Obscure Phone brands

ArmatageShanks

ArmatageShanks

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Was mucking about on gearbest for some reason and noticed a few of the lesser known smartphone brands that seem to offer decent hardware at good prices, so I became interested in this homtom s9 plus

Read some reviews, seems like a decent device for the money etc etc

So whats the catch? Are they horribly made using child labor or something?

If anyone has one of these whats your opinion on it

Also wantitall is having a laugh

Capture.PNG
 
well , only issue i have with these, this after buying a AGM, through rugged, was that as soon as i connected, i started getting wasp subsciption, so best to have a prepaid card, and remove ll unwanted software etc.
 
gamer16 said:
Whats the matter with them?
Click to expand...

support is limited, will be hard to get custom roms and you're more then likely going to live with the same OS as you got it with.
 
Lupus said:
support is limited, will be hard to get custom roms and you're more then likely going to live with the same OS as you got it with.
Click to expand...

No worries with that, I tend not to keep phones for longer than a year anyway.
 
i recall some chinese made phones were sending private data back to servers in china - dont know which brands in particular, but that has always kept me away from lesser known brands
 
Ecco said:
i recall some chinese made phones were sending private data back to servers in china - dont know which brands in particular, but that has always kept me away from lesser known brands
Click to expand...

Unless your running a secure custom rom Google will have that info in anyway.

EDIT: Rather Google than the Chinese
 
There are a few issues with buying an off-brand smartphone that I've come across.

1. Preloaded Malware. It's usually possible to remove this by rooting the device, and deleting the offending apps. Also, Mediatek devices are by far the easiest devices to root.

2. Uncertified Google Play Store. This is partly because Google Services are banned in China, but the Play Store gets added for export only. Usually this won't pose any major limitations on what Apps can be installed, but that may change in the future, depending on what Google decides to do. Google Certification costs money.

3. Battery life may vary. In some cases, lower quality batteries are used in these devices. In my experience the first couple of charges were decent, but then battery life started deteriorating at a significant rate.

Back to the Malware though, here's an article which mentions brands that were affected by a Trojan a while back. Some provided OTA fixes, but in my case, the OTA update, simply moved the Trojan to a different App, and the variant changed slightly.

Seems like some manufacturers, or at least the software developers, are trying to make extra money by stealing personal info.
 
Lupus said:
support is limited, will be hard to get custom roms and you're more then likely going to live with the same OS as you got it with.
Click to expand...

Ja, regarding the support part, this means that some drivers is also not present. So some BT wristbands or speakers might also not connect/work with this phones. Mediatek is a big no, for me.
 
Meizu makes a very good product, the build quality is amazing.

The new Meizu E3 is great, still rolling with my M6 Note which I cant fault.
 
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