JiaYu S3 getting 13 mega-pixel Sony IMX214 sensor


jiayu s3 spy photo

What’s new from JiaYu today? Well the word is the JiaYu S3 will come with a Sonly IMX214 sensor for one!

Sony sensors are a big selling point for Chinese smartphones. In the past manufacteres tried to save a little cash by choosing Chinese sensors, but they have soon realised that this is a false economy.

Now most serious Chinese phone makers will use Sony, and JiaYu are among them with 13 mega-pixel Sony IMX214 sensors on the JiaYu S3. The IMX214 is the same sensor that is found on the Oppo Find 7, Nubia Z7 and other flagship phones. The sensor is ahead of the older IMX135 in that it offers 4K video, advances SME-HDR and faster focus. So that’s good news for potential S3 buyers. The rear sensor will also feature an F2.0 aperture and 5 lens stack.

As for the front, JiaYu are going for Samsung with a 5 mega-pixel F2.4 sensor with 84 degrees wide angle lens.

Still no word on when we can expect the JiaYu S3 to launch but so far we have learned the phone will have an alloy body, 5.5-inch 1080 display and LTE support.

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41 Comments

  1. iKosh
    November 14, 2014

    Jiayu is really pushing their marketing campaign right now. I hope they launch the F2 and S3 faster than previous devices.

  2. Steve B
    November 14, 2014

    Still waiting for the full Umi Zero review with IMX214 at f/1.8. could be as good for a lot less money…? Or how about the even cheaper TCL Memeda – is there yet a WCDMA version of this phone?

    • Marco Lancaster
      November 14, 2014

      I guess Umi Zero is a good phone, but won’t worth the money, you can get really high specs, like the Snap800 LG G2, Nexus 5, One Plus One, great phones with almost the same price.

      • balcobomber25
        November 15, 2014

        The Umi Zero is listed on some websites for as low as $225, even the high price of $299 isn’t that bad for a phone as beautiful as the Zero. For me the phone appearance matters just as much as the specs. The G2 is hideous looking, The Nexus 5 is too plain and boring and the One Plus One is near impossible to get at retail price. Talking about pricing just doing a quick Google search the lowest I could find those phones brand new and unlocked for was:

        LG G2 – $320
        Nexus 5 – $300
        One Plus – $349

        And those were on Ali Express where some of them were kind of questionable if they were real (or new) or not. On Amazon the prices were a lot higher.

        • Darren Tan
          November 16, 2014

          “The G2 is hideous looking”
          Hey Hey, you hurt my feelings ;p

          • balcobomber25
            November 17, 2014

            Lol, it is a great phone it’s just not for me. Same reason i didn’t like the past two Nexus phones. They were very good phones but the design was a combination of boring and fugly.

  3. iKosh
    November 14, 2014

    Jiayu is really pushing their marketing campaign right now. I hope they launch the F2 and S3 faster than previous devices.

  4. Steve B
    November 14, 2014

    Still waiting for the full Umi Zero review with IMX214 at f/1.8. could be as good for a lot less money…? Or how about the even cheaper TCL Memeda – is there yet a WCDMA version of this phone?

    • Marco Lancaster
      November 14, 2014

      I guess Umi Zero is a good phone, but won’t worth the money, you can get really high specs, like the Snap800 LG G2, Nexus 5, One Plus One, great phones with almost the same price.

    • balcobomber25
      November 15, 2014

      The Umi Zero is listed on some websites for as low as $225, even the high price of $299 isn’t that bad for a phone as beautiful as the Zero. For me the phone appearance matters just as much as the specs. The G2 is hideous looking, The Nexus 5 is too plain and boring and the One Plus One is near impossible to get at retail price. Talking about pricing just doing a quick Google search the lowest I could find those phones brand new and unlocked for was:

      LG G2 – $320
      Nexus 5 – $300
      One Plus – $349

      And those were on Ali Express where some of them were kind of questionable if they were real (or new) or not. On Amazon the prices were a lot higher.

    • Darren Tan
      November 17, 2014

      “The G2 is hideous looking”
      Hey Hey, you hurt my feelings ;p

    • balcobomber25
      November 17, 2014

      Lol, it is a great phone it’s just not for me. Same reason i didn’t like the past two Nexus phones. They were very good phones but the design was a combination of boring and fugly.

  5. eliHd
    November 14, 2014

    everywhere umi Zero is out of stock!

    • balcobomber25
      November 17, 2014

      Coolicool had some stock a few days ago not sure if they still do. $225 on their website.

  6. balcobomber25
    November 15, 2014

    Always loved the look of JiaYu phones but never used one. How are they in terms of quality and value? Is the software any good?

    • desponent
      November 15, 2014

      Hardware is very solid. Software is fairly good if you don’t update your phone regularly or demand one.

    • Manos
      November 15, 2014

      I have a G4A more than a year now and its very good. The quality is good but it’s not so strong it’s not for drops and any big hits. The screen is perfect and the touch is very good. The camera is good only for daylight photos it’s better with the Miui Rom, at night I will give it a score 4 of 10 the best. The software is good with some updates but stock Android experience.
      I’m using the miui 4.8.27 for a long time now and I’m not thinking to go back to stock Rom I believe the battery life is better with the miui Rom.
      The battery is good I get 5-6hours screen time and 24 hours use its fine for one day.
      I had paid 170€ and back then there isn’t many phones with 2gbram at this price!

    • slartiblart
      November 15, 2014

      Great phone. They’ve solved their software problems. I’ve dropped my g4s loads of times. Still strong!

      Camera is the best camera I’ve had on the G4S

  7. eliHd
    November 15, 2014

    everywhere umi Zero is out of stock!

    • balcobomber25
      November 17, 2014

      Coolicool had some stock a few days ago not sure if they still do. $225 on their website.

  8. balcobomber25
    November 15, 2014

    Always loved the look of JiaYu phones but never used one. How are they in terms of quality and value? Is the software any good?

    • desponent
      November 15, 2014

      Hardware is very solid. Software is fairly good if you don’t update your phone regularly or demand one.

    • Guest
      November 15, 2014

      I have a G4A more than a year now and its very good. The quality is good but it’s not so strong it’s not for drops and any big hits. The screen is perfect and the touch is very good. The camera is good only for daylight photos it’s better with the Miui Rom, at night I will give it a score 4 of 10 the best. The software is good with some updates but stock Android experience.
      I’m using the miui 4.8.27 for a long time now and I’m not thinking to go back to stock Rom I believe the battery life is better with the miui Rom.
      The battery is good I get 5-6hours screen time and 24 hours use its fine for one day.
      I had paid 170€ and back then there isn’t many phones with 2gbram at this price!

    • slartiblart
      November 15, 2014

      Great phone. They’ve solved their software problems. I’ve dropped my g4s loads of times. Still strong!

      Camera is the best camera I’ve had on the G4S

    • Mesterio
      November 17, 2014

      I agree i dont know what magic potion they baked that camera with it is really decent. Battery is good, i would say two days ok use. I have yet to try other ROMS, as what it came with is very satisfactory. oh yeah i have dropped a couple of times too.

    • Josef
      November 18, 2014

      Happy with my G4S too. I agree that the camera is great considering the price tag! Amazing display, very good battery life, removable battery, decent gaming performance. Useless GPS, though.
      There are some software quirks like occasional font glitches in search menus (white font on white background in Ebay and YouTube searches), but nothing I could not live with.

    • slartiblart
      November 20, 2014

      Yep an amazing camera. My samples from it here;

    • slartiblart
      November 20, 2014

      and

  9. Ricardo
    November 15, 2014

    I hope the processor can use that sensor at its full potential.

  10. Ricardo
    November 15, 2014

    I hope the processor can use that sensor at its full potential.

  11. slartiblart
    November 15, 2014

    Andi! I pick on your spelling every time! What the hell is a Sonly camera???

  12. slartiblart
    November 15, 2014

    Andi! I pick on your spelling every time! What the hell is a Sonly camera???

  13. Greg Zeng
    November 16, 2014

    I’m hoping that readers of this web site might know that low-price often means low quality. Unfortunately what interests me is high quality, without the high prices.

    Good to see a quality camera (China-made or not) & hardware is what some of us want. Google Playstore can give us most of the add-on-software that are on the famous, expensive brandnames: still & video camera stuff, one-handed keyboards, task-bars, eye-candy, etc.

    If only we could also have more unusual, costly stuff, like a good multi-window manager, pointer-pen, NFC, etc. Not many of us can financially afford a Samsung Note every year. BTW: I’m very happy with my Jiayu G4a too: 5-inch screen is really too big for me, so the G4a suits me.

    • balcobomber25
      November 17, 2014

      “low-price often means low quality. ” While there are plenty of cheap low quality phones there are quite a few that offer the same quality as the major brands for a fraction of the cost. There are also plenty of high price phones with horrible quality, just look at all the “budget” offerings from Samsung, LG, OPPO, Sony and HTC. They have phones that retail for over $500 that have specs from a decade ago.

  14. Greg Zeng
    November 17, 2014

    I’m hoping that readers of this web site might know that low-price often means low quality. Unfortunately what interests me is high quality, without the high prices.

    Good to see a quality camera (China-made or not) & hardware is what some of us want. Google Playstore can give us most of the add-on-software that are on the famous, expensive brandnames: still & video camera stuff, one-handed keyboards, task-bars, eye-candy, etc.

    If only we could also have more unusual, costly stuff, like a good multi-window manager, pointer-pen, NFC, etc. Not many of us can financially afford a Samsung Note every year. BTW: I’m very happy with my Jiayu G4a too: 5-inch screen is really too big for me, so the G4a suits me.

    • balcobomber25
      November 17, 2014

      “low-price often means low quality. ” While there are plenty of cheap low quality phones there are quite a few that offer the same quality as the major brands for a fraction of the cost. There are also plenty of high price phones with horrible quality, just look at all the “budget” offerings from Samsung, LG, OPPO, Sony and HTC. They have phones that retail for over $500 that have specs from a decade ago.

  15. Steve
    November 18, 2014

    JIAYU need to improve the flash led big time ! previous phone like G3/4 flash is a joke.
    Also I pray for OS maintenance … I hate having to change phone just because Jiayu doesn’t want to release updated ROMS for older models !! sucks !

  16. Guest
    November 18, 2014

    JIAYU need to improve the flash led big time ! previous phone like G3/4 flash is a joke.
    Also I pray for OS maintenance … I hate having to change phone just because Jiayu doesn’t want to release updated ROMS for older models !! sucks !