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Best DUAL SIM android phone?
- Thread starter jfbaro
- Start date
drsnuggles
Member
Seems no issue. Why wouldn't that work?
Hi;
As a business traveler, I was looking for a dual SIM phone for a long time. I've been following this very informative and interesting thread with its great contributors for a while, and would like to offer my humble opinion and summary.
1. As dual sim market had been dominated by grey market offering it is plagued with half baked products. Unfortunately , as most demand came from developing countries, major brands did not devote significant R&D efforts for this segment.
2. Only recently, major brands are starting pay attention to this market are rolling out first generation of such products.
3. From what I gathered here, Lenovo mobile phones are probably of the best quality dual sim Android phones. Motorola XT353 should be even better, when released.
However both of them are targeted for the Chinese market only and their adaptation to the rest of the world is no officially supported and not stable.
4. ZTE U960 seems like the a promising phone with (supposedly) a true active dual SIM and dual 3G (G+G) support (at least this is what the guy at ETOTALK is promising). However, the $500 price tag is prohibiting.
5. If android is not a must (and its not a must for me). Nokia line of phones are my choice. While Nokia had lost its place in the past few years, they still know how to make great high quality phones. Their Aasha 200 phone does not have 3G support but have long battery life, active dual sim hot swappable sim (A killer feature for a business traveler like me), nice perks as support of up to 5 different sims, ringtone per sim etc. Add to that the stability of S40, and this makes it my choice, until such time when the Android phones mature to second generation dual sim with official android support for dual sim.
Doodoo
As a business traveler, I was looking for a dual SIM phone for a long time. I've been following this very informative and interesting thread with its great contributors for a while, and would like to offer my humble opinion and summary.
1. As dual sim market had been dominated by grey market offering it is plagued with half baked products. Unfortunately , as most demand came from developing countries, major brands did not devote significant R&D efforts for this segment.
2. Only recently, major brands are starting pay attention to this market are rolling out first generation of such products.
3. From what I gathered here, Lenovo mobile phones are probably of the best quality dual sim Android phones. Motorola XT353 should be even better, when released.
However both of them are targeted for the Chinese market only and their adaptation to the rest of the world is no officially supported and not stable.
4. ZTE U960 seems like the a promising phone with (supposedly) a true active dual SIM and dual 3G (G+G) support (at least this is what the guy at ETOTALK is promising). However, the $500 price tag is prohibiting.
5. If android is not a must (and its not a must for me). Nokia line of phones are my choice. While Nokia had lost its place in the past few years, they still know how to make great high quality phones. Their Aasha 200 phone does not have 3G support but have long battery life, active dual sim hot swappable sim (A killer feature for a business traveler like me), nice perks as support of up to 5 different sims, ringtone per sim etc. Add to that the stability of S40, and this makes it my choice, until such time when the Android phones mature to second generation dual sim with official android support for dual sim.
Doodoo
I have been a Nokia user since my very first mobile phone in 1993. However, I have given up on Nokia because they appeared to drop features from their firmware for no apparent reason. As an example, with more and more people using two (or more) numbers, even without dual SIM, I found it very useful to be able to create custom labels in the contacts list so that I could label the numbers according to the network provider (Orange, O2 etc.). This I could do on my N82. Imagine my consternation when I 'upgraded' to an N97 and found that I could no longer edit labels, or create custom labels. So, I was excited when Nokia indicated a move to a *nix-based OS, as it meant that the feature lists would become more open. First they promoted Maemo, and produced one phone with that OS, before moving to MeeGo. I think that they have announced two models with MeeGo, then moved to Windows.
At this stage, enough was enough - it was time to jump ship and, although it's not (yet?) perfect, Android is at least reasonably open. Oh, and the standard contacts application does allow me to customise labels.
As for mainstream dual-SIM handsets, that is not going to happen easily in the UK, where most people 'buy' a subsidised handset on the back of a network provider's contract. The network provider doesn't want to encourage you to use another provider, so why would they offer a dual-SIM handset? Indeed, most handsets are 'locked' to operate with just the one network.
Here in Philippines, the majority of Handsets are purchased separately to the network service, and the competition between the networks is such that use of more than one network is very commonplace. However, when the average income of a professional is in the order of GBP100 - GBP200 per month, the more capable handsets are simply not affordable. The market here is rife with Chinese clones. Even when the retailer tells you that his Nokia product is 'genuine' or 'original' it's no guarantee that Nokia had anything to do with its production.
Then there are secondary brands here which are widely marketed in the 'high-street' shops, but these brands simply rebadge China phones, as in my dreadful Cherry Orbit, which turns out to be a GSmart G1310. This is why I have decided to order a China phone directly from origin - at least I'm under no misapprehension about what I'm buying. Whether I'll actually be happy with it remains to be seen.
Most dual SIM phones are made and sold in China. Dual SIMs or more are often required because of the way carriers operate here. One gets very cheap local calls in the home city, but get clobbered for roaming and charged for incoming calls in another city or province, even though it's the same carrier.
China is a huge potential market for them. China Mobile is the world's largest carrier.
I, of course, meant no disrespect for China or any emerging economy. The point is that most dual sim phones were targeted at the cost minded customers and made by local Chinese vendors. As the demand for more feature rich phones (e.g. 3G/4G dual sim dual active smartphones) on both China and ROW is picking up, only now do major brands start rolling such devices. Experience teachs us it will take them few years to produce mature products.
I agree with you with regards to Nokia's behavior in the recent years and yet their phones (as phones) are one of the best HW and most stable software (Symbian). The problem is that Symbian was aging and they did not have any good strategy for it. When you read about people changing ROMs like crazy, having their top branded android and phones reset time and again, you come the appreciate the stability of Nokia' legacy phone. Android needs to be better polished and its multi-flaour diversity is also it Achilles hill. Having said that I do wait for a stable android version with native support for dual sim.
I understand this strategy and would do the same for a private phone, I just can not risk being abroad and having the phone dying on me.
Motorola is probably the most reliable manufacturers of them all. the XT532 is ok but as many people has pointed out, the hardware specs are not exactly top notch: the screen resolution/pixel density is low and CPU/GPU are relatively outdated. They have a few very high end dual sim device, however, they are CDMA + GSM rather than dual GSM 3G.
The most capable and reliable true 3G device out there is the ZTE U960. It's a very reliable manufacturer, and the phone is true 3G Dual Sim Dual Standby and Dual connection.In fact, it is the only (probably branded) phone I know at the moment that can run dual 3G at the same time (both sim can be on WCDMA)
The price tag is relatively high. but I'd say this is a winner at the moment for dual 3g.
If you are going for CDMA + 3G, motorola has a few very very good model (the latest one being a variant of the RAZR).
The most capable and reliable true 3G device out there is the ZTE U960. It's a very reliable manufacturer, and the phone is true 3G Dual Sim Dual Standby and Dual connection.In fact, it is the only (probably branded) phone I know at the moment that can run dual 3G at the same time (both sim can be on WCDMA)
The price tag is relatively high. but I'd say this is a winner at the moment for dual 3g.
If you are going for CDMA + 3G, motorola has a few very very good model (the latest one being a variant of the RAZR).
For me these two can'tbe compared: a 126mm 4.3" phone or a 114mm 3.5" phone. That may be more important of a factor than having double 3G.
I think also samsung has quite some cdma double sims, including the galaxay ace duos andthe SII duo. When you search on taobao.com with:
samsung android 双卡 you will find them all, but they are all cdma.
In the mean time, I also found an online shop that has the XT532 available (it is a shop that also sells on Taobao, where there are 5+ sellersnow):
tmall.com. If you search for XT532 you will find it for 1989 yuan.
Hi,
I' m looking for a dual sim android phone for some time now, but couldn' t make up my mind yet which one to buy. I' m interested in the Star X18i, but am confused about deviant technical details given in different shops regarding RAM (256 or 512 MB), camera (3, 5 or 8 MP with or without autofocus), max. SD card support (16 or 32 GB).
Are there so many different versions of this phone or are the given details faulty? Which are the correct specs? And is anyone here who has experience with the X18i?
Thanks
Anja
I' m looking for a dual sim android phone for some time now, but couldn' t make up my mind yet which one to buy. I' m interested in the Star X18i, but am confused about deviant technical details given in different shops regarding RAM (256 or 512 MB), camera (3, 5 or 8 MP with or without autofocus), max. SD card support (16 or 32 GB).
Are there so many different versions of this phone or are the given details faulty? Which are the correct specs? And is anyone here who has experience with the X18i?
Thanks
Anja
NeWbIe_vlc
Newbie
Well is necessary at this time that the RAM set at 512MB, less than that give a lot of limitation to the phone.
About the camera all of them are very poor, the realy important is the people review about that.
With the SD support is a personal opinion I think because it depends with the personal use about us.
Bye
i think XT532 is more like a comparable version of HTC Legend, and the ZTE U960 is comparable to Desire HD. No doubt the overall build of XT532 will be good. I think U960 is overall much better in many areas. As mentioned before, ZTE is a very good moble manufacturer, not really one of those KIRF ripoffs.
Also, ZTE U960 is the only reliable brand that have both sims dual active at all time. It is currently on taobao/tmall for around 2200RMB, which is around the same price as the XT532.
tmall.com is part of taobao, basically the taobao's equivalent of amazon. its very reliable.
I am a recent fool who bought a Lenove A60 LePhone. As I bought it via net they posted it from Hong Kong to Australia with no English instruction etc. The phone started in Chinese had to struggle to change it to English. Then it did not had Market the application store is only allowing Chinese applications. After lot of research managed to root and install market and google account. But network signal reception is so poor (Testra Next G) that it can not be used as a phone but a tablet only. Now bought a signal fixer from the net to fix the signal problem. I will strongly recommend every one not to buy this phone. If any one knew how to solve the signal problem please let me know.
it is a fiddly phone to have. It's not a bad phone really..but its simply not meant for outside chinese market. I was just doing some ROM fixing for my own A60 this morning as I had quite a few issues myself.
I assume u have problem with the 2 Sim Slot being very weak or no signal most of the time? that was the problam I had at least. The Google enabled ROM from website such as hotmid have signal issues.
There are quite a few ROMs out there with GSM signal fix. However, most of the ROMs are listed on chinese website MobileUncle. In particular, the S184 built based ROM have very good signal strength.
I m currently running the stock S184 verison released recently by Lenovo. It has very good signal strength but I havent found one with proper google integration yet. If you want i m more than happy to direct u to the ROM, but as mentioned its without google at the moment.
Merimobiles.com seems to have a way (free, no need to pay) to manually install google accounts support to any rooted A60 regardless of ROM version, but i ve not tried that yet.
update: just tried the merimobiles method, so it now has google accounts, and signal strenghs are excellent on both SIMs, plus its on Lenovo latest release based on Android 2.3.5
I wonder whether this is what I need for my Cherry Orbit (Gsmart G1310-based) which spends 95% of the day showing no signal on one of the SIMs when other phones in the house have excellent signal strength from the same provider.
Okay, I found that site, but it's all in Chinese - how do I find an appropriate 'signal fix' for my phone?
Edit:
I notice that there are two slightly different conditions in which SIM1 does not have a connection:
1) The operator/provider name is displayed on the wake-up/screensaver screen (in my case it is 'SUN'), and the signal level icon has a red cross.
2) The operator name is replaced by the text '(No Service)', and the signal level icon has a red cross.
Of course, when it is working, the operator name is displayed, and there is no red cross on the signal level icon.
For most of the day, the phone is in condition 1 (operator name displayed but with red cross). Just occasionally it displays the no service text, and for even less of the time it actually has a working signal. What is the difference between the two states when I don't get a connection? Does this information give a clue as to what is happening and any possible fix?
I had pretty much the same issue before. These are the known problems of some release version of A60 (cant remember the specific series number but it affects quite a few series), and the latest ROMs generally all have it patched up.
As mentioned, MobileUncle has ROMs with the solution but very dificult to nagivate through. Its confusing even for chinese speaker like myself.
And after a few tries I ve found there are better English ROM with the signal fix from the russian forum china-iphone.ru. Forum.China-iPhone.Ru • ???????? ???? - Lenovo A60/A65 (MT6573, 3.5" HVGA, W+G, GPS, Android 2.3.x)
Dont worry if u dont speak russian, load up Google Chrome and it does a very good tranlsation job for this website.
somewhere in the first few post there was a 2.3.5 based ROM from Javum (i think that's the name). and all you need to do is download the zip, and flash it from the recovery and job done.
There are several advantage to this ROM over every others available:
1) free
2) its on Lenovo S184 built which is very new and based off android 2.3.5
3) it has been tweaked with full google integration, all the usual goodie you would expect from a well made custom ROM
4) it has full english interface with most of the pre installed chinese apps removed and settings disabled
5) it fixed all the signal problem (I m getting full bars on both sims in this ROM) as expected
6) it pre loads a lot of APN settings for europe at least, i m using O2 Pay and Go in UK and it automatically recognize the 3G setting, previously i had to manually add it.
The only problem is the phone will be default in Russian the first time it launches after flashing, all you need to do is nagivate to the right setting page to change it back, simple
Hope this solve your problem.
Just ordered the ZTE U960 from taobao, with extra battery and 16GB microSD card, for total 2310RMB+shipping. should get it in the next couple of weeks hopefully.
will update here my thoughts of this phone, compared with A60 in particular.
update: just found out that U960 does not have Google Apps build in, which is a deal breaker for me. going to order the Xt532 instead for that reason.
will update here my thoughts of this phone, compared with A60 in particular.
update: just found out that U960 does not have Google Apps build in, which is a deal breaker for me. going to order the Xt532 instead for that reason.
Thanks for all the advice ... but I think that you may have overlooked one small detail! My phone is a rebadged GSmart G1310, which uses a Qualcomm design - I'm pretty sure that the A60 ROM will not work in my phone!
That's what I'm longing for!
Unfortunately, I don't think so!
i misread ur post. I was more of responding to the previous post about A60 having signal issues.
unfortunately i wont be of much help for GSmart as I dont own that phone.
try search the russian forum see if there s anyone looking at the Gsmart Custom ROM.
is it clear if it works on European wcdma frequencies?
yes.
in fact its been noted in chinese forum that the WCDMA will only work when roaming out of china, so it should be compatible with the european one.
ok this is gonna blow:
I was told that the XT532 that are on sale in China at the moment does not have Google Apps (Gmail, Android Market...etc). so that applies to most phones on taobao.
the reason is the phone is customized for China Unicom, hence similar to A60, all the stock Google Apps features are removed.
Strangely, the engadget Chinese video review does show Gmail and Market among the list of the apps (1:37 into video). but that phone was sourced in Hong Kong hence i m not sure if its a entirely different model. You can tell the difference by the back cover of the phone. the one in engadget has no "WO" logo, whereas all the ones on sale in China has a big orange "WO" logo at the back.
So it seems will have to wait for XT532 to be available outside China (Hong Kong, Taiwan and etc), which is supposed to be early next year according to the same video from Engadget.
http://chinese.engadget.com/2011/12/13/motorola-xt532-xt615-hk-hands-on/
I was told that the XT532 that are on sale in China at the moment does not have Google Apps (Gmail, Android Market...etc). so that applies to most phones on taobao.
the reason is the phone is customized for China Unicom, hence similar to A60, all the stock Google Apps features are removed.
Strangely, the engadget Chinese video review does show Gmail and Market among the list of the apps (1:37 into video). but that phone was sourced in Hong Kong hence i m not sure if its a entirely different model. You can tell the difference by the back cover of the phone. the one in engadget has no "WO" logo, whereas all the ones on sale in China has a big orange "WO" logo at the back.
So it seems will have to wait for XT532 to be available outside China (Hong Kong, Taiwan and etc), which is supposed to be early next year according to the same video from Engadget.
http://chinese.engadget.com/2011/12/13/motorola-xt532-xt615-hk-hands-on/
integlspwr
Lurker
I was in the market for a cheaper android 2.3 phone for temp usage while im in Canada for about 5 days and don't want to get hit with large data fees. I would b using a local prepaid sim card so that is why im in the market for one.
I dont need a very big screen so smaller than 4" screen for sure, this is partly due to having good battery life.
- fast, snappy, reliable.
- longer battery life.
- apps like Facebook, Twitter, Android Market Place *is this possible?
- Able to use it as a Wifi Hotspot so I can connect my iPad & iPHone 4s.
- Able to load a ROM other then what the phone ships with?
I am new to this china android phones so any help is greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
I dont need a very big screen so smaller than 4" screen for sure, this is partly due to having good battery life.
- fast, snappy, reliable.
- longer battery life.
- apps like Facebook, Twitter, Android Market Place *is this possible?
- Able to use it as a Wifi Hotspot so I can connect my iPad & iPHone 4s.
- Able to load a ROM other then what the phone ships with?
I am new to this china android phones so any help is greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
I have just ordered ZTE U960 by etotalk. I have asked them if it can be used in Europe with WCDMA and GSM and they confirmed that it can.
I hope to get the phone first in the new year and i will also come back and tell about my experience with ZTE U960.