My El Cheapo Galaxy S-3 clone.

[dddave]

Sad story first. When the Totalitarian State of Apple announced a number of months ago that it was totally abandoning my original i-phone, I decided it was time to jump the wall into the Free State of Android.

I decided to treat myself to a really good phone; not top of the line but the new Motorola Razr at B14,000 did the trick and I really liked it. Five days after I got it, it somehow fell out of my backpack while on a trip to the USA. Since I wasn't using it, I didn't realize it was missing until I was packing to go back to Thailand. Not a happy return flight.

In my pissed-off state of mind, shelling out another B14K just wasn't going to happen. I went to a dealer in Pantip with whom I've had successful dealings in the past buying several inexpensive Chinese tablets and told him that I wanted something cheap that had up to date Android. He showed me a clone (copy, replica, duplicate, look-alike, rip-off) of a Galaxy S-3 and ran it through it's paces declaring that it was the best copy he'd ever seen and that he was willing to give me a 2 week money back guarantee, a rare declaration at Pantip or anywhere in Thailand for that matter.

We settled on B3100 including a case, spare battery (2100 mAh) and a screen protector. He was upfront that the screen was not genuine Gorilla Glass.

I'n no Android phone expert so I can not comment on how this phone compares to others in it's technical aspects. I do not use a lot of apps, mainly G-mail, messaging, NY Times, Google & Google Translate and an occasional game for 15 or 20 minutes at a time. I probably average 20 calls a day in & out, rarely more than ten minutes duration and maybe 10 to 15 texts. Probably no more than 30 minutes on the music player a day. I've never used more than 30% of the battery in a normal 18 hour day except when at first I had a problem with the charger. I replaced that charger with the higher quality one from the lost Motorola and charging has been fine since. A friend who also bought this phone had a problem with his charger as well so they do seem to be a week point.

AIS 3G H seems to work well and I've had no problems connecting with various Wi-Fi locations. I don't have the greatest hearing but the ringer of this phone is clearly audible even when the phone is in my pocket. Earpiece audio quality is OK, not great but it is loud enough to converse in areas with a lot of background noise...like anywhere in Bangkok.

A friend who has a genuine S-3 wanted to see it and after playing with it for a while declared it "Annoyingly good!" We ran the same YouTube video simultaneously, side by side and you could definitely notice the difference between the two, the genuine S-3 was sharper with brighter colors but the copy wasn't bad at all, just not as good. Resolution is 1280 X 720.

He ran the AN-TU-TU benchmark test and was shocked that the phone scored 16,352, just a few points below his. The CPU is listed as a Quad-Core ARMv7 processor VFPv3. Android version is 4.1.9

I've had the phone for two months now and have had no problems. As I said, I'm not a power user but no shortcomings have appeared yet.

I'm not suggesting everybody run out and buy one of these copies. I've been lucky and had no real quality issues but another friend who bought one had a problem with the battery contacts as the phone kept shutting itself off and on. The seller was able to fix the problem but it does indicate that there can be quality control issues so you pay your money, you take your chances. Make sure your seller will back it up if you do decide to buy.

I'm as happy with this phone as I was with the far more expensive Motorola...your experience may or may not differ.

Edited July 14, 2013 by dddave

[guzzi850m2]

Cool. I bought an IQ4 when my Note1 died. Very good for the 8500 I paid, I doubt I will ever again spend +10 k baht on a phone again.

Sent from my i-mobile IQ 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[muratremix]

There is no Android 4.1.9, what you got is a scam phone. I suggest you not to take antutu score seriously. Its impossible your phone got 16K antutu for real, however there are ways to cheat in Antutu.

If you want a cheap chinese android phone, I suggest you to look up into MTK6589T phones.