June 25th is the date which Neo have promised to be the Neo N003’s launch date, and today is the day that they have finally confirmed pricing and specifications.
The Neo N003 is the phone that has been billed as the ‘worlds cheapest 1080 Android phone’ and it still will be, only at a slightly higher price (surprise surprise). Originally the standard version of the phone with 1GB RAM was to cost 899 Yuan in China (about $146). Neo are now telling us that this price has increased slightly to 1080 Yuan ($175). The good news is that the Advanced model with 2GB RAM has managed to keep its price at 1499 Yuan ($244) so basically UMi x2 price.
Gizchina News of the week
Specifications have stayed pretty much as we reported all those months ago. Neo are still planning to ship the N003 with a 1.2Ghz Mt6589 chip rather than the newer MT6589T, display is a 5-inch 1080 HD panel, a 3 mega-pixel camera sits on the front while a 13 mega-pixel snapper lives on the rear. A 3000mAh battery should see better run time than the X2 and OTG plus HDMI out are obvious bonuses for anyone choosing this phone.
The only real kicker is that internal storage is pitiful! The standard model gets’ just 4GB ROM while the top of the range N003 has only 8GB ROM! Thankfully they both offer SD card expansion, but even still we expected much more!
Thank God didn’t wait for this =) went ahead with the UMIＸ２
Which version did u buy? And how is the umi working out for you, any lags or problems? Care to share a mini review? Because I’m really tired of all the waiting for jiayu, if the umi is good I’m thinking of getting it!
Get the Umi X2. I got the 1.5ghz, 2gb ram, 32GB storage for 189€ in Chinavasion on special discount they had. A bit of lag for first 5 secs of boot up. But you can change the the ROM to fix this and also the camera app is not good. Just get camera XC app. then it’s perfect:-)
And this mobile dont have Gorilla glass but Asahi glass.
can you tell about the difference between both of that glasess?
i guessing that Asahi is cheaper than Gorilla, but it still durable ?
http://thegsminsider.blogspot.cz/2013/02/corning-gorilla-glass-2-vs-agc-dragontrail-glass.html
If this NEO3 is as good as NEO2 i will buy it, i don’t trust umi as the same build quality. Specs are not the main factor for me i want value for money!
trash, no one wait for this long to get 1.2ghz chip, everyone should buy 1.5ghz, gj neo,make us w8 for so long for s**** ultra-passed chip?? f.u.neo.
Are you sure that the Advanced version has its storage dropped to 8GB? Chinese sites are still reporting the Advanced version still having 2GB RAM and 32GB Storage.
http://www.mtksj.com/html/MTKshoujizixun/3692.html
Otherwise I will have to change my order to UMI instead..
Why should we wait for a smartphone with less ROM, less power (no Turbo CPU), more expensive (price increase)?
Umi and JiaYu competitor overtake Neo!
some people do care about quality… Comparing features will never convince me that one phone is better than another one. Comparing features is a dead end, who cares if there is a difference of 1000 point in antutu? this blog comments are starting to become ridiculous…
wow this phone became so boring
i think nobody cares about it anymore, i decided to buy the nexus 5 next year as for now i bought the verne v5 – first to see if i like a 5 inch display then to ease up on my curiosity regarding chinese mid range phones..
If i was looking for quality right now i could easily go for the S4 but i need a timeout from the S3
oppo 5 is interesting but a bit to Sony-ish for my taste
I’ve been looking at this phone too. Could you possibly do a review when you get the phone? Would really appreciate it!
well never done one before but i can try
🙂
Lola how are you finding the Verne V5 ?
I don’t have it yet, but i doubt i’ll find it great, i just wanted to try one because i keep reading about these amazing chinese phones at a fair price, because no phone can beat the S4 🙂 in terms of specs at least
but i kinda regret i didn’t go for the newman k1 instead
NEO N003 Premium will have 32GB ROM, as the chief engineer stated in NEO forums. You can see them here (by the way, camera is Omnivision OV12830):
http://bbs.neomobile.com.cn/thread-71122-1-1.html
The prices of new chinese quad core are too high. This one, Neo N003, we will can find it to $250 in online wholesale, plus $30 for DHL shipment and $30-40 of duty tax. I can find the LG Nexus 4 at €277 with local 2 year full warranty.
For me the price difference does not cover ther risk to buy Neo N003 and other chinese expensive smartphone.
Well, you should wait for final prices on websites, as some of them are in 300$ and other on 200$. I don’t think this one will be too far away of 200$ for the Youth versión, and, by the way, you can use Singapur Post for low price (or free) shipping, and avoiding taxes 95% times.
I totally agree.with you Wolf. The previous price of 150$ was really tempting for the NEO 0003. But with rising prices of these chinese phones they become less and less attractive in comparison to phones from established brands.
The most important differences between buying a phone from China or locally in Europe are for me first of all the warranty of 2 years, for which I am ready to pay more. Not to mention the support by companies you get, if sth is wrong with your device. In general you can get for €200-300 nice mid-range to high-end phones. Sometimes you can even get a nice deal, as me last week.
I ordered a Motorola Razr I for 99€ in the course of a promtion here in Germany. And this phone outperforms the most Chinese quad-core phones in terms of battery power, cpu performance and built quality.
So in general if you re from Europe, you should think twice before investing $200 for a Chinese phones, if you can get comparable or better devices here for similar prices, with an extended warranty and better performance/quality.
Some real nitpicking and hating going on in here. Let me set a few things straight:
The bonuses about this phone for me are:
* 3000mAh battery – huge battery, necessary for big HD screen.
* Yamaha speakers – better sound quality, yummy!
* OTG – I plan to run USB devices with it for mobile computing purposes.
* MHL – Plug it into a TV to watch a movie? NICE!
* (apparently) nice build quality – People liked the N002, Neo have a good reputation.
The MTK6589 is more than powerful enough for this phone… what do you plan to do with a turbo CPU that you can’t already do on this? For pretty much all uses, there will be no noticeable performance difference.
Who cares if it only has 8gb onboard storage, 8gb is still heaps! Just slap a 32gb microSD in it if you need more… besides, premium is supposed to come with 32gb.
The youth will still be way more phone than i actually need. Does anyone know of any app that this would struggle with compared to the MTK6589T . All the vids that i have seen look butter smooth apart from the first 10 sec after boot.Also as i pre ordered from lightake i will still get it at the original price of £122.
My only problem is their marketing , when they say Feb you need to take that with a 5 month pinch of salt.