lookup phone

2013 Christmas Guide Best Chinese Smartphones

Welcome to our 2013 Christmas Guide. It has been a full year with several big flagships from different manufacturers especially Xiaomi and Meizu : Mi2S, Mi2A, Red Rice, MX2, MX3. So which one should you buy ? Here is your answer.




Entry Level

King of the Hill
Xiaomi Red Rice at ~ $229/€170. It is a bit more expensive than others entry level smartphones. But it has one of the best cheap SoC with the MT6589T running at 1.5 GHz, a truly beautiful display and a very capable 8MP Camera.

What sets the Red Rice apart from the others is the fact that it is natively running MIUI V5 on top of Android 4.2.2 insuring at least one year of full software support. You will hardly get such quality software and support in this price range.

Find our full video and written review here.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Great Software Good Camera Decent HD Display MIUI Software	A bit pricey

Most affordable Smartphone
Lenovo A630 at less that a $100/€74.99. This is the cheapest smartphone of our catalog but we dont sell useless hardware. For this price, you will get a double core CPU that can take care of all the basics functions (social media, calling, messaging, emailing and web browsing).

Strengths	Weaknesses
Best Price Great Battery Life, 2500 mAh	Average connectivity (GPS, Wi-Fi) Average performance

The other way
THL W200 at less than €150, it is a bargain. It uses the same MediaTek Quad Core chip already found in the Red Rice. Specs wise, it is the same but the THL W200 is a bit cheaper and offers a Full HD Display. This is the cheapest FHD smartphone and it is still very capable.

Strengths	Weaknesses
FHD Display Decent Hardware	The software might not be upgraded

Mid Range

The Beast 
At this price point $359.99/€269.99 and considering its size, the Xiaomi Mi2S is the best Mini smartphone of the moment. We dare to say that it will even beat the 2014 upcoming competition in the "Mini league".
The Mi2S offers a very powerful hardware : Snapdragon S600 Quad Core SoC, one the most powerful out there, 4.3 inch HD Display, 13 MP Camera and 32 GB of internal storage.

You can find our comparison review between the Xiaomi Mi3 and the Mi2S here.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Great Software Great Hardware MIUI Software	No MicroSD Port

The Jack of Clubs
The Xiaomi Mi2A is the second in line. It keeps the same GPU as the Mi2S but only 2 of the 4 cores for its CPU alongside 1 GB RAM and an 8MP Camera. Still, it is $60/€45 cheaper coming at less than $300/€225. But at the moment, the difference is hardly noticeable if you dont push the device to its limits.

Here is some side to side benchmarks comparison against the Mi2S and the Red Rice.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Great Software Great Hardware MIUI Software	No MicroSD Port Only 16 GB of Internal Storage Only 1 GB RAM

The other way
The Meizu MX2, like the Mi2S, got a price cut after the launch of the MX3 and it is still a very capable handset but not as powerful as the Mi2S. Though it is cheaper, you can buy if for $329/€247, so it is a good compromise between the Mi2A and Mi2S.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Great Software Great Hardware MIUI Software	No MicroSD Port Only 16 GB of Internal Storage Only 1 GB RAM

High End

Simply the Best
The Snapdragon S800 Xiaomi Mi3 will be available on December, 17th and this is by far the best smartphone that money can buy. It should be available for $479.99/€359.99, we will open our pre-orders on December, 1st at midnight GMT+1.

You can find our Xiaomi Mi3 review here.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Great Software Best Hardware MIUI Software Great Design Great Unibody Build	No MicroSD Port Only 16 GB for now. 64 GB should be available at some point Battery is no longer removable Not yet available

The Rival
The Meizu MX3 wants its share of the pie but failed to beat the Mi3 hardware wise. It is running on a 6 months old hardware using the same "Octa-Core" chip as the Samsung Galaxy S4, so it doesnt perform as well as the Mi3 but it is cheaper and available right now starting at $459/€344.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Decent Hardware Flyme OS Skin Available in 16/32 GB flavors	No MicroSD Port The Mi3 is more powerful