For Those Of You Who Have Bought A Chinese Branded Smartphone, Would You Buy Again ?

Definitely happy with my Lenovo P780 and have tried Pomp and Xiaomi too. Quality is absolutely fantastic, so much better than the plastic Samsungs. Huawei is also a favourite, the P6 was a real iPhone killer at half the price. Would still consider mainstream brands but only if they offered something useful that the Chinese brands don't and was worth the extra cash.
 
I've just posted about my Inew V8 which I bought about a week ago in the Inew V3 thread. Love it so far and at the price I paid which was £168 is a steal with the specs on offer. Only cost me £60 after selling my old Nexus 4 so it was a no brainer for me.

Will find it very hard to go back to mainstream brands now. I'm not saying all of the Chinese phones are great but the bigger names offer top specs for a lot less.
 
Definitely happy with my Lenovo P780 and have tried Pomp and Xiaomi too. Quality is absolutely fantastic, so much better than the plastic Samsungs. Huawei is also a favourite, the P6 was a real iPhone killer at half the price. Would still consider mainstream brands but only if they offered something useful that the Chinese brands don't and was worth the extra cash.

How long have you had the Lenovo P780 ?
 
Bought it in March. Fantastic phone, the battery life is fantastic. Real quality mobile, shame Lenovo don't sell their phones in the UK.
 
ive also posted my review of a inew v3 in the thread and im more than happy. my situation was that my nearly 2yr old s4 was playing up, by time ive recycled it it means my inew was free but not signed up to new contract. only thing is probably the ram on it as one certain app makes it so you cant do anything else but every other app its perfect. They is no bloatware no samsung google music or three app that cant be removed that makes it pretty much the full 16gb.

id look again at one but i will do it if i need to as my renewal is in april so will see what phones are available here then
 
ive also posted my review of a inew v3 in the thread and im more than happy. my situation was that my nearly 2yr old s4 was playing up, by time ive recycled it it means my inew was free but not signed up to new contract. only thing is probably the ram on it as one certain app makes it so you cant do anything else but every other app its perfect. They is no bloatware no samsung google music or three app that cant be removed that makes it pretty much the full 16gb.

id look again at one but i will do it if i need to as my renewal is in april so will see what phones are available here then
 
Started with the Star n9500 which i loved, until my daughter "pinched" and then I found out it wasn't as robust as i would want for a child, it died.
Iocean x7 was good, gps p"&s poor though and it didn't survive a cycle accident.
Now have the Inew v3, Love it cheaper and way better than Iocean.

I would buy another Chinese phone, but research a lot more prior to purchase.
I am looking for a Galaxy Note alternative if anyone knows of any
 
Bought my daughter a Goophone last Xmas - clever thing but lasted less than 6 months , Battery and charging problems. Then dead. So, I am very wary of Chinese phones.
 
My better half started with a Star N9500 which was great...... until she dropped it and smashed the screen!

Moved to an inew v3 which is a cracking piece of kit for the money, but recently bought her a Xiaomi Mi3 from these forums. Only problem is......i've really taken to it so she hasn't got it yet!! My phone is an HTC One M8, but I like the Mi3 better.

Trying to make my mind up whether to sell the HTC and go for the Xiaomi Mi4. Hmmmm decisions decisions.
 
I was thinking about getting an Mi3, but may wait for the Mi4 64GB FDD-LTE black model to be released.

Out of interest what made you buy the Mi3 (this is the phone I was seriously contemplating buying, and still might)
 
Bought my daughter a Goophone last Xmas - clever thing but lasted less than 6 months , Battery and charging problems. Then dead. So, I am very wary of Chinese phones.

Same here, I wouldn't make a blanket statement of "never again", but the iNew phone I bought lasted about 4-5 months and it was impossible to get sorted. A friend bought a Star phone and that only lasted 4 months.

I would only buy from a brand if they became more mainstream and offered official backup in the UK.
 
What problem did you have with the inew? And which model did you have

It just wouldn't turn on, I had 2 batteries which tested fine on a tester, the phone appeared to be totally OK, even had it stripped down to check by one of the techs at one of my old shops, no damage, no problems with switches. Just a general failure.

Being cheap Chinese there was no diagnostics available, no parts in the UK, and sending back to China and hoping they might be honest enough to fix it (if they even admitted to it arriving when posted) just wasn't worth the expense.

It went into the bin.

I can't remember the model number now, it was a model launched about 12 months ago IIRC.
 
ok well got mine from digitalplayworld and with 12months guarantee so hopefully should be ok
 
I was thinking about getting an Mi3, but may wait for the Mi4 64GB FDD-LTE black model to be released.

Out of interest what made you buy the Mi3 (this is the phone I was seriously contemplating buying, and still might)

I'd been looking at the Mi 3 since the launch last year, but just couldn't get one at the time. All the sellers were out of stock or waiting for stock so I gave up.

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing the AV classified forum....after several beverages, and saw it on sale there. Couldn't resist it, for the missus of course, so made a purchase.

I'm so impressed i want the Mi 4; I've got a wanted advert out there but no takers as yet, so I'll give it a couple of days then head to Aliexpress. Miui just feels 'right'. It's very smooth and has no bloat ware so runs very quickly.

It's a cracking phone so I hope the Mi 4 will be even better!!
 
ok well got mine from digitalplayworld and with 12months guarantee so hopefully should be ok

I hope so for your sake, if you are referring to digitalplayworld.co.uk I would still worry, it appears to be a fly by night type site, that website isn't UK law compliant and probably run by a 'one man band'. If he folds or disappears, so does any promised warranty.

And to add, the warranty isn't actually all that good. It's an RTB manufacturers warranty so you could still be hit with postage charges (and without any real contact details, good luck trying to pursue a consumer protection case). I hope you paid for the phone directly with a credit card.

Guarantee
All our products come with a 12 month Manufacturer's Warranty. Where a product is deemed faulty it will be repaired, replaced or refunded. Products that require returning will be done so at the customer's expense.
 
I hope so for your sake, if you are referring to digitalplayworld.co.uk I would still worry, it appears to be a fly by night type site, that website isn't UK law compliant and probably run by a 'one man band'. If he folds or disappears, so does any promised warranty.

And to add, the warranty isn't actually all that good. It's an RTB manufacturers warranty so you could still be hit with postage charges (and without any real contact details, good luck trying to pursue a consumer protection case). I hope you paid for the phone directly with a credit card.

Have had numerouss phones and tablets from Digital Playworld with no problems.
Easy to contact and friendly. Ddresse is easily available for the Doncaster area.
The only problem i had was a broken star phone ( daughter smashed)
and a IOcean which i smashed falling of a bike lol
Be nice if he could repair on site I agree.
His quarantee is same as most shops,Even currys ask you to contack the suppliers now (friend had 3 sony Tv's which HE had to liase with Sony, Currys were not interested )
 
I'd been looking at the Mi 3 since the launch last year, but just couldn't get one at the time. All the sellers were out of stock or waiting for stock so I gave up.

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing the AV classified forum....after several beverages, and saw it on sale there. Couldn't resist it, for the missus of course, so made a purchase.

I'm so impressed i want the Mi 4; I've got a wanted advert out there but no takers as yet, so I'll give it a couple of days then head to Aliexpress. Miui just feels 'right'. It's very smooth and has no bloat ware so runs very quickly.

It's a cracking phone so I hope the Mi 4 will be even better!!

Cool. On the Mi3 are you running MIUI v5 or the latest v6 (if so have you encountered any bugs with v6 ?)
 
It just wouldn't turn on, I had 2 batteries which tested fine on a tester, the phone appeared to be totally OK, even had it stripped down to check by one of the techs at one of my old shops, no damage, no problems with switches. Just a general failure.

Being cheap Chinese there was no diagnostics available, no parts in the UK, and sending back to China and hoping they might be honest enough to fix it (if they even admitted to it arriving when posted) just wasn't worth the expense.

It went into the bin.

I can't remember the model number now, it was a model launched about 12 months ago IIRC.

Apparently iNew are releasing a V7, but forget that, they also have an L1 model which is even better:

 
Was looking at the I7 but that looks even better.
With my experience of Chinese phones the inew is the best so far
 
His quarantee is same as most shops,Even currys ask you to contack the suppliers now (friend had 3 sony Tv's which HE had to liase with Sony, Currys were not interested )

No, what I mean is if he was to close his doors tomorrow and move on (or even just close down that name and open another name business) you are on your own, it's a lot less likely that Currys would be closing all their shops and reopening next week under a different name.

To some people it's a risk they are happy with, to others (especially where the actual product is lower quality than mainstream products) the risk of using a product with a higher chance of breakdown and lower chance of getting spares isn't worth the monetary saving.

At the end of the day, it's down to the individual, some people don't mind the extra odds when they gamble ;).
 
If anyone closes down then its a case of "cest la vie" :eek:

Like I stated friend had nothing but trouble with Samsung and Sony over a tv at currys.
did he get Friendly service from either of them :facepalm: Nope.

As most phones come from the far east then there's Quality and quality from all manufacturers.
I do understand your point but all shops want profit.
You want after sales, shop at John Lewis and pay john lewis prices :)
 

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