Which unlocked phone for the US to buy? - General Questions and Answers

Hi folks,
Looking for a cheap(er) Android 4.0 phone to run on AT&T network in the US, with occasional use in Europe. Which one of the Chinese clone phones has a better reputation/compatibility/service? The basic requirements:
- Android 4.0+
- unlocked
- within $150-$250 price range
- 4.3"-5" screen
- SD card support (ideally, up to 64GB)
- decent battery life (or, at least, not much worse than of the mainstream phones)
- ideally, 1GB of RAM
Also, the question is where to buy? I came across antelife, are they decent/reliable?
So far I've looked at:
- Hero 9300+ MTK6577
- Star i9220 MTK6575
- Zopo ZP300 MTK6575
- Freelander i10 MTK6577
- ThL W1 MTK6575
Is there any preference in this set? Anything else I should consider?
Thanks!

I dont know a good AT&T phone thats cheap but i know the Chinese developed phone, The Huawei Mercury for Cricket is a great cheap phone with very powerful specs, runs better than most other high end phones but it is very underrated...The speed is flawless with a 1.4ghz processor, takes striking pictures with a 8.0 megapixel camera, front camera is decent for a front camera its vga front camera so dont expect something huge. But i would suggest this phone to anyone, only drawback is that it doesnt have very much dev support but that can be changed.

Please see the **DEVICE SUGGESTION THREAD** for all such questions. Thank you. Thread closed.

Related

About MTK MT6575 phone, H5500

i just checked this forum, i find there is no more information about MTK6575, i don't know why, so i just start this thread, and we can talk about the MTK6575 chipset.
it is reported that the newest MTK6575 phone is lenovo A750, but i checked some website in recently, and find one website start to sell the MTK6575 phone, named H5500, i guess you guys may know this news already, but i just see some video on youtube, and share this video here,
http://youtu.be/4ImOD99AHgY
in my opinion, it is better than MTk6573 phones, but it is a new phone anyway, so just view that video, and give your opinions.
hmm, still no one replys, no one is interesting in MTK6575 phone?
It looks good, but I'd wait for Android 4.0 before buying a phone with this chipset seeing as MediaTek announced that it supports ICS.
http://www.mediatek.com/en/News/news_content.php?sn=1052
oh, that's why.
i will continue to notice the MTk MT6575 products, maybe it will come up soon.
Look for zopo zp200
Sent from my VitMod_ExtraLite 1.6.5.fullodex for HTC HD7 Pro using Tapatalk
Its just an overclocked MTk6573
eraldo said:
Its just an overclocked MTk6573
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. 6573 is ARM11 (ARMv6) while 6575 is Cortex A9 (ARMv7). Big difference.
Yeah It will be much superior to the old ARMv6 MTk6573
Hotmid are selling the Lenovo a750 already for $200. The only downsides are it has no camera flash and the Power VRX 531 GPU is pretty dated now. Although it does include dual sim and a 2000mah battery.
http://hotmid.com/lenovo-lephone-a7...screen-android-2-3-dual-sim-mobile-phone.html
I asked about ICS support and they said 'maybe later', so nothing definitive yet. They have also including a bench mark screen shot claiming scores of 2178, which is not bad if true.
ZOPO ZP100 w/ MTK6575
Doesn't look like anyone has had an opportunity to play with a phone using the MTK6575. I just was notified that my shipment of 1 x ZOPO ZP100 has left Singapore. As soon as it arrives, I'll let you know if it lives up to my expectations. I'll do a proper review when it arrives, and compare it to my previous phone, the motorola droid 2 on verizon.
Since the Droid 2 used the omap3630 (cortex a8) @ 1ghz w/ PowerVR SGX530, and the ZOPO ZP 100 uses the MTK6575 (cortex a9) @ 1ghz w/ Power VR SGX531, I'm expecting about a 20% performance increase, which considering a total cost of $210 USD including shipping seems awesome!
I'll be using the unlimited talk, text, web service from straight talk for $45 a month. I think this will be a winning combination!
There are 6+ highly available phones now available using the MTK6575 chip, and I've seen prices ranging from ~$200USD - $300+USD. The only major differences seem to be the cases, and the screen. While the of them have WVGA resolution (480x800), the ZOPO ZP100 has qHD resolution (540x960).
And no, I'm not trying to sell the ZOPO ZP100, just seems to be a fantastic phone, at a very reasonable price.
The highlights of the unlocked ZOPO ZP100 phone are:
·Operation System:Google Android 2.3.4
·CPU:MTK6575 (Cortex A9) 1GMHz ,GPUower SGX531
·4GB ROM+512MB RAM extend to 32GB max
·GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA HSPA
2G GSM:850/900/1800/1900 MHz
3G:2100 MHz
·Dual sim cards dual standby
·WIFI:802.11b/g wireless internet
·Built in GPS and support voice navigation
·4.3 inch Sharp ASV Capacitive multi-touch screen,QHD:960*540
·FM radio
·Support Compass
·G-sensor
·Light-sensor
·Dual cameras
·5.0 Mega Pixel wifh Auto focus
·3.5mm stereo audio jack
·Support word,excel,ppt, pdf format document
·Language:English/French/Spanish/German/Italian/Arabic/Russian/ Turkish/Portuguese/Bahasa indonesia/ Bahasa Melayu/Thai/Vietnamese/Chinese
6575 is supposed to be Mediatek's ICS chip. Wonder how close are they to the release.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2
Lenovo A750 Root Method
hi , i found a link showing way to root the Lenovo A750
www[dot]7xz[dot]com/topic/16618
but since all in chinese , i don't really understand it , and reluctant to try
may someone here translate this for me (and maybe useful for some of us )
disclaimer : i do not responsible for any failure caused by this rooting method
Peace!
I found etotalk.com have many MTK6575 phone. Lenovo A750, Lenovo A65, zp100...
And it have many video:
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r_vEZYQkXmU
youtube.com/watch?v=QMX2wUy8A24&feature=player_embedded
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=o-VVsTO4p_g
I used to buy dual-sim phone with MTK6753 chip. I was surprised at its good build quality and smooth GUI (I do not play games). However, I was let down by two major things.
1. available ROM for additional applications: it has around 160MB which is too small. Some well-known apps won't be able to move to external microsd card. So I was not able to install some apps due to insufficient internal rom. I would like to buy the MTK6575 phone, but would be nice if the available free ROM is at least around 300-400MB.
2. camera: quality is not good at all. Mine didn't come with auto-focus feature. Hope to get MTK6575 with auto-focus back camera.
Yesterday I had a chance to see the Galaxy Note clone (MTK6573), the build quality and ROM GUI are very nice. It supports auto-focus; but again, the free ROM is just 30MB!.
Thanks in advance for those who would share with me the above issues.
bthoven said:
I used to buy dual-sim phone with MTK6753 chip. I was surprised at its good build quality and smooth GUI (I do not play games). However, I was let down by two major things.
1. available ROM for additional applications: it has around 160MB which is too small. Some well-known apps won't be able to move to external microsd card. So I was not able to install some apps due to insufficient internal rom. I would like to buy the MTK6575 phone, but would be nice if the available free ROM is at least around 300-400MB.
2. camera: quality is not good at all. Mine didn't come with auto-focus feature. Hope to get MTK6575 with auto-focus back camera.
Yesterday I had a chance to see the Galaxy Note clone (MTK6573), the build quality and ROM GUI are very nice. It supports auto-focus; but again, the free ROM is just 30MB!.
Thanks in advance for those who would share with me the above issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the G11i pro is also based on the MT6573 chipset. this phone has a rom developer working on improving roms. one of thefeatures he added is ext2 file system support. so your free romspace can be as big as you like. read here
http://www.eten-users.eu/index.php?/topic/21427-g11i-mt6513-g11i-pro-mt6573-support-thread/
hope this helps. use this phone myself since 3 month and very happy with it.
Does anyone have an MT6575 phone here? Any feedback with its performance?
Zopo100
I had this phone for almost two weeks now. Superb phone. I love it more than my HTC Evo 3D.
Advantages:
------------
1) Quick boot up. Only takes about 30s to boot up.
2) High quality LCD by Sharp ASV. I would say it's 100% identical to my Evo 3D.
3) Good camera quality, Sony 5MP. Although can't compare with Evo 3D's camera, this camera is unlike those cheapo low quality type commonly found in China phone. It's good, really good but not superb.
4) Dual sim standby but if you're talking on one line, the other line will get busy tone.
5) Great battery life even though smaller battery 1600mAh. I can use almost 24h with both line active. Evo 3D lasted about 12h only with equal usage.
6) Dedicated camera button.
7) High quality finish, up to 90% of HTC's quality. Can easily mistaken as the real HTC if someone pass the phone to you without you noticing the Zopo logo at the back.
8) Minimal RAM usage. I'm getting >300MB free memory out of 512MB after the phone boot up using stock ROM. Evo 3D only have around 230MB free memory out of 1GB!
9) The phone is really fast even though only 1Ghz single core. Zooming in and out, scrolling and clicking on appz was very very smooth.
10) Value for $$$
11) Upgradable to ICS 4.0 end of this month.
Disadvantages
--------------
1) Simple interface/launcher. Uses default ADW launcher (maybe that's why it's faster.
2) No Google Market or Play Store. Need to install myself after rooting it.
3) Rooting the phone is a real pain. Most of the appz for rooting not working. Need to find a rooted ROM from Zopo site and flash it.
4) Can be laggy if the phone is busy reading from SDcard, probably due to single core.
5) Camera button is a single touch. Can't depress a little for focus and fully depress to capture picture.
6) Small internal memory. Only around 500MB available. The rest is mounted as internal sdcard around 2.2GB. Prefers if everything is mounted as internal memory and uses external sdcard as storage.
7) No custom ROM available. No tun.ko drivers, so no VPN for this phone.
8) Can't find any casing that fits this phone because of the reverse position of 3.5mm audio jack and power button. Initially I thought can use Evo 3D's casing.
9) Weak GPU. Plays simple games really well but those 3D intensive might be a little laggy (still playable though).
10) No analog TV commonly a/w China phones.
Anyone who manages to compile tun.ko drivers for this baby kindly pass me a copy as well. Really needs it. Thanks in advance!
Is it upgradable to ics.? I doubt lol
Sent from my HTC HD7 Pro/+ using Tapatalk 2
According to Zopo's forum, the admins claimed that new ICS will be out end of this month. They even posted a video of successful incorporation of ICS into their test phone. Hope the info is accurate unless I'm reading wrongly from Google's translation from Chinese to English. LOL!
1 Does skype and gtalk video calls work?
2 flash player?
3 temple runs smooth?
Sent from my HTC HD7 Pro/+ using Tapatalk 2
Zopo100 Antutu Benchmark
I'm sorry. So far haven't try skype and gtalk, as a matter infact, I never did use those on my Evo 3D either. However, this is the only android phone I've encountered so far (among my friends and colleagues) that supports 3G video call just like in those dumb phones. Dunno why HTC phones don't support 3G video call.
I don't use Temple for benchmark but I'll include the scores taken from Antutu Benchmark.
More of the good stuffs:
-----------------------
1) Flash worked flawlessly.
2) Camera has anti-flickering function. Very useful when taking photos of X-rays on the x-ray box with fluorescent tube lighting. Would e useful if you're taking screen shots from CRT monitor and even some LCD screens.
3) The plain vanilla Android 2.3.6 is very stable. Rarely got crashes.
4) Built-in ROM was pretty fast, at least equivalent to Class 6 sdcard. When I use the built-in ROM (automatically mounted as 2.2GB internal sdcard), things ran pretty quick on the phone. Now that I've switch the internal sdcard (mounted as external storage /sdcard2) and my Class 4 32GB sdcard (mounted as internal storage /sdcard), things are noticeably slower now.
More of the bad stuffs:
----------------------
1) The infamous disappearing videos/photos plaguing many android devices also present here but only if you put video/images on /sdcard2. So the workaround is to put video/images on /sdcard.
2) GPS lock takes long time, average 5min from cold start compared to under 1min in my Evo 3D. This is after I've changed the GPS regional setting and enable the EPO function. Even when locked, single is pretty weak. Easily looses lock when cloudy or driving under slightly covered area. Evo 3D GPS lock and signal was superb and the best so far.
3) Good luck in finding custom ROM/kernels. Maybe it's still new and not many users at the moment.
4) Built-in VPN function is a little flaky. Can't use 3rd party VPN appz becaus no compatible tun.ko drivers.
Could be good or bad stuff:
--------------------------
1) There are also no drivers included in the package. Luckily, it's fully compatible with HTC drivers. As a matter in fact, it's being recognized as HTC phone in Windows 7
2)Rubberized outer shell. Feels good and firm when you hold it in your hands. My only worried is that if it becomes sticky later on like what happened to some of my usb drive and writing pens which has a rubbery coating.

[Q] chinese knockoff for a new phone?

so im from serbia and iam about to sell my optimus 3d so i wanted to buy a new phone and the first thing that comes to my mind are the chinese knockoffs the specs are amazing and the phone seems to have a good build quality from the pictures but should i get it is it really that good? another soulution is to gather another 50$ and to buy a lg l9 primarily i want a phone with a big screen, decent camera, mid range specs so any suggestions what should i do?
sgs III clone with these specs:
- MTK Quad Core 1.4GHz processor
- Support GSM & WCDMA 3G network
- 1GB RAM / 16GB ROM
- 8MP rear camera, 2.0mp front camera
- Support WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
- Android 4.1.5 OS
this clone gets about 6600-7000 on antutu
the other one is a htc one x clone it has a stronger processor but a weaker camera but this clone scores 13000 on antutu which is amazing
amel95 said:
so im from serbia and iam about to sell my optimus 3d so i wanted to buy a new phone and the first thing that comes to my mind are the chinese knockoffs the specs are amazing and the phone seems to have a good build quality from the pictures but should i get it is it really that good? another soulution is to gather another 50$ and to buy a lg l9 primarily i want a phone with a big screen, decent camera, mid range specs so any suggestions what should i do?
sgs III clone with these specs:
- MTK Quad Core 1.4GHz processor
- Support GSM & WCDMA 3G network
- 1GB RAM / 16GB ROM
- 8MP rear camera, 2.0mp front camera
- Support WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
- Android 4.1.5 OS
this clone gets about 6600-7000 on antutu
the other one is a htc one x clone it has a stronger processor but a weaker camera but this clone scores 13000 on antutu which is amazing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dont believe those scores. They have been shown to enclude a hacked version of the app that dispalys false readings. Also you cant trust the hardware either as it seldom has what it states it does. As long as you can live with no updates it is not bad for a low to mid range device. Other then that it is not worth it. No development and they seldom follow gpl laws and post kernel source.

[Q] Which chinese tablet? Quad-core, HD/retina, 2GB RAM, BT

I'll be shortly in China very soon and would like to grab a "deal-breaker" tablet. Please help me out, I have no clue which brand is popular enough to be supported at XDA and which model is expected to have less problems. I'm sure there are good ones, better build quality, that play nicely, don't crash, don't have HW/SW issues, etc. Some popular model!
I'd like:
- Quad-core A9 Rock 3188 or Exynos 4412 CPU,
- 10,1" or 9,7" HD/retina resolution 1920x1200 or 2048x1536
- 2GB RAM
- Bluetooth
- HW volume buttons
- sleek/thin design
- better battery (>7,500 mAh)
- smaller bezel if possible
- black or silver if possible
- USB charging as well, if possible
- case with a BT (full-size) keyboard that fits
Wishful thinking:
- XDA support (like ROMs, problems solving, tweaks, maybe even running Ubuntu on it)
- manufacturer's support in FW updates
Both formats are ok:
a) iPad format (4:3), retina (2048x1536): e.g. Visture V79HD, Cube U9GT5/U9GTV, Yuandao Vido N90 FHD, Pipo M6, Hyundai Play X900 , Freelander PD800, Ainol Novo9, Aoson M33
b) Nexus format (16:10), HD (1920x1200): e.g. Ramos W30HD (Samsung SoC), Cube U30GT2 (ugly), Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD (expensive)
- What model of the above would you recommend?
- Pipo M6 is a newcomer, just introduced!
- I like Visture V79HD the most (with BT keyboard), but the are no reviews on the net, no XDA topics, empty forum on Visture website. Scroll down for lots of pics:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2048...C-Visture-V97-HD-Rockchip-Quad/914676697.html
- Popular Pipo M9 is nice, but low-res.
Please be kind and suggest a model or two or three that fits! Thanks a lot!
The Samsung note 10.1 is a great tablet and has a thread on xda. Also the nexus 10 is good to. I think they both have 2 gb of ram but I could be wrong. The note has tons of case options. Not sure about the nexus. Either one is a good choice.
Press thanks if I've helped you!
Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk 2
^ Yeah, thanks, I know a lot about Samsung Tab and Nexus, I'm now looking for a Chinese tablet, since I'll be in China for short and can buy it cheap.
plz provide a section for pipo and cube and hynudai and other chinesse tablets
for full support and devolopment
Freelander PD800 HD
I have no experience with it from a software standpoint, but in my opinion, just by looking at specs and what would probably get you the most stability/bang for your buck would be the upcoming Freelander PD800 HD. The HD version specifically. It's going to have an Exynos 5250 (the same SoC as in the Nexus 10) so the weird choppiness and lag spikes and battery issues the Rockchip/Allwinner chips have is going to be avoided. It also has a retina display as per the original Freelander PD800. You can go check it out on Geekbuying. Kind of want one myself.
My two cent's
Pipo M6.
Got mine a little more than a week ago and am very happy with it.
Sent from my JB 4.2.2 powered HTC Desire using Tapatalk
I got Pipo M8 Pro which works like a charm, not bulky & more stylish than M6. I played with both but finally choose M8 pro. It does not have a Retina display but I don't mind even though I have Full HD display on my smartphone. I'm using ROM (FW) with SDK 2.0 upgrade for RK3188. Smooth & nice.
However, I also think M6 is a very good deal, especially after releasing SDK upgrade.
Sent from my C2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Q] JIAYU

Hey guys , any help would be appreciated.
I'm definitely thinking about buying the JIAYU s3 but I need some help.
1. Are jiayu phones reliable and trustworthy for daily use?
2.Are the cameras good and is the quality of the build good?
3.Are there any legit sites that sell Jiayu phones? Because I was looking at some websites with suggestions but there all not working anymore........
4. How do Jiayu phones live up to other great brands?
The Jiayu s3 that i'm talking about has a 5.5inch ips fhd screen with 2/3gb of ram, a 16gb rom -and the new mtk6752 64bit processor with mali t-760 and scores around 45000 on antutu at a price of 170 dollars.
It probably is my “next" phone, but because I don't own one I can't answer your number 1, and 2 questions. For third there is a web site www.ibuygou.com where I saw it was on stock. Now I have Xiaomi mi2a which is Chinese phone too and I'm completely satisfied. The only thing that bothers me is the processor, especially GPS. But when there are some reviews I would buy it. Price is very nice.
My friend has ever bought a Jiayu G6 smartphone from http://www.pompmall.com/jiayu-g6-mtk6592-octa-core-android-4-2-smartphone-2gb-32gb-5-7-inch.html moths sgo, and she said it is really in high quality especially with the 8MP front and 13.0MP back dual camera specs. But i also prefer to but the new Jiayu S3 mobile, and waiting for the avialable.
1.&2. - Yes
3. http://www.ejiayu.com/en/Store.html
I can not decide what version to buy , 2 or 3 Gb - does it any matter? Do not need NTFC.
Chinese people do not give a source. with a complete set of new firmware will be a problem that's for sure. exception lenovo.
Sent from my ZP950H using XDA Free mobile app

Planning to upgrade phone but unsure of 'latest technology' etc

Firstly, appolgize if wrong thread & I know there's probably many posts asking the same thing...
I'm planning to get a new Mobile - after having a Galaxy S4 (stuck on Android 4 since KNOX trip) since they first came out.
I'm a VERY light user, only using it for occasional text/calls, the occasional game & a little bit of Web Browsing (if I find any free Wifi hotspots)
.. Been looking at 'mid-range' SIM-free phones at about £200-£300 (could go as high as £350-ish IF the phone offers better 'futureproofing) with the following basic specs
5" (or larger) screen
32Mb (or more) / 3Gb (or more) RAM
3000mA battery (or more)
SD Card slot
Android 6/7 (6 as long as there's planned update to 7)
As little bloatware as possible - not too fussed if not quite 'vanilla' android but close to it would be nice
Now at first I narrowed it down to possibly a Moto G4 Plus but I find that the UK version does NOT have a compass, which I believe (wrongly perhaps) is usually essential if you plan to use any sat-nav software (which I occcasionally have to use).
Then I considered waiting for the Nokia 6.. possibly even the Arte Black version (when it FINALLY arrives in the UK) - since it's virtually 'Vanilla' Android & would probably won't have too much Bloatware - but I then read reviews that it can be a 'little laggy' opening apps
Then the Huawei Honor 8 was thought about but then read that some reviewers don't like the Emotion UI very much (not knowing the actual reason why they don't like it I won't know if I'd like it)
& finally the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) or Galaxy J7 Pro (if I can find a shop that sells it) is added to my short list but considering how much bloatware was installed on my aging S4 I'm concerned the A5/J7 will also have umpteen apps I will never use installed
Now I know the Moto G4 / Nokia 6 have larger screens than the Honor 8/A5 & the specs are not quite the same between phones (I've been using another website to compare specs.. not sure if allowed to post link/name but hopefully it'll be allowed - GSMARENA) but since I've been out of the Android game for a while - I'm confused over many of the specs
Examples:
Chipset: Which is considered 'better' - a Qualcomm MSM8952 Snapdragon 617, Qualcomm MSM8937 Snapdragon 430, HiSilicon Kirin 950 or Exynos 7880 Octa
CPU: Octa-core (4x1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4x1.2 GHz Cortex-A53), Octa-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53, Octa-core 1.9 GHz Cortex-A53, or Octa-core (4x2.3 GHz Cortex-A72 & 4x1.8 GHz Cortex A53)
GPU: Adreno 405 , Adreno 505, Mali-T880 MP4, Mali-T830MP3
Screen: is 'IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen' better or worse than 'Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen'
what is a 'Li-Po 3000 mAh battery' - is it any better/worse than a 'Li-ion'
So , can anyone explain which is considered 'better' than the other specs..
Which phone would you consider from my short list... any suggestions of other phones I may've overlooked that have similar basic specs ??
Edit: So many views - no answers
Anyway, Still looking at phones
- what do you think about the Huawei P10 Lite??
Thanxs in advance

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