps.
On a side note, the phone seems quicker... Placebo affect?

Even when I rotate phone itself the photo is facing the wrong wrong. I took photo in portrait mode but it is landscape no matter which way I have phone.

 

[zijin_cheng]

Hey guys what's hanging, been a long time since I posted here, wanted to share my Redmi Note 4X review with you here, not a great upgrade if you already have a RN3P, but a good phone nonetheless

 

[maj]

So, can you please recommend me a good phone for about 250 pounds? I have been watching some smartphone comparison websites, and I have a couple of options but have not decided yet. Maybe you guys can help me...

Need more info. Screen size? Features? Removable portable storage? Huawei Honor 6X is around that sort of price i think.

 

[-Ad-]

So, can you please recommend me a good phone for about 250 pounds? I have been watching some smartphone comparison websites, and I have a couple of options but have not decided yet. Maybe you guys can help me...

Lenovo ZUK Z2 is pretty impressive so far. Essentially a One Plus 3T with the SD820 cpu like the One Plus 3. It cost £125ish, OP3 was £300 before being discontinued, now the OP3T is £400+.

Needs some tweaking and the supplier ROM replaced with the Indian Official ROM, but it flies and seems to be very configurable. As with most android phones, it needs some time spent on it tweaking, but I couldn't be happier and would never go back to these other overpriced handsets.

 

[Casterina]

I'm looking for a 5.5" phone with Snapdragon chip, 32GB internal storage, microSD slot, good camera and battery life which the Xiaomi Note 4 seems to fit in nicely with my budget around £150-200 but is there any other phones with similar spec within my budget?

Also, what's the difference between Xiaomi Note 4 and 4X as they both have the same specs and Snapdragon 625 chip?

 

[mortals]

I am looking at maybe ordering the Xiaomi Note 4X International as it has 4G B20 & is only ~£135

I was looking at the Lenovo ZUK Z2 but have seen pictures of brand new ones having cracks on the side casing & there doesn't seem to be as big a community / ROMs around for it in comparison to Xiaomi (also don't think it has gorilla glass?)

 

[King4aDay]

Just preordered the black Redmi Note 4 International for my brother. Expected dispatch 24th from Spain, hope it gets here before the end of the month which is when he needs it. Came to £185, not quite as good value as the gold version from China or the grey 4X for sale on eBay at the moment but he's a bit fussy about colour, wants band 20 and needs it soonish. Real shame the 4X doesn't have B20.

 

[Lither]

I'm looking for a 5.5" phone with Snapdragon chip, 32GB internal storage, microSD slot, good camera and battery life which the Xiaomi Note 4 seems to fit in nicely with my budget around £150-200 but is there any other phones with similar spec within my budget?

Also, what's the difference between Xiaomi Note 4 and 4X as they both have the same specs and Snapdragon 625 chip?

I'm also interested in the difference between the Note 4 and 4X.

Just preordered the black Redmi Note 4 International for my brother. Expected dispatch 24th from Spain, hope it gets here before the end of the month which is when he needs it. Came to £185, not quite as good value as the gold version from China or the grey 4X for sale on eBay at the moment but he's a bit fussy about colour, wants band 20 and needs it soonish. Real shame the 4X doesn't have B20.

Where did you buy it?

 

[King4aDay]

I'm also interested in the difference between the Note 4 and 4X.


Where did you buy it?

Honorbuy.

As I understand it, the Note 4X has a somewhat more energy efficient snapdragon 625 cpu rather than the mediatek cpu found in most versions of the Note 4. The exception to this is the Note 4 International Version, which has the snapdragon cpu and the advantage of Band 20, which neither of the others have. Other than that, barring some very minor differences to the cases I think they're essentially the same.