​Except it doesn't work like that does it?

Yes, Samsung and Apple are highly profitable but a significant proportion of the price of a phone pays for the hidden infrastructure costs we take for granted. For example, my Samsung has gone back to Samsung twice through issues beyond mine - or their control - and they fixed it for free, post free twice. So that's two sets of labour, 2 sets of parts, 4 sets of recorded post, and 4 sets of packaging. Let's call that a minimum of £150

To send it off, I took it into a Samsung store, of which there are dozens in the UK. I took it to a staff member who discussed with a colleague about the issues - both of whom take a salary - and I left it with them.

I got it back both times looking like new. Happy phone, happy customer.

And that infrastructure and after sales support is one of the key differences between the two. When buying from China/Hong Kong, we fret about when it will arrive, if it will arrive, how it will arrive, whether we'll be stung with Customs fees and if it's broken, how the hell we're going to send it back to an industrial estate in 广东省 深圳市. Oh yeah, and when we do send it back, we're without a phone for a month.

That's all before we look at the research and development costs, precision optics in the cameras, custom chipsets and global connectivity across iCloud or Samsung or Google or whatever.

Cheap phones and tier 1 handsets both have their benefits and you can absolutely argue that the gap is narrowing, but to suggest that consumers are being 'ripped off' is disingenuous at the very least.

these deals go to show how much the samsungs and the apples are ripping us off, heat

​Keep telling yourself you are not getting ripped off by the branded mobile phone makers and you will probably start believing it yourself!!

these deals go to show how much the samsungs and the apples are ripping us off, heat

Nice phone apart from standard camera. This model is still pre-order atm and haven't seen a real release date anywhere.

It's a beast.
I won't buy a phone without a Gyroscope, which all the Mediatek processors are missing.
Shame really, it's a cracking handset.

will probably go cold, not because of the deal but because if gearbest

super phone. micro sd slot?

Yes it has Micro SD

​Keep telling yourself you are not getting ripped off by the branded mobile phone makers and you will probably start believing it yourself!!

He is not getting ripped off, he is getting what he is paying for. What you are paying for here is a midrange phone with some impressive numbers that mean little in reality. I would not pay over £100 for a phone with a MediaTek processor and I would never pay this kind of money for an imported device. Something like this at sub £100 would be a great deal, or if it was around £150 with an SD SoC then great as well, but this - this is a big risk.

​the faults in samsungs and apple are a joke ive had a sony xperia z1 for 3 years without one fault in this time my missus has gone through 3 samsungs and 4 iphones and they have never been fixed by the companys once so yeah i would sooner run the risk and get a much better/cheaper phone from hong kong or where ever.

there all made in same place anyway its just these newer companys dont directly sell to europe and america yet.

So helio P20 vs Snapdragon 820?

And that is why they can stick as much pointless RAM in it as they like, if it fails you are writing off close to £200.

Ermm, I'm sure legally you could get a charge back through the bank.

Not for a grey import you can't, you have no legal protection whatsoever considering you are trying to circumvent import duty. Odd you seem to think it is ok for you to break the law but get legal protection after doing so?

There's probably more chance of you getting a BJ from your ex-wife after an acrimonious divorce than getting a charge-back accepted against Gearbest :wink:

I don't want to make Hulk mad but I'm honestly interested in why you have such a poor opinion of MediaTek processors?

I've had a number of phones with older MediaTeks in, older generation processors were a bit pants for sure, but the Helio P10s and X20s I've had have been fine for what they are - no issues with GPS for example like I had with older MediaTeks.

Yes the Mali GPU isn't as good as Adreno, but for most people this wouldn't make any difference at all.

This is an octacore 2.3GHz on a 16nm process, seems pretty reasonable to me.

Lack of updates and poor memory management (hence the need for 6GB of RAM) are the two main issues

FWIW UMI have released a beta Android 7 upgrade for this.

You would expect a new phone to come with the current version of Android out of the box would you not? I would not hope for much after Nougat.

Well yes but that is nit-picking slightly. How many new phones, SnapDragon, MediaTek, Exynos or Kirin are getting released with Nougat right now?

I'll stop now though. In case I make HULK SMASH :wink::laughing:

I know where you are coming from. I love imported devices - but I generally apply those rules above to reduce the risk of losing money to an acceptable level.

I have a Umi Max, and for the money its ok. Good battery life.Yes camera could be better, as always. Its getting Nougat released on 24th Dec. Only thing is its advertised with gorilla glass 3 yet half an hour in my pocket with a chap stick (plastic with no hard edges) and the screen is covered in scratches. I expected better. Have been following Umi for a while. They seem to release a new phone quite frequently and the forums suggest they only support the previous one or two models. Also never had a problem with Gearbest or geekbuying.

I would stay away from these, 10% of people who own one would reccomend it, this is not because the other 90% of people are lying or overexhagerating it just means the 10% reccomending got a good unit, these phones are not tested for quality like samsung s7s and iphones, they are not standardized and some batches of phones have problems because they are bulk buying parts and throwing them in phones without figurous testing, I would not waste your time 180£? just buy a flagship from last year which has better specs, yes it might not be brand new but they will be alot better IE s5, s6, lg g4, z5, htc one m9 ect

I pre-ordered last month for £165 :wink:

Use Paypal as your payment provider,If you do not get the item delivered Paypal will get your money back,Paypal will also pay for return postage to China.

Had the UMI iron which died a couple months back. Battery life was poor after a month and the paint was coming away very easily. Would not buy a phone again from them but the Bluetooth headphones where good I bought with the phone.

Pre-ordered this from http://www.banggood.com after really bad reviews for gearbest even though it was a bit cheaper. Paid using PayPal and they confirmed my purchase is protected if item not delivered. Banggood have told me they are getting stock on 20 Dec and will start shipping first come first serve basis so I expect to receive this mid-Jan. Paid £190 for it which I think is excellent based on specs. Also, I'll surely insure my phone once it's delivered.

This looks good, the UMI Z, the first Heilo X27 Smartphone....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxCUio8rYgY&feature=youtu.be&a

Showing £216.45 now.....

UMI Plus E now £180 on aliexpress.com, and aliexpress offer buyer payment protection too.

Seriously considering cancelling my preorder for UMI Plus E and preorder a Vernee Apollo, 2K screen, X25 deca-core cpu, and comes with a VR Box. £202 on aliexpress right now.

UMI Z has a better CPU/GPU and camera configuration. But the RAM is 4GB instead of 6GB and battery is 3780mah, not 4000mah.

Too much choice........

True. So many Chinese companies selling quality products with excellent specs for very low prices. Just gotta make sure you use a buyer that accepts PayPal or use reputed sites likes Alibaba/aliexpress that offer buyer payment protection. I'm gonna get the Vernee Apollo and pay £11 for DHL delivery.

I recently purchased an LG G3 off Ebay, i sadly coudnt get a signal on 3, so i returned it.

Am looking for a phone with a good camera....

Do you have the link???

Vernee Apollo has a 21mp camera, specs page

Buy here for $249.99 / £202 (RRP $299.99)

http://vernee.cc/apollo/specs.html#specs

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32776509759.html?trace=storeDetail2msiteDetail&spm=2114.12010608.0.0.Qn21kO#autostay



The upcoming UMI Plus Z has Dual Mode Dual ISP 13mp camera which should be better that the UMI Plus E's 13mp shooter.

http://www.umidigi.com/page-umi_z_overview.html

Hello mate,
Please elaborate. When I'm ordering on the AliExpress app, the Vernee Apollo is about £202 and DHL delivery is about £11. Would there be additional charges like VAT or adminsitration? I doubt it but would like to be sure before ordering.

You WILL pay import duty, VAT & handling fees as your purchase exceeds the personal exemption limit (which is circa £15 to £18 ish). This is why many Chinese sellers under-declare the value of packages or mark them as gifts.

There is no way anyone is going to under-declare a £200 phone, so DHL will be given the correct purchase price and will charge you the import fees, VAT & handling directly. They used to send an invoice by post a week or so after the item has been delivered, but this may have chaged.

HTH :wink:

Would stay well clear of this. Don't get me wrong awesome spec sheet but the phone is riddled with issues. Just have a look at the support forum about GPS issues. It is practically 1000s of complaints but the issue is with the hardware and every umi phone has the same issue. Don't want anyone to be robbed but use can all make up your own mind.

Thanks a ton!

As a rough guide for a £200 phone, you are looking at around £40 in duty, VAT & handling.

There's a more accurate calculator here: https://www.dutycalculator.com/dc/117442-import-duty-rate-for-dhl-is-14/

HTH :wink:

I purchase many items direct from China,get your seller to make the customs invoice for $15 (dollars) this invoice is on the front of your package,Dhl and the Post office use that price to calculate the Vat and both include the Admin charge for themselves,here's what I do if I ever get charged for Vat and admin,demand an Invoice,doing this means if something goes wrong with your purchase you can claim back the Vat note you will need proof of posting to China to claim the Vat back,or send the item back to the seller and when its returned fixed you have the invoice and will not pay Vat or Admin charges whatsoever.

As a former UMI owner I'd say...... Stay away. The specs look nice, but that's only half the story. You have to take the specs with a pinch of salt, umi have always exaggerated specs. If your a user of Nokia sat nav or use Google maps as navigation this will be murder! It will random reboot on you, this is a well documented issues throughout there handsets. Bank apps won't work as it's a custom rom looking like stock android. The camera will be bellow par compared to other similar phones. The thing will get very hot when pushing it, and music thought headphones will be awful. You'll be stuck on 7.0 (if you even get it} forever unless you flash a rom on it. Umi have some big issues to overcome before I trust them with my £££ again.

I purchase loads of items from China too, but you seem to be missing an obvious point here.

If you get a Chinese company to under-declare a £200 phone as being worth $15 on the invoice, you are completely fv.cked if it gets lost or damaged in transit - as that's all the insurance will pay out on. End of story.

I suppose you could try and claim against you credit card company. However, that may end up with you having to self-implicate yourself for VAT & duty fraud.

And if you try and use any expedited carrier (DHL, UPS etc), they WILL ALWAYS declare the correct item value - otherwise, they risk losing their rather cosy arrangement where they collect duties on behalf of the Government and earn a nice handling fee into the bargain.

If you are prepared to take a bit of a gamble, your best bet is to get the item sent my ordinary mail. Very few items are ever opened & inspected, so chances are your package will fly through. Equally, theft rates for small packages are quite low as most postal staff assume they are of low value.

You pay for the item using Paypal,If you do not get the item Paypal will pay every penny back to you,all Expensive items are sent to the buyer as registered mail and you have to sign for them before your given them!!!