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back to article ZTE's stealthy Nubia: China-made Google-free Android mobe

A stealth project being shown discreetly at Mobile World Congress this month shows how far Chinese phone manufacturers have come – and how far they have to go. It’s under the umbrella of ZTE, the state-owned telecoms giant, and was officially unveiled this week. The Chinese are coming, but we’ve barely had a taster of it yet …

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  1. CJatCTi
    Happy

    App wanting access...

    I have an Honor 6 dual SIM from China, before any app can access any new feature I get a warning request pop-up screen is great. It has some Google apps on it but Huawei has loaded all it own replacement for Google Land, with contacts / photos / data all backed up to Huawei. Google in China is pointless as it blocked by the great firewall, so the manufactures are providing he functionality themselves which should encourage brand loyalty.

    I use Google contacts & I don't live in China, so I just loaded the .apk and now it works like a Western Phone but with built-in protection from apps asking for things they shouldn't. It cost £250 has 3Gb RAM 13MP camera 64Gb SD card 5" 1920 x 1080 screen 3100mAh for me that is a Flagship at under half price.

    With most phones being made in China why is it the ones made for the West come at over twice the price of those sold locally?

    3 0 Reply
    1. K
      Reply Icon
      Big Brother

      Re: App wanting access...

      Chinese imports are definitely stepping up, matching or even exceeding the quality of their Japanese and Korean competitors - just be careful of the malware embedded in the USB adapters ;)

      Big brother... because the PARTY ARE WATCHING YOU!

      1 1 Reply
    2. Michael Habel
      Reply Icon

      Re: App wanting access...

      With most phones being made in China why is it the ones made for the West come at over twice the price of those sold locally?

      How many Sensors does that Phablet of your have? I'm guessing not nearly as many as you'd find in a Galaxy Class Phablet.

      What kind of SoC does that Device have in it? A MediaTEK One I'd bet. While on the face of it its quite "adequate", I think you'll find Updates to be quite lacking in the long run. Since MediaTEK DO NOT believe in, or at least comprehend the meaning of the Words "Open Source". You can forget about such ROMs, as CyanogenMod, or OmniRom as well.

      So in the long run what looks like a Bargain at, first seldom actually turns out to be.

      Which brings me to the question I wanted to post anyway. What is the SoC for the Reviewed Device?

      0 0 Reply
      1. CJatCTi
        Reply Icon

        Re: App wanting access...

        My battery is bigger, I dont have ac Wi-Fi but the rest is a match. But at 1/3 the price, why have a Ui upgrade when a) Lollipop still isnt stable & when it is I can get a new phone and still have change. Currently updates are every 2 months.

        Chinise backdoor, didn't you read its now the law for everything sold there. So if its not made or sold in China you might be safe...

        0 0 Reply
    3. Nofiwr
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      Re: App wanting access...

      I looked hard at the Honor 6 Dual SIM, for the 4G option really (Moto G 4G isn't Dual SIM!). I noticed however that the 4G bands / channels (...whatever) that it offers excludes that used by Vodafone in the UK. You seem pretty happy with the phone though; care to make any further comments on it please?

      0 0 Reply
  2. sorry, what?
    Devil

    Difficult to choose...

    Between Google and the Chinese Government when you think about just what they'll do with the data they collect on you.

    5 0 Reply
    1. Tim Jenkins
      Reply Icon

      Re: Difficult to choose...

      Google wants to monitor my life in order to push adverts at me, and the Chinese Government wants to prevent me from liberating Tibet

      Of the two, I'm rather more worried by Google...

      9 0 Reply

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. tony2heads
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      "I know"

      Sounds like Sybil Fawlty was consulted for the interface

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPtIHwbguO4

      2 0 Reply
    2. Terry Cloth
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Here's for truth in labelling

      Reminds me of a product I seriously thought of buying solely for its UI attitude. (It was a long time ago, but it may have been ImageMagick.) When it put up a failure dialogue box, the button to dismiss it read ``Bummer''.

      0 0 Reply
  4. Peshman

    Apex launcher and amazon app store from the amazon link.

    'nuff said.

    0 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Looks nice

    Now if I could get one with an sd-slot and removable battery I'd be very happy seeing as Samsung appear to be turning stupid (fingers crossed they don't go full retard with Note 5 or I'll never be buying a Samsung again).

    4 0 Reply
    1. CJatCTi
      Reply Icon

      Re: Looks nice

      The are ones out there with Sd card slots like my Honor & with fast charging & 3100 or in the lenovos 4000 mAh why would need to change the battery, you can't flatten it in a day.

      0 0 Reply
  6. bazza Silver badge

    Hmm, I'm not sure about this. Sure, almost anyone can make a nice piece of hardware these days, all the bits and pieces are available on the open market.

    What matters most of all is the software.

    [Yeah I knows Jobs said something like that, I don't like Apple at all, I doubt he was the first to say so, but he was right]

    It matters most of all when you're talking about software that interacts with someone else's software, like Skype, Facetime, messaging apps, games, etc.

    Basing these alternative handsets on Android is about the only way to go to solve that problem. But it's still not plain sailing.

    0 0 Reply
    1. wayward4now
      Reply Icon

      "What matters most of all is the software.

      [Yeah I knows Jobs said something like that, I don't like Apple at all, I doubt he was the first to say so, but he was right]"

      Of course he said that, after The Woz built all the hardware.

      0 0 Reply
  7. oneeye

    IMHO, buying Chinese phones would be like buying phones made by the NSA! Almost every OEM founder over there has the government for a partner. Their founders are party members,or have very close ties to it. Many of them (phones) have been found to have backdoors and hidden apps that send most or all data on the phone to servers in China. Of course they all have ready made excuses,and then make changes to the OS,but only after being caught. Over the pasty several years,many hundreds of thousands of Chinese phones have Been turned into bot nets. Just Google it. And just recently Git hub was under attack from a DDOS FROM Baidu traffic originating from China. Is it really worth saving a little money? Ask yourself why it is they sell these phones virtually at cost. Ask yourself why governments around the world ban their employees from using them. It is a small thing for all these cheap(cost) phones to be completely co-opted when ever they decide. To me,it's a choice of lesser evils,and so i'Lo stick with those who are more accountable. And unlike Apple,or Google,name one Chinese OEM who is offering encryption. I can't think of one.

    0 0 Reply
  8. oneeye

    Hi all, here is a link to the Github story about analysis of the attack.

    https://threatpost.com/ddos-attack-on-github-linked-to-earlier-one-against-greatfire-org/111919.

    0 0 Reply

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