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Smartphone purchase dilemma ... your .02 needed

T

tvrboy

Junior Member
Hey ya'all, first time here. I need to buy a new smartphone after inadvertently destroying my iphone 3G. My decision is as much a moral dilemma as a hardware dilemma, so I'd appreciate your thoughts, whatever they are.



Background: I live in China, where phones are all unlocked and service is cheap month to month, but phones are all sold at full retail prices above what you would pay in the USA - for example the iPhone 4 costs 780 USD.

So, after breaking my phone, I realize I need a new phone. I'd like a smartphone. But, I know nothing about phones. When I say nothing, I mean nothing. Like a person who would ask "which key is the 'any' key" on a tech support line. So I asked my lover, who likes phones, to give me some suggestions. I gave her this criteria: must have a flash for the camera, must be touch-screen style with no physical keyboard, touch keypad should be at least as good as the iPhone 3G, and not an iPhone (long story). She came up with just two options: HTC Incredible (~$500) and Samsung Galaxy II S (~$700).

So, I need your advice on which to choose, or if there are other options that fit my criteria, which one of those would be better. Obviously the Galaxy II S is better, but is it worth 700 dollars? I'm not sure if the ego boost of having the best phone (until the iPhone 5 comes out) would be worth it. I could buy a one year membership to a great gym for the extra price of the Galaxy. But would I actually go to the gym? I could die tomorrow, and then I would be glad I got the better phone today. I'm also a little worried the Galaxy is too big to fit in my pocket. I don't want it to look like I'm Happy to See You when there's just a phone in my pocket.

Actually it gets even more confusing. She told me I could get Incredible as a smuggled phone from HK with no warranty for $500 or from a retail store for $600. How often does a phone's hardware actually break? Is it worth $100 just for a warranty? No, it does not cover user water, loss, theft, etc.

Any thoughts you have on this or alternative solutions are welcome.
 
There's a pretty big difference between the Incredible and the SGS2 (in favor of the SGS2). Not saying it's worth $200 more, but there is no doubt which is the better phone.
 
can you purchase off of Amazon and have items shipped to China? Is there an Amazon.china, or whatever?

yoiu can currently get the SGS2, international and unlocked for ~$600 USD from Amazon (US). Other related phones can be had for cheaper prices, as well.
 
My advice is try and find a buddy in the US or canada, have them ship you the phone as they are usually cheaper here. Then again shipping costs might kill that for you. I would pony up the extra for the Samsung for sure though. 700 bucks for a phone that will be decent for 2-3 years or 500-600 bucks for a phone that is already a bit dated. The CPU in the Incredible is already over a year old, it is a single core 1Ghz snapdragon CPU, where the SGSII has a DUAL core 1.2Ghz CPU.
 
zinfamous said:
can you purchase off of Amazon and have items shipped to China? Is there an Amazon.china, or whatever?

yoiu can currently get the SGS2, international and unlocked for ~$600 USD from Amazon (US). Other related phones can be had for cheaper prices, as well.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I could have my parents ship it over. But the customs fee would be incredible (over $200). Customs would never believe it's a personal item not for resale. I have experience with this...

No way I'm gonna buy from the Chinese eBay (taobao). If you think American eBay has lots of scammers... so basically I'm gonna have to go somewhere that I can see and examine the goods before I get it.
 
tvrboy said:
Yeah, I could have my parents ship it over. But the customs fee would be incredible (over $200). Customs would never believe it's a personal item not for resale. I have experience with this...

No way I'm gonna buy from the Chinese eBay (taobao). If you think American eBay has lots of scammers... so basically I'm gonna have to go somewhere that I can see and examine the goods before I get it.
Click to expand...

does customs go through every package? I'm aware of similar issues shipping to former-communist states where corruption at all gov't levels is still quite rampant (something you no doubt deal with).

Is there a way to label the package as something essentially meaningless (do not put your parents as the shippers--sometimes they assume it is money and will go through your shit; label it as "clothes," maybe bury it in another larger package?)
 
zinfamous said:
does customs go through every package? I'm aware of similar issues shipping to former-communist states where corruption at all gov't levels is still quite rampant (something you no doubt deal with).

Is there a way to label the package as something essentially meaningless (do not put your parents as the shippers--sometimes they assume it is money and will go through your shit; label it as "clothes," maybe bury it in another larger package?)
Click to expand...

Yeah, try and smuggle through Chinese customs. Now there's some good advice.
 
I've had decent luck with taobao, just make sure to not go for anything unrealistically cheap. Other than that, I would suggest a Galaxy S.. I've also been looking for a phone recently and have a China Mobile shop near me that I had haggled down to 2,750 rmb for the Galaxy S... unfortunately for me the fiance called me as I was sealing the deal telling me she needs her tonsils out, which is taking the money for her phone and flushing it down the drain 🙁

Getting it through customs from my experience is about 80% success rate that they won't even open it, if they do you may be screwed. I had a new laptop shipped to me a few months ago and I specifically asked my parents to take all the plastic off, hand print up the keyboard along with a nice scratch on the back, it was checked by customs and they didn't charge me.... which I believe was due to my prep work of getting a nice little scratch and looking used... so if you don't mind a scratch on the back of your phone then there's always that option..

Good luck!
 
zinfamous said:
does customs go through every package? I'm aware of similar issues shipping to former-communist states where corruption at all gov't levels is still quite rampant (something you no doubt deal with).

Is there a way to label the package as something essentially meaningless (do not put your parents as the shippers--sometimes they assume it is money and will go through your shit; label it as "clothes," maybe bury it in another larger package?)
Click to expand...

China's not communist any more?
 
Thanks for the responses everyone, especially imdonlyone - that's a cool site I've never seen. I may well order from there. I'm surprised how many of you live or work here! Seems you guys know even more about China than I do.

The idea about putting signs of use on a laptop to get it through customs is a great one, but I'd rather not do that to a new phone. Actually that's when I got charged - paid a $200 tax on a $300 netbook. That's when I was glad I learned the concept of "sunk cost" in school, there was nothing to do except pay and consider it a lesson learned.
 
Phones are much cheaper in the us because people get upgrades and subsidies so pretty much any us phone will cost half as much as in china.
I would tell parents to buy a used phone and ship it as a warranty service return, declare a lower value and you should be good to go.
 
zinfamous said:
they are. ...so I assume their issues with customs and overall corruption are worse than the experiences I mentioned.
Click to expand...

China's government is ostensibly communist, but the economic system is pretty well on the capitalist side. There are still many state-owned industries, but anybody is free to start a business, become an importer of foreign goods, or produce and export Chinese-made goods. Every Chinese person's dream is to start their own business, without exception. I've never heard a single Chinese person say otherwise. The corruption is part of life, but not as bad as it used to be. Lots of foreigners think bribes are necessary but in reality a foreigner trying to bribe an official would be told to get the F out of there because there are very heavy penalties for breaking even the most mundane laws. Except traffic laws, lol.
 
tvrboy said:
China's government is ostensibly communist, but the economic system is pretty well on the capitalist side. There are still many state-owned industries, but anybody is free to start a business, become an importer of foreign goods, or produce and export Chinese-made goods. Every Chinese person's dream is to start their own business, without exception. I've never heard a single Chinese person say otherwise. The corruption is part of life, but not as bad as it used to be. Lots of foreigners think bribes are necessary but in reality a foreigner trying to bribe an official would be told to get the F out of there because there are very heavy penalties for breaking even the most mundane laws. Except traffic laws, lol.
Click to expand...

shens. there are no traffic laws to break over there.

😀
 
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