Database Info

[Q] Generic Chinese Clone Devices

Ok, so I'm pretty new to this whole Android thing, but I'm not daft and know a think or two about computers and software, so I'm not a complete 'noob'...
However, to spare me the drama of trawling through thousands of pages, I have a few quick concise questions, and would appreciate concise answers.
So I bought a generic handset, branded as an Onyx Dragon though AnTuTu benchmark app tells me its a Yusu... details and specs from Chinavision.com (search Onyx Dragon).
I initially bought it because I needed a new phone (been on a Moto V3 Razr for about 6 years!) so got this cos it was cheap and looked good. Runs Froyo on what I have found to be pretty **** hardware (MT6516, advertised as 416MHz but shown to be around 207MHz, but not sure if this is main CPU or radio core...) with not a lot of RAM. I installed an 8Gb SD card to save the apps and keep as much free internal space as possible, in case the OS supports disc memory (?). The wireless is good and screen works well, but the GPS, navigation and camera are rubbish, but they are not why I bought it; I have a decent camera and I can read a map. Its definitely 'entry level' so I'm not too bothered if I brick it.
Since I got it, and seeing the many cheap 'clones' out there, I'm keen to get into them a bit more and start developing. I already rooted it with z4root, BusyBox and Superuser all installed fine. ROM Manager is running but because I don't know the actual brand I'm not yet running ClockWorkMod (doesn't show up in the list). I'm keen to install Gingerbread or maybe even CyanogenMod 7, but cannot flash the ROM without CWM. Can anyone tell me what phone 'model' I should use for this particular handset?
I can't overclock the chipset, but have been looking at other clones to play with, such as htc Incredible G11i Pro clone from etotalk.com and 'CyberStar' 3G handset with MT6573 650MHz chipset (also from Chinavision).
Does anyone have any knowledge/experience with these clones? They look great and if they work as well as the budget model I have now then there is certainly potential. Sure, they may not be as good as a genuine Galaxy or Nexus, but then the price reflects that. However, as a cheap development platform you can't really go wrong! I'd like to see faster processors and more hardware mod ability such as clocking, just to see what is possible. Anyone tried ICS on one of these? I read elsewhere that if Froyo runs ok on a cheap device then GB should be better. My friend has GB 2.3.3 on a genuine $500 Galaxy S2 and I'd love to show him up with a rooted and clocked clone running ICS for a fraction of the price!!
Well, thats not as concise as I would like, but it covers pretty much everything. One last thing though, I cannot install ES File Explorer 1.6.1, it will download from Market and attempt to install but then fail. The latest version I have is the pre-installed 1.4.2.2. I've tried everything I can think of; downloading on my Mac and copying via USB to install from Astro making sure ES is not running, failed. Tried uninstalling ES with ROM Toolbox having root access and disabled AVG, failed. Tried to launch new version from package options, failed. I have installed ES Task Manager v1.2 but cannot use all the features as it says File Explorer needs to be updated, and needless to say updating it from the prompts failed as well... Any ideas? I'm thinking a flash to GB should include the latest version (or better alternative).
Thanks all in advance!

I don't think it's possible to run ICS on such a low spec'd device. This onyx dragon runs on a 416Mhz ARM9 processor with a 200 Mhz ARM7 GPU. Even the G1 that uses a 528Mhz ARM11 CPU can't run ICS well. I would suggest that you give up on theses crappy chineses devices. If you don't have money you can find a LG Optimus One for 100 bucks on ebay and it is A LOT better than any of these chinese crap phones
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

For CWM, take a look at this site http://www.koushikdutta.com/2010/02/clockwork-recovery-image.html and the quote below
Don't see your phone? Email me if you want to help me get it working!
And of course, all the source can be found on Github.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A

Hey all, thanks for the feedback. Basically, sure I don't want to spend a lot being a student, I don't have a lot, but I'm keen to get more out of what I can afford, hence the Chinese crap (yes it is crap but if it does what you need...) : ) just a shame I can't clock mine! Does anyone know if ANY MediaTec chips can be?
Sure, I think running ICS is a bit optimistic, but I'd still like to give GB or C-Mod a go, providing I can get CWM installed. I'd like to compile myself and even think about refining my own version, perhaps slimming down a newer version to run on low performance hardware. What's this about a special cable needed with a 3.5mm jack?
And am I right in thinking Honeycomb was only for tablets, not phones...?

droidscope said:
Hey all, thanks for the feedback. Basically, sure I don't want to spend a lot being a student, I don't have a lot, but I'm keen to get more out of what I can afford, hence the Chinese crap (yes it is crap but if it does what you need...) : ) just a shame I can't clock mine! Does anyone know if ANY MediaTec chips can be?
Sure, I think running ICS is a bit optimistic, but I'd still like to give GB or C-Mod a go, providing I can get CWM installed. I'd like to compile myself and even think about refining my own version, perhaps slimming down a newer version to run on low performance hardware. What's this about a special cable needed with a 3.5mm jack?
And am I right in thinking Honeycomb was only for tablets, not phones...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you are right about honeycomb. As for the device. Without kernel source which will never be released due to copyright issues you may have a bit of trouble Modding it. CM only supports authentic devices and not clones as the hardware specs as you learned are faked and never true.

droidscope said:
Hey all, thanks for the feedback. Basically, sure I don't want to spend a lot being a student, I don't have a lot, but I'm keen to get more out of what I can afford, hence the Chinese crap (yes it is crap but if it does what you need...) : ) just a shame I can't clock mine! Does anyone know if ANY MediaTec chips can be?
Sure, I think running ICS is a bit optimistic, but I'd still like to give GB or C-Mod a go, providing I can get CWM installed. I'd like to compile myself and even think about refining my own version, perhaps slimming down a newer version to run on low performance hardware. What's this about a special cable needed with a 3.5mm jack?
And am I right in thinking Honeycomb was only for tablets, not phones...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi droidscope,
Not all the Chinese phones are crap there are a few very capable phones now entering the market and they are catching up the bigboys rapidly.
For more info & reviews on the latest Chinese phones check over here http://www.gizchina.com/category/phones/ Try to stick with the branded chinese phones such as Zopo, ZTE, Newman etc because there is at least some support where as the direct copy/clones have no support at all. If buying try to get the phone pre rooted because some of the Chinese phone are getting more difficult to root. I would look here http://www.etotalk.com/ if buying and select the MOD ROM $4.99 for most phones then the phone will come pre rooted with working playstore language etc. They do not 1 to 1 copys although some of the phones have more than a passing look of some of the more famous brands. I have used them a few times and they have not let me down be sure to email them first to ask about stock levels though.

[Q] Current recommendations for powerful low-budget phone / tablet supported by CM?

I'd like to buy a new phone and/or tablet, I don't mind if no-name Chinese, but it has to be
powerful with up-to-date hardware
low-budget (I mean a real bargain)
suitable for running CyanogenMod
No idea about a tablet yet, it should be around 10" (min. 1280x720px) with built-in 3G, thought about a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 GT-P5100, but compared to some Chinese devices I found on Alibaba it's quite expensive, with the freshly announced Tab 3 even at a higher price.
Concerning the phone I found the amazing Lenovo A820 at an unreal low price with top specs, but it's Dual SIM and not supported by CM (in fact CM currently has no Dual SIM support at all).
The major issue with no-name Chinese devices is the uncertain CM support (don't mind if officially or unofficially supported), but not being able to install CM would be a showstopper for me, as I have no intentions at all to run any Android device with GAPPS installed!
And advice?

Master One said:
And advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most Chinese devices (HTC and huawei and Oppo excluded) will not get CM support. If they do, it will be very limited. As in, they'll stop after maybe a couple months of nightlies.
Lenovo makes android tablets? Hmmm.
And stuff that is made specifically for China is usually much cheaper, but much harder to get your hands on.
My 0.02.

After some more research and searching through the list of supported devices at CM I came to the conclusion, that unfortunately none of such interesting Chinese / no-name hardware is suitable for me. I just have to have CM without GAPPS on my device, there is no way around it.
It seems there are quite some devices coming now with reasonable (and similar) specs at very low prices, like the freshly announced Huawei Ascend G525, which are all Dual SIM. If it wasn't about the missing CM support, I'd go for something like the Lenovo A820 or similar.
I still don't know what to do. The tablet is not a must-have, but a new phone would be nice right now. The list on CM does not show which devices are new, it should be a recent 2013 model.
So any hint, which of the un-/officially CM supported recent devices would be worth looking at?

Please use the thread stickied for this type of discussion
Thread closed

Has anyone bought generic unbranded smartphones available on ebay etc?

1) I'm hoping someone can advise pls! I'm a very light user mostly for wsapp and sometimes maps/gps when walking (no gaming and occasionally watch youtube videos) so was hoping to find something £40-£50.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M20-Pro-...var=564119885073&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649
There are others I'm looking at but they don't mention anything about the processor (sometimes it'll mention the number of cores but no name)? The specs seem way better than even xiaomi phones for the same money, I know there's gonna be no support updates etc. how important is that? Couldn't I just search for a custom ROM, try to upgrade to higher android version etc? Would it be difficult/impossible to find roms for an unbranded phone?
Also I've read that there's a possibility they could just be sneaky re-brands so potentially could be getting a xiaomi etc. phone for less?
2) I'm also considering paying a bit more if unbranded is a no-go. Xiaomi Redmi 7 3GB/32GB around £100 vs Xiaomi Mi Play 4GB/64GB if it's £6 more?
I like the extra ram and storage for only £6 more but the battery seems better on R7 and larger screen

MTK devices
supashaka said:
1) I'm hoping someone can advise pls! I'm a very light user mostly for wsapp and sometimes maps/gps when walking (no gaming and occasionally watch youtube videos) so was hoping to find something £40-£50.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M20-Pro-...var=564119885073&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649
There are others I'm looking at but they don't mention anything about the processor (sometimes it'll mention the number of cores but no name)? The specs seem way better than even xiaomi phones for the same money, I know there's gonna be no support updates etc. how important is that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen some advertisements (on wish.com or Ali Express) for devices with no apparent name brand that mention having 10 core processors, dual sim, Android 9 and more. These are all MTK devices which pose difficulties if you want to flash a ROM into them to upgrade or change something. RCA tablets are MTK devices and I, along with many others have spent a lot of time just trying to gain access to such devices. It's been done. However, it has been more than difficult as of yet to find any compatible ROMs and these devices are extremely picky when it comes to using other ROMs. For those of us that are currently still working on it, we have yet to find anything compatible. That's not saying they are bad devices, they are actually pretty good I've had mine (the RCA Maven, Viking and Galileo) for years with little problems.

Casper Young said:
I've seen some advertisements (on wish.com or Ali Express) for devices with no apparent name brand that mention having 10 core processors, dual sim, Android 9 and more. These are all MTK devices which pose difficulties if you want to flash a ROM into them to upgrade or change something. RCA tablets are MTK devices and I, along with many others have spent a lot of time just trying to gain access to such devices. It's been done. However, it has been more than difficult as of yet to find any compatible ROMs and these devices are extremely picky when it comes to using other ROMs. For those of us that are currently still working on it, we have yet to find anything compatible. That's not saying they are bad devices, they are actually pretty good I've had mine (the RCA Maven, Viking and Galileo) for years with little problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. Any MTK processor devices are difficult/unlikey to have custom roms or tweak/upgrade in any way?

MTK devices
supashaka said:
Thanks for the reply. Any MTK processor devices are difficult/unlikey to have custom roms or tweak/upgrade in any way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Theoretically there should be, but many here would rather work on the newest devices most of which are not MTK (Media Tek). They're not built like Samsungs and if you open one up the whole motherboard is the size of today's phones or roughly one quarter the size of the tablet which could be the reason they're so cheap. The only thing I've been able to flash into mine is the original stock firmware, anything else led to bricking. And recovering from a brick is difficult the SP Flash tool is nothing like the Odin3 we use for Samsungs.

Casper Young said:
Theoretically there should be, but many here would rather work on the newest devices most of which are not MTK (Media Tek). They're not built like Samsungs and if you open one up the whole motherboard is the size of today's phones or roughly one quarter the size of the tablet which could be the reason they're so cheap. The only thing I've been able to flash into mine is the original stock firmware, anything else led to bricking. And recovering from a brick is difficult the SP Flash tool is nothing like the Odin3 we use for Samsungs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have also bought uhans u300 and took a look at the Development & Support topic here, there's absolutely no way to upgrade it from Android 6.0?

Cheap Chinese phones with good custom ROM support

Hi,
since today there's the big 11.11 sale and I could need a new secondary phone I was looking for a cheaper model (say up to 150€ maybe 200€).
One could get some very nice hardware for this money already, but unfortunately they come with software that I don't trust.
Also I'd like to avoid Xiaomi and their annoying bootloader unlocking process (unless it's Android One).
Do you know any newer phone model or brand in general that has good custom ROM support? I looked at the supported device list of LineageOS but most of the devices are either a bit old or quite expensive. Ulefone, Dogee, Umidigi, Oukitel or how they are all called - I don't care as long as I can install my own software.
Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

simsees said:
Hi,
since today there's the big 11.11 sale and I could need a new secondary phone I was looking for a cheaper model (say up to 150€ maybe 200€).
One could get some very nice hardware for this money already, but unfortunately they come with software that I don't trust.
Also I'd like to avoid Xiaomi and their annoying bootloader unlocking process (unless it's Android One).
Do you know any newer phone model or brand in general that has good custom ROM support? I looked at the supported device list of LineageOS but most of the devices are either a bit old or quite expensive. Ulefone, Dogee, Umidigi, Oukitel or how they are all called - I don't care as long as I can install my own software.
Thanks in advance for your recommendations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Idk if this offer will be available in your country, but for 204€ you can have a google pixel 3a, it has really good ROM support, easy bootloader unlock, and official Android updates.
Here's the link : https://www.backmarket.fr/google-go...cSYGn2dk7zH0iLe_IMj76LldDMGMtSYRoCnuoQAvD_BwE
Try this one if the other doesn't work with your country :
https://fr.shopping.rakuten.com/mfp...rid=pt|930664584875|m|471167205547|3912771384
In short, Google pixel 3a is a good 2ndary phone

The cheap knock offs state fake specs on the phone and descriptions. Since they are all slightly different you would have to study the product in detail using an app called phone information. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inpocketsoftware.andInfo&hl=en_CA&gl=US
The most common processor is the MT65XX. Most of these phones are surprisingly 32bit only. The sellers will never tell you exact specs before you buy, so it's a gamble. I have the Oukitel K9 with a MT6765 that works with Android 12 GSI, but lacks a partition and required some additional magisk setup. Having this knowledge you can look for Oukitel as a model number in the Spec on websites. For instance Mix 4 (knock off) all fake specs but the model is Oukitel and chances are the processor should be Mediatek. If the processor is greater than MT67XX and Ram is 4GB then you will be able to install GSI provided the partitions are standard.

Tablet custom Roms

Hi there,
I noticed that there isn't as much activity for custom Roms for tablets as there are for smartphones. I wonder why. Is it because there aren't as many tablets as smartphones and therefore there is less interest in building custom roms?
I wanted to buy a tablet for my mother ( Chuwi HiPad Max) and noticed that the manufacturer doesn't have a good reputation for updating their devices (just few security patches and that's it), so I looked here on XDA with the hope of some custom roms but couldn't find any (not only for this device which is fairly new, but for most tablets even of other brands).
Should I buy a specific tablet (not more expensive than 200€/$) that is known to have more roms? Do you have any recommendation? The tablet will be used for watching Netflix/Prime Videos/YouTube, emailing and internet surfing.
Thank you

Purchase the 8-inch Amazon Fire HD 10 ( 2021 ) tablet ( cheapest one ) or the 10-inch Lenovo Smart Tab P10 tablet: you can get both on Amazon.

JustIceForSake said:
Hi there,
I noticed that there isn't as much activity for custom Roms for tablets as there are for smartphones. I wonder why. Is it because there aren't as many tablets as smartphones and therefore there is less interest in building custom roms?
I wanted to buy a tablet for my mother ( Chuwi HiPad Max) and noticed that the manufacturer doesn't have a good reputation for updating their devices (just few security patches and that's it), so I looked here on XDA with the hope of some custom roms but couldn't find any (not only for this device which is fairly new, but for most tablets even of other brands).
Should I buy a specific tablet (not more expensive than 200€/$) that is known to have more roms? Do you have any recommendation? The tablet will be used for watching Netflix/Prime Videos/YouTube, emailing and internet surfing.
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Custom rom development is based on people using the tablet and being interested in making other custom roms for their tablet. Either those who are developers don't have a need for a tablet or there are developers without an incentive (money) to develop a custom rom. Developing a custom rom takes time, even months. Why should someone invest months without pay? Thus the lack of custom roms. Now you could try your luck with generic system images. Those are kind of a custom rom. Made to run on an unlimited number of devices, smartphones and tablets included.

Fytdyh said:
Custom rom development is based on people using the tablet and being interested in making other custom roms for their tablet. Either those who are developers don't have a need for a tablet or there are developers without an incentive (money) to develop a custom rom. Developing a custom rom takes time, even months. Why should someone invest months without pay? Thus the lack of custom roms. Now you could try your luck with generic system images. Those are kind of a custom rom. Made to run on an unlimited number of devices, smartphones and tablets included.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very interesting, thank you

Where I can find chuwi hipad max roms, how to root device and recover

hello i have the same problem ,i need the firmware !!