Mobile Phone for only £99

Blue_Max

I bought a Lenovo A820 from etotalk.com for $120, reduced from their usual selling price of $230. Including DHL shipping (4 days), the total came to under £99, thanks to Halifax Mastercard which converts at wholesale exchange rates.
Very cheap, I thought, for a phone with Quad Core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB ROM, microSD expansion, dual SIM, etc from a reputable manufacturer.

Phones sold direct from China are made for the Chinese market. That means no Google apps and everything else in Chinese. Unlike the usual box-shifters at aliexpress, antlife, dhgate, uredeal and many others, etotalk is a tech savvy company. I bought their 'Etotalk Mod ROM' service for $5. The phone was unlocked, rooted, an international ROM flashed and they install multi-language OS, Google Play Store, etc. All non-useful Chinese apps were deleted. I was able to use it straight out of the box.
Antutu tests gave benchmarks of between 13400 and 13600. Ranks below HTC one X and above Samsung Galaxy S2.

This is my first experience of buying a phone from China. Now very tempted to buy a high end S4 clone or similar. Only $200 to $300 from China.

There is full video review of the A820 by a UK based website at
http://mobilenetworkcomparison.org.uk/mobile-phones/lenovo-a820-review

ballyblack

buying phones from China and saving money

But if it stops working properly how do you get it fixed under warranty?

Blue_Max

ballyblack wrote: »

But if it stops working properly how do you get it fixed under warranty?

Fair comment! The phone I bought did come with a warranty. But if the phone develops a hardware fault it would involve sending it back to the seller or the manufacturer. Faster ways of shipping can be expensive. eg. DHL takes only 4 days but cost $34.
So I decided to choose a good quality phone from a reputable manufacturer.
An similar spec phone purchased from a high street shop could be £250.
In the event it goes wrong, guess I will have to get it repaired locally and pay for it and still save some money.

BTW. GiffGaff Community has a thread on this phone with 161 pages so far. It has dozens of happy users of Lenovo A820
http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Social-Off-Topic/Lenovo-A820-quad-core-dual-sim-now-99-00/td-p/8337422/page/155

NiftyDigits

Sorry, but am I missing something? You can get the same thing cheaper from DealExtreme.

£note

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Sorry, but am I missing something? You can get the same thing cheaper from DealExtreme.

Well you're certainly missing something! Your link shows a different model at a higher price.

Blue_Max

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Sorry, but am I missing something? You can get the same thing cheaper from DealExtreme.

'NiftyDigits' You got it wrong. Again!
Your previous post on this thread was misleading, offensive and bordering on slander. It certainly was not in the spirit of this forum. Quite rightly MSE removed it.
May you are upset and confused by it all but get a grip!
Why pick on posters who want to share something that they sincerely believe is a bargain?

Back to the topic of Chinese phones, there are some quality manufacturers little known outside China. Their pricing is to suit the Chinese market. Considering prices we are asked to pay here, there are many bargains to be had by buying direct from China.
Few points to remember though. Make sure that it has 3G WCDMA. Choose the seller carefully. Sites like Aliexpress operate in a similar way as eBay and offer safeguards to protect your money. Sellers have to earn their ratings.
Then there are some sites and forums that specialise in Chinese phones and tabs.

NiftyDigits

Sorry, but am I missing something? You can get the same thing cheaper from DealExtreme. £87 delivered

Reposted with correct link. I was looking at the A830 at the time, so accidentally included the wrong link.

Wrong? I don't think so.

As to slander.....it would be libel. Why don't you try suing me?

As I wrote before, yours doesn't look like a special deal to me.

ZhugeEX

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Sorry, but am I missing something? You can get the same thing cheaper from DealExtreme. £87 delivered

Reposted with correct link. I was looking at the A830 at the time, so accidentally included the wrong link.

Wrong? I don't think so.

As to slander.....it would be libel. Why don't you try suing me?

As I wrote before, yours doesn't look like a special deal to me.

I'd recommend etotalk over dealextreme.

Deal Extreme sell the phone as stock so it comes with Chinese Apps and NO google play. So unless you want to flash a ROM yourself it's better to pay the bit extra and get the MOD ROM from etotalk + better support.

NiftyDigits

ZhugeEX wrote: »

I'd recommend etotalk over dealextreme.

Deal Extreme sell the phone as stock so it comes with Chinese Apps and NO google play. So unless you want to flash a ROM yourself it's better to pay the bit extra and get the MOD ROM from etotalk + better support.

Seriously.....do you think the etotalk ROM is the best out there? There are mods and improvements taking place all of the time.
Yes, I would flash the ROM myself. But then again, I wouldn't waste my money on such nonsense.

NiftyDigits

DealExtreme reviews here and here

EtoTalk reviews here and here

You pays yer money yer takes yer choice.

ZhugeEX

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Seriously.....do you think the etotalk ROM is the best out there? There are mods and improvements taking place all of the time.
Yes, I would flash the ROM myself. But then again, I wouldn't waste my money on such nonsense.

I'm talking on behalf of the average consumer.

I am very capable myself of flashing any ROM on any phone. I'm just saying for most people they may want to avoid the hassle and just buy from etotalk.

Also those reviews are not like for like comparison. DX deal in much more than just phones.

Besides i'm not buying the Lenovo myself. Currently waiting for Xiaomi Mi3 to launch or for Mediateks new 8 core solutions.