Been tempted to try the galaxy note phablet format for a while, but I can't really justify the expense.
I've seen there are plenty of chinese phone manufacturers also doing the ~5" phablet format most with dual cores and some even quad cores!
I understand they'll never have the build quality of a branded phone, but I heard they're decent.
anyone has any experience with them?
Am curious too. Noticing a stack of quad-core, 5" phablets, some FHD, are coming out next month. This site has a good summary of features:
http://www.gizchina.com/2013/02/25/top-15-1080hd-android-pho…
http://www.gizchina.com/2013/03/20/ultimate-quad-core-mt6589…
That site is quite the headspin. If I've heard of the brands 'KooBee', 'iOcean' and 'GooPhone', I've must have successfully managed to get them out of my brain.
As it is, I hereby choose to believe that 'iOcean' is a brand specifically aimed at scuba divers, but I choose not think about where the a 'GooPhone' is meant to be used, or by whom…
At least the RAM exceeds 512mb in this next generation of chinaphones.
In my personal experience 512mb of ram is fine for dual core smartphones running vanilla android. Touchwiz, Sense and all brandname android operating systems seem to lag and require ram in excess of 512mb.
For example, my Galaxy S2 with 1gb ram and running Samsungs touchwiz OS lagged, crashed and frustrated me daily.
My Kogan 5" smartphone with 512mb of Ram and running vanilla android (like google intended it to be experienced) has been glitch free.
My S2 runs fine. The first thing I did was ditch TouchWiz and use a much lighter launcher. Try Holo or Apex.
Huawei Ascend looks quite good, though not as cheap as the no name brands, but it'll probably have more community support..
I'm typing off a Kogan Agora 5" phablet. It's the best phone I've ever owned. Runs so much smoother than my Samsung Galaxy S2 which was returned under warranty within a month of ownership due to lag and crashing issue.
I cannot notice any decrease in reception/download speed on the Vodafone network.
But if you're with Telstra, do not bother as 850mhz does not seem to work. 2100mhz works just fine on Voda and a personal side by side comparison of an 850 S2 and 2100 Kogan showed no considerable difference when loading websites. Both phones were using the Vodafone network and neither had previously been to the pages we were testing.
I'm a heavy phone user and generally need to charge my phone by the end of the work day but this lasts all day and night and sometimes until midday the following day. With moderate use I have been able to get two days out of it before the battery died.
Cons; the screen resolution is not as sharp as an S2, the camera is ok but needs adjustment in certain lights levels and the flash is useless (but all phone flash suck). No other faults as yet and I've owned it a month.
For $168 delivered with a one year warranty it's well worth every cent. I took the 5year extended warranty for $29 more. Kogan are slow with their customer support but if I have any issues I can always contact fair trading. If I bought one from overseas and there were issues, I'd be left high and dry..
The best thing about owning this phone is comparing it to my friends Galaxys, iPhones etc and seeing the look on their face when a $168 does most things their stupidly overpriced phone does without lag, glitches or crashing.
"But if you're with Telstra, do not bother as 850mhz does not seem to work."
Isn't Kogan Mobile on the Telstra network?
Yup.. It's crazy that 'their' phone doesn't support 'their' network.. Though they claim it does, users on Whirlpool suggests otherwise.
I thought Kogan was telstra 2G only, though i might be confused with another telstra reseller
thats what i'm trying to get Roozy, just telstra compatible and up to $300
That may be a challenge. I haven't seen any china phones that successfully support 850mhz. Many claim to be compatible but fail in real life tests.
Save up for a note 2 it's worth it.