# Chinese - knock off tablets. has anyone tried one?



## basoodler (Mar 1, 2012)

I was shopping around the last few days for a tablet. The market is literally saturated with cheap tablets with obscure names at extremely low prices. Its a chore to actually find a name brand tablet on eBay. They are just described as "Google android tablets". Or "real Google android tablet" by aggressive retailers. Name brands like MID , SVP and NewsMy .. Some have no name brand on the listing. They range in price from $40 - $150.. And some boast Samsung quad/duelcore processors and HDMI etc.

Hell goophone makes exact replicas of apple and windows 8 products .. Skinning jelly bean to match pretty closely.

Just curious if anyone has given one a try.


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Don't see the point when you can just get an n7 for 200 dollars, but I'm sure there are some out there buying them when they're plastered on the front page of places like CVS, Walmart and others.


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## basoodler (Mar 1, 2012)

Or parents who may not be up on tech items . they see "android tablet" for $50 and think they got off easy lol. I noticed some have apps named after popular apps.. Like list "Pandora music" on the listing.. But its a rip off of Google music called Pandora. Kind of misleading. Most don't have Google play.. They may have something called Google play but it leads to knock off market.

I just wondered about some of the $140 dollar pads with quad core Samsung processors , 10 point capacitive touch, 1-2gb of ram, with HDMI..10 inch screens.. They say they are unlocked an rooted out of the box.. So I guess you could put a ROM with Google apps.

How bad can it be for $140 bucks?

I ended up with a 9 inch lenova pad that was a good price for the specs. I was extremely tempted to buy a new blackberry playbook for $100 .. They have nice hardware for $100


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

I doubt they come with the Android market or actual google apps on them. OEMs have to pay for those and have to maintain compatibility with AOSP as well, so those have to be some really crummy tablets when people realize there's no Google maps on them, lol.

Thank god they don't have the Market, nothing worse than getting bad reviews from devices that aren't even supposed to have the Android Market or Gapps.


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## RhynosAndroid (Sep 22, 2013)

yarly said:


> I doubt they come with the Android market or actual google apps on them. OEMs have to pay for those and have to maintain compatibility with AOSP as well, so those have to be some really crummy tablets when people realize there's no Google maps on them, lol.
> 
> Thank god they don't have the Market, nothing worse than getting bad reviews from devices that aren't even supposed to have the Android Market or Gapps.


Actually I have the Goophone i9, a phablet, cost $215, came w/all the google apps, running Jelly Bean and has been phenomenal. I haven't had any issues w/apps.

The beautiful thing of AOSP is the 'OS', open sourced. We aren't talking iOS here. Considering most run similar chipsets, it actually simplifies android running on them. Unlock my last phone, the G2x. Although a strong OEM phone, aftermarket wise (ROM's) it was a nightmare! The Chinese phones don't suffer from the fragmentation issues, which IMO is made a a bigger issue than it really is, but nonetheless can cause issues.

I originally looked into Chinese handsets a couple years ago when I saw an article concerning an iPhone knockoff, a Goophone. I was interested because my girl at the time was on an iPhone 4 and, even though was consistently having issues w/it, still loved the form. I couldn't convince her that form w/o functionality was meaningless. She was the poster child for the iPhone fanboys/girls, she didn't care as long as she could say she had an iPhone. I looked into it, but was weary (like so many, including the OP) and never followed through. I never forgot about it though and, much like my G1, back before Android had proven itself, I stayed interested in the unknown. What if...

About a year ago, finally tired w/the inability to get my G2x out of GB ROMs and no longer making excuses for the lack of support from NVIDIA, refusing to open up so the community could pick up where they dropped the ball, I started to seriously look into a new phone. Since I always buy my phones all out, no contract (haven't been in one for close to a decade,) the prices of the phones I was interested made me clinch in certain southern areas of my anatomy. I decided to bring the Chinese (what I thought of at the time) "knock-offs" into my search.

I discovered quickly that they weren't just knock-offs, on paper they looked like strong competitors at a fraction of the price. I was still leary, I mean popular consensus (and although mine was wavering, I was there too,) was on par w/yours yarly. There were no reliable reviews for these phones. Hell, most of the reviews at the sites I looked at were actually questions, the reviews I could find all seemed so suspect. Planted. Then there was the issue of having to purchase from a marketplace from an area that at best is questionable. Not like jumping on eBay or amazon.

A few months past and I realized, someone really needed to take the chance and then share the experience, good or bad. I figured I went all in w/the G1, untested, which now doesn't seem like much, but I remember at the time I pre-ordered it, the ridicule I received. Best technical leap I've ever made, I've never looked back. Sure, this was a little different. That at best, was a high dive, but I was thinking about cliff diving... I did what any sensible person would do, put on my floaties (safety first right?) screamed cannonball and jumped!

I looked at the oppo line, the zopo 950, a few others, and stumbled upon the i9 while looking at what goophone had to offer. The tech sheet was solid on all, I decided on the i9. I love it! I used paypal, chose expedited delivery and had it w/in a week all for about $240. That included the shipping, extra battery, one of those nifty leather flip open covers and of course, I paid the extra for a cool gun metal case that it all came in. Really, I justified this expense due to the international shipping...plus it's cool as hell and is a great conversation piece!!

I've run into a couple of issues. First, almost all Chinese phones run on AT&T bands. If you're on a provider using TMo bands, you still get edge speeds, but won't get the faster unless you're on wifi. This also has caused issues w/overall signal. It would drop in and out if I was using a SIM for TMo, but if I went w/one using ATT bands, no issues. The second (and I found this to be more Goophone specific,) it was difficult to find ROMs created for the Goophone. Now this actually is due to a couple of reasons, many of the i9 specific carried bloatware and more glaringly, because the community hasn't embraced these handsets. Causing the majority of the ROMs available created by the mfg, adding the same crap they initially had on it. The fortunate (and at least for me exciting) part, is that the chipsets are largely identical, I have found that I can use ROMs for others on mine. Sometimes w/really cool outcomes.

I love this phone and now that I've had it for almost 6 months, plan on posting a video review, including my initial unboxing and an immediate follow up w/my experience with it. My next move will be a different phone, probably a zopo.

Point being, you can't judge it if you ain't tried it.


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

RhynosAndroid said:


> The beautiful thing of AOSP is the 'OS', open sourced. We aren't talking iOS here. Considering most run similar chipsets, it actually simplifies android running on them. Unlock my last phone, the G2x. Although a strong OEM phone, aftermarket wise (ROM's) it was a nightmare! The Chinese phones don't suffer from the fragmentation issues, which IMO is made a a bigger issue than it really is, but nonetheless can cause issues.


Except Chinese OEMs can't be bothered to open source anything, even things they are required to, such as the kernel. Also, the google apps in it is considered warez, because they didn't actually pay Google to license it. Means, there won't be any development for it here or anywhere else that matters, like XDA.

For $200, you can just break down and buy a Nexus 4 and avoid paying scummy, unethical OEMs a cent.

Cheap phone and glad it works for you, but no thanks. One gets what they pay for I suppose though.


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