Elephone M3 Pro, IMX230 and U.S LTE

Elephone will be launch 2 versions of their new Elephone M3 phone, with the flagship M3 Pro revealed today to get higher rear camera and storage specifications.

Elephone launched the Elephone M1 (review here) and Elephone M2 (hands on here) this year, as proof that they were capable of making affordable phones with high-quality alloy bodies. The M range will grow by 2 soon with the release of the M3 and M3 Pro.

We had already reported on the M3 and it’s specifications which include an aircraft grade alloy frame, Mediatek Helio P10 chip and 5.5-inch LD display. The M3 Pro gets the same along with USB Type C, an update to a Sony IMX230 rear sensor and more internal storage (but how much we haven’t been told).

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The big excitement for the M3 and M3 Pro though is that they will both offer native LTE support to customers in the U.S! Cheap Android phone are headed to America!

We’ll have more details of the Elephone M3 Pro soon. In other news the Elephone P8000 gets another update (details here) and the M2 range of phones will soon come in a Rose Gold colour option.

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.

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Andi

- mikey
  December 9, 2015
Muhammad Yasir
December 9, 2015
i thought the M3 was supposed to tackle UMI rome and cost a price well suited for budget customers ?!
wth Elephone!
- Frederick Micallef
  December 9, 2015
  The Elephone Ivory is the competitor of the UMI Rome, which has circa the same price, this M3 doesn’t look shabby at all, kinda digging its design, will wait for reviews.
  - Muhammad Yasir
    December 9, 2015
    hmm … looks decent to me as well.
    but anything above $200 coming from Elephone HAS to be viewed with the highest level of scrutiny !
    - balcobomber25
      December 9, 2015
      Let me fix that for you:
      ….but anything coming from Elephone HAS to be viewed with the highest level of scrutiny !
      Now it is correct.

Manjurul Islam
December 9, 2015
But do you guys still think Elephone is still a good purchase, be it M2 or upcoming models? Regarding their quality, craftsmanship, longevity, durability and software supports, elephone looks like a spammer to me.
- Nilzie
  January 5, 2016
December 9, 2015
Another useless phone from useless Elephone.
I can’t use any Elephone phone, even when given for free.
- Airyl
  December 9, 2015
  - Joel Adames
    December 9, 2015
  - balcobomber25
    December 9, 2015
    I would take any phone for free. If nothing else it makes an alternate GPS, MP3 player or travel camera.
E8hffff
December 9, 2015
Wont be much different to the specs of the P9000 series.
greg
December 9, 2015
Just what I need LTE bands for the U.S. I´ll get for sure this one
- balcobomber25
  December 9, 2015
  I would rather be stuck with 3G bands and have a reliable phone than LTE bands for a phone that will be worthless in a month when Elephone abandons it.
jimberkas
December 9, 2015
interesting, very interesting…
being in the US, and having never bought a direct from china phone, I’ve been very curious to one a try. if its not too spendy, I’ll probably give it a go. Shouldn’t really be more expensive than the Vowney, right?
- balcobomber25
  December 9, 2015
  If you have never used a Chinese phone don’t start with Elephone. It will completely ruin the experience for you and turn you off to Chinese phones completely. Start with a reliable brand like Xiaomi, OnePlus, Meizu, Huawei, Lenovo, Jiayu or ZTE. They all offer great phones at every price level and all of them have good support. The Elephone may look better in the spec sheet but they are known to lie about specs and use cheaper parts inside that won’t last as long, they also have horrible service and support. And when you do decide to purchase one make sure you use Paypal.
  - RuR
    December 9, 2015
    - balcobomber25
      December 9, 2015
      - Frederick Micallef
        December 9, 2015
        to be honest from the experience I had with Chinese smartphones, their software all leaves a lot to be desired.
        Zopo zp998 had as well hardware issues (GPS antenna) but only the very last updates by meizu that made the mx4 good, before when initially bought it was somewhat sluggish. Xiaomi in terms of their software took a few steps back and led their OS be more RAM heavy.
        
        balcobomber25
        December 10, 2015
        To be honest it all depends on the company and your persona preferences. You could say the software leaves a lot to be desired about most phone companies not named Apple.
        Your Zoppo’s GPS was horrible because of the SoC/Modem it used. Every phone with older Mediatek chips had bad GPS regardless of the software. MIUI (Xiaomi) has always been very RAM heavy, but it is still one of the best and most stable UI’s available. I would take MIUI over TouchWhiz (Samsung) or Xperia (Sony) any day.
        
        Frederick Micallef
        December 10, 2015
        True, mt6592 had gps issues overall, it lacked glonass, but xiaomi note still managed to get a good signal and zopo had released a new gps antenna to install yourself since the material of the former antenna wasn’t adequate to provide good signal..albeit still problematic.
        Latest touchwiz seems to be better now, especially with samsung developing more for their exynos socs.
        Sony os lags terribly, had the z ultra, though as well the xperia z5 fixes seems to be addressing many issues and simplifying the os in their marshmellow update to be lagfree.
        I dunno but from smartphones i owned, it seems, the best os is the stock android, but i find it rather boring, if am paying for a smartphone I would like to own some features exclusive to that smartphone but they seem to come at a price.
        Ironically latest smartphone i tried was ecoo e04, too plasticky, but software wise i found it well, no lags, good gps, notifications never failing etc.
        Have you had experience with huawei os? Would consider one of those in the future, their screens seem wide, a feature i like.
        
        balcobomber25
        December 10, 2015
        I hate stock Android and even that has issues. Android 5.0 had the most problems on Google’s own Nexus devices.
        Huawei’s OS is called EMUI. The last one I used was 2.0 (4.0 will be the newest one) and I wasnt a fan of it. But friends who love this brand say since 3.0 it is very good.
        Nilzie
        January 5, 2016
        Ios updates are the worst! They purposely slow their old models down and you cant decline them

Joel Adames
December 9, 2015
If you guys make memory DOESN’T it reminds you of that Ecoo E06 announced a while ago??? Very similar to me and very much from the same parent company.
- jimberkas
  December 9, 2015
  yep. sure looks like a dead ringer ot the E06. that thing had 2GB RAM and 16GB storage. Hoping this would be a bit more updated than that. Hoping for 3/32
- Frederick Micallef
  December 9, 2015
  yes, I think that actually they’re identical, this happened as well with the ECOO E04 and the Bluboo X6

Yeti hand
December 9, 2015
seeing is believing!
Bring it on!!
Guest
December 9, 2015
- mikey
  December 9, 2015
Guest
December 9, 2015
i thought the M3 was supposed to tackle UMI rome and cost a price well suited for budget customers ?!
wth Elephone!
- Frederick Micallef
  December 9, 2015
  The Elephone Ivory is the competitor of the UMI Rome, which has circa the same price, this M3 doesn’t look shabby at all, kinda digging its design, will wait for reviews.
- Guest
  December 9, 2015
  hmm … looks decent to me as well.
  but anything above $200 coming from Elephone HAS to be viewed with the highest level of scrutiny !
- balcobomber25
  December 9, 2015
  Let me fix that for you:
  ….but anything coming from Elephone HAS to be viewed with the highest level of scrutiny !
  Now it is correct.
balcobomber25
December 9, 2015
I’ll believe it when I see it. And releasing the phone is one thing, everyone knows they can release phones (except the Vowney which is going on 7 months late now…). Supporting them is entirely different thing. That is something they have yet to prove.
Manjurul Islam
December 9, 2015
But do you guys still think Elephone is still a good purchase, be it M2 or upcoming models? Regarding their quality, craftsmanship, longevity, durability and software supports, elephone looks like a spammer to me.
- Nilzie
  January 5, 2016
Elephone can’t fight Xiaomi and Meizu.
Young
December 9, 2015
Another useless phone from useless Elephone.
I can’t use any Elephone phone, even when given for free.
- Airyl
  December 9, 2015
  I don’t know, I’d probably take an Elephone for free.
- Joel Adames
  December 9, 2015
  Hahahahahaha. So would I 😉
- balcobomber25
  December 9, 2015
  I would take any phone for free. If nothing else it makes an alternate GPS, MP3 player or travel camera.

10101010101010
December 9, 2015
Have these guys even come through with the Vowney?
Why are they talking about what they will be doing in the future when they aren’t doing anything in the present?
- just elephone acting as usually…
- Steve B
  December 9, 2015
  End of December is the final, final, hand on heart, honest govenor, release date.
E8hffff
December 9, 2015
Wont be much different to the specs of the P9000 series.
greg
December 9, 2015
Just what I need LTE bands for the U.S. I´ll get for sure this one
- balcobomber25
  December 9, 2015
  I would rather be stuck with 3G bands and have a reliable phone than LTE bands for a phone that will be worthless in a month when Elephone abandons it.
jimberkas
December 9, 2015
interesting, very interesting…
being in the US, and having never bought a direct from china phone, I’ve been very curious to one a try. if its not too spendy, I’ll probably give it a go. Shouldn’t really be more expensive than the Vowney, right?
- balcobomber25
  December 9, 2015
  If you have never used a Chinese phone don’t start with Elephone. It will completely ruin the experience for you and turn you off to Chinese phones completely. Start with a reliable brand like Xiaomi, OnePlus, Meizu, Huawei, Lenovo, Jiayu or ZTE. They all offer great phones at every price level and all of them have good support. The Elephone may look better in the spec sheet but they are known to lie about specs and use cheaper parts inside that won’t last as long, they also have horrible service and support. And when you do decide to purchase one make sure you use Paypal.
- RuR
  December 9, 2015
  ZTE’s software is terrible
- balcobomber25
  December 9, 2015
  It’s a lot better than Elephone, ZTE at least provides updates.
- Frederick Micallef
  December 9, 2015
  to be honest from the experience I had with Chinese smartphones, their software all leaves a lot to be desired.
  Zopo zp998 had as well hardware issues (GPS antenna) but only the very last updates by meizu that made the mx4 good, before when initially bought it was somewhat sluggish. Xiaomi in terms of their software took a few steps back and led their OS be more RAM heavy.
- balcobomber25
  December 10, 2015
  To be honest it all depends on the company and your persona preferences. You could say the software leaves a lot to be desired about most phone companies not named Apple.
  Your Zoppo’s GPS was horrible because of the SoC/Modem it used. Every phone with older Mediatek chips had bad GPS regardless of the software. MIUI (Xiaomi) has always been very RAM heavy, but it is still one of the best and most stable UI’s available. I would take MIUI over TouchWhiz (Samsung) or Xperia (Sony) any day.
- Frederick Micallef
  December 10, 2015
  True, mt6592 had gps issues overall, it lacked glonass, but xiaomi note still managed to get a good signal and zopo had released a new gps antenna to install yourself since the material of the former antenna wasn’t adequate to provide good signal..albeit still problematic.
  Latest touchwiz seems to be better now, especially with samsung developing more for their exynos socs.
  Sony os lags terribly, had the z ultra, though as well the xperia z5 fixes seems to be addressing many issues and simplifying the os in their marshmellow update to be lagfree.
  I dunno but from smartphones i owned, it seems, the best os is the stock android, but i find it rather boring, if am paying for a smartphone I would like to own some features exclusive to that smartphone but they seem to come at a price.
  Ironically latest smartphone i tried was ecoo e04, too plasticky, but software wise i found it well, no lags, good gps, notifications never failing etc.
  Have you had experience with huawei os? Would consider one of those in the future, their screens seem wide, a feature i like.
- balcobomber25
  December 10, 2015
  I hate stock Android and even that has issues. Android 5.0 had the most problems on Google’s own Nexus devices.
  Huawei’s OS is called EMUI. The last one I used was 2.0 (4.0 will be the newest one) and I wasnt a fan of it. But friends who love this brand say since 3.0 it is very good.
- Nilzie
  January 5, 2016
  Ios updates are the worst! They purposely slow their old models down and you cant decline them

Joel Adames
December 9, 2015
If you guys make memory DOESN’T it reminds you of that Ecoo E06 announced a while ago??? Very similar to me and very much from the same parent company.
- jimberkas
  December 9, 2015
  yep. sure looks like a dead ringer ot the E06. that thing had 2GB RAM and 16GB storage. Hoping this would be a bit more updated than that. Hoping for 3/32
- Frederick Micallef
  December 9, 2015
  yes, I think that actually they’re identical, this happened as well with the ECOO E04 and the Bluboo X6

Yeti hand
December 9, 2015
seeing is believing!
Bring it on!!
balcobomber25
December 9, 2015
I’ll believe it when I see it. And releasing the phone is one thing, everyone knows they can release phones (except the Vowney which is going on 7 months late now…). Supporting them is entirely different thing. That is something they have yet to prove.
RuR
December 9, 2015
Elephone can’t fight Xiaomi and Meizu.

10101010101010
December 9, 2015
Why are they talking about what they will be doing in the future when they aren’t doing anything in the present?
Have these guys even come through with the Vowney?
- qandrav
  December 9, 2015
  just elephone acting as usually…
- Steve B
  December 9, 2015
  End of December is the final, final, hand on heart, honest govenor, release date.
Josef Izchaki
December 10, 2015
balcobomber25 you must of really been burned by a phone from them with so much hate spewing out of you. Anyone with a little sense can see they have changed, A. you are completely disregarding the fact that in this article andi points to an update for the p8000. Secondly Elephone has been opening new stores and warranty centers worldwide! Any company doing that is worth a try.

Josef Izchaki
December 10, 2015
balcobomber25 you must of really been burned by a phone from them with so much hate spewing out of you. Anyone with a little sense can see they have changed, A. you are completely disregarding the fact that in this article andi points to an update for the p8000. Secondly Elephone has been opening new stores and warranty centers worldwide! Any company doing that is worth a try.
Riccardo Benzoni
December 10, 2015
this is like.. the 30th phone of the year made by them? This means actually someone is buying them… now this is scary!

Riccardo Benzoni
December 10, 2015
this is like.. the 30th phone of the year made by them? This means actually someone is buying them… now this is scary!
Charlles Costa
December 14, 2015
In the paper those specs are amazing but in reality I am 99% this phone will be onether let down again from Elephone. I hope I am wrong.
Charlles Costa
December 14, 2015
In the paper those specs are amazing but in reality I am 99% this phone will be onether let down again from Elephone. I hope I am wrong.

Elephone M3 Pro will get Sony IMX230, Android 6 and US LTE

Gizchina News of the week

Andi

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