JiaYu G5: high-quality at a great price or just too expensive for a JiaYu phone?

We have already commented on the excellent quality of the JiaYu G5, but how does this premium JiaYu phone stack up against the Oppo R819? Full specifications, videos and comparison here!

I only have 2 problems with the new JiaYu G5, 1) It looks to much like an iPhone 5, 2) the high $271 retail price which is being advertised by some international resellers, but could the price be justifiable?

We have tested plenty of JiaYu products over the years, each and everyone of them has proven to be great value for money, and exceptionally well made using high-quality materials. The JiaYu G5 takes this up to a new level, with stainless steel used through-out, a beautifully crafted rear battery hatch, powerful processor and RAM package and excellent 13 mega-pixel Sony camera.

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If the same level of manufacture, quality and hardware was seen on phone from Oppo, HTC, Huawei, ZTE or others it would easily fetch close to $400, so at $271 for international buyers is the JiaYu G5 a bargain or just to costly for a JiaYu branded phone?

JiaYu G5 Specifications

[komper pid=127 compareform=no]

JiaYu G5 Hands on Video

Jiayu G5 unboxing Video

JiaYu G5 Vs Oppo R819

[table id=53 /] [ JiaYu G5 specifications source ]

Personally I believe the G5 is one of a few Chinese Android phone which really needs to be seen in the flesh to be appreciated. Yes, it looks a lot like an iPhone, and Yes it is a little on the thick side, but for a high-quality, high-end phone for less than $300 the G5 is easily the best!

[ Unboxing video source Antelife ]

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.

About the author
Andi

VICKY68
October 22, 2013
I believe that alcatel / tcl idol x or N3 better quality and it is available internationally as alcatel. Price in Malaysia now ~ US300.00.
- Airyl
  October 23, 2013
  Obviousloy the JiaYu G5 has better quality. Metal vs Plastic is almost always a no challenge.
  - peter
    October 23, 2013
    - Airyl
      October 23, 2013
      As far as I’m concerned, almost all metal phones I’ve held feel better than plastic ones, with the only exceptions being the Oppo Find 5, JiaYu G4 and some of the phones in the Lumia series. And as for clones, I still think the Goophone i5 is more solid and well built than the Galaxy range of phones or LG’s spectrum of devices. If JiaYu can pull of making a premium feeling phone out of plastic, they can do wonders with metal.

October 22, 2013
well, i’m not an expert but as i see, g5 don’t have any performance improvement in comparison with g4. Is the opposite: the battery is lower!
As you pointed in the text, g5 is well made. But Jiayu throw all the effort away when they made it too similar to iphone 5. I don’t want to pay more than $300 in a phone that everyone will recognize as an iphone clone. Because of that, i’m sticking with the g4 advanced. If it was a good and **original** design, i would consider to pay a little bit more than the price of g4, but that’s not the case.
- Airyl
  October 23, 2013
  G5 has a 3000mAh option too. But I agree, even I don’t want to spend much on something that people will label as an iPhone clone. They should have used these materials to make the JiaYu S1 as premium as possible.

Prabu
October 22, 2013
HI Andi..
bit of confusion in g5 specs… its mentioned as no extension SD card memory in spec by you, but in comparison chart with oppo R819 its mentioned 64 GB supported??

October 22, 2013
Well I have the g4 advanced but I like this phone …I think the scores at antutu.is better than g4 but is one sim.
Jiayu try to make better phones quality based but I hope to upadate to 800 snapdragon.
Dave
October 23, 2013
“JiaYu G5: high-quality at a great price or just to expensive for a JiaYu phone?”
“too” expensive, not “to” expensive
Otherwise I enjoy reading your articles. I’m in the market for a new phone (dual sim, 3G 900/2100, HD display, …). Not many going for 4G yet?
- October 23, 2013
  Thanks for that Dave 😉 We won’t see many Mediatek phones with 4G until the middle of next year.

Furqan
October 23, 2013
Hi Andi,
Im a bit confused antelife claim it has 1gb ram. Here its 2gb?!?
Is there two variants?
- - October 23, 2013
    It will be like the G4
    1Gbram/4Gbrom 2000 battery
    2Gbram/32Gbrom 3000battery
    But I think is the phone and you can use the 3000 battery to the small model with a proper back cover.This make it bigger back but is good for me.

chavv
October 23, 2013
How is this “iphone clone” I fail to see. No one will think its iphone. At least who ever had seen ip4/5/5s 😛
As for price – its too much for me. For this price I’d expect local shops&warranty. And no cost-cutting like no leds under touch buttons 🙁
Guest
October 23, 2013
I believe that alcatel / tcl idol x or N3 better quality and it is available internationally as alcatel. Price in Malaysia now ~ US300.00.
- Guest
  October 23, 2013
  Obviousloy the JiaYu G5 has better quality. Metal vs Plastic is almost always a no challenge.
- Guest
  October 23, 2013
  Metal does not = better quality, just look at all the iPhone clones…
- Guest
  October 23, 2013
  As far as I’m concerned, almost all metal phones I’ve held feel better than plastic ones, with the only exceptions being the Oppo Find 5, JiaYu G4 and some of the phones in the Lumia series. And as for clones, I still think the Goophone i5 is more solid and well built than the Galaxy range of phones or LG’s spectrum of devices. If JiaYu can pull of making a premium feeling phone out of plastic, they can do wonders with metal.
- Guest
  October 24, 2013
  Even the Neo N003 has better cost/benefit relation.

Guest
October 23, 2013
well, i’m not an expert but as i see, g5 don’t have any performance improvement in comparison with g4. Is the opposite: the battery is lower!
As you pointed in the text, g5 is well made. But Jiayu throw all the effort away when they made it too similar to iphone 5. I don’t want to pay more than $300 in a phone that everyone will recognize as an iphone clone. Because of that, i’m sticking with the g4 advanced. If it was a good and **original** design, i would consider to pay a little bit more than the price of g4, but that’s not the case.
- Guest
  October 23, 2013
  G5 has a 3000mAh option too. But I agree, even I don’t want to spend much on something that people will label as an iPhone clone. They should have used these materials to make the JiaYu S1 as premium as possible.

Guest
October 23, 2013
HI Andi..
bit of confusion in g5 specs… its mentioned as no extension SD card memory in spec by you, but in comparison chart with oppo R819 its mentioned 64 GB supported??
- Guest
  October 23, 2013
Guest
October 23, 2013
Well I have the g4 advanced but I like this phone …I think the scores at antutu.is better than g4 but is one sim.
Jiayu try to make better phones quality based but I hope to upadate to 800 snapdragon.

Guest
October 23, 2013
“JiaYu G5: high-quality at a great price or just to expensive for a JiaYu phone?”
“too” expensive, not “to” expensive
Otherwise I enjoy reading your articles. I’m in the market for a new phone (dual sim, 3G 900/2100, HD display, …). Not many going for 4G yet?
- Guest
  October 23, 2013
  Thanks for that Dave 😉 We won’t see many Mediatek phones with 4G until the middle of next year.

Andrew
October 23, 2013
Did Jiayu really skimp on the soft button LEDs again? That would be a deciding factor as to whether or not I go for this phone. It beggars belief that they’d build a high quality device with fancy materials and then leave something like this out…
The network support fields above are blank – any idea if this phone supports 850mhz WCDMA?
- Airyl
  October 23, 2013
  Why do you need backlit buttons? I just don’t understand their significance in a phone. Please explain.
  - Andrew
    October 24, 2013

Guest
October 23, 2013
Hi Andi,
Im a bit confused antelife claim it has 1gb ram. Here its 2gb?!?
Is there two variants?
- Guest
  October 23, 2013
  I took the specs directly from the JiaYu website, there is the possibility of two though
- Guest
  October 23, 2013
  It will be like the G4
  1Gbram/4Gbrom 2000 battery
  2Gbram/32Gbrom 3000battery
  But I think is the phone and you can use the 3000 battery to the small model with a proper back cover.This make it bigger back but is good for me.

Guest
October 23, 2013
How is this “iphone clone” I fail to see. No one will think its iphone. At least who ever had seen ip4/5/5s 😛
As for price – its too much for me. For this price I’d expect local shops&warranty. And no cost-cutting like no leds under touch buttons 🙁

Guest
October 23, 2013
Did Jiayu really skimp on the soft button LEDs again? That would be a deciding factor as to whether or not I go for this phone. It beggars belief that they’d build a high quality device with fancy materials and then leave something like this out…
The network support fields above are blank – any idea if this phone supports 850mhz WCDMA?
- Guest
  October 23, 2013
  Why do you need backlit buttons? I just don’t understand their significance in a phone. Please explain.
- Guest
  October 25, 2013
- - October 24, 2013
    For me painted buttons instead of backlit ones, feels like fake wood in a wanna-be-premium car.
    As much as I like Jiayu, I guess many people just think that buttons should be visible in the dark.
Inlife
October 24, 2013
I’m still a Jiayu Fan !!
But still waiting the use of 900mhz band in WDCMA.
Great phone… but Jiayu seems forget European…
Alex
October 24, 2013
Why I5 Clone?
I love the jiayu G4 …

sere83
October 24, 2013
Why Jiayu are making clones bewliders me. Considering they seem to be trying to establish themselves as a reputable brand it seems like a huge step backwards. Definitely wouldn’t want to have to endure the inevitable bashing from my iPhone toting pals. I think the MT6589 is too underpowered now and the GPS is so bad for me to consider another one. Nexus 5 all the way
- October 24, 2013
  WHY people keep complaining that G5 looks ike iphone????
  WHY?!
  It has nothing coomon with 5… except 4 rounded cornrs (duh!)
  - Andrew
    October 24, 2013
    Well, let’s not kid ourselves… it does look like an iPhone; but who gives a damn – iPhones look nice! I’m not an Apple fan and I don’t like the OS but I’ve yet to see a body design that I prefer over the shiny-black-with-silver-band-style. It’s like trying to design a better alien than the alien from Alien… it can’t be done; only improved upon. Yeah, I know, this is subjective opinion!
    What puzzles me is people getting self-conscious about what others think of them owning a phone which borrows iPhone traits. If your friends are lame enough to poke fun at your G(iPhone)5, perhaps just remind them that your phone has more power, a better OS (subjective again, I know, but seriously), similar build quality and it costs around half the price of Apple’s underpowered budget iPhone 5c… in fact, you should be the one mocking them for their dumbarsery in allowing Apple to rip them off so easilly.
    /rant
    - October 24, 2013
      “it’s like trying to design a better alien than the alien from Alien” Very nicely put 🙂
      - sere83
        October 25, 2013
        To be honest i think that’s rubish. The iphone isn’t the best design ever made, its very good but there are other nice design aesthetics like the HTC one, Nexus 4/5 and nokia lumia phones. Any way you slice it, to straight rip the iphone is a cop out especially for a company trying to move away from the clone reputation and it sends a message of lack of innovation.
        And i’m sorry but the build quality of Jiayu is nowhere near that of an iphone. The MT6589T gets absolutely obliterated buy the A6, A6X and A7 chips in the iphones/ipads, its no where near as powerful and would get destroyed in bechmarks by any of them. All MTk phones d not come close to even the the iphone 5 in OS fluidity and speed this is reflected in theri low price. Agreed iPhone are a rip but look at xiaomi look at meizu, they innovate and offer competitive pricing and original design, there is no excuse for a company like Jiayu to need to make a clone phone.
    - October 25, 2013
      A very good rant indeed, Andrew! Some folks just keep on complaining, even upon something immaterial… they just enjoy bitching 🙂
      The JiaYu G5 with these particular specs: 2 GB RAM / 32 GB ROM / 3000 mA battery should be great to have! Except in my case, i prefer to have a much bigger screen since I’m using JiaYu G4 4.7″, so naturally I’m seeking something of 5″ or over.
      Dual SIM; card slot supporting up to 64gb; detachable big capacity battery (3000 mA option) are great to have.
      Priced under $300 this model is reasonable. I can only give a damn to the said iphone look alike; who care whether it looks like 5s or galaxy s4 or whatsoever for such a trivial reason as long its look is NICE, good specs & features, quality built and decently priced!! I simply detest to being ripped off by some crazy prices of the said famous and well advertized brands such iphones, samsung stuffs … ^^_-_^^
      I hope JiaYu will launch a new model with at least comparable specs as G5 Advanced yet come with bigger screen of 5″ or larger 🙂

Guest
October 24, 2013
- Guest
  October 24, 2013
  Xiaomi Mi2, Mi2s, Hongmi, JiaYu G4 dont (off the top of my head)
- Guest
  October 24, 2013
  For me painted buttons instead of backlit ones, feels like fake wood in a wanna-be-premium car.
  As much as I like Jiayu, I guess many people just think that buttons should be visible in the dark.
Guest
October 24, 2013
I’m still a Jiayu Fan !!
But still waiting the use of 900mhz band in WDCMA.
Great phone… but Jiayu seems forget European…
Guest
October 24, 2013
Why I5 Clone?
I love the jiayu G4 …

Guest
October 24, 2013
Why Jiayu are making clones bewliders me. Considering they seem to be trying to establish themselves as a reputable brand it seems like a huge step backwards. Definitely wouldn’t want to have to endure the inevitable bashing from my iPhone toting pals. I think the MT6589 is too underpowered now and the GPS is so bad for me to consider another one. Nexus 5 all the way
- Guest
  October 24, 2013
  WHY people keep complaining that G5 looks ike iphone????
  WHY?!
  It has nothing coomon with 5… except 4 rounded cornrs (duh!)
- Guest
  October 25, 2013
  Well, let’s not kid ourselves… it does look like an iPhone; but who gives a damn – iPhones look nice! I’m not an Apple fan and I don’t like the OS but I’ve yet to see a body design that I prefer over the shiny-black-with-silver-band-style. It’s like trying to design a better alien than the alien from Alien… it can’t be done; only improved upon. Yeah, I know, this is subjective opinion!
  What puzzles me is people getting self-conscious about what others think of them owning a phone which borrows iPhone traits. If your friends are lame enough to poke fun at your G(iPhone)5, perhaps just remind them that your phone has more power, a better OS (subjective again, I know, but seriously), similar build quality and it costs around half the price of Apple’s underpowered budget iPhone 5c… in fact, you should be the one mocking them for their dumbarsery in allowing Apple to rip them off so easilly.
  /rant
- Guest
  October 25, 2013
  “it’s like trying to design a better alien than the alien from Alien” Very nicely put 🙂
- Guest
  October 25, 2013
  A very good rant indeed, Andrew! Some folks just keep on complaining, even upon something immaterial… they just enjoy bitching 🙂
  The JiaYu G5 with these particular specs: 2 GB RAM / 32 GB ROM / 3000 mA battery should be great to have! Except in my case, i prefer to have a much bigger screen since I’m using JiaYu G4 4.7″, so naturally I’m seeking something of 5″ or over.
  Dual SIM; card slot supporting up to 64gb; detachable big capacity battery (3000 mA option) are great to have.
  Priced under $300 this model is reasonable. I can only give a damn to the said iphone look alike; who care whether it looks like 5s or galaxy s4 or whatsoever for such a trivial reason as long its look is NICE, good specs & features, quality built and decently priced!! I simply detest to being ripped off by some crazy prices of the said famous and well advertized brands such iphones, samsung stuffs … ^^_-_^^
  I hope JiaYu will launch a new model with at least comparable specs as G5 Advanced yet come with bigger screen of 5″ or larger 🙂
- Guest
  October 25, 2013
  To be honest i think that’s rubish. The iphone isn’t the best design ever made, its very good but there are other nice design aesthetics like the HTC one, Nexus 4/5 and nokia lumia phones. Any way you slice it, to straight rip the iphone is a cop out especially for a company trying to move away from the clone reputation and it sends a message of lack of innovation.
  And i’m sorry but the build quality of Jiayu is nowhere near that of an iphone. The MT6589T gets absolutely obliterated buy the A6, A6X and A7 chips in the iphones/ipads, its no where near as powerful and would get destroyed in bechmarks by any of them. All MTk phones d not come close to even the the iphone 5 in OS fluidity and speed this is reflected in theri low price. Agreed iPhone are a rip but look at xiaomi look at meizu, they innovate and offer competitive pricing and original design, there is no excuse for a company like Jiayu to need to make a clone phone.
litzzhu
October 24, 2013
hi,andy i want to buy it , could you tell me , antelife really have this phone in stock? first , i went to 1949deal the price is ok , its cheaper than antelife .so could you tell me ,Which should I go to buy?？？

JiaYu G5 Specifications

JiaYu G5 Hands on Video

Jiayu G5 unboxing Video

JiaYu G5 Vs Oppo R819

Andi

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