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[Q] Questions about Chinese phones + recommendation

I've been searching for a new phone and I'm considering possibly buying a Chinese phone. I know there are certain brands which can be trusted (Huawei, ZTE, Coolpad, Lenovo and a few others). The thing is that I want to know more about the chipsets that these phones use. So here's a few questions.
First, the two chipsets that I'm interested in are the MT6577 and the MSM8225 (S4 Play). How is the everyday user experience with both of these chipsets? I know that in general the MT6577 seems to be the better performer in terms of benchmarks being a Cortex A9 v. the Cotex A5 of the MSM8225. While I would like to do some gaming, I'm not really a hardcore gamer. But what's most important to me is the smoothness of everyday use. I'd like UI performance to be as fluid as possible and for apps to work well (again, not looking for anything out of this world, but steady). Also if anyone has had experience with more widely available chipsets from OMAP, Nvidia, or Snapdragon (especially the MSM8255, which I've had experience with) where would you place the performance of these two chipsets compared to those chipsets?
Second, is battery life performance. I know that the chipsets themselves aren't the only factor in battery life performance, but I'd like to know which one of the two is most efficient in general.
Also a couple of general questions.
I'm considering possibly getting a dual sim phone (well most of these phones seem to be dual sim). I was wondering if these phones have different [manufacturer specific] methods of managing the sims or if they are managed Android itself. I'm considering using the phone I get on a US pre-paid carrier (At&t/At&t MNVO) and what I'm thinking of doing is using the GSM slot for pay-as-you go minutes and text and the WCDMA slot for a daily use plan.
Also how's the call quality of these phones? The reviews on some of these phones that I've found seem to omit this. While I don't talk a ton, I would like to have a phone that sounds good and is easy to understand. I've taken calls at the place I work from cell phones that sound absolutely terrible lol. I don't want a phone that sounds bad.
There are a few other specs that I'm looking for in a phone (if you guys have any recommendations):
3.5 to 4.3 inch screen (maybe 4.5)
4GB ROM (I've heard that these phones also come with some manufacturer software that takes up a lot of storage in addition to Android itself)
5-8MP camera (not incredibly important. I know that MP aren't the only spec that makes for a good camera)
Price range is anywhere between $100-250. I might be interested in getting a Xiaomi phone as well, although I know that they are very hard to find and can be significantly out of my price range.

Chinese phones & their influence

Hi everyone
I'm new to the mobile phone scene but after a bit of research on deciding which phones to invest in I've noticed something; Chinese phones (not easily available in Western countries) have better specs and prices compared with the phones we have from brands like Samsung, Apple, HTC, Sony etc.
I'm talking about Vivo phones, Xiaomi etc. These phones routinely have 16mp cameras with OIS, large 2.0 (or even bigger) sensors, full HD or QHD 5 to 6" screens, 2 to 3GB of RAM, very large front facing cameras (5 to 8mp with flash, 1080P recording), Snapdragon 805 chips and batteries 3500mh+. All this in bodies thinner than 7mm (in some cases, the low5mm range). Many have aluminium chassis too.
Im wondering why we still see phones from Samsung, HTC, Apple and even the Nexus 6 (which is supposed to be absolutely premium in specs & quality) selling for such high prices but with specs lower than the Chinese phones. Surly Samsung & these other brands can release a phone, keep their prices the same but match or exceed the specs of these Chinese phones.
Why does the Galaxy S5 have a comparably low front facing camera, smaller battery and is thicker than these Chinese phones? Or the Nexus 6 - why is the FF camera smaller, why is the rear camera smaller, why does it have a smaller battery and why is it so much thicker? Surly these phones could match the specs of the Chinese phones.
Example: The upcoming VIVO PD1305 rumoured specs (below) should best (or at least match) the Nexus 6 in every respect. Thinner, same chipset, same amount of RAM, better front and rear cameras, stereo speakers, NFC, larger battery etc. Why couldn't Google have these specs in the Nexus 6 and sell it at the current price? The VIVO is expected to be cheaper by $100+. The specs are leaked; previous VIVO leaked specs matched very closely to the final product and there is strong evidence to support that this new VIVO phone's specs will match to the leaked specs as all the technology has been around for a short while now.
Basically what I'm trying to establish is why the Western market is so full of overpriced phones which can't complete on every front with cheaper Chinese phones? Will Samsung etc actually match or best these Chinese phones in terms of specs?
Specs:
6-inch IPS display with 2560×1440 resolution and 490ppi
5.68mm (0.22") thin
162g (5.71 ounces) weight
Snapdragon 805 processor with 3GB of RAM
32GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot that goes up to 128GB
13MP rear camera with optical image stabilization (OIS) and dual-LED flash, 8MP front camera with 88-degree wide view lens
Dedicated ES9018 and OPA2604 audio chips
NFC
LTE Radio support (confirmed at some sources; still in debate as it is useless in China)
Wireless charging
Basic water resistance
Heart rate monitor and a fingerprint trace the source function
3500mAh battery
NOTE: Before anyone says it - that most Chinese phones don't support LTE networks - from some reading there is talk that the latest and upcoming Chinese manufacturers are including support for LTE networks as their market expands. So, they are covering ground fast and innovating far faster than any of the phones we see in our Western markets.
In my opinion the specs for the latest Chinese phones (especially for the VIVO listed) put the Nexus 6 and its rivals to shame. A bit sad.

The problem with these chinese phones is, that you hardly have any warranty.

[email protected] said:
The problem with these chinese phones is, that you hardly have any warranty.
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Who needs a warranty for a hundred dollar thing...?
Never thought about this question, but now i am really thinking that it's a great idea to buy Chinese phones!
i have had a friend that bought a phone, he was using it for two months until i told him that it is a Chinese device.......

Newyork! said:
Who needs a warranty for a hundred dollar thing...?
Never thought about this question, but now i am really thinking that it's a great idea to buy Chinese phones!
i have had a friend that bought a phone, he was using it for two months until i told him that it is a Chinese device.......
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Okay, maybe you are right, but you have hardly any support and if its an chinese phone who hardly anyone has, you can be sure you will not get any updates.

[email protected] said:
Okay, maybe you are right, but you have hardly any support and if its an chinese phone who hardly anyone has, you can be sure you will not get any updates.
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When i buy a old Motorola phone i also don't have any support or updates....
For 100 dollars or lower it pays!

Newyork! said:
When i buy a old Motorola phone i also don't have any support or updates....
For 100 dollars or lower it pays!
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Ok you are right and if you are lucky and buy a chinese phone with an large userbase it pays twice because you get support by the community around that phone

[Q] Chinese Budget Mid-Range phones - Help me to choose ! ;)

Hey guys,
I would like to start a discussion that would aggregate meta-data available on the Chinese budget phones under £200 with mid-range specs, firstly in order to help me ,but also others to decide the correct one as there is scarcity of reviews and lots of them are paid for stubs and contain lots of misleading data.
I have spent last two weeks researching on my leisure the best possible option for the chinese budget mid-range purchase. I have been hoping to get a device priced well under £200 that would field a solid camera, 4G (800mhz) ,superb hardware perf. CPU, GPU and GPS, have solid battery 2700mh+ (ideally with quick charge function) have appealing design and ideally max up to 5" of display size with the Lollipop upgradeability.
I have seen and read lots of reviews including yours and concluded on following:
- Mediatek did really break out of its shackles and these new 64bit SoCs ARM A53 Cortex with 6732 and 6752 are real deal breakers, so I have found a plenty of quad core 5" phones that satisfy my hunger for the performance stuffed by features - >
- Kingzone N3 Plus , Elephone P6000 (and possibly P3000s) , Lenovo P70 and also a bit more expensive Zopo ZP920 magic.
--- > now from what I have seen about these devices they are united under one oblivious problem that I cannot simply overlook despite being on low budget. And that is the overall quality of their cameras. Here we can easily conclude that they generally suck, although Zopo Zp920 is one of the favourites together with ZTE Blade S6 ,but here had battery life really swept all my hopes into oblivion. One of the issues I ve found here is that almost every budget manufacturer simply loves to overstate the resolution capability of these phones, I have been digging deeper just to find out that Elephone and Kingzone simply equip their devices with a lower quality Omnivision or Sony (ElE has even issued two different sensors for the same phone due to shortage of stock) that are really just 8Mpx interpolated to 13 MPx. I have not seen many useful reviews for N3 Plus despite it's appealing design and functions comparable to P3000s, but I assume the camera problem will be exactly the same (as it is with the alleged overstated battery capacity). Despite this problematic, I have found out that the camera on P6000 is kind of controversial.
P6000 is slacked as most of the same priced phones for underperformance in low light situations., however, I have found several contrasting reviews that even claim that its low light/night images are even better that on the famous Xiaomi Mi4. From pics I ve seen I wonder whether the varying quality can be a result of different sensors used or for example that pictures have been taken on its native 8MPx res rather then extrapolated 13MPx . I am writing this really because, P6000 seems to be after all my best choice together with its 32bit brother P3000s. I have tried to look out for some comparison between these two especially camera wise (talking about rear cameras, as I am not really that concerned about the front ones), but I failed. Problem is that Ele nor reviewers really state what sensors are these phones using. But P6000 seems (at least from some outdoors pictures) quite sharper and with better dynamic range, but I am still undecided.
Is camera on these phones also fixable software wise as I am not really into vanilla camera apps.
Now first questions on you. Firstly, do you know about any device currently priced under £200 that would match my criteria or at least that would have really exceptional camera for this price range ? Is Elephone P6000 superior to P3000s in terms of performance and camera or are they pretty much comparable ? Also how much of difference we talking in terms of GPU between Mali T450-M4 and T760 M2 ? It seems that finding a solid camera that would boast at least with pretty standard Exmor 214 sensor with a solid battery life is almost impossible, or I have largely overlooked something.
I also understand that if camera wise my 5" quest would prove unsuccessful I will have to go phablet wise and I am although kinda reluctantly to do so. Here I have researched my field on comparable level.
My finalists are Jiayu S3 , Kingzone Z1 and Eco E04 Aurora (P7000 and M1 are excluded as they re not supporting my LTE band 20) On E04 side I am quite baffled as it initially looked as a superb device , but many responses pointed out its inaccurate GPS and also camera seems to be exaggerated as 16MPx with unknown sensor model. I have seen some really great shots, but also some not very good - again probably due to extrapolation perhaps. Also it only comes with 2GB at the moment and without NFC support. So in phablet side S3 seems to be the king - yet, I have seen some really crap videos took on this devices, where reviewer admitted that this is a firmware error and that fix is on its way, so the S3 leaves me with the only really big concern and that is the battery recharge time that is apparently the slowest around here (up to 4hrs !!! ) which again made my enthusiasm cease. And then we have here Kingzone Z1. Apart from only HD display, it is stuffed with features and seems to be a direct competitor for all 5.5s of its price range. However, despite being out there are no reviews that I can hold on, so for me this device also represents a great unknown.
Equally, I have been checking camera comparison for the upper-midrange flagships like Meizu Mx4 and OnePlusOne just to find out that not even these guys despite their renown are capable of great shots under low-light conditions.
Also I am in a preference of 64bit processors especially the new Mediatek 6732 and 6752. I am ready for your tips and advices, also if you can bring in links to some camera comparisons among these phones and more in depth reviews I d be glad. Also will happy if you bring up some real data about camera sensors and other modules that are under suspicion to be lies presented by manufacturers.
And if you own any of the phones mentioned, state a brief overview about their pro/cons.
Waiting forward to your responses
Thanks
Six

HUAWEI fanboy here. :thumbup:
Sent from my HUAWEI Y536A1 using XDA Free mobile app

I recently discovered Xiaomi and think I will never go back! Good quality and low prices
I have RedMi Note 4G which is a fairly perfect phone for its price range. Never had a problem. It hasn't 800 MHz LTE though, but it's worth checking out other Xiaomi phones too.
---------- Post added at 01:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:03 AM ----------
Also, I would reccomend avoid mediatek devices if you can. They are generally poorer in video performance than Qualcomm / Intel ones. I had a huawei G700, while specs say it's a great phone in my experience it was not. Lags and slowness was frequent issues.
Mediatek also has a bad reputation in open source community, modding/upgrading/installing recovery and custom ROMs would be impossible or at least harder.
I am very happy with my Xiaomi and maybe you could be too!

udda90 said:
I recently discovered Xiaomi and think I will never go back! Good quality and low prices
I have RedMi Note 4G which is a fairly perfect phone for its price range. Never had a problem. It hasn't 800 MHz LTE though, but it's worth checking out other Xiaomi phones too.
---------- Post added at 01:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:03 AM ----------
Also, I would reccomend avoid mediatek devices if you can. They are generally poorer in video performance than Qualcomm / Intel ones. I had a huawei G700, while specs say it's a great phone in my experience it was not. Lags and slowness was frequent issues.
Mediatek also has a bad reputation in open source community, modding/upgrading/installing recovery and custom ROMs would be impossible or at least harder.
I am very happy with my Xiaomi and maybe you could be too!
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I got a Xiaomi Mi Note (Dual Sim and dual 4G) from China recently, which is fast (3G RAM), smooth (iphone style ROM) and good quality and just a little over £200.
But please bear in mind that it only supports FDD-LTE B3/B7, which means if your carrier is Vodafone UK (I'm in the UK by the way) you can not use LTE outside of London,Manchester and Birmingham.
(I don't have permission to post an outside link yet, but if wiki 'LTE-Advanced' you can see Vodafone UK is using B20 throughout the UK and B7 in 3 cities an the moment)
Only 3 and EE use LTE B3/B7.

GeorgeZZzz said:
I got a Xiaomi Mi Note (Dual Sim and dual 4G) from China recently, which is fast (3G RAM), smooth (iphone style ROM) and good quality and just a little over £200.
But please bear in mind that it only supports FDD-LTE B3/B7, which means if your carrier is Vodafone UK (I'm in the UK by the way) you can not use LTE outside of London,Manchester and Birmingham.
(I don't have permission to post an outside link yet, but if wiki 'LTE-Advanced' you can see Vodafone UK is using B20 throughout the UK and B7 in 3 cities an the moment)
Only 3 and EE use LTE B3/B7.
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In the end I went with Jiyau S3 Advanced, bout £160 and I cannot complain. Flashed it into Flyme OS and man this machine rocks the socks ! The resurrection of Mediatek - this 64bit M6752 Octacore smites Snapdragon 610 with an easy apparently.
Also camerawise - Sony Exmor IMAX 214 RS really delivers the promise - Removable battery makes it a dream. After 2 weeks of research, I am only happy I did not fell for anyother device, - plus supports Band 20 /800 Mhz @4G so it's GiffGaff & O2 ready.

Xiaomi phones are pretty good in many aspects. I'm planning on getting one in the near future. Some of my friends have Xiaomi devices and so far they haven't had any complaints.

sixtheninth said:
In the end I went with Jiyau S3 Advanced, bout £160 and I cannot complain. Flashed it into Flyme OS and man this machine rocks the socks ! The resurrection of Mediatek - this 64bit M6752 Octacore smites Snapdragon 610 with an easy apparently.
Also camerawise - Sony Exmor IMAX 214 RS really delivers the promise - Removable battery makes it a dream. After 2 weeks of research, I am only happy I did not fell for anyother device, - plus supports Band 20 /800 Mhz @4G so it's GiffGaff & O2 ready.
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Good for you. I'm still looking for the solution to unlcok LTE B20 on my Xiaomi MI Note LTE...
This post is not working for me...:crying:

yea, i'd look into the xiaomi options. it's surely gonna be my next purchase, although im also a bit of a lenovo fan.
now i have a jiayu g2f, i spent about 100 dollars on it at the time. i can say that it beats the quality of my previous(samsung) phones. In speed it is definately similar to my tab4 10.1. only thing is that it heats a bit more.
so like was mentioned, i'd also look into the jiayu s3 if i was you.

You can choose Huawei
I am a chinese and now i am in china ,I think Huawei is a good choice.Huawei have many patents and their devices is so good.Now i am using Huawei honor 6.(my english is so bad,if i had a misspelling,please pardon me)

Galaxy S10E or the Mi 9

Straight to the point, I'm looking to purchase one of the phones but I'm not sure which to get. I'm mostly looking into the selfie camera and XDA support so yeah not sure which one

Supracer said:
Straight to the point, I'm looking to purchase one of the phones but I'm not sure which to get. I'm mostly looking into the selfie camera and XDA support so yeah not sure which one
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I will go for Xiaomi mi 9. Wide angle camera, Dual SIM, Amoled, My mother toung, Call recorder and great price. Only missing 3.5 aux but I will survive. BB Oneplus....

My list:
Mi9: Most likely better AOSP support, cheaper
S10E: better screen, 3,5 jack, smaller size

I'm also thinking about buying either the Mi9 or S10E. At the moment, I'm slightly leaning towards the Mi9 because of the price and also because I don't really like Samsung's software.
That being said, Samsung has improved radically over the past years and Xiaomi is not exactly delivering mint Android either.
As for the size: Would love to buy the Mi9 SE but it looks like it's not going to be available in Europe and that it will also lack the necessary 4G bands to make it work properly.

ljo13 said:
I'm also thinking about buying either the Mi9 or S10E. At the moment, I'm slightly leaning towards the Mi9 because of the price and also because I don't really like Samsung's software.
That being said, Samsung has improved radically over the past years and Xiaomi is not exactly delivering mint Android either.
As for the size: Would love to buy the Mi9 SE but it looks like it's not going to be available in Europe and that it will also lack the necessary 4G bands to make it work properly.
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Would definitely go for the Mi9. Depending on region Samsung has decided to use their Exynos variant in comparison to Snapdragon 855.
We all know the Exynos is faster than the Snapdragon 855 but with regards to power efficiency, we are still unsure. Last years Galaxy S9 Exynos variant suffered from severe battery issues which ultimately resulted in me returning my S9 within the cooling off period.
The Mi 9 is very attractive with its Snapdragon 855 and scores well on gsmarena battery test even beating the p20 pro (4000mah) which I currently own and would not sell apart from sh** selfie camera being worst ever. Ultimately Samsungs decision to only ship Exynos variant phones within the UK is a shocking one.
We should be given the choice

Mi9 I've just received mine.
I was going to get the S10+ but when I seen this and the price tag my mind was made.
Screen is great,cameras front and back are brilliant, it's so fast and smooth it's unreal. Fingerprint scanner is very good it's so quick and accurate nothing like OnePlus 6t that was dreadful for me.
Only think this device doesn't have for me is dual speakers, IP rating, SD slot.

Buy Mi9 Only if you dont mind the lack of OIS....camera at night is a joke.i sell mine for that after just 24 hours!!!

Z953RR said:
Buy Mi9 Only if you dont mind the lack of OIS....camera at night is a joke.i sell mine for that after just 24 hours!!!
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Agreed, camera so far one of the aspects I'm slightly less pleased with, especially coming from the Pixel 2 xl. However, a Mi 8 gcam port works already and so does night sight, which even though its not meant for this device works pretty well. So I'm definitely gonna be patient and follow its development as great things await us I believe! Would be great if we can use the telephoto and wide angle cameras with the gcam port!

I have installed gcam in mi9 with night mode... quality better BUT NOT with low light.you need a tripod ..theres not optical image stabilization (hardware)

mulkman said:
Would definitely go for the Mi9. Depending on region Samsung has decided to use their Exynos variant in comparison to Snapdragon 855.
We all know the Exynos is faster than the Snapdragon 855 but with regards to power efficiency, we are still unsure. Last years Galaxy S9 Exynos variant suffered from severe battery issues which ultimately resulted in me returning my S9 within the cooling off period.
The Mi 9 is very attractive with its Snapdragon 855 and scores well on gsmarena battery test even beating the p20 pro (4000mah) which I currently own and would not sell apart from sh** selfie camera being worst ever. Ultimately Samsungs decision to only ship Exynos variant phones within the UK is a shocking one.
We should be given the choice
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I'm not so sure about "Exynos" is faster than 855, of course maybe Samsung phones with Exynos feel faster than Snapdragon?

ted presley said:
I'm not so sure about "Exynos" is faster than 855, of course maybe Samsung phones with Exynos feel faster than Snapdragon?
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This years exynos has also failed in terms of battery life.
The snapdragon 855 is way more efficient than the exynos

mulkman said:
This years exynos has also failed in terms of battery life.
The snapdragon 855 is way more efficient than the exynos
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Exynos is only better in singlecore (multicore is faster in 855) but exynos does that at the expense of a lot of heat and battery. Also the GPU in 855 is like 2 generations better than exynos.
yes, my s9+ exynos still does beat the mi9 in single core. but the s9+ gets beaten in gpu tests even by my older mix 2 NON S (snapdragon 835!!.. not 845!!) 855 gpu is a beast. Exynos s10 gpu is just slighty better than s9 exynos because they did improve the power per core.. but removed like 40% of the cores... (g72mp18 vs g76mp12)
and that single core perf. is irrelevant.. My mix2 with a good rom is AT LEAST as fast as the s9+ in app opening, web surfing etc.. believe I tested.

Question I'm looking for the S22 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 variant in Germany.

Hi guys, I live in Germany and unfortunately, you can only purchase the Exynos variant here.
I will be grateful if somebody helps me find the S22 SD variant.
Best regards.

Wondamobile but make sure 5G works

I can sell you my 1 month old s22 ultra 1tb, canadian sd gen 1 variant

masihian said:
Hi guys, I live in Germany and unfortunately, you can only purchase the Exynos variant here.
I will be grateful if somebody helps me find the S22 SD variant.
Best regards.
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Go for Wonda. I purchased mine there. Everything worked fine. Which Provider do you have? 5g works fine with Telekom.

About one year ago I bought a HK Version of a N20u at T-Dimension. That device was shipped from Europe, therefore no tax issues. The communication was good.
Just to tell you an alternative.
But one question: SD and Exynos are not that different this time, why taking the risk of VoLTE issues and more complicated warranty processing?

ZXR said:
About one year ago I bought a HK Version of a N20u at T-Dimension. That device was shipped from Europe, therefore no tax issues. The communication was good.
Just to tell you an alternative.
But one question: SD and Exynos are not that different this time, why taking the risk of VoLTE issues and more complicated warranty processing?
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Hey buddy
THX for your reply
Based on my findings on the internet (YouTubers & Articles), the SD variant performs better on camera quality and battery life (especially in standby discharge).

I got my S9080 12GB/512GB from techinthebasket and it was cheaper than Wonda

masihian said:
Based on my findings on the internet (YouTubers & Articles), the SD variant performs better on camera quality and battery life (especially in standby discharge).
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I see.
Regarding standby discharge it is pretty hard to compare, but I also heard of a modem topic.
Regarding camera quality, some rare comparisons show slightly lower artefacts at SD devices, a bit less sharpening a.s.o.. But what kind of camera quality is really important for you? E.g. if you do not like less sharp edges due to misaligned lenses or other tolerance effects, you might think of buying several S22u devices and comparing the lens alignment and keeping only the best one. This would not really show solidarity to the shops, but it is possible within our local regulations (Fernabsatzgesetz).

masihian said:
Hi guys, I live in Germany and unfortunately, you can only purchase the Exynos variant here.
I will be grateful if somebody helps me find the S22 SD variant.
Best regards.
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I live in France and I bought the S9080 Snapdragon 12/256 version on the rakuten site. Delivered in 6 days, it works 10 times better than the exynos version that I tried for several days