Recently I saw a post at chinaphonearena.com asking how the iNew i6000 fared when put up against late model HTCs, Samsungs and LGs. I thought it was a good opportunity to make a general, basic post comparing China phones to popular name brand phones and what one should expect when purchasing a China phone. In part 1, we took a look at – are recent China phones as fast as models such as Samsung, HTC, and LG? Now on to part 2.
Are the inner components (processor, LCD, GPS, video, audio, wireless) as good?
This somewhat ties into the first question, for the most part, the answer is – ‘no’. The CPU and GPU will score lower, and generally the speakers may be a bit quieter, sometimes the wireless not quite as strong, and GPS not quite as quick to catch a signal. This is just a generality. It isn’t always the case. There are often times where a China phone will have wireless that’s even stronger than the newest Samsung. This is generally model dependent as to degrees of difference. It’s important to note that even in the lower and medium priced China brands, the components will mostly be more than adequate, and the better brands and models of China phones, will mostly have components equal to the major popular brands, such as Samsung, HTC, and LG.
The LCD in most popular China phone brands are very good, and effectively equal to the major popular brands. Though I mentioned the wireless is sometimes not as strong, this is generally not true. The wireless in a Hero H7500+ for example is as strong as any Samsung, HTC, or LG phone.
A bigger issue is QC / Quality Control. The major popular brands are mostly going to have better quality control than China brands. This means that component failure, ‘lemons’, manufacturing defects, and factory technician error are going to be at a higher rate with China brands. All smartphone brands have similar issues, it’s just that with China brands, the problems may crop up more often. Make sure when you order from China that you use a seller with a good reputation, and use a method of payment that protects you, so a lemon doesn’t end up being much more than a headache of having to return it to the seller.
Up next – Part 3 – Summary and final thoughts
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