[Update] What’s Missing From Your China Phone?

[Sniper47]

I'm not sure what phone you all are buy with broken ROM and bad WiFi, unresponsive screen and strange screen ratio. The phones I've owned have all been nearly perfect ROM wise. Strong GPS. Wifi fine. Everything great. Why change ROM if everything okay? Many popular China phone have MIUI, Lewa and stock. What else you want? Cyanogenmod is okay. Its not so special.

99% of people arent worried about changing ROM every 10 days. They just want something that works and is stable. Every China phone Ive owned has given that.

Yes, if buy some crap clone, you will likely end up with troubles.

[aboriginalz]

Not sure what model you have. The screen response and general response I've had from China are responsive as any Samsung or iPhone.

Screen ratio has been perfect on any website I've viewed, even with China model from several year back.

Wifi varies..but mostly has been as strong or stronger than expensive Samsung.

Photo quality fine. Depend on what compare it to. Maybe not equal to top Samsung and iPhone pic.

Are you buying cheap clones?

OK I'm new here so I didn't know what I'm allowed to post.

I am buying from one of the most respectable sites (I have been a client for photographic goods and they are impeccable - plus warranties)

The truth is I am comparing to my iPhone 4s.... haven't tried any other established brands (e.g. Samsung)

I create websites so I know for a fact that the screen resolution is distorted, but that concern the specific model - a miscalculation perhaps trying to increase screen size)

By screen response I must admit that I compare it with the iPhone - but we are seriously talking about a great price difference, so it is not really about wether the phone is made in China...

Truth be told, I carry (&use) both phones with me, but the iPhone (since I work on Macs) is an extension of my arm.... (fully integrated)

My wish really is to stop using iOS (I feel it's an entirely closed system unlike Mac OS) and use Google's Android OS for all of my needs....

Wi-Fi signal must vary on each model... but since the device I bought (from trusted manufacturer was priced at $100+ I was expecting better connectivity - had ,many issues in coffee shops where I could connect with the iPhone but not with my Android (could be that router was in the basement or not configured correctly)

Anyways my "complaints" still stand (PM me if you wish) but since I use google services and apps on my iPhone (I do NOT use Apple's stock apps), I think I will use my Android phone (actually going for a new quad-core) and sell my outdated iPhone 4s...

[Sniper47]

Well man. You bought a $100 phone. Really you can't expect much. Next time purchase in the $200 range and popular model.

I've owned many China and never had any the issues you talking about. They've been nearly flawless. But then I've never bought a $100 phone either.

Pixels distorted...not sure what you meaning. Sometimes browser will squash images to fit in frame. That what you mean?
Do you have a screenshot?

[aboriginalz]

Well man. You bought a $100 phone. Really you can't expect much. Next time purchase in the $200 range and popular model.

I've owned many China and never had any the issues you talking about. They've been nearly flawless. But then I've never bought a $100 phone either.

Pixels distorted...not sure what you meaning. Sometimes browser will squash images to fit in frame. That what you mean?

Yup browser will stretch actually (point being I could write some code and make it adjust on specific mobile resolutions - my 5" has a very uncommon resolution)

Am actually about to order a $200+ phone (need a quad + 1MB RAM at least) and believe that most (or all) issues will be OK...

I have to say though that for $100 I am extremely satisfied (just mentioned what was missing for that kind of expense... am absolutely sure that going for $200+ everything will be fine tuned)

[aboriginalz]

After a bit of searching I have to correct some issues I mentioned:

> Phone actually cost 100 euros (approx. $140) - it is not a cheap clone

> I had installed a launcher which was the reason for slow response (I rooted it so after everything was deleted, phone is actually pretty fast)
* did not install other ROM - have 512MBs RAM and am happy with stock ROM phone came with

> With stock browser website images are NOT distorted - (with other browsers - e.g. Chrome,Opera,Firefox - distortion happens with websites that use full-screen background images and only in portrait mode).

> Also cross-checked wi-fi signal strength and photo/video quality against other Android phones (provided by phone carrier in my country - for about the same price) and I must say I am more than satisfied

It's a new field for me so please excuse my posting before doing proper research....

[Sniper47]

Good you figure some things out. But $140 is quite cheap. Nothing against it.

If it work okay for you, that all that matters. If you step into $175 range, can get significantly better option though. 1gb RAM really minimum that could be recommended for average user. 512 is useable, but 1gb give a nice boost.

[nqs]

I only read partway down page 1, so these may have been mentioned.

1) working gps. it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes the first time to setup GPS, and not over 5 seconds after that.

2) Kernel source code. Android is linux. the kernel is a linux kernel. it's released under the GPL, Version 2 (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html). not releasing the source code may (not a lawyer) be a violation of certain laws and / or trade agreements.

3) a true AOSP rom stock. Should include phone, play store and manufactures update client. nothing else. let the customer decide what they want to install.

4) either pre-rooted or a easy way for the customer to root. possibly like how HTC does it, customer must agree they are responsible for damages, then HTC will send unlock code, from there root is "easy"

5) stock CWM or TWRP. dunno if that would be possible without #4

6) Conservative Governor These things are already batter hogs, every little bit helps.

7)Wireless charging

8) bigger battery

9) 4g

10) digitizer. Wacom or similar

11) "touchless" touch screen. I've only seen this in concept. basically, it's an upside down combination of resistive and capacitative touch screens. a resistive measures pressure, capacitive resistance. these screens, instead of wires under the screen (like capacitive) used lasers over the screen. your finger then "bends" or "breaks" the laser, and the XY coordinates are calculated to do assigned task

That's just my list off the top of my head. to me, #2 is most important. give me the Source, and I can do so much with my phone.

[vampirefo]

I don't know yet, my guess my China phone will be a Big improvement over my Samsung Galaxy S2 which is junk, and my wifes HTC EVO 4G, we are switching to Straight Talk, We have had sprint for the last 5 years, their service and phones have been horrible.

Basically we drive a mile from our house to use are cell phones, we moved in this house about 15 months ago and Sprint service is non existent here. The Samsung phone takes 30 minutes or more to find a GPS, HTC can find GPS quickly, that's all it can do quickly.

So I have little doubt the Cheap China phones and Straight Talk service will improve our cell phone experiences greatly. Hopefully we can get our phones tomorrow, they are now in our town, Just need USPS to deliver them, then we need to buy Straight Talk kit with sim card and activate the phones.

My understanding Straight Talk will pull from ATT towers which are much better than Sprints in our city, so services will be better, from videos and reading reviews the phones will be much better as well.

[vampirefo]

Been using phones all day, phones are great, GPS is great phones are fast straight talk is wonderful.

[GizBeat]

Congratulations man. Nothing better than receiving electronics that live up to expectations ... Well.. Okay, maybe there are some things.

Looking forward to a review of the phones.