Although a lot of Chinese companies have been pushing independently developed phones in the recent past, a lot of small and big-time manufacturers in China still do the ODM business. They accept orders in (massive) bulk from another, often international, manufacturer, which allows the latter to sell devices with its own brand name.
There are a lot of vendors such as those. Blu, Wiko, Micromax, and the list goes on and on. Although this isn’t what buyers of such devices would like to accept, but often there’s more less harm and more good than you think. It saves the vendor a tonne of money that it would otherwise have to spend on R&D among other things, therefore making the device more affordable to you, the end consumer.
Here are 10 Chinese phones that exist in other markets with different names!
Gionee Elife S5.5 – Blu Vivo IV, Himax Pure S
GizChina readers would most probably be very aware of the Elife S5.5. The phone was once (not too long ago) known as the thinnest Android smartphone, and with a capable octa-core processor, the Elife S5.5 is no mug with processing prowess as well. A killer design, powerful internals and an extremely solid build are a trademark of the Gionee Elife S5.5. To top it off, the Elife S5.5 also comes with a 5-inch full HD display and a healthy 2GB of RAM!
The device exists in multiple markets albeit not with its original name. It seel in the USA with the Blu Vivo IV moniker, and is known as the Himax Pure S in Indonesia.
Coolpad F1 – Micromax Canvas Nitro, Himax Polymer
The Coolpad F1 has been a sought after device since the time of its launch. Buyers have taken to resellers to get the device, and even with the added costs the Coolpad F1 turns out to be a solid choice. It comes with a 5-inch display with a 720p resolution, but the star of the show is the 1.7GHz octa-core processor it hides beneath the display. There’s also 2GB of RAM to keep the show going, and usually a price tag that hovers around the $200 mark in various markets.
The Coolpad F1 is sold as the Micromax Canvas Nitro in India, and as the Himax Polymer in Indonesia. Note that both these markets are where Xiaomi is looking to introduce the Redmi Note next!
Gionee Elife E7 – Allview X1 Xtreme, Blu Life Pure XL, Walton Primo ZX
Gionee’s going to be a regular feature in this article, or so it appears by far. The Chinese manufacturer had for long been in the ODM/OEM business before stepping out to market its own devices.
The Elife E7 happens to be a very famous phone from the company. It comes with a 5.5-inch full HD display, a Snapdragon 800 processor and some impressive camera tech, including a 16 mega-pixel rear camera. It’s almost been a year since its launch, but the device remains to be a popular one thanks to the aforementioned key specs.
It sells in the US as the Blu Life Pure XL, in Europe as the Allview X1 Xtreme and as the Walton Primo ZX in Bangladesh.
Doogee Turbo DG2014 – Oplus XonPhone 5
The Oplus XonPhone 5 is fresh in our minds since it has been only less than a couple of weeks since we reviewed the phone here. It’s a steadily built phone, with a decent price tag and an average processor. However, it turns out the Oplus XonPhone 5 is a 1:1 replica of the Doogee Turbo which is a popular budget phone from China.
It comes with a 5-inch 720p screen, the ever so popular MediaTek MT6582 processor and 1GB of RAM. Oplus sells it for 7,999 INR in India which is an equivalent of about $130, and surprisingly, a lot of Chinese resellers offer the Chinese version aka the Doogee Turbo DG2014 for about the same price (even more, sometimes).
Read more about the Oplus XonPhone 5 on the official site.
T908 – Mito Fantasy Selfie A77
There are a lot of Chinese phones that although are quite popular, often don’t have a company name before the model number. The T908 is one such phone. It’s again a clone of the OPPO N1/OPPO N1 Mini like the iNew V8, but it comes with a much smaller — 4.5-inch — screen. It also comes with a dual-core 1.3GHz processor, 512MB/1GB of RAM and support for 3G networks.
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A lot of these phones are meant for OEM business, but many end up in the hands of resellers which are able to provide these devices at extremely low cost, which therefore makes them extremely popular.
The T908 is sold in Indonesia as the Mito Selfie A77.
Elephone P2000 – iberry Auxus Note
Either Elephone, or a lower-level OEM is been doing a lot of good business. Given that Elephone is a relatively new name on the scene, it should be the latter. But that’s not what’s important here anyway.
The P2000 interestingly comes with a fingerprint scanner, which does work pretty well. The P2000 is among the most affordable phones with that feature, and it also comes with some other interesting specs including a 5.5-inch HD screen, NFC and a massive 2650mAh battery.
It sells as the iberry Auxus Note in India, but we’re pretty certain this one has a lot of other names in a lot of other countries!
Gionee Elife E6 – Blu Life Pure, Walton Primo X2, Allview X1 Soul
We still think that the Gionee Elife E6 is among the best looking smartphones in the market right now. For a device that’s been in the market for a year, that’s no mean feat!
The Elife E6 came when MediaTek was really stepping into the performance market. The Elife E6 runs the 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6589T chipset, a variation of which was also found on the Xiaomi Hongmi. Along with that, the phone comes with 2GB of RAM and a 5-inch full HD display.
The US junta gets the Elife E6 goodness in the form of the Blu Life Pure, while those in Europe and Bangladesh call it Allview X1 Soul and Walton Primo X2.
JiaYu S2 – Vayoki S52
Although JiaYu isn’t the most established manufacturer in China, the company has been able to gain a lot of headway into the international market (through resellers, mostly) due to a build quality that other makers find hard to beat. The JiaYu S2 that was launched this year is another solid phone from the company, which comes with a lot of tech packed in a very slender body.
We also reviewed the S2 back in March, and found the phone to be an extremely sleek device that does justice to tech heads and fashionistas alike. Another upcoming manufacturer, Vayoki seems to have liked the phone as much as we did, and has launched it as the Vayoki S52. According to reports, Vayoki is looking to promote the device in India.
Wiko Highway/Micromax Canvas Knight/MyPhone Infinity
All of the above mentioned phones are actually made by Tinno, or so we believe. Wiko sells it as the Wiko Highway, Micromax calls it the Canvas Knight and MyPhone brand it as the Infinity.
Wiko is a relatively new vendor, with its roots in France. The company has, however, started operations in multiple countries in Europe. Micromax, as you’d probably know by now, is India’s #1 smartphone vendor while MyPhone is an up and coming maker from the Philippines.
Coming to the phone, believed to be made by Tinno, it comes with a 5-inch full HD display, a 2GHz octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM. It also comes in gold, and looks a bit like the iPhone… so that doesn’t do any harm.
Zopo ZP980 – Lemon Aspire A4 HD
The Zopo ZP980 was an incredibly popular phone during the time of its launch and you should be surprised if you haven’t heard about it before. It was Zopo’s first ever full HD phone, and it also came with an inspiring design, and later, with a 2GB RAM option (and a few other version as well, including a Turbo).
Folks at India’s Lemon liked it so much that they decided to call it their own with a ‘Lemon Aspire A4 HD’ model name!
Tell us what you think!
That was for a fraction of the rebranded phones that are doing the rounds. We bet on a tonne more that exist, and the fact that our readers would be aware of many more! If you know about any device that sells in your country and is a rebrand of another Chinese phone, be sure you let us know in the comments!