Victoria1987:

Tks.I heared Samsung has some problems.Which phone brands are good?

Scandinavian:

I will stick to recommending Xiaomi. I do have a Samsung myself that is working flawlessly (3+ years old Android phone) 

ironman510:

Go for the new LG G Flex.. Samsung S4 is mine and great.. only the cameras suck..slight shake and your beautiful picture are fuzzed.

Scandinavian:

This has nothing to do with Android. Some phones sold in China are only capable of using the local cell networks and not the ones used in the rest of the world. You can most likely buy a phone in the US that would work poorly in other parts of the world

As for the OS. It is the Android Market that is missing. For most phones this is easily fixed by manually installing it, the manufacturers even sometimes have direct download links for this on their home pages.

Some Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi and Meizu have two versions (or more) of the phones, one that will only work on China Mobile and one that will work on any 3G/4G network. Buy the right one if you want to use it outside of China. 

ScotsAlan:

I have never had an issue with using UK phones in China or Chinese phones in the UK, network wise. 

It's more than the play store that is missing from Chinese Android phones. They also do not support the "Google sign in". Where you get a new phone and it automatically downloads all your contacts from the Google cloud.  Google maps is also missing.

Also, you say some phones sometimes allow the play store to be downloaded.  Why take the gamble that your brand new expensive phone might be able to download play store.

I am sitting beside someone who has a 3 month old Galaxy Note 2 that he paid  3600RMB for. He has the icon for play store but it does not work.  I just tried it.

Honestly, I would go to HK for an Android phone.

Having said that..... I bought my wife a Nokia windows 8 phone last month. Only 1200 RMB from Taobao. It seems to have nothing cut from it.  I might be getting myself one this week, if she lets me 

Scandinavian:

iPhones are also crippled. The iTunes store does not contain the same apps as it does if you access it from other countries. The same goes for Android market. Naturally you research what is required prior to throwing money into a phone. A Galaxy Note, I'd be surprised if it couldn't have the Android Market installed. Note. Google/Android market is also using the national ID of the sim card to guide the phone to the right version of the market. Thus, a Chinese phone with a Chinese sim card will work less well as as a Chinese phone with a EU sim card in terms of application downloads. 

Hotwater:

Interesting comments on crippled android and ios phones. Can't comment much on android phones here but I've had a number of iphones. 1st thing is the SIM.....as long as you create an account in itunes from a PC you can create one in any country of your choosing (I have two, one in the UK store and one in the chinese one, obviously differnet email addresses. My phone links directly into the UK one but the PC will update and download apps from both).

I first bought a 3GS in HK.....no problems at all.

Then bought a 4 in GZ....google maps worked but for months was only in Chinese until someone sent me a link by text to a location (google.co.uk) and hey presto...worked in English. Didn't notice anything else not working.

Current 4S bought in HK...no problems.

I've used UK & China mobile sims in all of them.....the 3G doesn't work in China due to China mobile having their howm grown system.

I'm about to buy a 5S because I'm a tuhao and want 4G! Now this is where it gets interesting with them.

There are two iphone 5S models that will work on china mobile 4G. The A1518 and A1530. The A1518 is the "true" china mobiel iphone that works on TD-LTE 4G and their own 3G. The A1530 with work on this TD-LTE 4G but not their 3G. So I was planning to buy the A1530 as the 4G works is lots of other countries as well as the 3G. Only downside is that I'd be back on Edge when out of 4G range. I checked out the specs of the A1530 bought through the Chinese apple online shop and their HK online shop....there are some key differences. Facetime audio (basically VOIP) is crippled on the chinese version, presumably due to china mobile not wanting to lose voice calls. I can't find anything else yet and will not buy one to find out. So i'll be off to HK soon, once CNY rush is over.....especially as I can get a 64GB version there for cheaper than the 32GB version here. I understand that the A1528 version possibly works on china mobile but it needs jailbreaking.

So yes, phones made for the china market are crippled in various ways due to government regulations. So buyer beware....check which mobile compnay you want to use first, then check if you can get a phone in HK that works with that system.

ScotsAlan:

At the end of the day none of this really matters.  The vast majority of smart phone users don't really use any of the smart features.

Just ask any smartphone user to send their location to you.

Best answer I got with that request was " I can't, I only have an IPhone 3S" .