I’m always out and about meeting people, this question always seem to be the first sentence to kick off our conversation, “Hey KLGadgetGuy, would you recommend me to buy flagship Chinese smartphones?”. As much as I always like to give them the ‘Yes’ answer, deep in my heart I’m saying ‘No’ to cheap flagship smartphones. Alright, you can probably call me a Chinese smartphone hater or whatever you can think of, Chinese smartphone makers such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and OnePlus produces great smartphones with powerful internals and beats almost any other branded smartphones down the hill with a totally unachievable low price tag, that is a fact and I certainly won’t deny.
I used to write about the Top 5 reasons for not buying a Chinese branded Android smartphones and one of the points have become valid even at this point of time – Chinese smartphone makers can make great hardware, and you are trading it off by simply getting an unpleasant user experience, i.e. slow software updates, crappy user interfaces, poor software quality, inconsistent software support. Put it in real life, it’s like getting to know a beautiful girl but you probably have to bear with her bad temper in the long term. We can see very clearly that Chinese phone makers simply lack the ability to create beautiful and unforgettable user experiences – and yes, I know you can replace the launchers with 3rd party apps – the first impression of a smartphone software experience is extremely important and fits the price that you are actually paying for.
Till then, you’ve probably got an idea of what this write up is all about, I’m not suggesting that you should pay almost RM3000 for an iPhone 6 or a five figure amount for a premium smartphone, what I simply wanted to tell my readers and friends is you shouldn’t judge a phone’s price by its hardware alone, but you should also consider if the phone’s software is able to demonstrate its reliability and consistency in its overall experience throughout its lifespan. Let’s face it, if you’ve already set a budget on buying a pricey smartphone that gives you confidence on its brand and user experience, why should you actually settle for a powerful hardware despite being cheap if it doesn’t offer you a great brand and user experience?
I could go on and on about this, I’m neither a fan of some branded smartphones either but I certainly do appreciate the work that those developers have put hard work into perfecting a great product. Therefore, if budget isn’t a problem for me, I’ll definitely pay more for a flagship smartphone that can offer me a great brand and user experience, that includes the ecosystem, accessories and after sales service.
