UPDATE! Top 15 1080HD Android phones from China!


ZTE Grand S

zte grand s

ZTE wowed the world earlier this year at CES when the launched the wafer thin ZTE Grand S. Reviewers weren’t just blown away by the size of the phone though, the hardware and build is pretty darn good too!

ZTE Grand S specification

Think back to a previous year’s CES and tell us how often a Chinese phone maker appeared in the headlines. Not easy is it, well 2013 was different as Chinese brands were all over the news, and ZTE’s Grand S was one of the reasons. Like the Oppo Find 5, the Grand S packs a quad-core Snapdrgon CPU, 2GB RAM, 13 mega-pixel camera and 5-inch 1080 display, however in this case it is all packed in to a 6.9mm body! Of course this means the battery is a little on the thin side, but that didn’t stop ZTE building in support for LET too!

Why we like the ZTE Grand S

zte grand s specifications

The thin design, great hardware and low price all make the Grand S a great buy. In fact at 3000 Yuan ($480) for the 16GB model with LTE, some might argue it’s a better buy than the Oppo Find 5!

Huawei Ascend D2

huawei ascend d2

Huawei were also at CES and along with the huge Ascend Mate, they unveiled the flagship 5-inch Ascend D2!

Huawei Ascend D2 Specifications

The Ascend D2 takes the RAM, screen and rear camera of the Oppo Find 5 and ZTE Grand S, then adds in a few extra features. The Ascend D2 is also dust and waterproof, something ZTE and Oppo have left out on their phones, plus the base D2 get’s 32GB of built-in memory rather than just 16GB.

Read Also:  Vivo Y300 Has Been Unveiled in China With Dimensity 6300

Why we like the Ascend D2

huawei ascend d2 leaked rear leaked photo hero

Unlike other manufactures on this list, Huawei have gone that extra mile and have developed their very own quad-core processor. The Huawei K3V2 runs at 1.5Ghz, and gives us a little bit of extra assurance that Huawei will support device for longer than other companies abandon theirs.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

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98 Comments

  1. Martin
    February 25, 2013

    Anyone know where to get the Lando X02

    • Przemo
      September 5, 2013

      It’s called NARUDO X02

  2. Maheen
    February 26, 2013

    Is uredeal.com reliable?

    • February 27, 2013

      Good question. Which stores are reliable? What are your experiences?

      • Richard
        March 6, 2013

        ordered a umi x1 and 2 jiyau G3s from uredeal there service was awesome !!! would use them again for sure when ever i had problmes always offered me discounts spare batterys on next orderes etc..

  3. Ivan
    February 26, 2013

    Где все эти телефоны??? Больше половины из этих телефонов не известно когда появятся в продаже, если они вообще будут продаваться в 2013 году. Продавцы только обещают, а покупателям уже хочется новые телефоны. Я ждал UMIx2 . Не дождался и купил NEXUS4!!!!!
    Продавцы теряют потенциальных покупателей!!!!!!!
    Where are all these phones? More than half of the phones do not know when available, if any, will be sold in 2013. Vendors only promise, and buyers already want new phones. I waited UMIx2. Do not wait and bought NEXUS4!!!!!
    Sellers lose potential buyers!!!

    • germain
      March 3, 2013

      potomu chto ty durnoi kacap

      • April 17, 2013

        It’s a right answer.

  4. Muhammed
    February 26, 2013

    Wow the Lando is really eyecatching. Awesome! And thanks for this great post Andi!

    • February 26, 2013

      My pleasure glad you liked it 🙂

      • ronald Johnson
        March 7, 2013

        Hi Andy loved this review this to me is the top site if you like Chinese phone’s and I do just bought my fourth last week had it scince Tuesday I bought the OPPO find five wow it’s got to be the best phone to come onto the international market when it launched LA st Thursday the site went down quicker than the Titanic sold out within fifteen minutes and is now taking per bookings with a three to four weeks wait. I don’t think OPPO expected the response. think I’ll be keeping this phone for a long time and it’s thanks to your site that Chinese phones are gaining popularity globally. well done mate cracking site.

        • March 7, 2013

          Thanks mate glad you enjoy the site and happy with your phone 🙂

  5. Tapas
    February 26, 2013

    Umi X2 launched in india @14000 INR (260$) !!!!!!!!!

    • Suresh C. Agrawal
      February 27, 2013

      when UMI X2 launched in India and where
      we can buy. Please inform. Thanks

  6. ivo001
    February 26, 2013

    What would be the best cheap 720p 4,0-4,7 inch quadcore smartphone? I’m thinking of buying the Jiayu G4.

    • aaa
      February 26, 2013

      looking for the answer too – waiting for some more info, maybe upon releasing something will clear up itself – im going for 4,0-4,2 inch quadcore phone with 1gb ram and good battery

    • Yvan
      July 3, 2013

      +2GB RAM, good build quality, battery, may be some extras (NFC,OTG,OTA), good display… 🙂

  7. Nayf
    February 26, 2013

    Lando X02 is being released tomorrow according to this site: http://mobile.it168.com/a2013/0220/1454/000001454946.shtml

    • Muhammed
      February 26, 2013

      Great, we all know Chinese lol

      • February 26, 2013

        Lol, but if you’re on chrome, you can just translate that page 😛

  8. February 26, 2013

    nice
    but they are never available…only preorder preorder preorder
    till the next new release

  9. February 26, 2013

    Saw some hands on videos of the Alcatel Idol X, and surprisingly… it looks quite slow and unresponsive 🙁

    Just makes me hope that not all the MTK6589’s are like that. I do like the design language of the Idol X though..

    • February 26, 2013

      Apparently, based on GSMArena’s hands on time as well, the screen of the Idol X is even better than that of a Sony Xperia Z, which is frankly quite an achievement.

      • Allanitomwesh
        February 26, 2013

        Any screen is better than the Xperia Z’s.

    • anon
      March 2, 2013

      Did you see the phonearena hands on? on theverge the phone looks pretty snappy.

  10. Guest
    February 26, 2013

    Anyone know where to get the Lando X02

  11. PeterP
    February 26, 2013

    Nice article. 🙂
    As it’s about 1080p phones, I would have thought you would have written about the different 1080 displays available. Sharp is supposed to be the best, and I’ve seen the Sony Z and was underimpressed by it’s bright light viewing and told it’s greyness is something to do with the launcher!
    Also, there are a few 13mp sensors out there. Some are budget some are Sony Cmos, some cmos bsi hdr.
    Probably it’s possible to find the specs of the 15 listed, and of course some are still not released. Great article but next time would love to see a tiny bit more detail or info about 1080 displays in general. Lack of release dates I think somewhat unimportant because it’s about 15 very new phones. I’m sure they will all be out soon.
    An article on 13mp sensors or 1080 screens and which is best would be nice.

    • February 26, 2013

      Hi, Peter. Good points, once the details are available I’ll revisit the article. Cheers

  12. FTP
    February 26, 2013

    Is UMI X2 with a 2GB RAM confirmed?

  13. Muhammed
    February 26, 2013

    Exactly. I’m curious about all those 13MP cameras. I don’t see much quality difference on a picture taken by the Oppo Find 5 or a Galaxy S III or iPhone 5..

  14. Freeje
    February 26, 2013

    The Lenovo looks nice. Looking for a phablet now with a 6 inch screen. Found out that my S3’s screen is a tad small for browsing web pages.

    Anyone knows if this 5.7 inch phone made by a Chinese company named Jajatong is real? This is the link – http://www.jajatong.com/.

  15. Fabrizio
    February 26, 2013

    Why do you keep calling it Lando? It should be Narudo
    And Alcatel is from France, not china …

    • February 26, 2013

      Alcatel are made my TCL (a Chinese brand) and most Alcatel phones are available under the TCL brand first. Narudo is the brand Lando (兰度) is the model. E.G Narudo = brand Lando = model X02= version

  16. Sere83
    February 27, 2013

    Nice round up. The truth is though for international customers looking to purchase from the usual exporters(merimobiles,uredeal,lightake,fastcard, android-sale, etc etc) your looking at about $300+ minimum for all of the 1080p MTK6589 devices and a whole load more for Oppo ZTE or anything using higher end Qualcomm CPU’s. While $300 is still not that expensive, its certainly nowhere near these magical $160 price tags some of these manufacturers are quoting, and given that the MTK is basically no more powerful than an older high end dual core cpu device from some of the bigger names it makes you wonder if it is worth it.

    • Anonymous
      March 9, 2013

      If you live in places where you can get $299/349 Nexus 4 straight from the Google Play Store these things are terrible deals in comparison considering how scummy Chinese dealers can be.

      And chinese phone makers really, really need to stop putting their fugly logos on their phones. Trust me, your stuff WILL sell as long as the specs are good for the price when you aren’t trying to turn potential customers into laughing stocks when they pull out their phones.

      • Jake
        June 14, 2013

        I have to agree buying a phone at around $300 really isnt worth it. also if any defect to the phone in the near future or Dead phones on arrival. you have to deal with the scummy Chinese dealers…my take on this is like what Sere83 said. makes you wonder is this is worth it, when you have name brand phones coming to us in the USA with a price point of 300 to 350/ for me ill pass i dont need the headache of Chinese phones.

  17. G mannuh
    February 27, 2013

    I would be very pleased to buy one of these phones from you!
    How about updating us a little on your facebook about the progress^^

    • February 27, 2013

      No progress at the mo. Still trying to work out the most cost effective and reliable method of shipping the phones.

    • February 27, 2013

      Nice find! I’ll make a post about this today! Thanks!

      • February 28, 2013

        they have again added some pics..!!
        looks good…waiting for your review..

  18. Nayf
    February 27, 2013

    I followed the Narudo Lando X02 launch on Weibo yesterday. The main news is that the standard X02 will be shown in Shenzhen on 15th Mar for a hands-on experience, before being available on order at the end of March ready for an early April shipping date (4th of April I think, can’t remember exactly). The bling version has been delayed by two months, so don’t hold your breath too long for that one.

    • February 27, 2013

      Cheers for the info 🙂

    • March 1, 2013

      Did they say where they will show the phone in Shenzhen ? Would love to try it first before buying it.

  19. February 28, 2013

    camera shootout please!! 😀
    that would be one hell of a post…!! all beasts fighting for camera supremacy…waiting for it…

  20. February 28, 2013

    Sry Andy but the 13Mpx camera sensor is not the same of the Nubia neither than the x7…

    The first one is the Sony Exmor SR sensor, the second one is an Konika minolta sensor and lens, and don’t know the x7 iOcean sensor but i think that is not the same!

    Any question: Is posibly a new model Newman n3 with a 5 or more inches fullHD? thx!

  21. Andy
    February 28, 2013

    Does ZTE announce official time of Nubia Z5 release date?

    • March 1, 2013

      On sale now as far as I know, but only in selected cities and through the Nubia stores.

  22. Fred
    March 2, 2013

    Hi Andi,
    Do you have any idea how to ship a phone INCLUDING battery? I’ve got a few friends in HK and Shenzhen who can buy it, but from what I remember Hong Kong and China post won’t allow batteries to be shipped via airmail (to Australia). Any ideas?

    • March 2, 2013

      That is why most seller ship by Singapore Post.

  23. Guru
    March 4, 2013

    I’m going to be in Hong Kong next week. Would Sin Tat Plaza in Mong Kok be the place to go to check out these phones if they’re available? If so, can anyone recommend a shop in there where I can purchase one? Thanks in advance.

  24. Arsalan
    March 6, 2013

    So which is the best and cheap out of all these phones. Please help, I want to buy one. Thanks.

  25. Dax
    March 7, 2013

    Can someone tell me when will Lando X02 (gold version) be released?

    • Allanitomwesh
      March 8, 2013

      April

  26. Vincent
    March 7, 2013

    Where I can buy Lando X02 or 02P ??? need badly. When they will release ??

  27. Arun
    March 8, 2013

    Apparently Umi X2 16GB Low end priced model is slated as coming soon to Indian Markets!!!!!

  28. Rob
    March 12, 2013

    Hi Andi, can you tell us which of these phones actually supports dual sim dual active?

    • March 12, 2013

      When I discover one yes. Chances are the G4 and UMi X2 could be, but we won’t know for sure until review samples are released.

      • HakunaMatata
        July 16, 2013

        Anything new?

  29. Sreekanth
    March 12, 2013

    how can i order umi x2. What is the guarantee for my payment.whether the payment is secured.

    • March 12, 2013

      From an online reseller, but no one will have stock yet

  30. Bruno
    March 19, 2013

    Hey Andi,
    Please make a list of top phones with smaller displays (<5 inch)!

  31. davide
    March 25, 2013

    Hi Andi 🙂
    First of all thank you for all the rewievs and news
    Now I have a question for you: which is the best phone between all of them?
    I need a quad core with 1400 GHz and 13mpx camera 1 or 2 mpx front facing camera 1080p screen otg and a huge battery
    I searched for almost 2 hours on that site, but there are a lot of phone and I can’t choose, then I thought to ask a piece of advice to an expert…
    Post Scriptum
    I have a budget of 250€=320$

  32. Arsalan
    April 2, 2013

    So which of these are out for sale right now? And which is the best one?

  33. Arsalan
    April 5, 2013

    @andy: when will be neo n003 available… I want to buy the premium version.

  34. Dr.radhakrishna
    April 14, 2013

    Sir, where I can purchase Landox02 in shanghai as I am visiting there next month? Dr.cr. india

  35. April 17, 2013

    Hi Andi,

    May I know which of these phones (or which Chinese android phones) have the best/biggest battery?

    Thanks!

  36. Arsalan
    April 17, 2013

    Can Andi or anybody tell us which of these phones have support and active forum? So that if there is any problem or you want to root, one will get help. I know so far Zopo has a help and support… I think the others leave you on God’s mercy. Please reply.

  37. Qidamin
    April 21, 2013

    Finally I have bought a ZTE V987 Grand X Quad. I have found some websites for root and custom roms. Only issue is that I had 3 dead pixel, I am waiting for a repair or replacement, but the phone seems quite nice.

  38. Gabriel TX
    May 4, 2013

    Anyone know if any of these phones suport HDMI/MHL ????

  39. May 28, 2013

    Hey guys, Please tell me what phone is better jiayu g4 or umi x2 , i want buy next week and i dont know what to do, i appreciate your answer, thanks.

  40. sharad
    May 30, 2013

    You should include Wammy Passion Z to that list.

  41. liran
    June 1, 2013

    Hi andy, this phones are support LTE.. 4G?

  42. June 2, 2013

    Hello Andi,
    Here is another one that you should point out: FAEA F2.
    http://www.android-inside.com/faea-f2-5-inch-1080p-screen-quad-core-android-phone.html
    As usual today, it’s still ‘pre-order’ or ‘out of stock’ 🙂 but, you know.
    Specs look great…

  43. landosearcher
    June 4, 2013

    hi andi! can you recommend any website where can i purchase lando and be shipped internationally? thank you very much!

  44. June 5, 2013

    were can I buy these phones from

  45. Samuel Noel
    June 5, 2013

    All these great phones you show but what are some reliable websites to buy from?
    Besides Android-Sale

  46. June 9, 2013

    I’m not sure why but this web site is loading extremely slow for me. Is anyone else having this problem or is it a problem on my end? I’ll check back later on and
    see if the problem still exists.

    • June 9, 2013

      yup running a bit slow today

  47. thomas
    June 15, 2013

    Think its time we get these yummie looking phones from this site.

  48. Maga
    June 16, 2013

    ezio i95-b http://www.ebay.com

  49. Alex
    June 17, 2013

    Hi,!! thanks fot his awesome article, I have a question. Where I can buy this smartphones?
    I live in Spain, Greetings!!

  50. Harald
    June 21, 2013

    These phones are huge

  51. Mario
    July 2, 2013

    A great roundup. I think once I find a 2gb quad phone with MHL and LTE / 4G I will be very happy. Screen res and physical size is secondary though.

  52. HakunaMatata
    July 16, 2013

    Which companies do have EU store so i can buy without additional taxes. I know Oppo (Find 5 only) and Zopo have them. Any other?

  53. July 25, 2013

    can you tell me where i can buy china android phone in singapore…

    • dpow7
      December 14, 2013

      go sim lim plenty there

  54. Kenny
    July 28, 2013

    I’m curious to find out what blog system you’re working with?
    I’m experiencing some minor security issues with my latest blog and I would like to find something more safeguarded. Do you have any solutions?

  55. Njoi
    August 16, 2013

    QuadMasters!

    I have a budget of 250 US.

    FAEA F2 OR THL W200 OR INEW i4000?

    Requirements in order:

    1. Build quality
    2. Battery life (Yes, I know …)
    3. Rear Camera
    4. Screen clarity
    5. Audio chip (I listen to alot of music using good quality Sennheiser)

    That THL W200 is teasing me but I’m slightly put off by the 1750mah juice pack.

    Any thoughts most greatly welcome.

    Thank’s.

  56. Ben
    September 15, 2013

    What about the Faea F2 a Full HD 5″ 441 ppi Sharp display 1G RAM 4 G ROM for $199. You can also buy directly from the manufacturer at http://www.faea.com

    You can also get the Faea F2s with the 1.5Ghz Turbo processor for $250. Price is the most important factor for me.

  57. mikey
    October 10, 2013

    Ok guys, here’s a question for you…. How do you go about insuring these Chinese smartphones in UK??

  58. Val
    December 6, 2013

    Thank you Andi for your reviews.
    Question: How to buy CDMA / LTE – Verizon compatible cell phones from China (Verizon has the largest coverage areas in US). Most phone have GSM standard. I think that Google Nexus 5 should have both?

    Appreciate your help

  59. dpow7
    December 14, 2013

    i hv gotten a ule p6+ the speed and screen will just blow you away with a beautiful aluminum side.with pretty good 2800 battery . singapore with 1 yr warrenty . also having NFC and OTG support. why buy brands when u could roam easily with 2 sim support anywhere in the world.i hv just spend 15pound in uk for 2 weeks with 1gb data not even half used. dun be a scapegoat from yr home teleco rip off. singtel charges $30/day data. worst !it scap with its partner support in UK

  60. September 15, 2014

    Best detailed
    new search engine (startup) for promotions and discounts about high end Chinese
    smartphones ($120-$180)- better than iPhone 6 Plus or
    Samsung!!!
    http://www.skyfg.com/cgi-bin/selectthebetter?Labels=1&AttributesAdditionals=0&FormatDateTime=0&AttributesMaxPerItem=3&AttributesDividers=%26%23160%3B&PictureWidth=200&PictureHeight=80&LimitFromMain=0&LimitMaxPerViewMain=10&OrderByMain=%60Id%60%20ASC&Category=Top%20hot%20cheap%20Chinese%20smartphones&FiltersValues=&schCategorySelect=1&schCategoryInput=Search%20Category…&schTableSelect=1&schTableInput=Search%20Table…&schTitleSelect=1&schTitleInput=Search%20Title…&schOrder=Id%20ASC&schLimit=10&schLimitFrom=0