Chinese Superphones!

Going back to the UK in 2 days time and unfortunately the tablets are still in China so won't be able to play around with them at all. Well, on the bright side I can sell my ThL phone on eBay and buy something else to review! How I wish I can review phones for free :)). One can always dream.

Seeing all the new chinese smartphones makes it difficult on deciding which phone to buy next. So this post serves as a way for me to objectively decide which phone I should buy next. Meet the contenders!

1) XiaoMi Mi2

SOC: Snapdragon APQ8064 1.5GHz
GPU: Adreno 320
Screen: 4.3" IPS 1280x720
RAM: 2GB
ROM: 16GB/32GB
OS: Android 4.1, Jelly Bean with MIUI interface
Camera: 2.0MP(Front) and 8.0MP(Rear)
Battery: 2000mAh
SD-card: No
Retail Price without shipping: USD 430 (16GB)

Reasons to buy:

• Quad core
• Supposedly good camera
• MIUI so expect excellent software support
• Biggest RAM capacity among all current superphones. Same as the new Galaxy Note.
• Next generation GPU.

2) Lenovo lephone K860

SOC: Samsung Exynos 4412 1.4GHz
GPU: Mali-400 MP
Screen: 5.0" AH-IPS 1280x720
RAM: 1GB
ROM: 8GB
OS: Android 4.0
Camera: 2.0MP(Front) and 8.0MP(Rear)
Battery: 2250mAh
SD-card: Yes
Retail Price without shipping: USD 448

Reasons to buy:

• Quad core, same as Galaxy S III
• SD Card slot
• 5.0" screen
• Lenovo is a huge company so expect quality control to be better than competition
• SD Card slot

3)  Beidou Little Pepper Tegra3

SOC: NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.5GHz
GPU: ULP Geforce at 520MHz
Screen: 4.65" IPS 1280x720
RAM: 1GB
ROM: 4GB
OS: Android 4.0
Camera: 0.3MP(Front) and 8.0MP(Rear)
Battery: 1630mAh
SD-card: Yes
Retail Price without shipping: USD 400

Reasons to buy:

• Quad core
• SD Card slot
• Can play Tegra 3 exclusive titles without any tweaks.

4) ZTE Grand Era U985

SOC: NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.5GHz
GPU: ULP Geforce at 520MHz
Screen: 4.5" IPS 1280x720
RAM: 1GB
ROM: 4GB
OS: Android 4.0
Camera: 1.3MP(Front) and 8.0MP(Rear)
Battery: 1800mAh
SD-card: Yes
Retail Price without shipping: USD 385

Reasons to buy:

• Quad core
• SD Card slot
• Can play Tegra 3 exclusive titles without any tweaks.

5)XiaoMi 1S

SOC: Snapdragon MSM8260 1.7GHz
GPU: Adreno 220
Screen: 4.0" IPS 854x480
RAM: 1GB
ROM: 4GB
OS: Android 4.0 with MIUI interface
Camera: 2.0MP(Front) and 8.0MP(Rear)
Battery: 1930mAh
SD-card: Yes
Retail Price without shipping: USD 350 (16GB)

Reasons to buy:

• Supposedly good camera
• MIUI so expect excellent software support
• SD Card slot
• The fastest dual core SOC available

6)Tianyu K-Touch Treasure V8 II

SOC: NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.5GHz
GPU: ULP Geforce at 520MHz
Screen: 4.5" ASV 1280x720
RAM: 1GB
ROM: 16GB
OS: Android 4.0
Camera: 1.0MP(Front) and 8.0MP(Rear)
Battery: 1820mAh
SD-card: Yes
Retail Price without shipping: USD 400

Reasons to buy:

• Quad core
• SD Card
• Press release says it has good speakers. Sometimes referred to as a music phone.

7) Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL

SOC: HiSilicon K3V2 1.4GHz Quad Core
GPU: 16 cores unknown GPU
Screen: 4.5" IPS+ 1280x720
RAM: 1GB
ROM: 8GB
OS: Android 4.0
Camera: 1.3MP(Front) and 8.0MP(Rear)
Battery: 2600mAh
SD-card: Yes
Retail Price without shipping: USD 500

Reasons to buy:

• Unique to Huawei quad core SOC.
• Marketted as having extra long battery life thanks to combination of in-house developed software and hardware by Huawei. They are using Apple's approach (having total control over their device).
• Huawei is an establised brand so should have good quality control.
• Rear camera is backside illuminated should should take acceptable pictures indoors.
• Confirmed to have Gorilla glass to protect the screen.

Thoughts

Personally, I am only interested in some of these devices. 

• I WILL buy the XiaoMi M1S to check out the camera first.
• If it is as good as they said it would be then I would sell it and buy the Mi2 :)
• If not, I will sell it and buy a Nokia Lumia 920 on contract haha.
• Will you guys be interested in  the Lumia 920 review? Doubt it :P
• If somehow I become rich, I would review the K-Touch Treasure V8 II  primarily to test out the speakers and the Ascend D1 Quad XL to test just how the in-house SOC fares compared to the others. 

So, in short expect a review on the Xiaomi M1S in the coming 2 weeks :). 

Till then.

Regards,
YS.