Battle of the cheap Chinese Androids

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329 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1437981 30-Nov-2015 17:52

I guess the Mi 4c is growing on me a little. There have been some firmware updates that improved the task switching and the touch sensitivity, and I've got used to the screen brightness now and it doesn't seem that bad. I finally tried out the dual SIM feature this weekend and it worked really well, you can choose to put outgoing calls and data on either SIM and it still receives calls and texts on both numbers.

So it's not as good as an $850-$1000 phone, but it's a pretty good $350 phone.

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kotuku4

482 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#1441767 7-Dec-2015 09:00

kotuku4:
kotuku4:
jonb: If I was spending a bit more the UMI eMax mini is a new 5.0" 1080p, Snapdragon 615 phone with similar specs to redmi note 2 for ~$140, and compatible with all NZ networks.

I'm interested in the UMI eMax mini also, has anyone used one and give some feedback?

I ordered the UMI eMax mini from aliexpress, so now wait and see.

Goldway store stuffed me around, kept wanting me to extend processing time. The listing showed stock available. When I cancelled the order they refused saying they would ship today, f em I cancelled again, now waiting for refund. I have ordered an Ulefone Be Touch 3 from Gearbest, I hope that they can do better, Ordered Friday afternoon, but still processing...........

mejoblogg5

24 posts

Geek

#1441776 7-Dec-2015 09:20

numfarr: I guess the Mi 4c is growing on me a little. There have been some firmware updates that improved the task switching and the touch sensitivity, and I've got used to the screen brightness now and it doesn't seem that bad. I finally tried out the dual SIM feature this weekend and it worked really well, you can choose to put outgoing calls and data on either SIM and it still receives calls and texts on both numbers.

So it's not as good as an $850-$1000 phone, but it's a pretty good $350 phone.

Firmware updates?? Got a link?

I've been pretty stoked with my Mi4c. Never had an issue with screen brightness. I often just use manual brightness on any phone anyway

Only major complaint is push notifications not working properly on WiFi. WhatsApp messages only come through when screen is on and WhatsApp is open. Also WhatsApp web only connects when screen on and WhatsApp open. I think it's a bug in MIUI from what I've been reading in forums. If I switch to 3g/4g then it's fine

540trickzter

160 posts

Master Geek

#1441873 7-Dec-2015 10:55

kotuku4:
kotuku4:
kotuku4:
jonb: If I was spending a bit more the UMI eMax mini is a new 5.0" 1080p, Snapdragon 615 phone with similar specs to redmi note 2 for ~$140, and compatible with all NZ networks.

I'm interested in the UMI eMax mini also, has anyone used one and give some feedback?

I ordered the UMI eMax mini from aliexpress, so now wait and see.

Goldway store stuffed me around, kept wanting me to extend processing time. The listing showed stock available. When I cancelled the order they refused saying they would ship today, f em I cancelled again, now waiting for refund. I have ordered an Ulefone Be Touch 3 from Gearbest, I hope that they can do better, Ordered Friday afternoon, but still processing...........

The last 2 orders I did with GearBest, they stuffed me around. I bought 4 items back in June took a month for them to send it out, I even paid extra for Expedited shipping. They told me one of the items I ordered were out of stock, even though the listing still said "in stock" and was never adjusted to "out of stock".

And I just bought a Teclast X16 Pro Tablet on 26th November. It's still "Processing". Again, I paid extra for Expedited shipping which is suppose to be 6-7 days delivery. Was hoping to get this Tablet in time for Xmas. I sent a message to them 2 days ago, no reply yet...

mejoblogg5

24 posts

Geek

#1442348 7-Dec-2015 21:21

The last 2 orders I did with GearBest, they stuffed me around. I bought 4 items back in June took a month for them to send it out, I even paid extra for Expedited shipping. They told me one of the items I ordered were out of stock, even though the listing still said "in stock" and was never adjusted to "out of stock".

And I just bought a Teclast X16 Pro Tablet on 26th November. It's still "Processing". Again, I paid extra for Expedited shipping which is suppose to be 6-7 days delivery. Was hoping to get this Tablet in time for Xmas. I sent a message to them 2 days ago, no reply yet...

I think perhaps if you check you'll find the Teclast x16 tablet is on presale?

I noticed that with one of my orders. Took forever, then I saw one of my items was "presale" and presale didn't end for like... a month after my purchase.

When I went to the product page for the item it said "ships within 4-8 days", but then the presale message said "presale ends 10th dec".

I think perhaps they just show a standard message "ships within 4-8 days" which could be... unintentionally misleading?

If you find out when the presale ends, it's probably 4-8 days after that date

kotuku4

482 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#1443315 9-Dec-2015 08:50

My work mate tells me I should have used TO2c.com to order a phone.

I paid for expedited shipping, and it was to ship in 3-5 days, I will ask when it will be shipped, if not a satisfactory answer or no answer then request Paypal refund?

Waiting on Aliexpress refund, can take 3-15 days which is rude because they have already had my money for a month, no more orders for them!

I have given up being messed around by online stores. Shop with care.

kotuku4

482 posts

Ultimate Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#1447147 10-Dec-2015 14:08

kotuku4: My work mate tells me I should have used TO2c.com to order a phone.

I paid for expedited shipping, and it was to ship in 3-5 days, I will ask when it will be shipped, if not a satisfactory answer or no answer then request Paypal refund?

Waiting on Aliexpress refund, can take 3-15 days which is rude because they have already had my money for a month, no more orders for them!

I have given up being messed around by online stores. Shop with care.

The Ulefone Be Touch 3 has shiped from Gearbest in the 3-5 day window, as has a card that I ordered, so I'm happy with that. With expedited shipping, hopefully will arrive next week:)

540trickzter

160 posts

Master Geek

#1448270 10-Dec-2015 16:28

I just placed an order for the Redmi Note 3 from Everbuying. I've never used them before so we'll see how they go...

And my Teclast X16 Pro Tablet finally shipped out yesterday from GearBest...

NZtimbo

165 posts

Master Geek

#1448397 10-Dec-2015 21:32

Just got a MI4C Prime to replace my Nexus 4, must say for the price very impressed so far, 3 hours screen on time with capacity left. ROM is a little buggy but planning to flash sMIUI after the anomaly this weekend.

Tim

jonathan18

7413 posts

Uber Geek

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Trusted

#1451427 16-Dec-2015 11:27

So my wife's Redmi Note 2 arrived the other day, and thus far I'm impressed, given the low cost. But I've struck an issue in trying to update it, and haven't managed to find easy-to-follow instructions on how to do this - I hoped someone here could help me out.

Phone is the TDD model from Goldway; it came from them running MIUI 7 from xiaomi.eu, version 5.9.24 beta.

So I sourced the latest version from this site, ie 5.12.1; I followed the instructions linked to from that page, namely downloaded the ROM; copied it across to a folder in the phone's internal memory called "downloaded_rom"; then tried to install it using the Updater app.

Doing this resulted in the following message: "update.zip signature verification failed".

Can someone please advise me where I'm going wrong, and if I should be using a different method to update this phone?

I know the version it's running isn't that old, but I'd like to know how to easily update the phone before giving it to my wife.

Thanks in advance!

rmt38

320 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#1451432 16-Dec-2015 11:32

Beats me, never updated mine, it's all so opaque.

NZtimbo

165 posts

Master Geek

#1451829 16-Dec-2015 19:01

@jonathan18

Had a similar issue when getting rid of the Chinese ROM, do some research for your device first but basically the steps I took were;

- Use flashify to install TWRP recovery

- download sMIUI to root and rename update.zip

- boot into recovery

- Backup existing rom

- wiped system, data, cache and dalvic

- installed rom

- reboot

- working better than when i got it...

Tim

kotuku4

482 posts

Ultimate Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#1452232 17-Dec-2015 11:56

kotuku4:
kotuku4: My work mate tells me I should have used TO2c.com to order a phone.

I paid for expedited shipping, and it was to ship in 3-5 days, I will ask when it will be shipped, if not a satisfactory answer or no answer then request Paypal refund?

Waiting on Aliexpress refund, can take 3-15 days which is rude because they have already had my money for a month, no more orders for them!

I have given up being messed around by online stores. Shop with care.

The Ulefone Be Touch 3 has shiped from Gearbest in the 3-5 day window, as has a card that I ordered, so I'm happy with that. With expedited shipping, hopefully will arrive next week:)

Great news the Ulefone Be Touch 3 arrived yestersday. Very happy with the phone, a BIG upgrade from my old Huawei, the cheap AU/NZ adaptor that came fro the charger is rubbish though. There are two launchers for Android 5.1. As I bought it on special US$149 it is good value for money in my opinion.

Not so good, still waiting on Aliexpress refund, they processed it but not shown up as yet, piss poor!

jonb

1769 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1452256 17-Dec-2015 12:52

Elephone Trunk arrived a couple of weeks ago, took 2 weeks from order on AliExpress (Smart Touch Life store) for US$85.

Very nice quality white case and screen bezel, 720p. Battery is ok, can do a day with normal usage but only 2100mAh.

Already had three OTA updates, arrived with 5.1.1 so minor updates. A few quibbles, I have no idea how to access the recent apps screen, the left menu button brings up a homescreen settings window. Tried Nova launcher and it was same (it comes with 'trebuchet' launcher). Browser screens (Firefox, chrome) are occasionally blank and need to restart the apps.

Has a Snapdragon 410, the same as the latest Moto G 3rd gen, and a lot of the other specs are equal to it.

Overall is a great phone so far for NZ$130.

numfarr

329 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1453386 19-Dec-2015 09:39

mejoblogg5:
numfarr: I guess the Mi 4c is growing on me a little. There have been some firmware updates that improved the task switching and the touch sensitivity, and I've got used to the screen brightness now and it doesn't seem that bad. I finally tried out the dual SIM feature this weekend and it worked really well, you can choose to put outgoing calls and data on either SIM and it still receives calls and texts on both numbers.

So it's not as good as an $850-$1000 phone, but it's a pretty good $350 phone.

Firmware updates?? Got a link?

After the initial install of smiui the "System updates" button from Settings, About phone works for me. It's downloading the standard MIUI build rather than the smiui build I think, but that seems to be relatively OK.

The alternative is to download the latest smiui from smiui.net and "dirty flash" it, i.e. don't wipe data when you install it. Or you can wipe data but you will need to setup the phone again and reset all the things like usernames and passwords that the Google backup doesn't restore.

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