Chinese smartphones - user experiences?

[MikeLowry]

Hi everyone, my trusty Sony Z1 appears to be on it's deathbed after a hard three years of use, and so I am on the hunt for a replacement. I have been lusting after a Sony Z5 Premium for a long time but haven't been able to justify the expense to myself.

I've recently become aware of Chinese smartphones seemingly offering significant bang-for-buck, I've read lots of reviews online for various phones (didn't realise there were so many !) but am keen to hear real user experiences. What Chinese phones are you guys using, and what are the pros and cons? I am after a decent all-rounder, speed is important to me over most things (laggy phones irritate the life out of me) so decent processor speed and/or RAM? I don' think I would want to spend more that £150 if buying one of these phones. Someone on another thread recommended a UMI Super which appears to be decent.

As an aside, any Z5 Premium users care to offer their experiences? Initial reports seemed a bit iffy, how are people getting on a year after the launch?

Thanks!

[Sharted]

Slightly on a tangent but I am currently using a Motorola G4 with no contract and it's everything that more expensive phones have been plus the freedom to bin it if I wish.
It was about £20 over your budget.

[sparkythecat]

Another satisfied Moto G user here.

[breamster]

And another (about a week or so!).

[sparkythecat]

Still not convinced?

Here's a typical review. Google will find you loads more

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/lenovo/lenovo-moto-...

[Morningside]

I had a dual SIM Chinese smartphone (Samsung ripoff) and it was brilliant. Had far many more features and worked really, really well.

Shame I dropped it

[J__D]

Bought for the father-in-law (technophobe) an UMI ROME - I was genuinely impressed for what I paid, which was roughly £80.

I would compare it to my old iPhone 4S in terms of speed, a bit laggy, but the ROME is also not UMI's "flagship" by any means, so can only expect the Super to be far better.

Reliability thus far seems to be perfect, it was bought for Christmas last year, and not heard one complaint. He does however only use it for emails / texts and calls, no games or internet otherwise really.

[leglessAlex]

As others have said, for that money either the 3rd or 4th gen Moto G is the phone to go for. They're so cheap and so good there's not real point in trying out something unknown with possibly questionable software installed.

[louiebaby]

Ulefone Power + £140 = Very pleased. (Bought through Amazon.)

Doogee T3 + £155 + £45 customs charge = Brick. Won't do anything, struggling to get a response from the vendor. (Not Amazon.)

Hope this helps.

[airsafari87]

My GF is a massive geek and as a rule always buys the best technology that she can afford.

Her last phone though has been a Xiaomi Mi Phone (i can't recall which model) She payed a little over £100 for it and 6 months down the line it has been absolutely faultless. As good as any Sony / Samsung / Iphone.

[silentbrown]

Had a Oneplus One. Good looking, fast, and cheapish. Failed after about 4 months, and I simply could not get ANY satisfactory resolution. Never again!

Switched to a Moto G 2015 last October. It's been great, but 8Gb storage is pretty small for apps and the SD card slot doesn't actually help that much.

Would definitely go for a Moto G4.

[dudleybloke]

THL 5000 that's 2 years old and still as good as new.

I quite fancy the UMI super but I'll stick with my THL as it does everything I need and is still lightning fast despite having lots and lots of apps installed.

[gifdy]

My last phone was a THL5000.. massive battery and worked pretty well until I dropped it on it's edge and killed half the touchscreen. There were a few issues about Chinese apps loaded onto it, and it thought it was roaming between Orange/EE sites but OK in general.

Latest is the Moto G4 plus with dual sim. Clean android with no crap pre-loaded onto it. Great phone.

[anonymous-user]

i have a huawei g7.

the web,movies, music playback brilliant.

texting a bit slow. and a few issue but for the money good.

[sparkyhx]

I have google Nexus which is a Huawei, its been fine.

[Thorburn]

sparkyhx said:

I have google Nexus which is a Huawei, its been fine.

Problem with the Huawei stuff is they make a decent handset, then blight it with terrible OEM customisation and skinning. The 6P avoids that by being a Google Nexus phone with stock Android.

I'd give another vote for the Moto G4, and in the budget on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2dgu5ah

Wife has a Moto G3 16GB which was an excellent buy, and I still use one of the very first Moto G's as my work phone - 3 years old now and still works perfectly.
Love the fact that they're probably as close as you get to a stock Android as you'll find without going for a Nexus model, and the 1080p screen on the G4 is nice.

Moto G4 Plus is worth a look too - adds a fingerprint sensor and slightly improved camera: http://amzn.to/2dgtkyj

Moto G4 Play is a smaller model with similar specs to the G3, so 720p 5" screen as opposed to 1080p 5.5", and £125: http://amzn.to/2cNOMvR

Edited by Thorburn on Friday 23 September 23:48

[technodup]

dudleybloke said:

THL 5000 that's 2 years old and still as good as new.

I quite fancy the UMI super but I'll stick with my THL as it does everything I need and is still lightning fast despite having lots and lots of apps installed.

Likewise. At 2+ years old my main complaint is Google Maps is a bit iffy. It's had a hard life though, the screen is cracked in the corner, the back has several chunks chipped out it and there's a dead bit of screen when I think I clamped a screw too tight.

It's even survived a French swimming pool. Went dead and friends expected the worst but I had a sneaky confidence it would come back to life. The battery went mental for a few days, barely charging and when it did charge losing it all in minutes but it's now back to its normal 2/3 days of life.

Can't recommend it highly enough. I really should replace it but I haven't started to look at what China has to offer this time. fk going back to the £600 marketing merry go round though.

[AJB88]

sparkyhx said:

I have google Nexus which is a Huawei, its been fine.

Nexus 6P has been a quality phone for me, previously had a HTC One M8 GPE (Google Play Edition) and a Nexus 5.

Just wish the next Nexus Pixel phone would come with some features such as wireless charging and waterproofing but we already know they wont.

For me I can't use anything other than stock Android now. hate bloatware.


2 friends have both recently ventured away from Apple (both Apple fanboys) one has got the Elephone P9000 and the other has got OnePlus 3.

[ZesPak]

Ime, it's a bit and miss.
Warranty can be a bit of a problem, and even the best phones can arrive with a fault in them...

As above, for the price a Moto G4 is extremely hard to beat while having no problems for support and warranty. Not worth it going for a chinaphone anymore imho.

[OldGermanHeaps]

I've had a couple of doogee phones, for the money they are spot on if you have reasonable expectations. Browsing is nippy, battery life is ok, screen is noticably lower res than flagships but bright with good colour. Camera was gash on the first one but much better on second. I would deffo buy another.