[Question] Reliable Chinese Phone

[GizBeat]

Your three recommendations are on my short list. Lenovo A820 is 4.5". Prefer not to go much bigger.

I have to ask. What are you dissatisfied with about the A820, because in guts of the G4 and the A820 are nearly identical. The difference is the camera. Externally they are different and the G4 has a much better display, but that is it for European uses.

Most of the Chinese phones recommended are going to be of the MTK6589 or MTK6589T variety. The difference is that you can get 2GB of RAM on the T and the clock speed is a bit more (1.5GHz vs 1.2GHz).

Before you lay out $300, just be aware that you are really just swapping cases and screens.

All of the phones mentioned are a step up in several areas. The difference between 1gb and 2gb is very noticeable if many apps are installed or with moderate multitasking. The storage significantly increased. The ppi is increased by 20% increase with 720p. The T version is 20-40% increase in CPU/GPU. Not to mention OTG and OGS features as well as Gorilla Glass with the c2 and Jiayu. Obviously it's not going to be night and day as already mentioned, but all in all it's a substantial upgrade.

Problem with the size of the phone is that the manufacturers keep making them bigger and bigger but my hands stopped growing long time ago. LOL
I still have a not-a-smart phone by Nokia. Just 85 gms and the battery lasts for ages!
But I will try and visit a phone shop and try the 5"+ models for size.

I have to agree. Actually the perfect phone size for most people for single handed operation is 4.5-4.7. There's no reason to go bigger unless you're really wanting it.

[Blue_Max]

Your three recommendations are on my short list. Lenovo A820 is 4.5". Prefer not to go much bigger.

I have to ask. What are you dissatisfied with about the A820, because in guts of the G4 and the A820 are nearly identical. The difference is the camera. Externally they are different and the G4 has a much better display, but that is it for European uses.

Most of the Chinese phones recommended are going to be of the MTK6589 or MTK6589T variety. The difference is that you can get 2GB of RAM on the T and the clock speed is a bit more (1.5GHz vs 1.2GHz).

Before you lay out $300, just be aware that you are really just swapping cases and screens.

Hi Dew, I am pleased with the Lenovo A820, my first ever Chinese phone. May be it is going out of date, price was hugely reduced to only $120 plus shipping. Can't complain at that price but A820 has no front facing camera, no dedicated camera button and no camera flash. Photo quality is better than a Nokia 5800 I once had but these days there are much better ones out there. An S4 would be nice but it is priced over the top.

Anyways, after reading various reviews and looking at specs and prices of Chinese phones, I got bitten by the Android bug and started looking for a cutting edge phone at a sensible price from China.
Since I got the A820 just recently, may be I should wait for some more 8-core phones to hit the market or till Christmas!