The first thing you need to get straight, is MP has nothing to do with quality. Just because Hongmi has smaller MP, means nothing in regards to picture quality.
Second, is don't worry about internal storage too much. You can put a 32GB and probably 64GB SD card.
There's no hidden reasoning. I just let you know I'd probably choose Xiaomi if I was in Europe because it's got a great name and the price is great as well. Not because it's a better phone, but simply because the good name and good price is interesting to me.
Either one is a good choice IMO. Cheers and good luck with the decision. I hope which ever you choose makes you happy.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth
Ok hi guys, This may be a bit late but I thought I'd be able to add some more to this and help Aletheus with his choice if I'm not too late. I personally would prefer the Xiaomi hongmi over the Inew V3 purely because of xiaomi's reputation. Inew hasn't reached the heights of xiaomi yet but they are fairly new so it is understandable.
Ironically I ordered the Inew V3 from 1949deal.com, lol. The reasoning for this is that I am an avid photographer, I have been scouring the net looking for a phone that's below £300 ($490) equipped with an amazing camera, I've come across the Xiaomi MI3, ZTE Nubia Z5S both come with a 13mp rear camera and an F2.2 aperture, then I came across the Inew V3 with its 13mp camera interpolated to 18mp and an aperture of F2.0. It's camera is better than MI3 and Nubia Z5S so I thought I might aswell buy it, its much cheaper aswell. I didn't worry too much about the processor etc. due to its price, I mean its quite obvious you wont get a snapdragon or tegra for around £120 ($185) nonetheless it does come with MTK6582 quad core processor and a Mali400 MP2 so I don't have much to complain about really. I forgot to mention the Oppo N1, the camera is amazing but for the price which it sells at I would atleast expect it to have a snapdragon 800 processor but as we know they went for a snapdragon 600 which was a deal breaker for me. Huawei honor C3 comes with a F2.0 8mp camera, all similar specs as the Inew V3 but without NFC & OTG.
Now, why I didn't choose the Xiaomi hongmi is due to mainly 4 reasons:
1. Camera is 8mp with an aperture of F2.2
2. After a friend bought it he let me play around with it and I have to say I wasn't impressed with the build quality. It felt flimsy and felt as though it would easily break. This was further proved when my friend accidentally dropped it and the phone switched off, may I add that he dropped it on carpet, if he had dropped it on concrete or wood it would have undoubtedly broke.
3. MTK6589T. Low antutu scores. Lol, everybody likes big numbers!
4. No NFC.
Well those are my reasons for not choosing the xiaomi hongmi over the Inew V3. I don't have the Inew V3 in my possession so I can't make any comment about build quality but I hope its better than hongmis.
Gizbeat care to shed some light on the build quality?
The GPU is better on hongmi, battery is bigger on hongmi, processor is faster but it doesn't mean its better.
Processor on Inew V3 gets higher antutu scores, 5inch (I like big screen phones), OTG & NFC, Camera is better, ultra sensitive screen.
I have much more to write but I'm tired now lol. I hope this is enough to help you make your mind up. Hope this helps other people in the same situation.
2014-01-09, 06:24 (This post was last modified: 2014-01-09, 06:27 by Aletheus.)
No, you are not late at all, I appreciate the time you took to respond in such a detailed way. Thank you!
I understand when you say Xiaomi is a better brand name and that is 90% of the reason I am still considering it. But as you said, the build felt flimsy and it turned off when faced with an impact...that doesn't sound like the work of a quality brand to me, is it okay that I think like this?
I am as well interested in a good camera, but I have no understanding of apertures. Can you explain the F2.0 and F2.2?
My main problem with the cameras on all of the older phones I had was that they elongate the face of whoever I take a picture of. Does that have something to do with the lens width? The faces just feel elongated. For instance this is the situation with my Galaxy S i9000 I am using at the moment (cyanogenmod10).
Thank you for your extensive post, I will look around some more and give further feedback.
The reason I am prolonging this decision is not just because of me, but my girlfriend and a close friend of mine seek to buy a new China phone and they are also dealing with a fund of $200. Naturally this search will benefit us all with our coming purchases.
Edit: You say you wrote your reply in a hurry, but please, if you get the time, be as detailed as you can, it is no problem. I will probably wait a few more days to see other reviews, but my decision is still 50-50.
Hi, I can help with a few of the questions (I am a photographer by trade and also have a v3)
Aperture is the size of the lens opening and controls the amount of light that hits the sensor. the lower the number the more light that is let in (f2 should work better in lower light than f2.2) the thing with aperture is that it lowers the depth of field (depth of field is the zone of sharpest focus in front of, behind, and around the subject we are photographing) as an example if you take a portrait with an f2 aperture the scene behind the face will be more unfocused/blurred (bokeh effect).
In practice the camera on the V3 produces noisy images especially in lower light conditions and the colour renditions are a little washed out when compared to my galaxy S4.
It is a nice phone and feels well made and light without feeling cheap, it also feels fast in use and does not have noticeable lag.
I hope that there will be a software update soon that fixes the camera as I believe that a Sony 13mp camera should produce much cleaner sharper and more useable images.
The battery lasts me a day with average use (wi-fi on most of the day) and is definitely comparable to my S4.
The screen with gloved touch is really great as its been really cold and I have been wearing gloves and still able to operate the phone (s4 requires gloves off and frozen hands lol)
I will be keeping the V3 for a while as I like it and if they do improve it further with upgrades like kitkat or get the required sources out so that the people much more skilled than I am can cook up some good roms it could be a classic.
Wow thanks a lot, shanos! I'm loving these long posts you guys keep dishing, it's definitely helping with the decision. A friend of mine suggested the ZTE GEEK V975 and although it seems like an exceptionally good offer at $200 my party's still leaning towards the V3.
I'll probably make a new thread about the V975 when I find some time in a few days. Until then, all experiences are welcome!
I was downloading minion rush (for my kids honest lol) and noticed something strange that I hope another user can check on their phone.
I was holding the phone in landscape orientation (power button facing down) whilst downloading holding the phone in my left hand with my four fingers extending to about midway across the back of the phone.
The speeds were really good (downloading on HSPDA not HSDPA+ or wifi), I then put my right hand on the phone to support from both ends and the speed dropped a fair bit, removing right hand the speed went back up.
I then tried moving my left hand fingers away from the centre of the phones rear, holding it at the left edge and again the signal dropped down.
It appears that my hands were acting as an aerial of sorts when they were in the centre rear, that or I was inadvertently applying a small amount of pressure to the nfc contacts, I am unsure if the phone uses the NFC coil as an additional aerial anyway and my NFC works without having had to extend the connector pins).
As I said before if anyone can check and let me know that would be great.
shanos, could you do me a favor with your V3, please?
I need you to take a few photos in specific conditions, and if you have a real camera, could you take the photos with it as well, for comparison purposes.
So, I need you to take a picture inside a household, one with the light on, and one without the light on/low light. I want to see how the phone's flash manages in those situations.
I'm gonna go browse XDAdevs and try to find if anyone's had the issues you've mentioned.
2014-01-16, 23:48 (This post was last modified: 2014-01-17, 00:15 by shanos.)
(2014-01-16, 22:47)shanos Wrote: Will do this afternoon when it starts getting darker and will pm you a Dropbox link.
just attached v3 with no flash
just attached v3 with flash
just attached 6d flash test
just attached 6d no flash test
hopefully you can see what I meant about the v3 the flash leaves a cold colour cast on the images and renders the colours quite far from true.
the low light flash off comparisons are a bit less useful as the eos 6d is well known for its low light handling.
v3 flash image taken at f2.2 1/14th sec iso 667
v3 no flash image taken at f2.2 1/10th sec iso 1238
Eos 6d flash test image taken at F4 1/60th sec iso 1600
Eos 6d no flash test image taken at F4.5 1/4 sec iso 3200
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