Fake MX69 Pro?!

[vuter]

Hi, everyone,

I received my mlais mx69 pro from merimobiles this afternoon. I ordered it back on 2/13. They shipped it out on 2/20 via UPS (even though I ordered DHL shipping).

I'll skip the details and get to the big news first . This phone does NOT support the 1900 Mhz 3G band. I'm shocked since I thought this phone was a clone of the H9008 minus NFC. I tested the bands two ways. First I installed the uncle mobile mtk tools app. In that app I selected bandmode -> sim1 and looked at the frequency. 3G 1900 wasn't available. For 3G it supports 800, 850 and 2000. The second way I tested was to put in my Tmobile sim card. When I did this, 3G wasn't available; only Edge (2G) was. Obviously this is disappointing.

The second negative is the battery. As others have said... the battery drains very quickly.

The third negative is the phone doesn't seem that fast to me. I'm comparing this to my nexus 4. I haven't done any benchmarks so this is just a subjective gut feeling.

Still, I like the phone. The battery and minor slowness aren't big issues for me. If the phone supported the 3G 1900 band, I would definitely keep it Well, I'm not sure how easily I can return this to merimobiles so there's a chance I have to keep it anyway....we'll see.

On the positive side, the screen is gorgeous and the build quality is very good.
One funny thing is when I booted the phone up the first time, I noticed it didn't have a keyboard. I went into settings -> Language and input and really saw there was no keyboard available. I had to sideload one via an apk file.

[lookylooky]

That's really odd considering Mlais are the ones advertising their phones are doing those frequencies and the H9008 according to most sites only does 850/2100. I only even tested it because my H9008 came with a sticker in the box saying it was a quad band WCDMA phone. When I go into Mobile Uncle under SIM 1 I have 850/900/1900/2100 3G all preselected with check marks.
Is it possible that you are not in a 1900 T-Mobile zone since they have been doing a lot of restructuring?

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[vuter]

Hi, lookylooky,

I thought I replied to you but I think I typed the response without actually hitting the post button.

I'm absolutely sure I live in an area where t-mobile has refarmed the 1900 MHz frequency for its down 3G network. I live in the San Francisco bay area. On my t-mobile family plan we have an iphone which was originally bought from an AT&T store. It works on t-mobiles 1900 Mhz frequency and we get good speeds on it.

Practically every website I've seen lists the 3G frequencies for the mx60 Pro as being 800/850/1900/2100. On my phone though, I see the 3G frequencies as being
800/850/2000. I've attached a photo of the uncle mobile mtk tools app running on my phone.

Regarding the battery drain... my son and I watched some olympic highlights last night on the new phone. Again, the screen is gorgeous. We turned down the brightness and volume. Still, in about 40 minutes of watching videos, the battery
went down 10%. Then I turned off wifi and we went to sleep. When we woke up about 8 hours later the phone's battery had only gone down 2%. So the batter does pretty well when wifi is off, but it drains super quickly with wifi turned on.
Obviously I can't tell how the battery works with 3G usage.

[lookylooky]

Wow. Is there no ends to the confusion with these phones? Are you going to keep the phone or return it? I would hope they would offer a refund due to the wrong info being advertised.

---

I got my hands on a Samsung Note 3 gel case today. It doesn't fit. The H9008 is too big for it. Oh well, it was worth a try.

[GizBeat]

This is very odd. Judging by the attached screenshot, your phone is 850/2100. You can try to update to latest firmware, there may be baseband changes that affect the allowed frequencies on the phone, but it's a shot in the dark.

Can you attach a scatter from your phone for me? I want to take a look whether this is truly Mlais MX69 Pro.

Also, AT&T is currently mostly 850, and many iPhones have 1700/2100, so there's still a question as to whether or not you're truly in a 1900 area. The iPhone could have been working on 850 with AT&T and 1700/2100 on T-Mobile. Unless you're 100% certain your iPhone doesn't have 1700. I'm not saying you're not in a 1900 area. I'm just pointing out the possibilities. As the phone isn't allowing 1900 to be selected, it's a moot point.

[squallmx]

Now I'am very afraid , I ordered the T model when the price was the same than the non T model on merimobiles.com, with my luck they are going to send me the one that does not have 1900 Mhz 3G support.

the waiting time is going to be long (literally, I selected Singapore Post)... Hoping that the guys at meri are better than the ones at antElife and fulfill my order properly.

[vuter]

Wow. Is there no ends to the confusion with these phones? Are you going to keep the phone or return it? I would hope they would offer a refund due to the wrong info being advertised.

---

I got my hands on a Samsung Note 3 gel case today. It doesn't fit. The H9008 is too big for it. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Hi, lookylook,

I emailed merimobiles and was referred to their tech support. I'll work with them and we'll see if this can be fixed. I'm hopeful since there are some pecularities about my phone...enough to make me think this might be a software issue.

If the problem can't be fixed I would think merimobiles would let me return it. On their website they say they have a 30 day money back warranty. Well, we'll see.

---

This is very odd. Judging by the attached screenshot, your phone is 850/2100. You can try to update to latest firmware, there may be baseband changes that affect the allowed frequencies on the phone, but it's a shot in the dark.

Can you attach a scatter from your phone for me? I want to take a look whether this is truly Mlais MX69 Pro.

Also, AT&T is currently mostly 850, and many iPhones have 1700/2100, so there's still a question as to whether or not you're truly in a 1900 area. The iPhone could have been working on 850 with AT&T and 1700/2100 on T-Mobile. Unless you're 100% certain your iPhone doesn't have 1700. I'm not saying you're not in a 1900 area. I'm just pointing out the possibilities. As the phone isn't allowing 1900 to be selected, it's a moot point.

Hi, gizbeat,

Let me get the scatter file to you in the next few days. In the meantime, I've attached a photo of what I see when I go into settings -> about phone.

As I mentioned to lookylooky, there are some pecularities about my phone:

1. It came without a keyboard.
2. the uncle mobile mtk tool doesn't show the 3G 2100 MHz band. I've seen that
band on just about all chinese phones I've look at.
3. If you look at the new photo I attached, it looks like my phone is running
android 4.3. I thought all the mx59's and h9008's were on 4.2.2. At needrom,
all the official update roms are 4.2.2.

I think you're right about trying a newer rom. However, since I might end up returning this phone, I think it's best to work with merimobiles support. Once they contact me, my first question will probably be, "Are you ok if I try the latest official rom and see if that makes a difference?"

About the iphone on tmobile.. I remember when we wanted to move it to tmobile, we needed a new sim card for it. We took it to a local tmobile store. The guy there looked at the phone and said it would work on the refarmed 1900MHz frequency.
I didn't look at the phone myself, and I know close to nothing about iphones since I never owned one. In any case though, I'm super sure I live in an area where tmobile does have the 1900MHz frequency.

[WuddaWaste]

Sorry to hear about the phone woes, vuter. Thanks for letting us know here and keeping us posted. I've got my eye on the MX69 Pro myself.

I've heard the SF area is one of the best covered 1900 MHz reframing.

This link is a map of reported 1900 MHz 3G coverage. Do you mind double-checking your area against it just to make quadruple-sure?
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[GizBeat]

My first suspicions regarding it possibly not being real MX69Pro have been aroused even further. If I were still a gambling man, I'd love to lay dough on this bet. This is sad to say of a former sponsor of the site, but it's also possibly they themselves have been scammed, or some middleman attempted to flash or modify the firmware.

Regardless, you can be sure we will figure it out. Hold off on flashing any ROMs. You may brick it and then they'll call it your fault.

Send me the scatter ASAP

[vuter]

Wow, WuddaWaste,

I zoomed in on the map you pointed me to. It looks like half of my neighborhood is in one of the hexagons with coverage while half isn't, and I live in the half that doesn't have coverage. Wow, so maybe I don't have 1900 MHz coverage.

I also zoomed in on my work location. That is in a coverage hexagon. So let me get back to you on this. I'll bring my phone to work tomorrow, and we'll see. Very interesting.