Friends

I am planning to buy a smartphone some time in the near future. I have been looking at Samsung and HTC phones. Now, Samsung seems to sell their phones in China with the brand name Anycall. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S phone is called Anycall I9088 in China, if I got it right.

Does anyone know if there is any difference in the specs for those two phones, or are they identical? Why I ask is because I want to be able to use the same phone in Europe and in China.

I also heard that HTC is selling their smartphones under another brand name in China, but have not been able to verify that. If so, are they identical to the ones sold in Europe?

Also, do you know what is the best place to buy smartphones in Kunming?

Thanks for your good replies.
Calle

HTC phones have historically sometimes been sold under the Dopod brand in China, not sure about differences in technical specs.

It depends on the radio inside the phone. If the phone is advertised as suitable for 3G on China Unicom then yes, it will work in Europe because Europe uses WCDMA/HSPA on 2100Mhz (same as Unicom) and GSM on 900Mhz/1800Mhz (actually China Unicom and China Mobile only use GSM 900 but all GSM radio chips are at least dualband so nothing to worry about there).

If its advertised as suitable for 3G on China Mobile or China Telecom then stay clear.

Samsung stuff tends to have built-in auto-destruct shortly after the warranty expires - planned obsolescense (aargh, what a tough word to spell). HTC sold their products in China under the Dopod brand mainly because of the built-in wifi in some of their phones. The Dopod versions tore out the wifi modules - anti-competitive behavior from the Chinese telcos to keep their profit margins obscenely high.

Best place to buy is usually online (in spite of the recent alibaba scandal). Try jinli.com or taobao.com to get competitive prices, then go to any phone store and see if you can haggle.

I've noticed kunming store keepers would rather go bankrupt (which is frequent) than negotiate price with foreigners - to include Chinese from out of town - so at least the discrimination is fair and unilateral.

BUYING PHONES
Renmin Donglu near the walmart - and a plethora of other places have mobile phone streets.

Anycall is the brand name for Samsung phones in the China market that have been made specifically for China Telecom. China Telecom has its own 3G standard that hasn't been adopted anywhere abroad. If you buy an Anycall, you won't get 3G reception when you get home.

Luckily, you can still buy proper Samsung phones from independent dealers at the markets. These have most likely been smuggled in from Hong Kong and Korea.

Dopod is a spinoff brand of HTC, partly owned by another company. HTC have recently started selling their own HTC phones in China, though. All of their models should be available at the markets in the same way as Samsung.

If you want to bring your phone back to Europe, make sure you buy one that is equipped for China Unicom's 3G network, not China Telecom.

In China there're 3 mobile service providers, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. If you want to use 3G then you can only select the last two providers, coz China Mobile only supports GSM(800/1900) but not WCDMA/HSPA. Attention, China Telecom only has CDMA 1x CDMA2000 network and supports EVDO 3G, but China Unicom has GSM networks and supports WCDMA/HSPA 3G. So your choice depends on what's kind of mobile network you would use. You'd better know the Samsung Galaxy S comes with different models,some for CDMA1x 2000/evdo3G, some for GSM/WCDMA(3G).

FYI:
Samsung SCH-I909 Galaxy S
Release Date: September, 2010
120g, Google Android 2.1 Chinese, 32bit Samsung-Intrinsity S5PC110, 1000MHz CPU, 512MiB RAM, MiB ROM, 4" 480x800 Super AM-OLED LCD, 3.5mm audio jack, CDMA800, CDMA1900, cdmaOne, CDMA2000 1xRTT, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rel. 0, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev A, sec. cellular phone, microSD, microSDHC, TransFlash, micro-USB port, Bluetooth, WLAN, GPS, A-GPS, Geotagging, FM radio, accelerometer, 4.9MP cam., AF, macro, flash, sec. camera, 1500mAh removable battery

Samsung SCH-I500 Galaxy S Fascinate
Release Date: September, 2010
64.2x122.4x9.9mm, 119g, Google Android 2.1, 32bit Samsung-Intrinsity S5PC110, 1000MHz CPU, 512MiB RAM, 1908MiB ROM, 4" 480x800 Super AM-OLED LCD, 3.5mm audio jack, CDMA800, CDMA1900, cdmaOne, CDMA2000 1xRTT, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rel. 0, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev A, microSD, microSDHC, TransFlash, micro-USB port, Bluetooth, WLAN, GPS, A-GPS, Geotagging, accelerometer, 4.9MP cam., AF, macro, flash, sec. camera, 1500mAh removable battery

Samsung GT-P1000 Galaxy Tab 32GB
Release Date: September, 2010
190.09x120.45x11.98mm, 380g, Google Android 2.2, 32bit Samsung-Intrinsity S5PC110, 1000MHz CPU, 512MiB RAM, 31200MiB ROM, 7" 1024x600 color transflective TFT LCD, video out, 3.5mm audio jack, GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS900, UMTS1900, UMTS2100, CSD, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, microSD, microSDHC, TransFlash, micro-USB port, Bluetooth, WLAN, GPS, A-GPS, Geotagging, accelerometer, 3.1MP cam., AF, macro, flash, sec. camera, 4000mAh removable battery

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Thanks to everyone for good replies.

So, in essential, it should be ok to go for the Galaxy S or the equivalent Anycall I9088 (GSM/WCDMA/HSPA 3G)? I should be able to change language into English and make everything work the way a similar smartphone bought in Europe. Right?

I went and looked at Tabao and found both the Anycall model i9088 and the "real" Samsung Galaxy S I9000. But the prices for the S I9000 is much lower than for the Anycall version. The former is between 3700 and 4400 RMB and the latter 3100 to 4000 RMB. Why would that be? One would expect the other way around.

And then there is a model that that is called Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9000. And another one that says Samsung M-110S.

Do you think that I can buy the "real" Samsung one in stores here in Kunming or only through the Tabao and like?

This is confusing. Can anyone sort this out for me? Or does it matter really which one I buy, i.e are they essentially the same (as long as I buy one that is GSM/WCDMA/HSPA 3G)?

Thanks for good input.
Calle

I do not recommend u buy such a high-end smartphone from Taobao.
You can go directly to China Telecom located at the north-east of Beijing RD and DongfengDong RD for a cdma smartphone with 0(Prepaid Cell Phone Plans), or you can go to China Unicom locate at north-east of Dongfengxi RD and RenmingZhong RD for a GSM/WCDMA smartphone.

There're some good packages from China Telecom these days.

Also you can buy from somewhere else such as www.newegg.com.cn
or www.360buy.com