As technology progresses, it’s as sure as the rising sun that your smartphone preference will change, too. Change is inevitable, but what never changes is your love for old smartphones.

Somewhere out there, whether in the possession of a family member or friend, or even in your own special box, lies a smartphone that you bonded with, a smartphone that had a design you like, or stand-out software that makes you miss it, even now. Yeah, that smartphone.

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What Chinese phones have you owned?

Once again, we’re back with another open thread that will allow you to travel back down memory lane. Is there a special memory of a special smartphone that you have? If so, feel free to share a list of smartphone(s) you fell in love with, why you love that/those smartphone(s), and any funny or interesting moments with your preferred smartphone. We can’t wait to interact with you in the comments!

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

Deidre
Deidre is a tech enthusiast who never gets enough of a feature-packed smartphone experience. She anxiously awaits the day when her smartphone can cook, clean, drive her to work, and teleport her into the future.

- - Luis Martinez
    July 8, 2015
    Owned a note 2 clone. Jiayu g3 and g4
    Xiaomi mi2a
    Oppo find 5
    Oppo find 7
    Cubot numerous phones
    Dapeng numerous phones
    ZTE-Nubia 5 mini
    Oppo n1
    Vivo xplay 3s
    Vivo 5x Max
    Lenovo k900
    Blackberry z10
    One plus one
    Iocean numerous phones
    Inew Numerous phones

MaxPower
July 8, 2015
it’s going to take a full day to read balcobomber’s list .
anyway, in pretty young into this passion which started with a “no name” Samsung clone
then a Cubot One, RedMi 1s, and MI4.
The next one is going to be the LeTV I’ll win tonight for my wife 🙂
- Marco Lancaster
  July 8, 2015
  LOL
- pa5t1s
  July 8, 2015
  Umm, what happened to the GizStore’s giveaways… any winners so far (I mean , excepted you :D) ?
  - allen_b
    July 8, 2015
    - pa5t1s
      July 8, 2015
- andersoc
  July 8, 2015
  Jiayu G2F, Jiayu 4S, Xiaomi Mi2S, Nubia Z5S, Huawei Honor 6, Xiaomi mi4i, Lenovo Vibe Shot.

Yury
July 8, 2015
Was THL W3+
Now IUNI U3

Marco Lancaster
July 8, 2015
It was in early 2013, I never had been in the smartphones world before and to be honest living in Brazil and with a limited budget I can’t even! Having less than $200 for a smartphone also would be buy things as Galaxy Y, Galaxy Ace with nice 512MB of Rom, that’s everything available in the Brazilian market in that time. So I started to search in the “grey-market” not internationally yet, but searching interesting international phones brought here by importers. My knowledge about Android or Smartphones was very limited, again, But I know having a such crap tablet that a good phone in that time would need at least a Dual-Core and 1GB of Ram, So I found a MTK6577 Star Note 2 knock-off, and that thing opened my eyes, and brought me to this world like fanatic! I started to see more and more about the SoC and the Chinese smartphone, and started to love it, and prefer it over any bullshit sold in that time in my country, So the things was perfectly well with my phone so I’ve made one shit decision and bought a MTK6589 clone of Note 3, thinking would be cool… Anyway was cool in the start, but the months pass and you see what the clones are made of… turd quality. My MT6577 was taken by a Burglar =( And I was left with the poor clone… (The MT6577 served my well, but I hope it have really exploded in the thief’s hands) Now I’ve finally moved to a Jiayu S3, using the crap bad optimized MTK6589 aside of a turd rom, tested some Snapdragons 800, 801 and 805, the MT6752 performance blows my mind, And I’m happy with it. Hehe sorry for the massive text guys =D
- MaxPower
  July 8, 2015
  the story of the thief cracked me up!
  maybe it was Hugo Barra and when he found out it was a Chinese phone he got in love with it and started to work for Xiaomi
  - Marco Lancaster
    July 8, 2015
    Haha Perhaps that is the story! Lol
  - PerixXPro
    July 8, 2015

pa5t1s
July 8, 2015
My love story started back in 2009!
1- iPhone 3 clone 🙂
2- HDC/Daxian 9300
3- HDC N7100 Samsung Galaxy Note II clone 🙂
4- iPhone 4 clone 🙂
Then, the real world…
4- iOcean X7 Elite
5- Zopo ZP998
6- iOcean X8
7- OnePlus One
… and the story still goes on and on…
- MaxPower
  July 8, 2015
  - pa5t1s
    July 8, 2015
    Lol, s**t happens sometimes 😛
    BTW, you always have to start at the beginning…and, back in 2009, there was less ‘respectable’ and ‘safe’ online-stores, where you can pay with your Credit Card 🙁
    HDC and Goophone were quite popular at that time… Now, chinese phones makers have grown up, hopefully 😉
    - balcobomber25
      July 8, 2015
      2009 was around the time I bought my first clone and I believe it was HDC. I bought it at a market in Malaysia, but it was actually a very well done clone. I only figured it out by trying to get something fixed at a Samsung shop.
      - pa5t1s
        July 9, 2015
        Lol, right, they actually sold something you won’t even think to sell today! Time have changed fortunately… HDC and FCT: combo breaker, lol
  - BenShenzhen
    July 8, 2015
    My old flatmate had the worst iPhone5 clone I have ever seen. I’d like to say it was made by DOOV but I can’t remember. It looked good from a distance but could barely do anything without freezing. He changed to a Xiaomi 2s on my advice and never looked back.
    Another friend in Beijing had a Samsung Galaxy S3 clone with a similar user experience. This one even said Sansung on it.
  - balcobomber25
    July 8, 2015
    I am willing to bet many of us started with a clone whether we want to admit it o or not. My first few Chinese phones were clones of a Samsung. I was impressed by how well of a job they did that I started researching the company which led me into this addiction I have now.
    - MaxPower
      July 8, 2015
      mine had the logo too, i think the battery was original, or a really good reproduction.
      too bad it was a MT6577.
cselti
July 8, 2015
Jiayu G2S, Jiayu G4S, Ecoo Aurora plus

RRRobert
July 8, 2015
I’m a China phone user since 2013:
– JiaYu G3S (poor build quality)
– Xiaomi M2S (32 Gb version, the best phone I ever owned)
– Huawei Ascend G6 (4G version, bought it for my wife, she’s still very happy with it)
– Elephone P3000S (4G version, currently in use, and already looking for a 5″ replacement)
allen_b
July 8, 2015
- MaxPower
  July 8, 2015
monkeytree
July 8, 2015
– No name iPhone clone
– FAEA F1 (actually a nice phone, despite very poor build quality)
– JiaYu G3 (great phone, despite non-existent GPS)
– Xiaomi Redmi 1S (very happy with it)
– Xiaomi Redmi 2 (wife is very happy with it)
- MaxPower
  July 8, 2015
  back in time i was going to buy the FAEA F1.
  i thought it had a great build quality.
  they actually advertised as waterproof.
  - monkeytree
    July 9, 2015
    I can safely assure you it wasn’t waterproof, can’t remember they advertised that. The F1 had a very nice (albeit vulnerable) 4.5 HD screen. And some ahead-of-time nifty features like NFC and a multi-coloured ‘breathing’ home button light.

July 8, 2015
Zopo C2. Neken n6. Doogee dg550. Kolina k100!
All broken skreen…
Mstar s700 inkoming…
Torsten Koplin
July 8, 2015
Oppo Find 5
Xiaomi Redmi Note
Oppo Find 7a
Umi Zero
Huawei Mate 7
… to be continued ?
mf1gt3r
July 8, 2015
Jiayu g3
THL V11
Lenovo A800
Zopo ZP810
Neo N003 Advanced
ZTE Grand S2
Nubia Z7 Max
Umi Hammer
Ulefone be touch 2
- MaxPower
  July 8, 2015
- - mf1gt3r
    July 10, 2015
    They’ve gone down the drain. Been reduced to common cloners of the Galaxy S6. Dissapointing.
    - July 10, 2015
      So disappointing. If I’m not wrong the N003 was the cheapest available FHD phone back in the day… and it was quite a decent phone if I’m not wrong.
      - mf1gt3r
        July 10, 2015
        Yes it did good. Severally i pitted against Sony Xperia Z and it held its own. The camera was even better than that of the Xperia Z.
      - amirexpressir
        July 11, 2015
        Not just FHD but 1080P and full-packed features like NFC and 3000mAh batttery(which wasnt in any competitors) and one of the first manufactures to use popular camera lens(sony exmor imx135),,,
        yess miss them and (newman, although they have released their phone but again no reviews which shows customers had turned their attention from them)
- ljan ryan
  July 10, 2015
  - mf1gt3r
    July 10, 2015

Ermes Bellazzi
July 8, 2015
I owned a wiko cink king mt 6577, a french rebranded micromax phone. I also owned a star kingelon s7589, a zopo ZP980T a zopo zp998, an inew v3 (awful one), a xiaomi mi3, an elephone g4, a gionee elife e7 mini, and I ordered yesterday a ulefone be touch 2. Hope it’ll be good. I was hesitant with the lenovo k3 note. Future will tell.
spyridonas
July 8, 2015
Cubot GT99. I regret every single of the 2 months moment is spend with that phone.

Thomas Andee
July 8, 2015
I used Meizu M1 Note. But if you are making marketing research for your e-commerce service, don’t sell that phone. Because Flyme Os is not well optimized and last firmware consists of full buggy softwares! No, thanks!

Jose Suares
July 8, 2015
1. Jiayu g3 (dual core 1Ghz), I had 3GN (dual core 1,2 Ghz) and 3gs (quad core).
2. Lenovo a820
3. Zopo zp 910+
4. iNew V3 The best phone (witch I have). Only battery is week
5. iOcean G7
6. Doogee DG 800
7. Elephone P6000
8. Now I wait for Huawei Honor (Mediapad) x2
In
my opinion: Jiayu it’s my first Chinese phone and a have best memory of
them. But I love big screen so ZOPO 910+ and now iOcean G7. Other
phones i have very short time, only iNew V3 I give to my wife. She is
very happy, only the poor battery 1800mAh.

Dr.Guida
July 8, 2015
Coolpad F1 since May 2014… And… It’s enough! Everything works fine since the first day i received it!
snelleboi
July 8, 2015
I started with the dual sims tv phones; the first had no brand,worked fine and the second was a online missorder instead of a samsung. I still have it but it doesn’t unlock as water got in to it. then i had a STAR N6000 6575MTK or some number like that ; stay away from the star brand as they are real CRAP BRAND. That star last less that 6mnths before totally crashing ! Will NEVER buy another STAR brand ever again. Then came a samsung galaxy ace then another RUBBISH, MAXWEST. I regret the 3 mnths with that until i got a Blu Studio 5. October coming will be 2 years and it still works just fine…limited to 512 mb ram though

BenShenzhen
July 8, 2015
– Huawei Honor U860 – great for 1 year and 1 of the first phones to get android 4.0
– ZTE (something) – thin, terrible battery, stopped working after 6mnths.
– Xiaomi 2s – Now I wish Xiaomi still made a smaller screen phone with good specs.
– Xiaomi 3 – (best all round phone I’ve used. I like MIUI, haven’t found it buggy, gets updated regularly and the screen on this was great)
– IUNI U3 – Good camera, clean ROM but dropping the phone once has ruined it. Back creaks, mic on videos doesn’t work well at all, screen popped up in corner and down 1 side and it heats up in heavy usage too much.
Next one in a month or 2 will be Xiaomi 4, Smartisan t1, Huawei P8 or Meizu MX5.

slartiblart
July 8, 2015
Mi2s, redmi note 4g, in focus m2, telephone p6000, lenovo a830, a806 and k3 note. Honor 6 plus, jiayu g4s, zopo zp999, star w450,
Marco Abbate
July 8, 2015
– Newman n2
– Jiayu g3
– Jiayu g3s
– Jiayu g3t
– Jiayu g4s (x2)
– TCL idol x s960
– iOcean x8
Not all for me obviously 😉

Roger
July 8, 2015
Star A3 – my first Chinese phone which I bought just over three years ago to replace my damaged Motorola Defy. The build quality was very good, and the phone worked well once I replaced the included ROM with a more stable one). This was back when Chinese phones had a built in TV tuner.
iStar (Ulefone) V1277 – Also good quality.
Haipai i9389 (S3 Clone) – It did not take long for the charging port to stop working, which was shame as I really liked the phone. It had an extremely bright display which was readable in direct sunlight if you turned the brightness up.
Mini S4 i9500
HTM/Feiteng H9503 (S4 Clone)
HDC Spark G900F (S5 1:1 Clone)
Cubot One-S (rebadged as a Tronsmart TS7)
The HDC S5 clone with a MTK6592 processor was fast, worked really well, and I did not find the TouchWiz UI to lag at all. However, it had terrible battery life with the included battery. Battery life was good once I replaced the battery with a genuine Samsung one, but after a few months the phone’s screen started coming off because the new battery was thicker than the included one and put pressure on the screen.
I am probably going to a Lenovo K3 Note, or a refurbished LG G2 to replace the Cubot when I have the money. Unfortunately at the moment by budget is extremely limited.
The Cubot works quite smoothly when there’s not too many apps running despite only having a MTK6582 processor, and the build quality of the phone is very good.

balcobomber25
July 8, 2015
As Maxpower pointed out it would take a year for me to list them all because I have the attention span of a 3 year old when it comes to phones haha. So let me list my favorites I have used:
Xiaomi Mi4
Blu Life Play (Gionee E3)
Blu Vivo IV (Gionee S5.5)
Gionee E7
THL Monkey King
Xiaomi Redmi 1s
Xiaomi Mi3
TCL Idol X
Kingzone K1 Turbo
THL T100
I’m sure there is a few more too but as you can see my three favorite brands are Xiaomi, THL and Blu/Gionee. Blu/Gionee is probably my favorite overall because they offer very good looking, well made phones at a reasonable price. The best thing about them is they include everything you need like a case and extra screen protector.
- - balcobomber25
    July 10, 2015
    If they could just work out the bugs of Amigo they would be my favorite brand. They look great, have great build quality and good specs but the software is always lacking.
    My first Gionee was the Blu Life Play (E3). That thing survived being dropped numerous times with not so much as a scratch. Still one of my favorite phones.

Suskind
July 8, 2015
Oppo Find 5
Xiaomi Redmi Note
Oppo Find 7a
Ulefone Be Touch 2(The ID is very nice)
MeiZu MX4
Drekthar
July 8, 2015
Jiayu G3
Jiayu G3C
Jiayu G4
Jiayu G4S
Jiayu G5
Xiaomi Mi2A
Xiaomi Redmi Note based on MTK cpu
Xiaomi Redmi Note based on Snapdragon cpu
munzir1989
July 8, 2015
Elephone P7000
Bluboo X550
Pioneer E82L
intruda
July 9, 2015
all meizu products up til meizu mx4 pro

duyca
July 9, 2015
Unfortunately i found out about chinese phone to late but until now i only owned a Xiaomi Redmi 1s, which i sell it because its thickness and heat problem and now i own Tcl S720, which makes me very happy.
My brother have a Iocean X8 mini which I ‘ve bought and i think its a nice phone.
Herlambang Pamungkas
July 9, 2015
Oppo Find 7a, everything is perfect, except software upgrade, it taking so long to upgrade from jelly bean to kitkat, and kitkat to lollypop. and no OTA
Atek
July 9, 2015
Oppo Find 7a
Ming06
July 9, 2015
Meizu M1 Note (Green)
Meizu MX4 Pro (Gray)
uleFone Be Pro (Dark Blue)
ECOO Aurora E04 (Blue)
Mlais M52 Red Note (White)
Lenovo P780S Phone Octa core 2GB MT6595 (Fake from Supper seller2014 Aliexpress)
Esteban Cardenas
July 9, 2015
Cubot GT99
Neken N6
Kingzone Z1
MLais Note Pro
Elephone P3000
Cubot GT90
Phicomm c230w (by the way, it sucks!!)

ChecchoT
July 9, 2015
hero h2000+ (iphone 5 clone) , amoi n828, newman n2 , redmi 1s , umi c1 , jiayu g4 – jiayu g4c
Now I have an xperia z3 bought a couple of months ago, If I only could imagine meizu m2 note was going to cost 150 dollar internationally I would not spend 340 euros (by contract) for the z3

Henrikki Kosunen
July 9, 2015
My first phone was some samsung copy 2008 and then was iphone 3gs copy… And then
-newman n2
-umi x2
-zopo zp980
-lenovo k900
-2 x xiaomi mi 3
-3 x oneplus one
-2 x meizu mx4
-jiayu s1
-phicomm c230w
-elephone p6000
-umi emax
And bougt to friends
-cubot a8809
-3 x newman n2
-thl w11
-zte v975
-jiayu g5s
-5 x oneplus one
-lenovo s90
-xiaomi redmi 2pro
I can’t remember every phone 😀
- ChecchoT
  July 9, 2015
  3 newman n2? I bought one and resell because I was afraid of it’s problems
  - Henrikki Kosunen
    July 9, 2015
    Yes, first was good and when I ordered 2 pcs half year ago from pandawill 70$ offer, they were full of shit..

jolu
July 9, 2015
I have owned:
– jiayu g3, s2
– coolpad 9976a
– zopo zp990
– zte nubia z5s mini
– meizu mx4, mx4 pro
– no1 x2, s7
– oneplus one
– vivo xplay 3s
– xiaomi mi3, mi4, mi4i, mi note
– elephone p3000s, p5000
I’m now waiting on ulefone be touch 2 (ordered).
- mf1gt3r
  July 10, 2015

willian40
July 9, 2015
Sorted on brand:
Xiaomi mi3, mi4
Gionee elife elife e7
iOcean x7 youth, G7
iNew v3
Elephone G6
Doogee dg 450
zopo zp 980+
haier w910
jiayu s3
I think this is the complete list. The phones with the best experiences are the: xiaomi’s, gionee elife e7 and the jiayu s3.
- willian40
  July 9, 2015
  I forget 3(4) phones:
  Jiake v8/jiake x3s
  Blackview crown (Bought because of the design)
  Gth-9500 clone phone *It was the phone with the worst experience*
  I don’t know if my OnePlus One could be called Chinese?
  - Chico Migraña
    July 9, 2015
    - willian40
      July 9, 2015
      Because I like phones (understatement 😉
      It is like a hobby for me to try different phones. The phones above are all working and in good condition.

Chico Migraña
July 9, 2015
My First “smartphone” was a LG t310,
Huawei U8160, Sony Live with Walkman, Xiaomi Mi2 (suddenly lost imei, baseband, wifi and now it’s useless), Nubia Z5s 16gb and now Xiaomi Mi3 64gb (16gb doesn’t work for me)
Eli
July 9, 2015
Jiayu G3
Newman K1
ZTE V5S
Xiaomi Redmi 1S

Rob
July 9, 2015
Phones I’ve bought either for me or family/friends are:
Neken N6
Neken N6 pro (both excellent phones)
inew V7
HDC M7 clone (absolutely sh*t)
Kingzone k1 (2 of them, both great)
Pipo T8 (surprisingly good with amazing camera)
Tianhe H920+ (amazing screen still going strong over 2 years later)
Vivo Xshot
Gionee E7
Lenovo Z2 pro
HDC Samsung S5 clone (absolutely awful)
Fake Lenovo (can’t remember model) specs were a joke, screen was almost non-visible but had the best and fastest ROM I have ever used on a smartphone!
Cubot P9 (ok phone with horrendous camera with a permanent blue tint)
Kolina k100 (ok phone but some specs are fake, buggy ROM)
I’m sure there are more that I can’t remember but there will definitely be more in the future.

Rob
July 9, 2015
Perhaps we could have a thread of phones we would like to have next! lol
Faress ElFarissi
July 9, 2015
simdo d 98
Timmy e 86
bluboo x550
Bekim
July 9, 2015
For me Elephone P8000 and Elephone P6000
Gtr3losz
July 9, 2015
Well my first phone was a zopo c2 with 1gb ram and 6589T suprisingly it still works after 2years !! Then a zte nubia z5s which had a great camera cpu gpu and was very very light . now for the last 12months i have a xiaomi mi 3 which is a very strong and well build cellphone it had such amount of abuse and still works…

CiroD
July 9, 2015
I’m glad to know that many of us fall in love with chinese phones with honorable JiaYu G3 🙂
My personal list in historical order:
JiaYu G3 (my first Android smartphone after years of Nokia Symbian addiction)
UMI X1 (sold after 2 days)
JiaYu G3C
JiaYu G4S
UMI Zero (soft bricked with the damned Rootjoy tool, still in agony)
JiaYu S3
Meizu M1 Note
Lildwell2
July 9, 2015
Jiayu S4 that crapped out on me and an Ecoo Eo4
Bootleg
July 9, 2015
Currently Elephone P2000, now I’m thinking about ordering P8000.

Thomas
July 9, 2015
No name HTC clone
iOcean X7 Plus
iOcean X7S
iOcean X8
iOcean X8 mini pro
iOcean M6752
iOcean X9
- iKosh
  July 9, 2015
  - - iKosh
      July 11, 2015
- mf1gt3r
  July 10, 2015

The Special Juan
July 9, 2015
I have had mostly rubbish fortunes, although mostly self inflicted as I got carried away buying too many replica phones:
Star S5 Clone
HDC I6 clone – Battery wouldnt last 3 hours
2 other no name i6 clones (one wouldnt read sim and is now used as bluetooth wifi system, the other one was laggy as hell, with spelling mistakes galore on rom)
recent no name s6 clone (plastic back, hardly any memory, dual core anyway….RUBBISH!)
Elephone p6000 (still have, looking to sell if anyone is interested 🙂 )
Elephone p7000 – current daily phone.
- E8hffff
  July 10, 2015
  - The Special Juan
    July 10, 2015
    P6000 was great, but only used for limited time.
    Now using p7000 for about 1 month. Am i happy?…mmm…..Yes and No!
    First, I will say that I am just an everyday user, not developer, not into flashing roms or anything technical.
    Given the above, 1) I wasn’t happy that out of the box I wasnt able to update OTA. I don’t have a windows pc, and have no experience of flashing. Yet to update to a ROM that was usable I had to learn – big thanks to XDA developers who talked my through it, (and borrow a friends windows laptop!) .. So for me, that was a big negative.
    Other negatives,
    2) I have three white spots on the screen, noticeable when the screen is a light / white colour
    3) the bluetooth keeps disconnecting from my Asus Zenwatch (could be the watches fault though)
    4) the annotate score has dropped down to about 28k for no apparent reason. 5) out of the box the microphone was not loud enough. Sound on recorded videos was non existent. This has since been fixed.
    Honestly I was expecting better from a “flagship”, however I realise now that this was probably a bit unrealistic of me….
    Other than that the phone has had no other major problems…and I genuinely like it and the design. The contradiction is that I probably wouldn’t buy an elephone again. For Elephone come across as just a bit too unreliable.
    Having said that I am going to stick with Chinese phones though, features vs price makes me never want to buy a “mainstream” brand again…I would love to try a Meizu , Oppo or Xiaomi….

RuR‎
July 9, 2015
Lenovo K3 Note
Achilles
July 9, 2015
Noname feature phone with TV antenna around 5 years ago,
NoName Iphone clone,
Inew V3,
Tengda Z2,
Cubot S200,
Jiayu S3
I loved INEW V3 but Jiayu s3 is a beast!
Tengda Z2 has the best design though.
Cpaun
July 9, 2015
Zopo zp100
Haier w910
Tcl idol x
Umi x2
Jiayu g3
Meizu mx3
Xiaomi Mi Note lte
For friends / family I bought:
Zte v985
K-touch kiss u86
Iphone 5 clone
Hdc legend S4 clone
5 x Nubia Z5s
2 x Newman n2
Miz (can’t remember the model)
Hope I didn’t forget anything 🙂
zuma
July 9, 2015
thl 5000
honor 6
Meizu mx4
Xiaomi Mi Note lte
i am waiting for my bluboo x550 from gearbest.com
Aeonia
July 10, 2015
My journey started not so long ago with the
Cubot gt99
Star HD 5000
Tronsmart TS7.
Inew V3..
Jiayu g4s..current
..hopefully the One Plus One is my next
Eddy Bruin
July 10, 2015
Newman N2
Xiaomi Redmi 1 (MTK version)
Inew v3
Umi Zero
Ulefone be touch 2 (still needs to arrive)
That’s what i’ve owned till now!

July 10, 2015
The phones I have actually owned and used for personal use are
Meizu M9
Xiaomi Mi2
Oppo Find 7
OPO
Oppo n1
Oppo n3
Meizu MX3
Huawei Honor 6+
Vivo Xplay 3s
Vivo Xshot
Meizu MX4
Xiaomi Mi Note
LeTV Le 1
( I am sure there are others but those are the ones I remember, plus there are tons of review phones not listed too)
- mf1gt3r
  July 10, 2015
  You’ve got great taste Mr. Sykes. These were all flagship phones. My Bro just got the Letv X600. Good phone indeed. But am starting to think my Nubia Z7 Max was better.
- iKosh
  July 11, 2015
  Which phone did you like the most? Xshot?

ljan ryan
July 10, 2015
i’m waiting for the CM and MIUI ROM from be touch2 , i have another phone meizu note but battery is bad
E8hffff
July 10, 2015
Owned non-smart phones before that
* Huawei U8150
* Jiayu S3 3GB. Purchased as temp phone and will gift.
Most interested in Elephone Vowney due to it having 8MP front camera and 21MP back. ZERO INTEREST in finger scanner.
Hellvetta
July 10, 2015
Huawei Ascend P1 (still in use)
ZTE Nubia Z5 Mini/Nubia Z7 Max
iNew V3/V7
Cubot X6
Jiayu G4/G2S
Xiaomi Hongmi/Mi3
Samir Maric
July 10, 2015
Xiaomi Mi4i

Mesterio
July 10, 2015
Mine are Jiayu 2GF and the Jiayu G4S, excellent phones. I am sure this won’t come as a surprise and currently a Jiayu S3. See a trend?? ?.
- - Mesterio
    July 10, 2015
    Yash you missed out! It is now rocking MG v8 and has knock to wake. It is a nice piece of kit!
July 10, 2015
For me it’d be:
UMi X1
OPPO Find 5
Xiaomi Mi 2S
Xiaomi Mi 3
Xiaomi Mi 4
Gionee Elife S7
OnePlus One
These are of course besides the review phones.

It looks like everyone commenting here has at one point owned the JiaYu G3 😀
generationally
July 10, 2015
Umi X3
Meizu MX4
zedge13
July 10, 2015
xIAOMI mi3, HUAWEI ascend p1, g6 and p8 lite, ZTE v5 redbull, BLUBOO x5, ULEFONE note 3 copy, coolpad, umi, and so on!!!!!

10basetom
July 10, 2015
Lenovo P780 – I actually pre-ordered the JiaYu G4s, but the shop was never able to stock it so I ended up getting this instead. The best thing going for it was the marathon battery life.
Lenovo K900 (orange) – I was intrigued by Intel Inside. It ended up bent after a week in my front pocket, so I can identify with iPhone 6 Plus users. The terrible battery life made me longed for the P780 again.
OnePlus One – The best Chinese phone I owned, but also the most expensive (still a great value though). After a couple days of honeymoon, I ended up giving it to my wife since her Note II was starting to act up.
Lenovo Vibe X2 – I swear I’m not a Lenovo loyalist, but at the time I wanted a smaller, lighter phone and somehow things led me to my third Lenovo phone. It’s all around a decent phone, but nothing to get excited about.
After this I started to get into Japanese phones, so now a Sharp Aquos 304SH is my daily driver ^-^.

Jon Fell
July 10, 2015
First Chinese phone was a “I dunno, it was cheap off eBay, camera was rubbish but it did a job til I lost it”
Next was à meizu mx4 pro that I never even got to know let alone bond with as I dropped it and broke it within 5 days of laying out £400+ to find the aftermarket care of meizu is only comparible to that of a people smuggler.
Present is a cubot x9 which is serving me diligently with a wonderfully mosaiced cracked screen ( my fault not its) , in fact as a previous Samsung user I’m amazed its still functioning as the slightest crack in a Samsung screen always left me an £85 bill.
So in summary, I praise the unknown, decry the established and hail the Cubot

junior_poa
July 10, 2015
Flying FG8 (2011)
XiaoCai X9 (2013)
Jiayu S3 (2015)

amirexpressir
July 11, 2015
unlike many,My experience started with 6575 and with “star” rather than “HDC”
as I am an online shop seller,so I have used lots of phone till now,,,but to narrow it down from old times to current:
star 001
star s5 butterfly
star one x
star n9589
newman n2/freelander i20
star b93m
umi x2
zte v976s
Jiayu g2f
neo n003 advance
thl w100
cube talk 5h
zopo c2/zp980
infocus m320
vivo xplay 3s
lenovo k900
inew v3
inew v8
lenovo s898t/a850
coolpad f1
pantech sky vega a880/a850
zte nubia z7 max
inew i6000
umi cross
elephone p7 mini
oneplus one
Meizu mx4
and……
those were phones I remember…
still good to know so many sites and users are coming this way more and more…
joe computer
July 11, 2015
I’m now cm12.0 gt-i9506 S4+
tcl a506 -> lenovo a830 -> lenovo s939 -> mercury (meirose or melrose) -> and will be always samsung
BrB
July 11, 2015
Still using my doogee dg550 dagger, perfect phone for the last 6 month
Seb Star
July 11, 2015
Proud owner of a Doogee DG310!
An excellent device for the money it costs!

shaker
July 11, 2015
Huawei p1
Opo
Andi I can’t believe you caved into a bunch of crybabys. It a contest and someone wins. Otherwise is it a reward. That’s unfair.

franzrichardludmilla labouré
July 12, 2015
there’s been quite some…
meizu m8 (amazing speakers and audio quality, screen resolution was impressive back then but the software was a constant struggle and beta state)
a zopo zp100 (the great grand father of mtk phones,build was mediocre, it died due to a faulty usb port)
a zopo field 300 (nice screen yet far too small battery _ still somewhere around
a zopo zp998 quad core (quite pretty actually, but clumsiness caused a broken screen, zopo’s lack of support and firmware updates caused the end of my faith in them…)
a jiayu g3 ( needs no introduction, survived a thousand drops, served as a weapon was killed by curiosity, impatience and a screwdriver)
Umi’s x1s (was supposed to be a present, was actually a neat little phone no complaints..)
star n920 (a present as well; htc clone with a really good camera, happened to fall of a balcony…)
the jiake p6 was supposed to replace the n920, could have been a nice looking phone, but had some really bad and avoidable build issues like an awful sharp gap at the bottom, horrible battery life and struggles with two dying cameras these days.
gionees elife e6 _ probabely the most beautiful phone i’ve ever owned and their flagship ..,for a month …was abbandoned by the the company for the not anyway as nice to look at e7_an unforgivable lack of updates, an awful buggy amigo os skin on top of a dated android version and an aging processor that already struggled the fhd resolution make the phone unfortunately no fun to use these days
the green orange n1(also bought as a present) was well build with nice camera features but also missing the benefit of a kitkat update.
umi c1 (ordered for a friend _ a huge phone, also a huge disappointment compared to the tiny yet nice umi x1s, all i remember was a non working announced gyroscope and an early death…)
cubot gt99 a small quite ugly and cheap and cheap looking (due to the awful backcover) device that is a real surviver; a broken screen, a thousand drops, a dying battery yet it is still working…
jiayu g5s the one that kept people waiting… despite the solid body less a survivor than the g3..
the no1 mi4 was ordered for a friend again; cheap, very well build but the idea of selling it with some pretending to be kitkat 4.2 firmware and the aging processor were quite a let down
oukitel’s u8 was supposed to be the supercheap 64bit lollipop spare phone to play with until i had to find out that it is running android in 32bit mode, an ugly device, really awful speaker yet getting ota updates from the company (which is until you mess with the partitons trying to install some custom recovery…)

Mehmet Ayvaz
July 12, 2015
Hi
Zopo C2
AMOİ N850
Intex Aqua Style
Huawei honor 6
Lenovo s850
Meizu mx3
MEİZU MX4
THL T11
THL W11
MEİZU M1
MEİZU M1 NOTE
JİAYU S2
REDMI NOTE
HUAWEİ g700
Mi Note
Lenovo k3 note
IUNI u3
Zte grand
Girne elife e6
Girne elife e7

Drits
July 12, 2015
The first Chinese phone I bought was a Umi C1. My wife’s using it right now and she told me her colleagues are always curious about the price. She tells them she got it for a mere 400€, and they believe it (while it cost me only 80€).
I’m using a OPO right now.
Alaa
July 12, 2015
Nokia N95 Clone
Hero 9300+
Qidamin
July 13, 2015
ZTE V965
ZTE V987
Xiaomi Mi2A
Iuni U3

Zaki
July 13, 2015
Altek A806 (2010 – 2013)
Lando L200G (2014 – Current)
I must say the Altek was by far the best camera phone I have ever owned (I previously owned the Nokia N95, SE C905, and Samsung Omnia HD). True colors (if your ISO was set properly) and great detail, none of the over saturated and over sharpened garbage you got with other phone cameras at the time. Of course, it was actually just a digital camera with phone functionality. 1020 mAh battery and QVGA screen meant I only had to charge it once a week. Got it for cheap on taobao, around $120 or so. Lasted 3 years until the screen went out, the other parts still work though.
And yes I had it in pink. It was awesome.
iKosh
July 13, 2015
After almost two years on gizchina, my first chinese phone arrived two weeks ago. During this long period I was considering devices like: Redmi 1s, iNew V3, Oppo Find5, Redmi Note, Jiayu G4s, S3, Meizu MX2, MX3, M1 Note but never pulled the trigger on any of this. My final choice was the Gionee Elife E7 3GB32GB version. In my opinion it is the bargain of the year. It has an older processor and android but works fantastic, I’m very happy with my decision.

bassa
July 13, 2015
UMI hammer

Bailey
July 13, 2015
I now understand why people moan about price because if you own that much phones you dont want to be buying at an expensive price. I worked out that i could buy 1 phone every month but the people at my work place already think i am mad with the amount of phones i buy and sell Lol
No1 mi4 clone
Meizu mx 3
Xiaomi mi4
Xiaomi mi 4i
Xiaomi Red Rice Hongmi
Zte Star
S4 clone
Maybe we should do the phones that you feel tempted to buy because my list would be so long
Patrick Van Reusel
July 13, 2015
My gadget addiction started with Chinese MP4 players, some iPod clones but also branded ones like Ramos, Ainol and Nationite players from MP4nation.
With the phones, everything started with some clones, iphone 3 clones, Nokia E72, Blackberry clones. Also about a dozen of no-name china phones from the pre-android era.
Then I changed to Windows Mobile Phones, a Qtek S200, followed by iMate, some QWERTY phone by Vodafone, PhoneOne S901 and Acer models (F900), all running on Windows Mobile . HTC Diamond clones
I owned a Acer BeTouch E130, a full QWERTY phone running on android. This was followed by a tsunami of Chinese Android phones, most not branded, To give some name and types at random order:
Haipai X720d
no brand X825
no brand X315e (HTC clone)
THL4000
THLw200s,
(German) Mobistel T1,
Mobistel T2
Lenovo S920
iNew V3
XIAOMI Redmi 1S
XIAOMI Redmi Note
Haipai P6s
NEO N003
Kolina K100+
(Thai) I-Mobile IQ X
Bedove HY5001
(Spanish) Energy Sistems, Energy Pro QI
Elephone G6
Gionee Elife E7
Caesar A9600
(Thai) Wellcom A99
Zopo C2
Cubot GT99
no brand K7 MT6589
Honor 4X
(French) Wiko Rainbow
Huawei Boulder
(French) Alcatel Onetouch 918
Motorola Milestone 2
Motorola Moto G 2
(Thai) i-mobile i693
..and still growing

Open Thread: What Chinese phones have you owned?

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What Chinese phones have you owned?

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