Why will my next phone be from A brand, or what do the Chinese nouns save on

Six months ago, I once again had a question about buying a new phone. Despite the fact that since 2006 I used only the flagships of A brands (at that time), this time I, looking at what they offer me, refused to buy what they put out. It was decided to buy a temporary smartphone for a reasonable $ 200 ±, but with a good filling, on which you can comfortably wait out the crisis of market ideas. The choice fell on the most powerful (in July 2015) smartphone from Elephone: P7000 Pioneer. I will mainly criticize Chinese no-name smartphones from little-known manufacturers based on his example (Xiaomi, Huawei, etc. have already got rid of childhood diseases).

Everyone knows how to criticize, so let's start with praise. Despite all its shortcomings, the smartphone is very successful in terms of price / performance. The smartphone runs on bare Android 5.0 (for some, this is an advantage) with a minimum set of “left” software, which does not really bother you. The processor is very powerful, and 3 GB of RAM is enough for the eyes, so that applications do not unload for weeks. The picture on the screen is very juicy, and out of the box the smartphone is very durable and does not play. Although the back cover is made of plastic, it does not mess at all, which I consider a definite plus. The battery is ~ 3500 mAH Li-Pol, but the feeling that it is made of rubber lasts for a long time. I was pleased with the equipment: in addition to the fact that the phone immediately comes with a glued film, another film and glass are included, which is very nice.

Stop praising him, let's move on to the main part.


Despite the rich bundle, the Chinese have forgotten to put something on the phone. Accelerometer! And this is in 2015, when it is the same ordinary thing for a smartphone as a gyroscope, GPS and camera! You do not know how much you need an accelerometer until you are deprived of this. In general, no spherical panoramas, and Seene works crookedly in viewing mode. I think many games using an accelerometer such as Asphalt and others will not work as you expect from them.

A powerful processor from MTK, truly eight-core (rather than 4 + 4) and heats up quite strongly (you can get burned during games). The phone heats up slightly while charging, which I agree with. But if you play, for example, in the Fallout Shelter, putting the phone on charge, then get ready - it will be very hot from behind. How much Enough to smell the very hot PCB (I got the meat from the freezer and cooled the back wall). And not only my Chinese, but some of the TCL and other less popular Chinese smartphones that I have seen suffer from this.

A bit of criticism of the naked android: after a sawed UI from A brands, I'm spoiled and used to the fact that everything you need is out of the box on the phone. For example, you can ban SMS by spam phrases or in the menu group applications in folders. I also like to play music with daddies, and the native camera application is generally a disappointment: half of the free cameras (including Google ones) take pictures faster, sharper and more predictable.

Once the speech went beyond the camera, a little criticism of her and from the side of iron. The sensor, of course, is from Sony (with the same success it could be from Samsung or another eminent manufacturer, as the Chinese like to put on their phones), but they obviously saved on the lenses, which causes color aberrations. In some games, everyone had a favorite pink spot in the center (there is a software fix for this miracle through a patch for ROM, but there is no official fix and most likely will not). But such a very large number of Chinese people suffer from this, so you should not believe in the advertising “sensor from Sony 13 MP and ultrafast autofocus”.

I had no problems with GPS / GLONASS, although some parties suffered from this. It is necessary to disassemble the phone and slightly bend the antenna contact. But, by the way, a funny bug: at a speed above 120 km / h the phone loses satellites.

Body. The case has an aluminum rim along the contour, remember this. The case in the first month seemed simply monolithic, but a little later it began to play a little and creak - quite tolerant if you did not try to bend it on purpose. And God forbid you drop it. It turns out that the aluminum on the rim of the case is not solid, but with inserts, and when dropped, it can quite jump out a bit. By the way, not only my phone suffers like this: for many Chinese, cases become extremely flimsy in a couple of months. Distract from the case: after 4 months of use, dust appeared under the glass. I, naive, bought the fact that the glass and the sensor with the display are laminated and have no air gap. No matter how! If you drop the phone, the glass may slightly rise from the edge. Enough to get dust under it.

Charging queue: regular charging goes at 1.5 A, but it takes a frankly long time - 3.5 hours to fully charge, and no fast charging technology that A brands offer. As I mentioned earlier, the device is slightly heated, it is not critical for me.

I’ll criticize a little thing that I have never used and consider it useless, but it is now in many devices: a fingerprint scanner. It is located under the camera (I think if you use it, the camera will be constantly blurred). They write on the forums that she recognizes very well and calls the figure 85%. So be it. But this thing does not work as you would like. This applies not only to my phone, but also to many others: you must first press the power button and only then put your finger on it. From sleep mode, simply by touching the phone can not be brought out.

And also, like many familiar Chinese phones, over time, it began to fail. In my case, it just hangs tightly, although acquaintances (with other Chinese models) had complaints that the network began to fall off, or the camera does not start without rebooting. In general, there are many options, but there is little reliability.

My previous flagships of A brands have never suffered anything like this (although each of them had its own curious features).

Instead of the results:

Am I satisfied with the phone? Yes, just gorgeous performance at that price. Am I ready to go with him for another half a year? No, there is already a telephone with which I am ready to go, but we will wait in May and MWC. I think my next phone is on the way.