Made in China - Kutzki's Buying Guide To Chinese-Made Phones

[kutzki]

DEDICATION:

So, as some of you may have heard, one of our oracles recently passed away. @Martin was an amazing member, always contributing and helpful from the first day I joined this community. I had the great pleasure of being able to call him a friend, and me and him used to have PM conversations quite late into the night. He has always been respectful and helpful without the use of anything extra.

Moving forward, I have been debating on making a China Phone Buying guide for a while, and I wasn't sure where to post it, but I figured this community has done so much for me, it's the least I can do for it. Martin, this one's for you buddy!

INTRO

I've tried to post this twice now in the phone's and hardware section. @Kalla_A said she'd look into the issue. Hopefully this would work.

When I tell people I buy my phones from China, usually the first reaction is "Wait, what?" For some reason, the idea of buying things directly from China seems to cause some discomfort among people for two main reasons. The first reason is, people will sometimes assume that buying from China = poor quality workmanship. Only time you get poor quality workmanship is if you're not willing to spend the money to get a better product, for a few extra bucks. The second reason is because you don't always know what you're going to get. The second reason, in my opinion, is much more valid than the first because I buy pretty much the majority of my things from China, and honestly, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's absolute crapola. When buying from China you need to be mindful of WHAT you are buying and WHERE you are buying from.

THE MAIN WEBSITES TO BUY CHINESE PHONES:

There are three main websites that will sell Chinese phones/tech/clothes/etc. (Well there's WAY MORE, but these are my favourite):

1. GearBest
2. AliExpress
3. Ebay
4. CooliCool 

GearBest is a wonderful website that only sells OEM phones directly from the manufacturer and works with manufacturers directly. I believe 99% of the phones they sell are licensed to be sold through them. They sell great phones at a fairly affordable price.

AliExpress is a great website (Shipping takes a ridiculous amount of time) that offers the largest variety of products for the lowest prices on the internet. The issue with AliExpress is one that I mentioned above. You never really know what you're getting. ALWAYS make sure to check the sellers rating, feedback on all of it's products (Good support is nice, and good communication from a seller means they care enough to be helpful even after the order is shipped). To be honest, I will usually purchase my phones from GearBest for the few extra dollars, and purchase all the accessories for it on AliExpress or Ebay 

HOW TO KNOW WHICH PHONE YOU WANT?

When people think of China they think badly made items, but we all know almost EVERYTHING is made in China. I have purchased 4 of my phones from China. First phone was a OnePlus One (Same guys who made the OnePlus 3 which will probably be phone of the year), second phone I bought was a UMI Iron which ended up breaking 3 months after I bought it (Charging port stopped working) and I had to send it in to be repaired. They sent me back a faulty upgraded device (UMI Iron Pro) and I had to ship it back again but they have repaired it now and are shipping it back to me with a brand new case. I will not be keeping it, so if ANYBODY WANTS TO BUY IT. I'm happy to sell you what will end up being a brand new phone, with 2 cases, and 2 tempered glass screen protectors. I'm happy to root it for you as well. (I know this isn't a marketplace but my Kijiji ad hasn't gotten a single response) XD

The phone to pick depends on what you want to do with it. If you just want a phone to answer texts, maybe use a few apps, or to listen to music, etc. You can shave off quite a few bucks by going for a 720P Screen, but the specs will usually end up being a bit worse. Here's where I bring in my third device, which I couldn't be happier with. I have a phone called the LeTV 1s. It's a great phone, that's quite a powerhouse and has awesome specs and the latest technology. USB Type C, Fingerprint Technology, etc. Only issue it has is the camera quality isn't great (Even though it's 13 MP) and it doesn't have expandable storage. (MicroSD slot). The company (LeECO) is involved in everything. They just released the Le 2 that's quite an upgrade on the old one. Camera is way upgraded (Front and back), and the fingerprint scanner location has been moved. Core has been upgraded to a Helio X20 and it's all for $25 more than the original Le 1S cost at $275. 

Moving onto other brands, there are many brands in China, some better than others, but the main name brands are, Xiaomi, LeTV/LeEco, and UMI. If I miss any feel free to post them or PM me them, and I'll add them. Anyways, most of those brands are pretty good, but Xiaomi usually ends up being more expensive than the other ones as it seems to be the biggest name brand in China, and is also expanding quite a bit into North America. LeEco is just starting to do that whereas Xiaomi has been doing that for the past year or two. You need to find the phone that best fits your needs

ACCESSORIES

My suggestion to you is, when buying accessories, don't purchase the china phone you want, until you purchase a case with it. Wait about a week before ordering the phone. Cases can sometimes take longer to arrive than the device and it's annoying to walk around with a device that isn't protected.

THE SOFTWARE

So bascally, the issue a lot of people have with China phones, is that the software is usually a custom made OS by the company, doesn't always have a great English translation, or it's buggy, or filled with a ton of Chinese apps, etc. China phones are usually quite easy, and worth it, to repair.

My recommendation, if you're buying a China phone is to wipe the phone and find a custom rom (Usually come pre-rooted) onto the phone that will have a good English translation. They're usually made by random people or by the company and they come pre-rooted, but my favourite website to use for this is Needrom as it will usually have both official and custom roms. If ANYBODY needs any help with that stuff, you can usually find help on the forum, or XDA Forums, etc. 

GOOD LUCK!

Welp. Thanks for reading my guide. Wasn't super concise, or organized, or even decently written as it's completely opinionated, but hopefully this helped someone out. If you have any questions, suggestions, or fixes, please post them here or PM me (Better) and I'll try to get to them as soon as I can. I hope this helped someone. 😛

[kutzki]

@JackLord first off, welcome. Thank you for the reminder. I must change the thread. Use GearBest. I've recently gone through some of the most annoying issues dealing with GeekBuying customer service. Use GearBest, CooliCool isn't too bad of an option. I will edit the thread now.

[JackLord]

Hi everybody,

I looked on GeekBuying and I found out that the phones they sell work with only one frequency on 4G of PM. So, my question is : is it safe to buy from China knowing this and are there phones on that website who work on every frequency of PM ?

Jack

[srlawren]

@IronRaptor I'm loving my OnePlus 3, also!  http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Phones-Hardware/OnePlus-3-on-Public-Mobile-Do-not-hesi...

[IronRaptor]

As someone who recently bought a OnePlus 3 I can honestly say it FEELS like I bought a $900 phone. but only paid $600 for it (taxes included)

I must make a note though, BE WARY of their customer service.  Their hardware is great, customer service not so much.  I've been waiting for them to refund my money from a DoA device, and may have to open a Paypal dispute (thank goodness I bought using Paypal)  That aside, this phone is great.  Slippery fast.  But also, very slippery in the hands because it's thin and has a generic unibody aluminum design that ALMOST mistakes it for an HTC phone. If you're going to get this phone, get a case, either their own cases, or the ones I'd get are the Orzly gel cases, which are nice and show off the sleek shine of the phone's back.

[kutzki]

If there was a slow clap emoji, I'd give it to you. That phone is a work of art. DEFINITELY something I'd HIGHLY recommend, but to be honest if you're going to spend that kind of money, you might as well go for the latest and greatest, AKA, OnePlus 3 🙂

[FreeLanceR0315]

Awesome post, Totally agree on "Only time you get poor quality workmanship is if you're not willing to spend the money to get a better product, for a few extra bucks. " My next phone is probably gonna be a Huawei Nexus 6P, I've heard good things about it.

[kutzki]

@srlawren I agree. Convenience usually makes it worth it paying the extra hundred or two hundred bucks and those phones are usually amazing, but me personally, I'm a broke student, so I need to find the cheapest possible way to get a well made phone. Buying directly from China is that way. Lol

[srlawren]

@kutzki well, I think for most people, it's just easier to pick up something more mainstream that they know is going to work, easy to acquire (e.g. ZenFones at Staples, Moto G's at Telus/Koodo, etc).  But there is definitely a market for folks looking for other options like these.  It's a good discussion for sure.  

[Korth]

Many electronics - laptops, tablets, phones, etc - which are intended for Asian consumer markets will default to Chinese/Korean/Japanese/etc and offer no support for English/French/etc.

Not an issue if you happen to be literate in your phone's Asian language.  Not much of an issue with real computers because robust operating systems can usually be configured to support multiple languages.

But it can be an issue with "dumbphones" and lower-end smartphones which have an embedded operating system and limited capacities.  There's just not enough room for everything so the manufacturers strip out nonessentials (things like English language support) to make room for other things.  I can barely navigate through menus and find the language settings if they're written in (to me) entirely unrecognizable Chinese ideograms, and I've rarely found online translation tools very useful for this purpose.

So I'd advise carefully researching the phone you want to purchase, if there are multiple models and variants then be certain the vendor specifies one which supports a language you prefer.

Phones intended for European markets will always support English and French and Spanish because they are official EU languages.  Phones intended for North American markets will always support English and French and Spanish (and generally comply with EU standards anyhow to simplify development and distribution cycles).  Yes, these are the same phones made in the same factories as their Chinese counterparts, but they often pack region-specific variations in their firmware.

[kutzki]

No worries. Always happy to help the community out @srlawren this post is getting a surprisingly small amount of attention. 😞

[srlawren]

Thanks @kutzki!  I have to admit, I only skimmed and didn't read in full detail, since I just bought a new phone (OnePlus 3, which you called out 🙂 ).  I just wanted to mention that unless those sites you linked already filter down to models (or variations of models) that are compatible with North American carriers, you really need to be careful to select a phone that will work with the PM (Telus) network.

Always remember that Telus (unlike Rogers and some carriers internationally) does NOT operate a 2G GSM network, so don't even bother looking at those specs on the phone.  For 3G, you need to pick a phone compatible with the 850/1900 MHz frequencies.  A phone with 3G in those frequencies will get you talk, texting, and depending on the phone's HSPA support, some medium-to-not-bad 3G data (HSPA/HSPA+).  

In addition to the 3G requirments above, you can optionally look for 4G LTE support.  The main band you want to look for is band 4, also known as AWS, and it operates on the 1700+2100MHz frequencies.  If you've got this, you should be able to find LTE across the country, at least in areas of major cities.  In BC, Telus also uses Band 5 for additional capacity, so this is a helpful band.

Telus also operated LTE Advanced (a newer faster version of 4G LTE) in some areas of the country on bands 2, 7, 12, 17, and 29, but all of these are only used in some areas and are still being rolled out, so these are not required bands for your phone to get LTE/LTE Advanced, but they are helpful to have.

I usually use gsmarena.com as my main source of specs to check for compatibiltiy.  I google phone manufacturer, model, and gsmarena.  For example:  "OnePlus 3 gsmarena" or "Samsung S7 Edge gsmarena" and usually the spec list is one of the first hits in the results.  Some phones have many variants/sub-models for various markets around the world, and they tend to support different frequencies and bands.  To make sure you find out the exact model number from the site you want to purchase, and check that model on gsmarena.

If in doubt, post here in the forums (preferable in the Phone/Hardware area) and one of us can help you assess.

Happy buying!  🙂

[Jeremy_M]

Great share @kutzki thanks for the detailed info!

[danette77]

@kutzki Thanks for the buying tips. I have always bought Canadian phones but have wondered about buying phones from China too ... And it's so very sad to hear about Martin, may he rest in peace.