Android dual SIM handsets - recommendations and reviews

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by petkow

Hello everybody. I just thought I would reawaken this oldish thread as my current multi-handset setup used to work perfectly well up until a few days ago when a rather unfortunate incident of a bottle breaking in my bag left one of those phones covered in rather nice brandy and rather dead!

Let me assure you the phone did not feel a thing.
Thanks for updating this thread.

[inquisitor]

@petkow
I have actually given away my Zopo C2 recently due to its very bad Wifi and GPS sensitivity about which I reported a while back on another forum: http://forum.zopomobileshop.com/thread-1314-1-1.html (note this post showing internal photos)

Though my device probably showed exceptionally bad performance you should be aware that besides serial dispersion resulting from wide quality tolerances at Zopo they use quite primitive monopole antennae for Wifi, GPS and BT instead of sophisticated duopole ones. You will not necessarily need to wait 5 minutes to acquire a satfix under a clear obstacle-free sky like I had to, but expect a Zopo to underperform quality brands. Further shortcomings of Zopo are that there's no 5GHz Wifi support and so far none of their phones supports GLONASS which could dramatically improve TTFF as well as accuracy.

In any case you should better order your device from a seller in your country so you can return it hassle-free, should you experience similar issues.

Regarding the ZP998 another advantage over the ZP980/C2 is that it supports UMTS on 900/1900/2100MHz, while the ZP990/C2 comes with the rather useless 850/2100MHz combination (at least for Europeans). Though I doubt that the ZP998 actually supports 3G for both SIM cards simultaneously, as you say. Instead it would rather have the ability to assign the 3G-capable radio module to any of the SIMs from the menu like I described it in post #9 of this thread.

[petkow]

Originally Posted by Bossman

The Moto G dual sim is not bad - http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00I34...&robot_redir=1

Yes... the Moto G is a great phone for the little money it costs...The funny thing is that is exactly what my network offered me as a replacement for my brandy inebriated phone! Unfortunately the networks here in Europe will never give you a dual SIM handset hence why I need to buy one outright.

Originally Posted by inquisitor

@petkow
I have actually given away my Zopo C2 recently due to its very bad Wifi and GPS sensitivity about which I reported a while back on another forum: http://forum.zopomobileshop.com/thread-1314-1-1.html (note this post showing internal photos)

Though my device probably showed exceptionally bad performance you should be aware that besides serial dispersion resulting from wide quality tolerances at Zopo they use quite primitive monopole antennae for Wifi, GPS and BT instead of sophisticated duopole ones. You will not necessarily need to wait 5 minutes to acquire a satfix under a clear obstacle-free sky like I had to, but expect a Zopo to underperform quality brands. Further shortcomings of Zopo are that there's no 5GHz Wifi support and so far none of their phones supports GLONASS which could dramatically improve TTFF as well as accuracy.

In any case you should better order your device from a seller in your country so you can return it hassle-free, should you experience similar issues.

Thanks. It looks like I will not touch that phone with a barge-pole then. I did read about problems with the GPS elsewhere too and someone struggling to pick up many satellites.

Regarding the ZP998 another advantage over the ZP980/C2 is that it supports UMTS on 900/1900/2100MHz, while the ZP990/C2 comes with the rather useless 850/2100MHz combination (at least for Europeans). Though I doubt that the ZP998 actually supports 3G for both SIM cards simultaneously, as you say. Instead it would rather have the ability to assign the 3G-capable radio module to any of the SIMs from the menu like I described it in post #9 of this thread.

I am very interested in this phone, but perhaps it is a lot to be paying for a dubious brand. Also I am not sure I really need 8 cores, as not very many apps exist that can really make use of them. I am not much of a hard-core gamer! None the less, it seems a good phone with good reviews.

Though you are right that I should try and buy it at a local dealer, I saw it available on e-fox at a very attractive price but to be honest their prices confuse me. I have never used that site and was wondering if you or anyone has experience with them? I think they also ship to Spain. Why is the same phone listed twice at two different prices
here and here ?? Is that difference just the delivery charge?

I have also been looking at the other end of the spectrum and thinking about picking up something cheap and cheerful. (you never know where my bottle breaking luck takes me). I see that e-fox is selling the CUBOT P9 dual SIM for only 65 euros today! Anyone know anything about this phone?

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by petkow

Hello everybody. I just thought I would reawaken this oldish thread as my current multi-handset setup used to work perfectly well up until a few days ago when a rather unfortunate incident of a bottle breaking in my bag left one of those phones covered in rather nice brandy and rather dead!

What a way to go. What about the brandy? Were you able to salvage any of it? A doubly cruel loss.

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by petkow

Thanks. It looks like I will not touch that phone with a barge-pole then. I did read about problems with the GPS elsewhere too and someone struggling to pick up many satellites.

There are complaints about bad GPS reception for the ZP998, too.

Why is the same phone listed twice at two different prices
here and here ?? Is that difference just the delivery charge?

The first one comes from China while the later and more expensive one is being dispatched from Germany ("versandkosten frei aus DE" = "free shipping from Germany"). Actually in the cheaper offer there's a button labeled "aus DE versendet kaufen" ("buy dispatched from Germany") which takes you to the later item.

I have also been looking at the other end of the spectrum and thinking about picking up something cheap and cheerful. (you never know where my bottle breaking luck takes me). I see that e-fox is selling the CUBOT P9 dual SIM for only 65 euros today! Anyone know anything about this phone?

Never got my hands on that one but 512MB RAM would be a showstopper for me and I don't see any point in accepting the bulkiness of a 5" display when it comes with such a low resoution (540*960px) unless you are visually impaired.
If I was to buy a dual SIM handset again, I would definitely consider the Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 DuoS (G7102) which supports 5GHz Wifi, GLONASS and quadband UMTS (850/900/1900/2100) and is made in Samsung's typical high build quality.
By the way, I think FullHD (1920*1080px) is totally pointless on a 5" screen as the increased pixel density over 1280*720px is far from any human eye's visual capabilites (at least if you hold the device in a usual distance from your eye of a foot or so) and so it is a total waste of resources to produce these displays which then require exponentially more CPU/GPU power to render the higher resolution frames and so impair battery life. Indeed I could not really take notice when downgrading from a 1920*1080px@5" screen to 1280*720px@4.7". But 960*540 is definitely too little for a 5" device.

P.S.: Next time just pour the brandy from the bottle into your stomache, so it can't flood your phone anymore. However this may entail some new risks for your handset.

[Motel75]

Slightly OT, but Nokia is readying a dual-SIM Windows Phone, the Lumia 630. This is an entry-level model, but (speaking as a WP user) I'd expect the experience to be quite a lot nicer than with cheap Android phones.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/02/n...-635-hands-on/

[petkow]

Thanks so much to inquisitor and other others for your helpful reviews and suggestions! To be honest I was not considering the Cubot P9 as a serious day-to-day contender, but a workable rugged travel phone, useful for taking to the beach and if it got drowned or found itself in a bag with other toxic substances.. then it would not be the end of the world! Although you are right, its not a very happy future-proof phone in terms of spec. Motel75, that Lumia 630 looks quite interesting as does the Galaxy Grand 2 DuoS though a little more than I want to spend at this point.

Yes, indeed that brandy was worth a lot more than the phone that it poisoned. It was a gift (..the brandy that is). I had a connection via Manchester airport where normally you can happily stay air-side to transfer onto other domestic flights if you are travelling with only carry-on luggage... well of course unless you are flying Ryanair of-course!! So to cut a long story short, I had to go land-side, pass through security again, knowing that the bottle I had picked up at the previous airport would now have to be checked in. I unfortunately had no choice but to check in my carry-on luggage! And that was the end of my 5 year old Nokia E71...and a rather nice Brandy de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva.

Anyhow, back to its replacement I have decided to take my time and immerse myself into reading about the risky business of buying cheap Chinese handsets ordered directly from their country of origin. I am now also quite seriously looking at the iNew v3. Its sounding like one of the best mid-priced mid-spec phones out there despite only a 1850mAh battery which seems way too low! I can live without GLONASS support as my main handset does most things this would not. I am basically looking for a cheap secondary dual SIM handset for my Toggle SIM sitting with a local for the data access.

Thanks again for all the banter here! I will keep you guys posted whatever I buy and in the mean time if anyone has any further tips or tricks, keep sharing them!

[andy]

I've had a Haier W718 for a few days.

This is pretty modest cost - mostly £65 on eBay UK (several sellers are abroad), or from about $90 direct from China. Looking now there aren't as many on eBay as a few weeks ago ...

It has 900 & 2100 MHz 3g, and IP67 dust and water protection. 500 MB & 4 GB memories. Android 4.2.2 on this one as supplied, i.e. with Google Play included etc (not on all of them)

I came to it after spotting the Lenovo S750 with IP67 but it doesn't have 900 MHz 3g, which it looks like European countries are shifting towards.

I haven't used it much yet, but it seems reasonable, with a proviso.

My home is a bit patchy for coverage on some networks. The 3g signal indication at 2100 MHz isn't as strong as say the Nokia 6120, more like the old 7600 was (all phones with Three SIMs), so it might lose 2100 signal a bit early in weaker areas. Maybe it's a cheap antenna issue like inquisitor mentioned above. The 2g signal indication looks better, so I'd guess 900 MHz 3g would be ok as well.

And maybe it won't be such an issue elsewhere compared to UK networks who do seem a bit mean on coverage. And of course most network SIMs have 2g and 3g, unlike a 3 UK SIM for which they've been reducing the 2g roaming.

I'm intending to do something like a local SIM for data abroad, with a UK one in the other. It's a bit of a luxury to some extent, as I could just take 2 Nokias, E51 and X6, and a 3g router, but Symbian has been dropped for most new applications nowadays, and I've never had the comprehensive version of Mobilevoip stable on the X6

[UKSTEVE]

I can heartily recommend the Cubot GT90 for around £60.00 on Amazon

It's dual SIM and dual core (1.2MHz). Camera is quite basic at 3.2 MP - but otherwise the handset is snappy performer.

Android 4 inch screen - very nice.

+Steve

[reeder]

I have a dual sim Moto G 8GB that I'm really happy with.

I also purchased a Lumia 521 and am not impressed with the sim tray. It wouldn't matter for people who do not swap sims, but the sim contact prongs are not as gentle on sims as the Moto G. The sim tray "template" itself is also a has more than a mm's worth of tolerance so it can be tough to position sim well and it is also annoying to shove out the sim. I have to use a paperclip or pusher as the sim tray shield only allows access to ~1/3 of the sim. Moto g's sim slot is spring loaded. I think the Lumia 52x is a great phone for the (sale) price. I'm just not convinced it is built for frequent sim swap, especially if your sim cards are hard to replace.