Many people are aware that China is the world’s mass producer of brand name cell phones such as the iPhone. However, China also produces off brand cell phones that are often available for sale worldwide from various sales channels. So what are the differences between the phones produced in China for famous brands and those that are made for OEM?
1. The Phones Appearance
Branded phones often have very large teams of researchers whose job is to design the look and feel of a phone. They spend uncounted man hours testing different appearances and designs in an effort to come up with a phone that is good looking and is within the price range that has been set.
Chinese off brand phones almost always skip this step. They most commonly will buy a case molding and then fill that with their own components. These moldings are often based on internationally famous brands such as Blackberry, and unfortunately this tendency makes many Chinese made phones look like copies of originals (indeed often that is the intent when they buy the molding in the first place). The very basic reason, besides trying to piggyback on a famous brands good looks, is that it is much cheaper to buy a pre-made molding for a phone than it is to research, prototype, and then mass produce your own.
2. The Phones Chipset
Branded phones use a variety of different chips for their different phones. Often the chips that are selected are done so on the basis of cost vs performance. Chipsets with high MHz processing speeds are invaluable when a phone is running some of the flasher functions, so are necessary for most smartphones. Lower end phones on the other hand can get away with chipsets that have a lower processing speed, which reduces the price of the phone.
Chinese off brand phones are almost certain to be running off only the MTK chipset. The MTK has two generations currently used in most of the phones.
The MTK6225 is generally used for lower end phones, and besides allowing all the standard phone functions, also lets the phone have touchscreen capabilities, WAP internet browsing, and some basic media functions (like a camera/ video camera, MP4 player, MP3 player, and sometimes Java).
The MTK6235 is the higher end chip that has a larger MHz processing speed allowing larger screen sizes, a higher resolution camera, EDGE connection speed, and Wifi capabilities.
Both of these chips are not in the same league with chipsets with famous name brands when it comes to processing speed, however, they are good choices for Chinese producers as they allow many of the features of previous generation brand name phones and cost much less.
3. The Phones OS (Operating System)
Branded phones often will produce their own OS that is unique only to their branded phone, such as the Blackberry OS or OS X iPhone. Also, if a company does not want to spend the money on this they may purchase the rights to an OS such as Windows Mobile and either leave them alone or tweak them to make it unique.
Chinese off brand phones are almost all using the same OS, known as the nucleus OS. For them, this is a very good choice as the nucleus OS is known for its light weight architecture for ease of programming, having very little demands for processing power (necessary with the MTK chipset), being easily available for purchase, and still giving the ability to make a phones interface look slick if done right. All this adds up to less time and money spent in developing a new phone.
4. The Phones UI (User Interface)
Branded phones will have a variety of user interfaces built off their OS. This is so they can have a unique look and feel that separates them from other mobile phones.
Chinese off brand phones also are able to create a myriad of different user interfaces based of the nucleus OS. However, they often use their creative license not to create new interfaces to separate themselves from competitors, but to recreate a more famous UI from branded phones. This is done either to complement the phones molding (also patterned on branded phones) or as an easy way to make a slick looking interface that is already proven to be popular. The most common user interface people will see will be based off the iPhone icon driven interface.
All around, Chinese phone manufactures have the tools to create just about as varied and interesting phones (internally and externally) as branded phones, but in an attempt to keep costs down they will often take shortcuts. One piece of advice I offer is that you make very sure of your supplier if they come from China. It is very easy for them to offer “Name Brand” phones at ridiculously low prices that might even look like the real thing, but as you can see from this article, they are not. Keep that in mind when you purchase your phone from China.
Last edited by Quad Band Phone; 15-10-2009 at 02:08 AM.
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March 2010
