Chinese Mobile Phones in Sri Lanka

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Chinese Mobiles – love or loath?

Well if you are a person who is not much in favor of Chinese products we suggest you just check out the origin of some of your home appliances, most probably you will realize that most of them are made in China! So lets talk about Chinese mobile phones with an open mind.

We would like categorize mobile phones of Chinese origin into following categories:

1. Phones manufactured in China by leading mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia & Sony Ericsson.
2. Chinese clones (or copies) for the phones of renowned brands.
3. Mobile phones manufactured and marketed by Chinese companies in their own brand names (the “real” Chinese Phones)
   

The phones that come under the first category are available in almost all the famous brands (this is because almost all the leading manufacturers have their production facilities in China due to factors such as cheaper labor and raw materials etc.) So if your phone is manufactured or assembled in China, you would probably notice “Made in China” printed somewhere on the phone. Well sometimes the country may not be specifically mentioned. For instance some Nokia phones may just say ” Made by Nokia”

So the next problem is whether the quality of a phone depends on the country origin. For instance is there a difference between a Nokia N95 made in Finaland and a same model made in Chine? Well, the formal answer is “no”. But still most people prefer to have a Nokia made in Finland. Thinking that European product quality is better than that of the Asian may not be true at all times!

Lets come to the second category, this is where complications arise. If you take any model of any popular brand (be it Nokia, Sony Ericsson, HTC or samsung) you will find a Chinese clone for that model (probably at a much lesser price). The danger is that you may happen to buy the Chinese product thinking it is the Original brand product! However not only the Chinese, manufacturers in countries like Malaysia also are now producing these clone phones. So its important to note following points:

• Chinese clone is sold at a much lower price than the original brand (For instance in Sri Lanka, if original Nokia N8 is Rs.60,000/= the Chinese clone may be sold at Rs.10,000/=)
  

• Most probably the Model name is not exactly the same and has slight variations from the original brand (Sometimes there is no brand name at all or in some other cases, making it more complicated, model & brand name will be exactly the same as the original brand name & model)
  

• Specifications are not as good as the Original phone (for instance Nokia N95 has 5MP camera but the Chinese clone would have a 1.3Mp camera)

• In almost all cases, Chinese clones are not smartphones compared to the original brand phone.

• If the phone has features such as analog TV it is very likely its a Chinese clone. (Because there are hardly any phones manufactured by popular brands with built-in analog TV tuners. That is pretty amazing to note, isn’t it?)

• Large touchscreen displays
• Dual SIMs
• Analog TV Tuners
• FM radios working without headset
• Loud sounds

  

                              A Chinese iPhone clone with Java, WiFi and TV

  Some of the FAQs on Chinese Mobile Phones (2nd / 3rd Category)

• Do Chinese phones have 3G? -Well, until recently there were no 3G networks in China, therefore most Chinese phones were 2G (& 2.5G). But now 3G phones are being increasingly produced.
• What about Chinese TV phones? -Its just cool to have a TV on your palm top. Of course you can watch TV with Chinese TV phones sufficiently well. However it is important that you thoroughly test the TV functionality before you buy a TV phone. (Well you can buy a TV phone at a cost less than Rs.9000/= in Sri Lanka (its strange why other famous brands do not have analog TV phones!)
• Do Chinese phones have weak batteries? -It depends. If you have a TV tuner or Dual SIM, battery may dry fast. Its better to check out the battery capacity before you buy (we would say if the phone has TV it should at least have 1500mAh battery)
• Are there Chinese smartphones?- Yes there are! Also there are many fake smartphones which have very similar interface to a smartphone OS like Windows Mobile or Symbian. Best way to verify a smartphone is to try to install a native 3rd party application (Eg: if it claims to be a Symbian phone try to install a *.SIS file). However Android being an open source O/S, is getting popular among Chinese manufacturers.

                                                   A Chinese watch mobile phone

   

• Do they have Java? - Java adds a lot of functionality to any mobile as it allows to install 3rd party Java programs. Unfortunately most of the Chinese phones seen in Sri Lanka don’t have Java. Again the best way to check this is to try to install a Java program (Eg. *.jar file)
• What about the specifications?- We are afraid, sometimes the published specifications may not be present in the phone (Oops!). For instance on the camera it may be mentioned that its a 3MP camera but in reality it may just be a VGA camera. So need to be careful!
• What about the durability of the phone? - This largely depends on how you use it but you had better not expect the best quality with least price.
• What about the sound quality? – We have seen many cheap Chinese phones having really good quality sounds. So just check it out before buying!
• Are there accessories available for Chinese phones like batteries, headsets etc. in Sri Lanka? -Could be difficult to find. But if you just see around Colombo Fort you would probably find a place to buy accessories for Chinese phones.
• Is using Chinese phones bad for health? – Well…as we said before, the phones of the first category should have no difference compared with the same model manufactured elsewhere. The third category is also very likely follow the international radiation standards. But the risk is higher in the case of the second category phones. If you are buying a phone in the second or third category it is advisable to check it has an IMEI number (You can check it by dialing *#06#) and comply with the recognized radiation standards.