Buying a Chinese phone....

[Big Fifer]

Anyone know if I used an SD card and converted it to internal memory on my phone if I can take it out of my old one and do it again on my new one?

[Homer Thompson]

25 minutes ago, Big Fifer said:

Anyone know if I used an SD card and converted it to internal memory on my phone if I can take it out of my old one and do it again on my new one?

Yes, the new phone will just reformat. You wont be able to keep any of the data

[Big Fifer]

43 minutes ago, Mr X said:

Yes, the new phone will just reformat. You wont be able to keep any of the data

Terrific news.

[Fuctifano]

On 4/25/2017 at 12:06, Fuctifano said:

Gone for the Umi Z as was in EU stock, should be here Friday according to tracking. Guess the next thing will be sourcing a case and maybe cables, can nick into town and go to Maplin on Saturday. It's got Dragontrail Glass, which seems a positive though.

Well it's been ok so far, apart from the fact that the phone won't turn on. I'm not so tech savvy but I'm fairly certain this is an integral part of the phone working. 

I've got it mains charging and the light is gently pulsing red which I guess means it's charging but it should still be able to power on when it's been charging for at least 15 minutes, no?

Had a quick google and it appears there's one other guy this happened to albeit his charged to 60% first. Tried hard reset but that didn't work either

tried plugging it into the usb slots on my laptop, the charging light pulses again but the phone doesn't get recognised at all.

Going to leave it on charge for another couple of hours just in case but it looks like a case of...

 

Edited April 29, 2017 by Fuctifano

[Fuctifano]

There's a wee indy electronics phone unlocking / repair shop just round the corner so I took it in there, boy had a look at it for 10 minutes and said it's fucked, send it back 

What a great idea this was...

[Homer Thompson]

There's a wee indy electronics phone unlocking / repair shop just round the corner so I took it in there, boy had a look at it for 10 minutes and said it's fucked, send it back [emoji38]
What a great idea this was...

You'll be alright. Send it back, get another and it'll be fine

[Fuctifano]

So I eventually got this sorted and new phone (UMI Z) arrived Saturday.

Overall I'd say it's positive, I like the screen size and weight and the lack of bloatware on it is obviously good.

Few downsides:

The fast charging isn't very fast at all even with the USB-C cable in the mains, I very much doubt you could get a full day's use out of 30 minutes as advertised. The battery life does seem a bit better at first glance but obviously early days yet. Also it heats up like a toastie, could be handy in winter I suppose.

The touch screen doesn't seem 100% accurate especially near the right edge, couple of times I've had to press a few times to get what I wanted,

There's a bug that means you have to use the default SMS app, if you use a 3rd party app like Textra (as I did) or Facebook messenger as your default then texts sent to you just disappear into the ether. Not a deal breaker but the stock app's minimum text size is about 16pt which is ugly. This has been reported.

It was a bit of a faff to get notifications turned on when the screen was off and you have to install a launcher (I use Nova) to get rid of the google search bar at the top, get unread "badges" on your icons.

That said, it's still well worth it for under £200 if you're not bothered about having an absolute top of the range effort.

 

[Fuctifano]

Also, does anyone have a positive experience of selling their old handset online or am I best taking it to a shop?

[Big Fifer]

Anyone know of this:

http://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_629444.html?wid=11

is the same as the Umi Z? I know the company's went through some re-branding exercise, but seems strange for a previously released phone to be on a presale. 

[honestly united]

If it didn't have the button on the front I would say it looks a cracking phone, looks quite a bit slimmer than my Super but with pretty much identical spec

[Boostin' Kev]

Are any of these better than the Note 4?  I'm coming to the end of my contract.

Edited May 18, 2017 by The Diabolical One

[Heart of Northern]

@The Diabolical One
I had thought about a Chinese phone then my old cheap Vodafone own make gave up without warning.
Ended up with a Moto G4 from Argos for 130£
Decent phone tbh
But anything was going to be compared to the old brick.

[Homer Thompson]

14 minutes ago, The Diabolical One said:

Are any of these better than the Note 4?  I'm coming to the end of my contract.

I swapped a Note 4 for the Maya Max. The Max has higher specs, as its a much newer phone, and a larger screen. Its also cheaper, much cheaper.

The only thing it doesnt have and I sometimes miss is a dedicated stylus. The Note 4 stylus is way better than the generic ones Ive tried with the Max.

Im saving something like £30 a month on what I was paying for the Note 4 though

[Boostin' Kev]

Will look into that, thanks. Never use the stylus tbh.  I'm on an all you can eat contract with Three will give them a call later. What price do you think I can sell my Note for? Lost the charger unfortunately. 

Edited May 18, 2017 by The Diabolical One

[Homer Thompson]

15 minutes ago, The Diabolical One said:

Will look into that, thanks. Never use the stylus tbh.  I'm on an all you can eat contract with Three will give them a call later. What price do you think I can sell my Note for? Lost the charger unfortunately. 

I tend to just recycle mine - you'll get £100 at least for the Note 4 doing that and you dont send the charger anyway. 

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

Will look into that, thanks. Never use the stylus tbh.  I'm on an all you can eat contract with Three will give them a call later. What price do you think I can sell my Note for? Lost the charger unfortunately. 

I'm on an all you can eat contract with three. £23 a month. I got this offer after my phone contract was up with them and I went for the Bluboo Maya Max. No problems with the phone using 3. Great phone and great value for money. I would highly recommend.

[Boostin' Kev]

Just called Three and been offered a SIM only contract which is very similar to what I have.  Unlimited minutes, texts, 4GB data for £9 a month.  Sounds pretty good.  Guy was trying to get me to commit quickly though saying it's a limited offer.  Can't imagine I'll get better than that.  Where's the best place to buy a Maya Max?

[sergie's no1 fan]

4 minutes ago, The Diabolical One said:

Just called Three and been offered a SIM only contract which is very similar to what I have.  Unlimited minutes, texts, 4GB data for £9 a month.  Sounds pretty good.  Guy was trying to get me to commit quickly though saying it's a limited offer.  Can't imagine I'll get better than that.  Where's the best place to buy a Maya Max?

I'm paying £30 a month for my iphone. £21 for the phone and £9 a month for the tarriff, I'm getting 6GB of 4G, unlimited texts and unlimited minutes for that price and that was set up nearly 2 years ago. That's with Vodafone, don't know what Three are like but I've not been impressed with Vodafone's reception.

I think you'll be able to find better if you can be bothered shopping around.

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

Just called Three and been offered a SIM only contract which is very similar to what I have.  Unlimited minutes, texts, 4GB data for £9 a month.  Sounds pretty good.  Guy was trying to get me to commit quickly though saying it's a limited offer.  Can't imagine I'll get better than that.  Where's the best place to buy a Maya Max?

That sounds a great offer if you think 4gb data will be enough for you. I would have said buy from Gearbest as most on here have got theirs from there but it looks like they may be out of stock just now as they don't have them listed. They were being sold on eBay and Amazon.

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

This place looks the cheapest just now. http://m.dx.com/p/bluboo-maya-max-6-0-4g-smartphone-w-3gb-ram-32gb-rom-black-grey-852444980?stiff=618 i've bought a phone case there before.