With 2GB RAM, a quad-core processor and LTE the 599 Yuan JiaYu F2 looks great on paper, but do the details really make a phone that could tackle the Xiaomi Redmi 2 and Meizu m1?
599 Yuan is $100 in China, that’s very little to ask for a phone which boasts LTE, 2GB RAM and 720p Corning Gorilla Glass display, but that’s exactly what JiaYu have just announced the retail price of the JiaYu F2 to be.
If we look at that another way then the JiaYu F2 costs exactly 100 Yuan less than the Xiaomi Redmi 2, and Meizu m1 but with double the RAM, oh and it has a 3000mAh battery and Sony IMX179 8 mega-pixel rear camera!
I’m pretty impressed that JiaYu have managed to do this, but on further inspection I can see exactly where JiaYu have cut costs. Instead of giving the JiaYu F2 a 64bit MT6732 processor they have gone with the previous generation MT6582 with MT6290 LTE modem. Now this isn’t a bad processor, but it isn’t as good as the current 64bit processor with proven performance and GPS enhancements.
Gizchina News of the week
I’d still say the F2 is good value for money though, it has a HD 5-inch display, Sony rear camera, dual SIM LTE. 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, SD memory card expansion, 3000mah battery and has an alloy chassis.
JiaYu say that the first batch of JiaYu F2 will go on sale in China ahead of the Chinese Spring Festival which means internationally we might be lucky to see it launch before March.
For those of you who are interested in buying the JiaYu F2 and wondering if it will work in your country here are the official supported frequencies. FDD-LTE B3 / B7 / B20, WCDMA 900 / 2100MHZ, GSM 850/900/1800 / 1900MHZ.
JiaYu F2 Specifications vs Xiaomi Redmi 2 vs Meizu m1
[table id=199 /]What do you think of the JiaYu F2? Great deal or does the older generation processor put you off?
If only they supported their ROM as well as Xiaomi or Meizu does and the build quality was on the same mark.
UPDATE:
Okey, I haven’t used this device and my judgement is based on G4A model, so maybe this model has build quality on par with big name brands and the ROM support will be on par too (hopefully).
The build quality is good don’t worry. Just the spec don’t fit for 2015… what happen to S4? I hope Jiayu make it stronger than s3 and don’t cut the spec!
I don’t say it’s absolutely bad, but judging by my jiayu g4 advanced, it is worse then xiaomi or meizu.
Judging from my G4S. It’s better than similarly priced big brand.
But whatever, just buy the meizu and xiaomi, not like I actually care lol.
Maybe G4S is better at build quality then G4A, it’s newer and even received upgrade to kitkat. Spec wise all “small brand” phones are better then similarly priced big brand, but they don’t have enough work-force to support their ROMs as well.
So far I have tried :
Jiayu flavored AOSP, AOSP, LewaOS, MIUI V5 and V6, Vibe 2.0, and there’s even that Aliyun OS which I haven’t tried nor intend to.
I don’t really need Jiayu to support their OS past bugfix and MTK release since the community will do it better for them.
I thought the same when I bought the G4A, but the custom ROMs didn’t prove to be as good as I expected and many abandoned their support after a short period of time.
What kind of “support” are you expecting them to have anyway? This is puzzling since as long as it works for what it’s intended to be without something’s breaking, “support” be damned. Maybe it’s just me.
By support I mean upgrades that fix bugs and also add new features. Xiaomi by example releases updates every 2 weeks even for devices that are 2 years old.
That could also introduce bugs, sometimes phone breaking. The amazing mentality of always having update for the sake of update is amazing. But suit yourself, I like to use my phone, not the other way around.
With big brands and their OTA upgrades is actually the way you mention in your last sentence. You just do one click OTA updates and don’t have to look for custom ROMs and play with flashing.
I prefer to have the option of update then not have it at all. Also, big brands have dedicated quality assurance departments that test every new release. With custom ROMs the users serve as QA department for the custom ROM builders and yet the issues are not fixed, as the custom builder holds, of course, no responsibility for my dead kittens.
Bugs is not present in the OTA or the flashing but the updated ROM itself. And I’m not praising it, learn2sarcasm.
I prefer the option of being rock solid stable than having to constantly update in fear of having things broken. Those “dedicated QA” is not bulletproof since android ROM is complex and they are always short on time, and they certainly demonstrated themselves that they aren’t (bulletproof or cure-all).
But again, suit yourself, though why are you even here then? Go click the articles with Xiaomi and Meizu in their tags instead.
Note: I was like you back then, always updating my G4S with the latest greatest MIUI version (the chinese community is providing it) every week. But then I got fed up with it and realize that I’m a slave to my phone instead and it was stupid when I could just settle with a ROM that works great and actually use my phone. (Worse of all, those 300MB were mostly just some minor things like minor app update or cosmetic change, while sometimes introducing unknown bugs from upstream Xiaomi).
By the way, G4S is still receiving weekly MIUI v6 (and LewaOS) updates even now. But I don’t bother with it and just go with the stable AOSP ROM from the int community.
In perfect world there are rock stable ROMs that let you be the master of your phone, but even rock stable ROMs need to receive security updates from time to time. That’s good for G4S owners and I’m happy for them. A pity that there is no such support for G4A and I haven’t found the rock solid kitkat ROM for it yet, after one year of use.
I have a Jiayu G4A and a G4S and at the A I have a months now miui 4.8.30 it’s fine I haven’t problems with it plus I like it better that stock Android. My phone doesn’t have any problems and it’s the very first.
I know just one MIUI ROM with version 4.8.30 (by killoe). I have used it for a few month. It has issues with random reboots, freezes, apps crashing and it’s a bit laggy, but more critical issues are with battery jumping from 50% to 0% in 5 minutes and android version 4.2.x that has now known critical security issues (related to webview).
You can fix the battery problem with other kernel and it’s working. I’m using chrome I don’t worry about security nothing to get lost here 🙂
laggy yea happening sometimes and I run the 360 security and clean all the bad stuff…
That’s a way to go, but for the past few month I settled on a kitkat rom build from AOSP sources. It’s fast and stable, but has an annoying issue, if you reboot, the battery will show more then half less capacity before reboot. Link to the ROM http://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=601579&st=1640#entry36528160
Their ROM support is actually fairly decent, and their build quality is probably on par with Xiaomi.
I’m not sure. Andi just told me that the Be One that was sent to him has different specs than advertised, so I’m probably going to avoid it for now. I do want to buy a Jiayu S3, just later in the year.
I have to definitely get a phone by beginning of April, so unless anything comes up I think I’ll get the S3. Hopefully by then the 3GB version will be out along with Lollipop update.
Also your endorsement of Jiayu, especially in terms of their build quality reinforces this decision 🙂
Don’t tell me that. I’m an owner of Jiayu G4A, build quality is on the bad side and ROM support was dropped half year after phone release.
Build quality is fantastic on the G4. You might be using a knock off, I remember that being a thing last year. Also, ROM support seems pretty active in Needrom. You might have got a lemon unit.
I have tried many custom ROMs, but their quality is worse then I expected. According to my experience and other G4 owners that shared their experience on hundred of forum pages the build quality is definitely not up to mark and my G4A is original. Anyway, by the time I bought it, there was not so much choice as there is now. The most important of all is to learn from your own mistakes and I have learned mine with jiayu.