Chinese Phones

ave said:
That is really nice quality. I always heard that these chinese phones have terrible cameras, so that was the one thing putting me off, but that is perfect for what I would use it for. In fact that is probably as nice as my [-]cannon[/-]Canon point and click. These chinese phones are looking more and more tempting by the day.
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:cool: First, that's the stock camera app in non-HDR mode (yes, it has an HDR option baked in), and on the stock Android 4.0.4 it came with (getting an update is somewhat more difficult than with, say, Samsung ..but neither did I spend > R8k either) and a later OS version may improve on these results.

FWIW, what mucking around with HDR does. Note that I took the first pic at 16h05 and the HDR one at 18h43, so there was ...somewhat less light! :p The phone generates two (dark+light) copies of the same image and presents you with the combined result on-screen. This image was achieved by getting an online tool to bung them together, and I'd say it's a pretty damn credible result; the orange seems somewhat oversaturated but the greens, earth tones and bricks are very good, specially given the available light. And this is on (now) old tech, the newer phones *can* have better sensors: some claim Exmor by Sony, others claim F1.8 sensitivity ...for my money the notion that .cn phones have kark cameras is overstated.

cn-phone.camera-sample-HDR-1.png

One more question if I may, did you use the free shipping and how much was the import duties?
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I'll answer anything actually answerable, and this one I can't. I lucked out on this hassle in that a gadget-freak forumite (whom I haven't seen around awhile now) bought it, decided he no longer wanted it and offered it for sale, at which point I got it from him. That said, he clearly had no problem getting it in and a client of mine who, upon seeing the dual-SIM action, *immediately* wanted one too up and bought one himself duly ended up with one in short order too. From which I infer there's no real hassle actually buying one, I just can't answer about import duties, sorry.
 
Well after much, much inner deliberation, I'm on the verge of getting the Iocean X7S. It looks quite good with a octacore CPU to boot and FHD screen, I'm just trying to decide where to buy it from. And since I need it rather desperately, I may just get it couriered. Only problem is antelife charges $75 for UPS shipping to South Africa, and no other options. Pandawill has DHL shipping for $35, but I haven't heard many good things about them. They're both selling the phone for the same price. Anyone else recommend any other site to get one from?
 
BhAvZzZ said:
Well after much, much inner deliberation, I'm on the verge of getting the Iocean X7S. It looks quite good with a octacore CPU to boot and FHD screen, I'm just trying to decide where to buy it from. And since I need it rather desperately, I may just get it couriered. Only problem is antelife charges $75 for UPS shipping to South Africa, and no other options. Pandawill has DHL shipping for $35, but I haven't heard many good things about them. They're both selling the phone for the same price. Anyone else recommend any other site to get one from?
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Keep us updated if you go this route. I would be very interested to know what you decide and what the phone's like.
Found this on mybb for what it's worth.

bdt said:
FWIW, what mucking around with HDR does. Note that I took the first pic at 16h05 and the HDR one at 18h43, so there was ...somewhat less light! :p The phone generates two (dark+light) copies of the same image and presents you with the combined result on-screen. This image was achieved by getting an online tool to bung them together, and I'd say it's a pretty damn credible result; the orange seems somewhat oversaturated but the greens, earth tones and bricks are very good, specially given the available light. And this is on (now) old tech, the newer phones *can* have better sensors: some claim Exmor by Sony, others claim F1.8 sensitivity ...for my money the notion that .cn phones have kark cameras is overstated.
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Those really are nice colours, even richer than the first image. Im sure if you played around a bit- combine them in photoshop or something you could mute the orange a bit and get a spectacular image. Very impressed.
For the time of day, there is surprisingly little noise.

bdt said:
I'll answer anything actually answerable, and this one I can't. I lucked out on this hassle in that a gadget-freak forumite (whom I haven't seen around awhile now) bought it, decided he no longer wanted it and offered it for sale, at which point I got it from him. That said, he clearly had no problem getting it in and a client of mine who, upon seeing the dual-SIM action, *immediately* wanted one too up and bought one himself duly ended up with one in short order too. From which I infer there's no real hassle actually buying one, I just can't answer about import duties, sorry.
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That's the way to go. That or DHL as the OP stated, but I don't think I would trust our post office enough to use them to import a cell.
Thanks for the info. Very interesting.
 
Try http://www.ibuygou.com/ guys, $41 for dhl, they will mark down the price and describe it as something else, in my case a "replacement for faulty media player". I paid 0 customs/duty.
Check out their Facebook page. The only problems they've had lately was the debacle about the Xiaomi MI-3 delays. They're usually pretty good about responding and refunds etc.
 
I think the DHL option is not that good of a option.

The chances of it getting caught by SARS is very good. That means that there will be duties payable. Now I remember with DHL they charge you the duties + a release fee.

When shipping it with singapore, china or hong kong post it means that SAPO handles the package locally and they only charge you the fee that customs added. They are also very fast in delivering. Once customs cleared it it take max 3 days to non major areas so I guess major areas will be faster.

You just pay the duties when collecting it at the post office.

There is a good chance SARS will catch it but there is also a chance that they won't catch it and then DHL option is good cause its fast but not cheap and even more expensive when they do catch it.
 
dudewotevr said:
Try http://www.ibuygou.com/ guys, $41 for dhl, they will mark down the price and describe it as something else, in my case a "replacement for faulty media player". I paid 0 customs/duty.
Check out their Facebook page. The only problems they've had lately was the debacle about the Xiaomi MI-3 delays. They're usually pretty good about responding and refunds etc.
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Pandawill and antelife also declares it as cheap replacement parts but SARS caught mine and charged me R200 duties on it. Other time I imported 2 phones at a time and never paid duties. Its like lotto almost.
 
So I should probably just tell you guys that I ended up ordering the little brother of the Iocean X7S, the X7 HD, only a quad core CPU, but it looks capable from what I've seen, and the price wasn't bad at R1500. The build on that phone looks decent as well, almost went for the Mysaga M2 I think it was, it had an apparently premium build but almost the exact same specs as the Iocean, and the Iocean was $70 cheaper.

Hopefully the phone comes through this week. I got the gift option and gift packing, hopefully that is enough to save me from customs. I wish myself luck with the phone guys.

Of course I'll let you all know how the device is, I'll put some pics up of the device and the interface.

Thanks for the help guys. :D
 
awesome, yeah please keep us updated. where did you eventually buy it and what shipping method are you using?
 
Ok, Quick update, from what I can tell from the tracking on the DHL website, the package has cleared customs and has been forwarded this evening for delivery.

I got it from etotalk in the end, they had he cheapest prices I could find at the time. 2 days after ordering it, they got the X7S in stock at a pretty decent price too. But oh well, next time.
 
BhAvZzZ said:
Ok, Quick update, from what I can tell from the tracking on the DHL website, the package has cleared customs and has been forwarded this evening for delivery.

I got it from etotalk in the end, they had he cheapest prices I could find at the time. 2 days after ordering it, they got the X7S in stock at a pretty decent price too. But oh well, next time.
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Same thing happened with me. Ordered a LG L3 for my mom and the next month they brought in their L5ii for the same price, andthe difference is phenomenal. I'm still bitter about that.
Any idea how much customs will be?
 
BhAvZzZ said:
No call, not expecting anything, the DHL website says that customs cleared it, with no charges, from what I understand anyway
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Bonus. I see the site you bought it from allows you to add extra for a small fee, like mark as a gift, or package in unmarked box. Did you go for any of those options, or was it just cleared automatically? That is actually a nice site. I like that you can add a cover and screen protector, extra battery etc. There were quite a few things I would have included.
 
On my 4th cheap Chinese phone over 2 years....Huawei G300, Jiayu g3, Zopo c2 platinum, and now an iNew V3.

I'm also on CellC, but their network is so dodgy in the deep south, that I use the dual sim functionality to guarantee data coverage. They are all sold down to my kids for half price when I get bored with them, and are all going strong (bar the Zopo which was totally destroyed).

Hang on, I seem to recall a Lenovo in there as well, which one of the kids lost....
 
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So then, I ended up having to wait till tonight to see or use the phone because I wasn't home. In the couple of minutes I've spent with it, its been really nippy and it feels surprisingly well built. The only thing that would have made this better is if I could install Cyanogenmod onto it. I feel like that would just perfect it.
 
I just noticed something rather interesting and a bit funny at the same time, when playing music, it plays from both the speaker and headphones at the same time unless I press the volume down button on my headphones' remote control. Suppose it may get a bit annoying though.
 
The dual sim function can actually be really good. Having your primary sim that does the calling and stuff with a frihost sim just for data. That can be a pretty cool setup.
 
BhAvZzZ said:
So then, I ended up having to wait till tonight to see or use the phone because I wasn't home. In the couple of minutes I've spent with it, its been really nippy and it feels surprisingly well built. The only thing that would have made this better is if I could install Cyanogenmod onto it. I feel like that would just perfect it.
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hey you got it. Good stuff! how much did customs end up being if you don't mind me asking?
how you enjoying it now that you've had a few days to play?
 
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