Sellers of China mobile phones are able to find new business opportunities or profit growth by directly importing China phones from china. It pays off in both immediate profit and short-term success but at the expense of unsuspecting consumers.

Low Price Phones from China

You may ask, why buy so low price phones from China? The answer is low cost. China has a population of 1.5 billion and is a large country. There are many cheap labour forces in China. China is the workshop; no other country can be mentioned in the world. There are varied qualities of mobile phones in China meant for different markets – what you ask is what you get. The wholesale price from China is decimals or centesimal or maybe even less. Who is the biggest winner in the whole distribution? It’s the producers and the sellers. Who is the loser? It’s the consumers.

Two weeks ago, I was interested in a China phone, G-Tide’s W520 mobile phone. I wanted that china mobile phone to be used by my 7 years old boy. I figured it out that at its price, a dual sim card and a GPRS internet, my boy can be able to download games and also be able to save on callings costs by automatically interchanging network carriers on the “dual sim card – dual on” as he may deem necessary. And with a camera, FM radio and Mp3/Mp4, it looked ideal for a seven years old youngster. I also figured it out that I can use that phone as a standby GPRS internet connection if our usual internet connection was to go off.

China Phone Model G-Tide W520

The features provided by the manufacturers for China Phone Model G-Tide W520 were as follow:

• Dual SIM Card, Dual on MMS
• Elegant Slide Phone
• MTK 6225- solution
• TFT 1.8 Inch
• 0.3M high resolution digital camera
• Bluetooth
• Mp3/Mp4, dual speaker
• Voice Recorder
• FM Function
• GPRS Class 12 / WAP / MMS,
• T-flash slot
• Nokia Battery & Charger
• Music: Midi, AMR, Mp3
• Picture: BMP, JPG

Nokia 2630

Having looked at the features and its price of $64, I felt it’s a good price if it was to do what I wanted. A similar phone by Nokia, Nokia 2630, would have cost me $74 in this market - a difference of $10. I bought that china phone W520 at $64 because it looked very good to me and my boy was very happy. I checked at the FM radio, the camera and the Bluetooth. All worked well.

I Smelt a Rat

I called my mobile phone network carrier to send to me Configuration for GPRS internet and MMS settings. They normally send the settings through the network direct to the phone. Instead they asked me to provide my email address so that they can send the settings to me through the email address. Why? That GPRS setting for China phones have to be sent through the email address. This is where I started smelling a rat.

Within a minute I had my setting in my laptop computer ready to set GPRS setting for the W520 cell phone. Here are the three steps to follow:

Creating Data Accounts

(a) Open Services Menu

(b)Open Data Account

(c) Open GPRS

(d) Create/Edit Data account and enter the following values

*Account Name: Account Name as Provided by your Network

*User Name: User Name as provided by your Network

*Password: Password as provided by your Network

*Auth. Type: Normal

These steps worked fine and I had now created a Data account. I now had to go to the next step of Configuring WAP / GPRS / Internet Services Using the Data Account that I had created.

2. Configuring WAP / GPRS / Internet Services Using the Data Account

Configuring WAP / GPRS / Internet Services using the Data Account that I had created:

(a) Open Services Menu

(b) Open WAP

(c) Open Settings

(d) Open Edit Profile

(e) Create or Edit a Profile and enter the following values:

*Rename Profile: As Provided by your Network

*Homepage: As Provided by your Network

*Data Account: As Provided by your Network

*Connection Type: HTTP

*Proxy Address / Gateway: blank

*ProxyPort: 9201

*Username: As provided by your Network usually blank

*Password: As provided by your Network usually blank

*Select Done, then Save, then Activate profile

A Very Expensive Toy for My Boy

Everything worked fine until when I reached Proxy address / Gateway. Here the field provided had fixed digits and that button was inactive meaning I could not edit it. If I cannot put the gateway address, then the whole business of Configuring WAP / GPRS / Internet Services using the Data Account was not possible. All it means is that some functions have incomplete software in these China phones and therefore this G-Tide W520 is not a good phone. It’s not a good phone for WAP, GPRS internet and MMS settings. This G-Tide W520 is a very expensive toy I bought for my boy which was not my intention.

The next step was to create MMS data account and configure the MMS setting using the data account created.

Creating MMS Data Account

(a) Open Services Menu.

(b) Open Data Account.

(c) Open GPRS.

(d) Create or Edit Data Account and enter the following values:

*Account Name: As Provided by your Network

*APN: As Provided by your Network

*User Name: As provided by your Network usually blank

*Password: As provided by your Network usually blank

*Auth. Type: Normal

In creating MMS data account, no problem. This step worked well as expected.

3.2 Configuring MMS Using the Data Accounts Created

Configuring MMS Using the Data Accounts Created

(a) Open Messages.

(b) Open MMS.

(c) Open Message Settings.

(d) Open Server Profile.

(e) Create or Edit a Profile and enter the following values:

*Rename Profile: As Provided by your Network

*Homepage: As Provided by your Network

*Data Account: As Provided by your Network

*Connection Type: HTTP

*Proxy Address: As Provided by your Network

*ProxyPort: 8080

*Username: As provided by your Network usually blank

*Password: As provided by your Network usually blank

If you can now connects to the internet, you may need to go to Connecting Your Computer to the Internet using Your GPRS EDGE G3 UMTS  HSDPA Mobile Phone

Software is Incomplete

In configuring MMS using the Data account created, this step did not work. There was no allowance for naming the data account, username and the password. This was another sign that this china phone model, G-Tide W520 mobile phone is either being forced a software that is not specifically for that phone or the software used is incomplete to the functions claimed it can perform.

G-Tide W520 Not a Good Phone for WAP, GPRS Internet and MMS

Again this China phone G-Tide W520 is not a good phone for WAP, GPRS internet and MMS settings. It will not work. This G-Tide W520 was a very expensive toy which I bought for my boy and that was not my intension.

Packaging Good and the Price is Low

It is not my intension to be against china or the phone G-Tide W520. The packaging was good and the price was low. The features sounded great but they turned out to have been lies to trick me into buying that china phone. I am not happy. I spent two days trying to configure GPRS that will not work. In two days I could have earn a few dollars which I could have added up to buy a good phone, say a Nokia model.

I Bought a Toy

Had it not been my interest for a dual sim phone and low prices I would not have bought that phone. Now I bought a toy.

English in Manuals is Very Poor

China, I am ashamed of you. The English in manuals is very poor. Why don’t you hire an expert from the English speaking countries to translate the manuals for you? You want to do everything for yourselves as if you are the only people in need of money. If other people will spend money on your products, then you have to reciprocate and hire qualified services to translate your China phones’ manuals. There are no short cuts here. If your instructions manual was well written, perhaps I would not have made that mistake of buying that toy that is selling as a phone.

Keep Off China Phones

I was not happy with that phone G-Tide W520 and recommend to anyone interested to keep off China phones, at least for now. Seriously though, if I was to give Nokia phones 70%, then I would give China phones 20%. Countries should evaluate their import restrictions so that such sub-standard phones are not allowed to be imported to unsuspecting consumers.

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