Smartphones

One NB that's probably worth adding:

As a tech toy with cachet that's also a phone, nothing beats an iphone, particularly in China. And that's not (solely) a product of brand worship. iPhone's actually do work in China in ways that Android phones don't immediately. We should probably get some reports in on this, but compared to Android, iphones have everything up and running easily. The Market's there, the product is known, knowledge can be found among cool kids and not just on tech bulletin boards... you can play with it and make it worth the price from the beginning. Android phones take some screwing around before you get functionality beyond what came in the box.

Unless that is, the Android phones with all the pre-loaded Chinese apps actually do have some kind of Chinese market up and working. I'm under the impression the system is very fragmented at the moment as part of the first step in splitting it away from Google control. No clear market winner has emerged yet.

Does anyone have experience using a Chinese phone straight out of the box, unmodified? Does it play well in Chinese, or do you have to screw around and find international fixes (like Fozz did)?

hey just to say that I didn't need any international fixes in the end, I just run my Chinese android, and it runs fine, I found all the apps I wanted on pirate app sites, and pleco allows you to download directly, which is my only paid app.

Samsung Galaxy is one hell of a sexy phone, now that I've gotten used to it.

Great screen, great camera, works very well as a phone too...

recommended

Great Fozz, glad to hear it.

Voice recognition, NFC, location activated reminders.... the whole Star Trek "Computer, on!" thing is coming. ROOT YOUR PHONES NOW, PEOPLE! WHILE YOU STILL HAVE THE CHANCE!

Either they're going to become indispensable adjuncts to your person, working as an interface between you and the functional (as opposed to immediate physical) world OR the cloud is going to be the key "device" and phones themselves will be as disposable as plastic cups. And either way...

Eh, I dunno. Japan invented the cd player and crossed over from being the cheap copies country to whatever it was before it became what it is now, and China is making some move in phones... making their move too early, actually, but anyway....

RETAIN CONTROL, PEOPLE! SOYLENT YELLOW IS PHONES!

There's a techradar list I find helpful in thinking these things through.

Samsung Galaxy SII still number one...it's been out for a while.  They are about 3000RMB on Taobao - that seem right?

The Galaxy Note also looks interesting.  Massive, but interesting.

Also, that tech-radar list is really annoying - every item on the list requires you to load a whole new page -why?!

Quote

There's a techradar list I find helpful in thinking these things through.

Samsung Galaxy SII still number one...it's been out for a while.  They are about 3000RMB on Taobao - that seem right?

The Galaxy Note also looks interesting.  Massive, but interesting.

Also, that tech-radar list is really annoying - every item on the list requires you to load a whole new page -why?!

Suspense?

I dunno. Their list has been around for a while and maybe individual pages makes it easier to update. More than half of any page is ads, so maybe it's all about the hits on the page, hits on the piggedy page, apologies to Cypress Hill.

I like their list because they have definite rankings based on actually relevant qualitative assessments of usability and functionality. Most other lists have seemed to me shallow on substance. Meaning too that I can probably believe the Galaxy SII still is a better device than whatever else is new out there at the moment. Something will replace it eventually (presumably the iphone 5) but for the moment it remains the shizz.


And I can't tell if hyping these products and sites *for free* makes me wise or makes me dirty.

I just bought the xperia Play and I gotta tell you i'm in love with this phone. 

I'm a big fat gamer, and so the idea of a phone that has a dedicated slide out gamepad (like a psp) gave me a mini chubby.

That was until I found out that the classic ps1 games aren't availible in china.... semi lost.



Luckily I decided to research and found out that the phone can in fact emulate 95%of ps1 games (of which there are 3000 btw) flawlessly. It can also do Snes, GB, etc with support for the game keys. Since then I have been in a hazy bubble of happiness, and bus  journeys are much much better (also been teaching my girlfriend to play worms  )

Obviously if you're not into games, there are  better options open for you, butr this phone is priced at just 2500rmb, and specs wise can compete with many high end smartphones (and shite such as the iphone 4 )


Basically, I recommend it because it's sick!

I'm tempted. Very tempted.  Will Pleco work on it?  Is the camera good enough for OCR?

I've always been a big fan of Sony Ericsson phones.. heck, most of my mobiles were made by them before i moved on to the iphone so I've been keeping a keen eye on the Xperia for months.
Hold off your purchase for a few months though, some of the products they got on the pipeline now that Sony is sole in charge are nothing short of amazing. I got lucky enough to play with some demo models just a few nights back  ( don't ask).. and they're something special.

Aargh, you tease! Now I am torn...they have the Xperia Play Z1i on Taobao for as little as 1500...is that the same one?

at 1500, that xperia is a great buy! I'd say if it fits your needs, then get it and don't look back! If you don't need it right now, wait a bit!
remember that when the new models come out, they'll run 4000 or 5000 rmb so they might not be the cheapest on the market

OK, I just got an Xperia Play, and so far so good.  I got Pleco up and running, but the feckers are gonna make me pay extra for full OCR and stoke order functions!  What?!

Anyway, I supposedly got a 32G memory card with a bunch of (cracked) games on there and this is where I am hitting trouble - the memory card is full of games, but the phone itself isn't showing them and I don't really know what to do next...if anyone can point me in the right directions of what to do next, even a good website with instructions, that'd be cool.

Also, I disabled my wifi at home because I never used it and this phone is constantly demanding an internet connection - is it pretty much assumed with Android phones that you'll always have wifi available?

**OK, I have some app called Tiger Arcade that seems to have loads of 90's era arcade games within...the other cracked games are installable as apps but need wifi to download the actual game...**

Meh, I knew this would happen.  My last phone was an almost 5 year old Windows Mobile device and I've gone tech-senile in-between.

MK -  I feel ye, just take your time and do some searching. A week from now it will be easy-breazy. 

google 'android forums', they tend to have an answer for pretty much every type of android phone

or just wait for Callach. 

ROOT YOUR PHONE! BURN THAT OS DOWN!

Oh wait... no, I don't know.


The default in Android is to run apps from phone memory. Running them from SDcard needs you to change a setting or two. At least:

Menu > Settings > Applications > Unknown sources [tick]


You *MAY* also need an app to manage the ability to run apps from sdcard--something like Apps2SD. I bet the apps do NOT need you to download anything. All the data and whatnot are on the sdcard but the OS currently doesn't have access.


Also, Cyanogen is available for the Play. You are currently in the garden of Eden, you see an apple.

I just got Pleco for my HTC Sensation Z710e. So far it looks great!

I just wondered which add-ons you guys have purchased for it? which ones are the most useful in every day life in China?