Where to buy your Chinese phone? Reseller or Distributor?

There was once a time that you could only buy a Chinese phone through an online reseller, but with the popularity of Chinese phones more local distributors have set up, so which is better for the customer?

When buying a Chinese phone you have a lot of big choices to make. First of all you need to choose the Chinese Android phone which suits your requirements, and then you need to choose where to buy the phone from.

There are generally only 3 choices where to buy your Chinese phone from and they are 1) Through an online reseller, 2) Through the manufactures store, 3) Through a local distributor.

As far as we know only Oppo, OnePlus, Meizu and Xiaomi offer their phones through their own stores outside of China, so we will focus on resellers and distributors for this article.

What is a reseller?

Xiaomishop are a great choice for Xiaomi devices. Their main store is in China, but they can also ship a few items from Europe.

A reseller is what we call an online store which deals in a huge number of Chinese phones, tablets, and accessories. Some resellers will specialise in just a single product or brand, while others will sell everything from phones to wedding dresses. Resellers will usually work with smaller Chinese phone makers, and also buy phones when they go on flash sale in China only, then resell them internationally.

What is a local distributor?

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Despite the name Topreseller Store are based in Italy and work directly with many Chinese phone makers. They offer 24 month warranty and great aftersales.

A local distributor is a company located in your home country (or close) who have an official partnership with a manufacturer to sell their phones.

Advantages and Disadvantages

There are advantages and disadvantages with either option you choose, but choose wisely and you will come out with the best deal and phone.

Buying from a reseller

Advantages

They get the latest phones in stock before distributors.
Phone prices are usually cheaper.
Some resellers work with the manufacturer so you still have a warranty.
A huge choice of phones to choose from.
Convenient online purchase.

Disadvantages

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Hidden costs can significantly increase costs e.g shipping, import tax.
Cost of shipping if you need to return the device for warranty.
Shipping delays
Customs
Issues in the past with dishonest resellers can make buying from China a risk.

Buying from a local distributor

Advantages

Warranty
Low/Free shipping
Fast shipping
Less chance of hidden costs.
Ease of communication through language and also the time difference.
Ease of return for warranty and repair.
Possibility of visiting a physical store and trying before you buy.
Less chance of disappearing over night.

Disadvantages

Much higher price
Still a chance of delay if they need to send your phone back to China for warranty

Where to buy your Chinese phone from? Resellers or Distributors

There is a lot to take in to consideration here. Although it looks like you can get the most benefit from buying from a local distributor you also have a chance of getting the same service from a reseller, but it is more of a gamble. We know of European Chinese phone fans who are able to buy their phones with free shipping and no customs tax and have no issues with the device, then again there are some customers who have had to pay customs and shipping, and then suffered more time and cost with having to return the phone. Buying from a reseller is more of a gamble, but if you do your research you can save money and not worry about after sales service.

Buying from a distributor is the less risky option but it also costs a lot more too. For example we have seen the JiaYu S3 on sale from Chinese resellers at only $179 while EU based distributors charge $255. The $76 difference isn’t all going in the pocket of the store though, it covers VAT, shipping from China, shipping to the customer, initial customs and cost of after sales service, the actual profit is very little.

The GizChina team use a mixture of good reliable resellers and distributors depending on the phones we choose to buy.

There really is no simple answer to the question of where to buy. Just remember that putting in as much research on where to buy might save you as much time and money as researching what to buy.

Poll: Where do you buy your Chinese phones from?

[poll id=”9″]

Take the poll and feel free to name and shame the stores you have used in the comments below:

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

- - - - Manos
        February 13, 2015
        The prices from etotalk is not the best and both delay to post the phone.Ask before you buy it! Plus use Paypal at all times.
        If you are trying to find the Jiayu S3 spemall say that is 13 Feb today in stock both Basic and Advanced …
February 12, 2015
Here in Greece if we want to buy a Xiaomi phone for example, it will be only through resellers, meaning an increase of the price for 50+ $!

Poxie
February 12, 2015
Through Mixeshop I have ordered 8 Jiayu G4A/G4S devices (for myself and a few friends and family). All came in according delivery estimates. One of the 8 phones was “broken”. The speaker and USB port were broken. Ordered a few spare parts to repair them, because sending the device back was to expensive and the spare parts were only $8. I live in The Netherlands and usually ordered through DHL. In 50% of the times I had to pay tax when the phone got delivered.
- John
  February 12, 2015
  Can you tell me how much money do you pay in Netherland if you choose DHL ?
  - Poxie
    February 13, 2015
    I think I payed around 23 dollar for shipment. It arrived within a week at my door.
    - John
      February 13, 2015
      - Manos
        February 14, 2015
        DHL at Greece need 100€ for tax! Also they asked me the PayPal recipe the day that I had buy it!
        Don’t use DHL this company is not real! just use the normal post office registered post in 10 days will come without any taxes!
        Do your self a favor a avoid DHL!
        John
        February 14, 2015
        Yes you are right, I listened that about Greece but i guess in rest of europe they usually charge about 25 to 35 euros
        Mrinal
        February 17, 2015
        I also ordered from mixeshop.com and live in the Netherlands. The amount of tax I paid is about 24 euros (rounded up). (Purchased several phones and for the ones that I had to pay tax it was always around that much).
      - ajftl250
        February 17, 2015
fido futte
February 12, 2015
There is alot of Scam chinese Reseller site!! You Pay and never hear from them again, or get something else broken RMA than you order that does not work . Be carefull out there !!
- - fido futte
    February 12, 2015
    It is faster and easyere to use EU reseller or Distributor , because it is faster and you know Phone support EU market band spec EU certified and RMA service is better/shorter
androidfan
February 12, 2015
Can we buy from taobao directly ? I read that we can do it using taobao agent or tmall agent anyone has any information about that
- February 12, 2015
  yup, if you can find a Taobao agent you can. I suppose the same agent could also even take part in flash sales for you to get the latest Xiaomi, Meizu phones etc
  - Manos
    February 12, 2015
    I found this chinaglobalmall dot com and have some agents Taobao TMal ND also has PayPal! I have buy a power bank to try it at a very good price .
- Tiz
  February 14, 2015

Paul Sleight
February 12, 2015
Over the last year I’ve bought 3 Chinese phones through AliExpress. I did it on the basis that if anything went wrong or didn’t arrive, they were cheap enough to just write off the money lost and put it down to experience.
I’m pleased to say that all three arrived as expected. They all performed well. The biggest surprise was the cheapest one which I knew had fake specs because it was SO cheap. It turned out to be a Melrose P780t with very basic specs, but , aside from the cameras which were only acceptable, I was very impressed with it’s performance and screen quality.
I’ll have no doubt about buying my next phone from China, but maybe I will consider the local reseller route, perhaps Topreseller. I’ll be going for an MTK6752 phone, so the higher cost makes me more cautious.

mikey
February 12, 2015
just bought from TO2C.COM i’m waiting for elephone P6000 …. free shipping to belgium…
took white box extra and declaire low as 30$ garden to avoid customs…. we will see
- Simon
  February 12, 2015
  - Soraya
    February 12, 2015
    I can also recommend to2c 🙂 Great customer service, too 🙂
  - Mikey
    February 15, 2015
    Yes i know…but the problem is that they have like many others just a few phones (most are OLd)… And if you want to have one of the latest there is only one choice.
    - Simon
      February 15, 2015
  - Yasin
    February 17, 2015
    only a few Phones from the EU warehouse… no thanks most are old phones and the crappy ones.
- Andi
  February 13, 2015
Nicola
February 12, 2015
I usually buy from China Reseller,i bought 5 chinese phone,zte v967s from etotalk.com,Newman n1 from pandawill.com,elephone g5 ,lenovo and Zte nubia z5s from myefox.it,never had a problem with these phone,from these sites, myefox and pandawill have good prices(myefox.it ship some product from theyr EU warehouse),most important thing is that they accept PayPal as payment method.

mersault
February 12, 2015
My bitter experience from buying chinese phone: I bought a phone from Spemall and it came in working order. They did lie to me about shipping time and it took quite long to get to me, but i received working phone. After some months of use some of things stopped working, so I was able to discover “wonderful” after sale costumer service from Spemall. I sent phone back for repair (on my expenses) and after 1 month of waiting I received phone – they managed to repair defective things, but also somehow managed to ruin SD card reader in phone. That ment I could not save photos, videos, ebboks, download from internet,… (I had phone without SMART prefix) – because all was by default stored to SD card. I talked to their stuff and the only answer was – send it back again for repair. OK, I sent it back, waited 2 months for phone and finally when it arrived – I found out, that SD card reader still did not work. I was angry as hell. Made a video cleraly showing they did not repair (although they claimed one week delay when sipping was due to multiple examinations of phone!?!) and said to them I don’t want to send phone back to repair, as obviously they can not repair it. I wanted replacement or refund (as stated on their internet page). Only reply (after 3 weeks of buying time and slowly answering to my daily emails) was – send it back for repair again. I couldn’t believe it. They said it was not their fault, but producer’s (they sent it to producer’s service). I wanted email from producer – didin’t want to give it to me, as they speak only chinese! Wanted them to talk to producer – didn’t want to do it. At the end they decided to offer me some little bonus if I buy another phone in their shop. But I’m supposed to sent phone back again, wait for another 2 months without phone, cover all my shipping costs and at the end probably receive unrepired phone again… In 8 months from buying I had working phone for 4 months… And I can do nothing to make them fulfill their own promises about warranty claims:(

Simon
February 12, 2015
Has anyone used Merimobiles ?
- Manu
  February 12, 2015
  yes i used it to order my huawei G615 (honor glory 2^^ whatever) it took about 1-2months but mainly cause german zoll took 3 weeks xD you order in canada and they send it rom hongkong, btw it was/ is working fine i still use it but i change soon since its about 2,5year old soon soooo ye cant say anything bad abotu them except for the price its quite high for a reseller
- Ders
  February 12, 2015
  I live in the USA and me and a family member bought tablets from Merimobiles a couple years ago. They shipped fast. My sisters battery died and they even took it in for a repair.
- MaxPower
  February 12, 2015
  I did last November. Everything OK.
  They ship from Hong Kong, and DHL took 3 days to deliver it.
  I can’t say anything about the price because they had the cheapest price of the xiaomi mi4.
  I would buy again
  - Simon
    February 13, 2015
    - MaxPower
      February 13, 2015
      It’s a great phone. Battery lasts long, it has Qualcomm quick charge 2.0 at charges the battery up to 60% in half hour. Camera is great, F1.8 which means rapid shots. I love the IR blaster, I thought it was a niche feature instead I use it every day. The only down side is that mine is white, I like black phones. You can get it for 360$ at merimobiles. There are other phones for that budget but mostly they are 5.5″ and they are too big for me.
      - Simon
        February 14, 2015
        I’m not sure if the black version is released yet, but I did hear reports that with the black the colour was coming off the phone.
        MaxPower
        February 14, 2015
- Steve B
  February 12, 2015
  Ordered from them, first phone was lost in post, never tracked, sent a replacement without issue. Now using NL post (as are a lot of resellers) as Singapore post was becoming unreliable.
  - Simon
    February 13, 2015
    Yes Singapore post took forever when I ordered some things from Aliexpress. I see Merimobiles now have EU Warehouse.
- balcobomber25
  February 13, 2015
  I used them once for a case for a phone. I never use Singapore post, too slow but it was the only option for what I was buying. It took about a 12 days to get to me.

Simon Hrovatin
February 12, 2015
- Ulti
  February 12, 2015
  Any chance you could share the seller? I want to pick up a MX4 myself to play with even though I have a Mi4 but I don’t want to risk getting stung again (I had to pay import fees on my Mi4).
  - Simon Hrovatin
    February 12, 2015
    - Ulti
      February 13, 2015
      Thanks but it seems unfortunately they don’t ship to the UK which is quite surprising. I’ve ordered it through geekbuying instead with DHL express – hopefully DHL don’t charge too much customs.
      - NiHouMa
        February 13, 2015
        Ulti
        February 13, 2015
        Damn I missed out! Wonder if I can cancel my geekbuying order.
        Simon
        February 14, 2015
    - Simon
      February 14, 2015
Brendon
February 12, 2015

Muhammad Yasir
February 12, 2015
if someone could tell me how to EASILY and CONVENIENTLY ship a phone to pakistan (from china) that’d be great!
P.S its utter irony im askin this , since china is our immediate neighbour on the world map!
- arsalan
  February 12, 2015
  I ordered 2 men’s shoes from China by free Chinapost. Both reached in specified time but the one which was cheap (25 dollars), the post office charged me Rs 600/= as tax but the costlier one ($52 ), they didn’t charge any tax. It takes around one month.
  DHL should be more faster but I never used that for Pakistan. Also I don’t know how much tax they will put.
  - Muhammad Yasir
    February 12, 2015
    wait a second.. bro. You’re saying , that you imported 2 shoes … they charged some amount for the CHEAPER shoe (which u think was NOT a custom duty of any kind) and
    NOTHING on expensive one?
    - arsalan
      February 13, 2015
      Off course that was a custom duty. But it was charged on the cheaper shoes. Because it was packed in a box while the costlier one was just rapped in plastic. So it is random. But I think they will definitely charge mobiles.. How much? I don’t know..
      - Muhammad Yasir
        February 14, 2015
        i see… the packaging is a deciding factor. thanks alot bro! that kinda gave me a hint
- Tiz
  February 14, 2015
  I know a shop can ship to Pakistan, which phone you want to buy by the way?
  - Muhammad Yasir
    February 14, 2015
    Tiz , im actually gonna wait until late q3 2015 or maybe mid q4 2015 to decide upon the mobile of my dreams :p
    March , i hear will be a hot month for chinese cellphone releases. I can tell u the criteria. I’d like a phone , not bigger than 5.5-6 inches , with LTE and 64 bit support. At LEAST 2gb ram , a FHD screen. A good selfie camera AND a formidable rear camera capable of lowlight photography is top of my priority list. The body must be top quality , tough enough to handle a few drops. Software updates from OEM is an added plus.
    I’d very much like to hear about that shop. BUT i must tell u , my immediate issue lies in my OWN local (pakistani) customs , which are known for their notorious tactics in blocking such shipments until payment of duties. I have no idea how they will behave with an imported chinese smartphone. I just want to get through the whole process hassle free and without dishing out a hefty custom fees!
    - Tiz
      February 15, 2015
      Yeah, March is after Chinese newYear. But if you want to wait, you cant get the new phone early because they always holding preorders now. For now I think these phones are made for you, Jiayu S3, Meizu M1 note and Ecoo E04. Dont worry about the customs fee, there is insurance to avoid it in this shop. http://goo.gl/iEUZ7h
      - Muhammad Yasir
        February 15, 2015

Miko
February 12, 2015
I’m sceptical of buying from Chinese sites… but if the site is well-known I think there is no problem.
I bought my MX4 from the official partners of Meizu here in Russia which was the most convenient for me since it has all the advantages you mentioned, but I wanted to buy Xiaomi Pistons 2 for it and I could only find them from China.
So I trusted MeriMobiles and they delivered. They send it to me after almost a month but that was what we had arranged anyway so I can’t blame them for that. And they sent me the real thing… so I can reccommend them.
- balcobomber25
  February 12, 2015
  The number one rule with buying from any foreign website is if they don’t accept payments through Paypal, stay clear of them. With regards to shipping if you use the free shipping option it can take as much as 30 days sometimes more.
  - NiHouMa
    February 13, 2015
    - balcobomber25
      February 13, 2015
      Credit Cards have the same fraud protection as Paypal but the reason everyone here suggests Paypal is security. China is well known for data breaches and for selling credit card numbers. With Paypal that retailer never sees your credit card info.
      - NiHouMa
        February 14, 2015

Rob
February 12, 2015
I always buy from resellers as the price difference can be quite significant that I’m prepared to take the chance. I’ve used Pandawill on numerous occasions (but will never use again), Banggood (excellent CS and very fast delivery usually 10 days to UK), Aliexpress (again pretty good but you have to be very careful as it’s full of fakes!), Antelife (no problems), Everbuying (they always declare the value of the goods higher than what you pay so normally get hit with tax) so only good for low value purchases. As long as you use PayPal or credit card most purchases should be fine.

billybloggs
February 12, 2015
Bought a Jiayu G4S from SPEMall, no problems, am awaiting shipment of a S3 Advanced from them. Bought a Faea FI from FAEA again was hassle free,
- NiHouMa
  February 13, 2015
  - Manos
    February 14, 2015
    - NiHouMa
      February 14, 2015
      Yes 2Gb Rom and 16 Gb Ram.
      The 3Gb Rom and 16 Gb Ram possible en February/ March 2015.
      Please look for Spemail at WOT(Web of Trust).
      I have very good experience with http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Original-NEW-Phone-JIAYU-S3-FDD-LTE-4G-WCDMA-MT6752-Octa-Core-1-7Ghz-2GB-3G/32255381752.html
CiroD
February 12, 2015
- Andi Sykes
  February 12, 2015
- Never had any personal experience with them, but some comments above might mention them.
- Guest
  February 13, 2015
  The prices from etotalk is not the best and both delay to post the phone.Ask before you buy it! Plus use Paypal at all times.
  If you are trying to find the Jiayu S3 spemall say that is 13 Feb today in stock both Basic and Advanced …
February 12, 2015
Here in Greece if we want to buy a Xiaomi phone for example, it will be only through resellers, meaning an increase of the price for 50+ $!
MaxPower
February 12, 2015
Both ways have their pros and cons.I personally prefer resellers to save few bucks. Some of my friends from Italy for example prefer distributors because there’s no way to avoid customs there. Whenever they see ships from China they charge you randomly. I heard that in Pakistan they have the same problem.

Poxie
February 12, 2015
Through Mixeshop I have ordered 8 Jiayu G4A/G4S devices (for myself and a few friends and family). All came in according delivery estimates. One of the 8 phones was “broken”. The speaker and USB port were broken. Ordered a few spare parts to repair them, because sending the device back was to expensive and the spare parts were only $8. I live in The Netherlands and usually ordered through DHL. In 50% of the times I had to pay tax when the phone got delivered.
- Guest
  February 12, 2015
  Can you tell me how much money do you pay in Netherland if you choose DHL ?
- Poxie
  February 13, 2015
  I think I payed around 23 dollar for shipment. It arrived within a week at my door.
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
  And how much Tax ?
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
  DHL at Greece need 100€ for tax! Also they asked me the PayPal recipe the day that I had buy it!
  Don’t use DHL this company is not real! just use the normal post office registered post in 10 days will come without any taxes!
  Do your self a favor a avoid DHL!
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
  Yes you are right, I listened that about Greece but i guess in rest of europe they usually charge about 25 to 35 euros
- Mrinal
  February 17, 2015
  I also ordered from mixeshop.com and live in the Netherlands. The amount of tax I paid is about 24 euros (rounded up). (Purchased several phones and for the ones that I had to pay tax it was always around that much).
- ajftl250
  February 17, 2015
  why u guys pay taxes on something u bought oversea? we dont(usa)
fido futte
February 12, 2015
There is alot of Scam chinese Reseller site!! You Pay and never hear from them again, or get something else broken RMA than you order that does not work . Be carefull out there !!
- Andi Sykes
  February 12, 2015
  Should always use Paypal to avoid this.
- fido futte
  February 12, 2015
  It is faster and easyere to use EU reseller or Distributor , because it is faster and you know Phone support EU market band spec EU certified and RMA service is better/shorter
Guest
February 12, 2015
Can we buy from taobao directly ? I read that we can do it using taobao agent or tmall agent anyone has any information about that
- Andi Sykes
  February 12, 2015
  yup, if you can find a Taobao agent you can. I suppose the same agent could also even take part in flash sales for you to get the latest Xiaomi, Meizu phones etc
- Guest
  February 12, 2015
  I found this chinaglobalmall dot com and have some agents Taobao TMal ND also has PayPal! I have buy a power bank to try it at a very good price .
- Tiz
  February 14, 2015
  Do you know the news that taobao has more than 60% fakes?
claude
February 12, 2015
I bought 4 phones. 2 from pandawill cheap and fast, 2 from other site
s, bsd shipping and service… i vote Pandawill fir ever
- Yeti hand
  February 13, 2015

Paul Sleight
February 12, 2015
Over the last year I’ve bought 3 Chinese phones through AliExpress. I did it on the basis that if anything went wrong or didn’t arrive, they were cheap enough to just write off the money lost and put it down to experience.
I’m pleased to say that all three arrived as expected. They all performed well. The biggest surprise was the cheapest one which I knew had fake specs because it was SO cheap. It turned out to be a Melrose P780t with very basic specs, but , aside from the cameras which were only acceptable, I was very impressed with it’s performance and screen quality.
I’ll have no doubt about buying my next phone from China, but maybe I will consider the local reseller route, perhaps Topreseller. I’ll be going for an MTK6752 phone, so the higher cost makes me more cautious.
Guest
February 12, 2015
just bought from TO2C.COM i’m waiting for elephone P6000 …. free shipping to belgium…
took white box extra and declaire low as 30$ garden to avoid customs…. we will see
- Guest
  February 12, 2015
  TO2C now have EU Warehouse as well.
- Soraya
  February 12, 2015
  I can also recommend to2c 🙂 Great customer service, too 🙂
- Guest
  February 13, 2015
  i recommended u buy Elephone at Elephone.cc, they are officical shop with Elephone/ ^.^
- Guest
  February 15, 2015
  Yes i know…but the problem is that they have like many others just a few phones (most are OLd)… And if you want to have one of the latest there is only one choice.
- Guest
  February 15, 2015
  Ship from China ?
- Guest
  February 18, 2015
  only a few Phones from the EU warehouse… no thanks most are old phones and the crappy ones.
Nicola
February 12, 2015
I usually buy from China Reseller,i bought 5 chinese phone,zte v967s from etotalk.com,Newman n1 from pandawill.com,elephone g5 ,lenovo and Zte nubia z5s from myefox.it,never had a problem with these phone,from these sites, myefox and pandawill have good prices(myefox.it ship some product from theyr EU warehouse),most important thing is that they accept PayPal as payment method.

Guest
February 12, 2015
My bitter experience from buying chinese phone: I bought a phone from Spemall and it came in working order. They did lie to me about shipping time and it took quite long to get to me, but i received working phone. After some months of use some of things stopped working, so I was able to discover “wonderful” after sale costumer service from Spemall. I sent phone back for repair (on my expenses) and after 1 month of waiting I received phone – they managed to repair defective things, but also somehow managed to ruin SD card reader in phone. That ment I could not save photos, videos, ebboks, download from internet,… (I had phone without SMART prefix) – because all was by default stored to SD card. I talked to their stuff and the only answer was – send it back again for repair. OK, I sent it back, waited 2 months for phone and finally when it arrived – I found out, that SD card reader still did not work. I was angry as hell. Made a video cleraly showing they did not repair (although they claimed one week delay when sipping was due to multiple examinations of phone!?!) and said to them I don’t want to send phone back to repair, as obviously they can not repair it. I wanted replacement or refund (as stated on their internet page). Only reply (after 3 weeks of buying time and slowly answering to my daily emails) was – send it back for repair again. I couldn’t believe it. They said it was not their fault, but producer’s (they sent it to producer’s service). I wanted email from producer – didin’t want to give it to me, as they speak only chinese! Wanted them to talk to producer – didn’t want to do it. At the end they decided to offer me some little bonus if I buy another phone in their shop. But I’m supposed to sent phone back again, wait for another 2 months without phone, cover all my shipping costs and at the end probably receive unrepired phone again… In 8 months from buying I had working phone for 4 months… And I can do nothing to make them fulfill their own promises about warranty claims:(

Guest
February 12, 2015
Has anyone used Merimobiles ?
- Frozzem
  February 12, 2015
  yes i used it to order my huawei G615 (honor glory 2^^ whatever) it took about 1-2months but mainly cause german zoll took 3 weeks xD you order in canada and they send it rom hongkong, btw it was/ is working fine i still use it but i change soon since its about 2,5year old soon soooo ye cant say anything bad abotu them except for the price its quite high for a reseller
- Guest
  February 12, 2015
  I live in the USA and me and a family member bought tablets from Merimobiles a couple years ago. They shipped fast. My sisters battery died and they even took it in for a repair.
- MaxPower
  February 12, 2015
  I did last November. Everything OK.
  They ship from Hong Kong, and DHL took 3 days to deliver it.
  I can’t say anything about the price because they had the cheapest price of the xiaomi mi4.
  I would buy again
- Steve B
  February 12, 2015
  Ordered from them, first phone was lost in post, never tracked, sent a replacement without issue. Now using NL post (as are a lot of resellers) as Singapore post was becoming unreliable.
- Guest
  February 13, 2015
  Yes Singapore post took forever when I ordered some things from Aliexpress. I see Merimobiles now have EU Warehouse.
- Guest
  February 13, 2015
  How are you finding Xiaomi Mi4 ?
- MaxPower
  February 13, 2015
  It’s a great phone. Battery lasts long, it has Qualcomm quick charge 2.0 at charges the battery up to 60% in half hour. Camera is great, F1.8 which means rapid shots. I love the IR blaster, I thought it was a niche feature instead I use it every day. The only down side is that mine is white, I like black phones. You can get it for 360$ at merimobiles. There are other phones for that budget but mostly they are 5.5″ and they are too big for me.
- balcobomber25
  February 13, 2015
  I used them once for a case for a phone. I never use Singapore post, too slow but it was the only option for what I was buying. It took about a 12 days to get to me.
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
  I’m not sure if the black version is released yet, but I did hear reports that with the black the colour was coming off the phone.
- MaxPower
  February 14, 2015
Simon Hrovatin
February 12, 2015
- Ulti
  February 12, 2015
  Any chance you could share the seller? I want to pick up a MX4 myself to play with even though I have a Mi4 but I don’t want to risk getting stung again (I had to pay import fees on my Mi4).
- Simon Hrovatin
  February 12, 2015
- Ulti
  February 13, 2015
  Thanks but it seems unfortunately they don’t ship to the UK which is quite surprising. I’ve ordered it through geekbuying instead with DHL express – hopefully DHL don’t charge too much customs.
- Guest
  February 13, 2015
  They ship to UK http://www.aliexpress.com/store/1153179
- Ulti
  February 13, 2015
  Damn I missed out! Wonder if I can cancel my geekbuying order.
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
  The website appears to be in russian is there an english link to it ?
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
Guest
February 12, 2015
- Andi Sykes
  February 12, 2015
Guest
February 12, 2015
if someone could tell me how to EASILY and CONVENIENTLY ship a phone to pakistan (from china) that’d be great!
P.S its utter irony im askin this , since china is our immediate neighbour on the world map!
- arsalan
  February 12, 2015
  I ordered 2 men’s shoes from China by free Chinapost. Both reached in specified time but the one which was cheap (25 dollars), the post office charged me Rs 600/= as tax but the costlier one ($52 ), they didn’t charge any tax. It takes around one month.
  DHL should be more faster but I never used that for Pakistan. Also I don’t know how much tax they will put.
- Guest
  February 12, 2015
  wait a second.. bro. You’re saying , that you imported 2 shoes … they charged some amount for the CHEAPER shoe (which u think was NOT a custom duty of any kind) and
  NOTHING on expensive one?
- arsalan
  February 13, 2015
  Off course that was a custom duty. But it was charged on the cheaper shoes. Because it was packed in a box while the costlier one was just rapped in plastic. So it is random. But I think they will definitely charge mobiles.. How much? I don’t know..
- Tiz
  February 14, 2015
  I know a shop can ship to Pakistan, which phone you want to buy by the way?
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
  i see… the packaging is a deciding factor. thanks alot bro! that kinda gave me a hint
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
  Tiz , im actually gonna wait until late q3 2015 or maybe mid q4 2015 to decide upon the mobile of my dreams :p
  March , i hear will be a hot month for chinese cellphone releases. I can tell u the criteria. I’d like a phone , not bigger than 5.5-6 inches , with LTE and 64 bit support. At LEAST 2gb ram , a FHD screen. A good selfie camera AND a formidable rear camera capable of lowlight photography is top of my priority list. The body must be top quality , tough enough to handle a few drops. Software updates from OEM is an added plus.
  I’d very much like to hear about that shop. BUT i must tell u , my immediate issue lies in my OWN local (pakistani) customs , which are known for their notorious tactics in blocking such shipments until payment of duties. I have no idea how they will behave with an imported chinese smartphone. I just want to get through the whole process hassle free and without dishing out a hefty custom fees!
- Tiz
  February 15, 2015
  Yeah, March is after Chinese newYear. But if you want to wait, you cant get the new phone early because they always holding preorders now. For now I think these phones are made for you, Jiayu S3, Meizu M1 note and Ecoo E04. Dont worry about the customs fee, there is insurance to avoid it in this shop. http://goo.gl/iEUZ7h
- Guest
  February 15, 2015

Miko
February 12, 2015
I’m sceptical of buying from Chinese sites… but if the site is well-known I think there is no problem.
I bought my MX4 from the official partners of Meizu here in Russia which was the most convenient for me since it has all the advantages you mentioned, but I wanted to buy Xiaomi Pistons 2 for it and I could only find them from China.
So I trusted MeriMobiles and they delivered. They send it to me after almost a month but that was what we had arranged anyway so I can’t blame them for that. And they sent me the real thing… so I can reccommend them.
- balcobomber25
  February 13, 2015
  The number one rule with buying from any foreign website is if they don’t accept payments through Paypal, stay clear of them. With regards to shipping if you use the free shipping option it can take as much as 30 days sometimes more.
- NiHouMa
  February 13, 2015
  I buy via MasterCard and once they took the money back like Paypal does.
- balcobomber25
  February 13, 2015
  Credit Cards have the same fraud protection as Paypal but the reason everyone here suggests Paypal is security. China is well known for data breaches and for selling credit card numbers. With Paypal that retailer never sees your credit card info.
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
  Ok, thanks for this info.

Rob
February 12, 2015
I always buy from resellers as the price difference can be quite significant that I’m prepared to take the chance. I’ve used Pandawill on numerous occasions (but will never use again), Banggood (excellent CS and very fast delivery usually 10 days to UK), Aliexpress (again pretty good but you have to be very careful as it’s full of fakes!), Antelife (no problems), Everbuying (they always declare the value of the goods higher than what you pay so normally get hit with tax) so only good for low value purchases. As long as you use PayPal or credit card most purchases should be fine.

billybloggs
February 12, 2015
Bought a Jiayu G4S from SPEMall, no problems, am awaiting shipment of a S3 Advanced from them. Bought a Faea FI from FAEA again was hassle free,
- NiHouMa
  February 13, 2015
  Jiyayu S3 Advanced has not been released yet. Maybe end February 2015
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
  Spemall has it in stock!
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
  Yes 2Gb Rom and 16 Gb Ram.
  The 3Gb Rom and 16 Gb Ram possible en February/ March 2015.
  Please look for Spemail at WOT(Web of Trust).
  I have very good experience with http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Original-NEW-Phone-JIAYU-S3-FDD-LTE-4G-WCDMA-MT6752-Octa-Core-1-7Ghz-2GB-3G/32255381752.html

MaxPower
February 12, 2015
Both ways have their pros and cons.I personally prefer resellers to save few bucks. Some of my friends from Italy for example prefer distributors because there’s no way to avoid customs there. Whenever they see ships from China they charge you randomly. I heard that in Pakistan they have the same problem.
Guest
February 12, 2015
I bought 4 phones. 2 from pandawill cheap and fast, 2 from other site
s, bsd shipping and service… i vote Pandawill fir ever
- Yeti hand
  February 13, 2015
kostas
February 12, 2015
I bought 5 chinese phones. (Gearbest, coolicool, ebay). All the transactions were fine. The phones also. You must search and find the reliable e shops (such as Gearbest, Coolicool, Tinydeal), search for the best prices and make an order.
Stavros G
February 12, 2015
https://dikarto.gr ships from Greece Europe, with european warranty
Tomek
February 12, 2015
Zopomobileshop
kostas
February 12, 2015
I bought 5 chinese phones. (Gearbest, coolicool, ebay). All the transactions were fine. The phones also. You must search and find the reliable e shops (such as Gearbest, Coolicool, Tinydeal), search for the best prices and make an order.

balcobomber25
February 12, 2015
I have had horrible luck with Aliexpress (even with trusted sellers) and refuse to ever use them again. Surprsingly I have had very good luck with Antelife (which most hate). But I always prefer to buy from the manufacturer if possible.
- Yeti hand
  February 13, 2015
  Balcobomber you’re full of wisdom I can’t add anything but did you find what the brands selling older generation of mtk smartphone for the price of the new one smoke?

Sam Butler
February 12, 2015
Reseller for Australia = no tax or duties. Distributor means 10% Goods and Services Tax + inflated price. Easy decision.
Guest
February 12, 2015
Zopomobileshop
Rick
February 13, 2015
Hey Andy (or anyone out there reading this comment), can someone list a few chinese phones with LTE that is compatible with the U.S. AT&T or T-Mobile LTE network? I know they use band 700/1700/1900/2100
balcobomber25
February 13, 2015
I have had horrible luck with Aliexpress (even with trusted sellers) and refuse to ever use them again. Surprsingly I have had very good luck with Antelife (which most hate). But I always prefer to buy from the manufacturer if possible.
- Yeti hand
  February 13, 2015
  Balcobomber you’re full of wisdom I can’t add anything but did you find what the brands selling older generation of mtk smartphone for the price of the new one smoke?
Sam Butler
February 13, 2015
Reseller for Australia = no tax or duties. Distributor means 10% Goods and Services Tax + inflated price. Easy decision.
- Andi Sykes
  February 13, 2015
NiHouMa
February 13, 2015
I have very good experiences with this store, prices and forwardin, especially in Europe. No shipping, custom fee and VAT. http://www.aliexpress.com/store/1153179, Excellent service with seller Linda Yo.
- mirza
  March 20, 2015
  Hi nihouma, can you send me about linda yo contacts?
  This is my email : mirza.fahlevi.st@gmail.com
  Thanks..

Rick
February 13, 2015
Hey Andy (or anyone out there reading this comment), can someone list a few chinese phones with LTE that is compatible with the U.S. AT&T or T-Mobile LTE network? I know they use band 700/1700/1900/2100
chris13
February 13, 2015
I used Aliexpress few times,had good service,did not buy a phone though.
I read that Opppomart.and Ibuygou.com are good resellers,i believe that for xiaomi buyers,their own site xioamishop.com should be fine.Anyone had expereince any of the three?
- Mrinal
  February 14, 2015
  I have experience with Aliexpress but sadly it wasn’t all too well (to do with wrong info regarding shipping resulting in a waaay too high customs tax). This is however an issue with that particular seller on aliexpress. I would say that is the part to be cautious about. There are many different sellers, and ratings don’t guarantee a safe buy. Investigate thoroughly and establish communication with the seller prior to purchase for a better idea of who you’re dealing with.
  As for ibuygou.com, no experience, but I think they’re an official xiaomi reseller.

NiHouMa
February 13, 2015
I have very good experiences with this store, prices and forwardin, especially in Europe. No shipping, custom fee and VAT. http://www.aliexpress.com/store/1153179, Excellent service with seller Linda Yo.
- Guest
  March 20, 2015
  Hi nihouma, can you send me about linda yo contacts?
  This is my email : mirza.fahlevi.st@gmail.com
  Thanks..
chris13
February 13, 2015
I used Aliexpress few times,had good service,did not buy a phone though.
I read that Opppomart.and Ibuygou.com are good resellers,i believe that for xiaomi buyers,their own site xioamishop.com should be fine.Anyone had expereince any of the three?
- Mrinal
  February 14, 2015
  I have experience with Aliexpress but sadly it wasn’t all too well (to do with wrong info regarding shipping resulting in a waaay too high customs tax). This is however an issue with that particular seller on aliexpress. I would say that is the part to be cautious about. There are many different sellers, and ratings don’t guarantee a safe buy. Investigate thoroughly and establish communication with the seller prior to purchase for a better idea of who you’re dealing with.
  As for
Rich
February 13, 2015
Amazon have started selling Honor and Oppo in the UK. I have bought from them – saves all this hassle!
Guest
February 13, 2015
Amazon have started selling Honor and Oppo in the UK. I have bought from them – saves all this hassle!
dr.igi
February 13, 2015
TO2C is the best! I have bought from them two mobile devices and when the Mi 5 come out this will be my third device buying from them!!
- Simon
  February 14, 2015
  - dr.igi
    February 15, 2015
    This is my personal opinion,they are the best for me because i have great experience with them, they have fantastic customer service and they are willing to listen and help before and after sale! I’m recommend TO2C to many of my friends and they all was very satisfied with their store just like me.
    - Simon
      February 15, 2015
tumper
February 13, 2015
I used Deal1949 to buy my Cube talk 9x. shipping time was about 20 days. No customs additions and free post, and all paid for via PayPal. No complaints at all. I will be buying my next Chinese phone from them as well.

dr.igi
February 13, 2015
TO2C is the best! I have bought from them two mobile devices and when the Mi 5 come out this will be my third device buying from them!!
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
  Why are they the best out of interest ?
- dr.igi
  February 15, 2015
  This is my personal opinion,they are the best for me because i have great experience with them, they have fantastic customer service and they are willing to listen and help before and after sale! I’m recommend TO2C to many of my friends and they all was very satisfied with their store just like me.
- Guest
  February 15, 2015
tumper
February 13, 2015
I used Deal1949 to buy my Cube talk 9x. shipping time was about 20 days. No customs additions and free post, and all paid for via PayPal. No complaints at all. I will be buying my next Chinese phone from them as well.
Janik
February 13, 2015
Jiayu also has shops outside of china. http://www.jiayu.de
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaqE2fWV22s
Guest
February 14, 2015
Jiayu also has shops outside of china. http://www.jiayu.de

Aanjan kc
February 14, 2015
Best reseller is SPEMALL..
I buy 5/6 mobile and 2 tablet from spemall its never make me problem and custom fee also..so, it is best reseller for me.
- Manos
  February 14, 2015
  And me also. But don’t try the DHL shipping! You will have to pay taxes for sure!
- Mrinal
  February 14, 2015
  I had some bad experiences with them. About a year ago I ordered the zopo zp990 from them after mailing them about availability. I placed the order and paid (with paypal) only to wait over a month with nothing happening. After that i had about 14 emails sent to in a conversation with them where they notified me the phone wasn’t available and that they wanted to send me a different (crappy unknown brand phone). I asked for my money back but they just wouldn’t do it. In the end I started a PayPal dispute and got my money back that way. I’m not gonna say they’re a super bad store because this is based on 1 incident, but still, be cautious.

Aanjan kc
February 14, 2015
Best reseller is SPEMALL..
I buy 5/6 mobile and 2 tablet from spemall its never make me problem and custom fee also..so, it is best reseller for me.
- Guest
  February 14, 2015
  And me also. But don’t try the DHL shipping! You will have to pay taxes for sure!
- Mrinal
  February 14, 2015
  I had some bad experiences with them. About a year ago I ordered the zopo zp990 from them after mailing them about availability. I placed the order and paid (with paypal) only to wait over a month with nothing happening. After that i had about 14 emails sent to in a conversation with them where they notified me the phone wasn’t available and that they wanted to send me a different (crappy unknown brand phone). I asked for my money back but they just wouldn’t do it. In the end I started a PayPal dispute and got my money back that way. I’m not gonna say they’re a super bad store because this is based on 1 incident, but still, be cautious.
Simon
February 14, 2015
Coolicool and efoxshop both have EU Warehouses, and have heard good things about them. May well use them for the Jiayu S3 purchase, unless anyone has better recommendations.
- Mrinal
  February 14, 2015
  For Jiayus in EU you might want to check out jiayu.es . They’re based in EU and provide ROMs as well as other jiayu services. (They also have a handy dandy app in the play store that helps with custom recoveries as well as rom installations).
  - Simon
    February 15, 2015
    - Mrinal
      February 16, 2015
      Indeed they don’t, but the phones are still just the international versions (nothing has been changed to spanish as far as I know). You can just use google chrome to translate the page to english. They also speak some english so if you have questions you can contact them.
      - Simon
        February 16, 2015
        Thanks alot. Do you intend to buy a Jiayu ?
        I think I will buy Jiayu S3 in a couple of months.
        Mrinal
        February 16, 2015
        My very first chinese phone was a Jiayu G3 (dual core), I purchased a G3T, G3S and G4S for relatives and friends. I’m now researching to see which phone will replace my current phone but I’m leaning towards a ZTE Nuba Z7 mini, although I’m warming up to the idea of the S3, I’ve seen it from a collegue who bought it already. I’m really not sure yet which phone to get, I think the camera and 4G are the things I look at, and the camera on the S3 isn’t as strong as the nubia (not to say it isn’t good in the least).
        
        Simon
        February 17, 2015
        I thinking of getting the 3GB Jiayu S3 model around April. It will be my first Jiayu (I also want to save a bit money).
        
        Mrinal
        February 17, 2015
        One thing I can say for sure that Jiayu make very good value-for-money products. It can easily do what an average/semi-high-end user would want and it would easily beat the mid-range phones made by ‘western’ brands.
        So it won’t disappoint!
        Simon
        February 17, 2015
        Excellent. Do you think it will last 18 months. Ideally I would like to use it until the end of 2016 if possible.
        Mrinal
        February 17, 2015
        That depends on your care for the phone of course, but my jiayu G3 from 2012 still works just fine, nothing is broken. Just a few scratches on the outside from using the phone. The only thing I see now is that it can play less and less games available in the Play store, but that’s because the hardware is very outdated (dual core cpu, with a mediocre gpu). Technology advances fast, especially in the phone-world. So you can definitely rely on the phone surviving if you let it but keep in mind that the minimum required specifications for apps will improve in time.
        
        Simon
        February 17, 2015
        Excellent if I can get 18 months good use I’ll be happy 🙂 Glad to see your G3 still going strong. Incidently where did you buy it from ?
        Mrinal
        February 17, 2015
        I bought my trusty old Jiayu G3 from http://www.mixeshop.com . I’ve purchased many phones there, a good, trust-worthy reseller. They send products fast and reply to emails quick as well. They don’t have a warehouse in EU though, so there will always be a risk of having to pay tax at customs (though the max I had to pay in the Netherlands is 24 euros).
        Simon
        February 17, 2015
        That’s cool, i’ll check it out. One of my dad’s cousins lives in Holland, he loves it.
  - Simon
    February 15, 2015
    - Mrinal
      February 16, 2015
      - Simon
        February 16, 2015
        Thanks very much. In order to use the App, do you need to be a registered customer of jiayu.es or can you use it with any Jiayu phone bought from any reseller ?
        
        Mrinal
        February 16, 2015
        You can use the app with any Jiayu phone (without having to register).
        Simon
        February 17, 2015
        Fine. Do you have any experience of using it or what it indeed it allows one to do ?
        Mrinal
        February 17, 2015
        I’ve used it to install clockworkmod on the Jiayu G4 as well as reflashing the stock rom. It provides the files needed for these installations and helps with certain processes (installing the recovery, rebooting into recovery etc.). It also provides some tweaks and extra features to be installed but I haven’t tried any of those.
        Simon
        February 17, 2015