Ulefone Vienna

Octacore MTK6753 cellphone with 13MP Panasonic camera and audiophile DAC. 5.5 inch LTPS screen.

http://ulefone.com/products/vienna/features.html

http://www.xiaomitoday.com/ulefone-vienna-review/

I don't recommend buying a Chinese phone unless you have some basic skills with gear, but you can get a pretty nice phone for a decent price.

I fully do not agree here. Good Chinese brands last year made huge progress. "Skill with gear" has nothing to do with it. As about 90% of issues arise from idea to save too much and buy crap by yourself. It is all same for any other product.

You can also buy an unlocked Nexus 5 or a used Samsung with an OLED screen

You won't get same specced phone for this price. Only country were you can get used or discounted thing for even close price is US. Just be always on alert as huge number of stolen phones, repaired and assembled from parts are on market now.

There's a good breakdown of things you need to know about Chinese phones

Overall my knowledge of these phones are as follows...

1. the chipset is mostly made by a Taiwanese company, called mediatek.
2. the chipset has a model number determined by mediatek, and will be displayed by the manufacturer's product description as well, mine is the MTK6589
3. the chipset determines and number of cores, the core speed, and megapixel of front and back camera, and the frequencies of 2G and 3G.
4. amount if RAM, mine MTK6589 is always 1GB.

the phones, although with same chipset, can come with different

1. screen size
2. screen resolution.
3. ROM size,

that's make the price difference.

Also the methods to root device is chipset dependent, therefore if you have the mtk6589 the method to root it will work across different manufacturers' phones with the same chipset.

Do any of these phone work with Verizon in the US?

Discounts on THL phones with FHD screens

http://www.pandawill.com/thlspecialoffer.html

@Vitaliy_Kiselev Our relationship with technology goes way beyond what is logical from a utilitarian point of view :)

I dont agree with some standards. For example, the phone app could have more priority over the background apps and process. More control over the drivers, sound card for example has a bad latency. Boot customization for start-up processes in different modes...

@Vitaliy_Kiselev, most things in life the people dont need, but want. Discovering how to update this phone by knowing which model it is clone may be useful for future updates and customization.

I dont know the manufacturer :-P it says "Android" as brand. Behind the battery says H7330. Its a 5.3" 6589 like this one

This one I do not know. Good idea is purchase known brand who has proper site. Most models referenced above have sites.

Btw, why you need to update Android?

Anyone know a good source for updating the Android on these chineses 6589 that have been already rooted?

Manufacturers sites.

Pandawill has sale on some good FHD phones

http://www.pandawill.com/mysaga2013.html

Not long ago got new 5.5" MTK6589T phone that I bough recently (like one below). Quality really went up significantly with last phones, very good metal and plastic, high quality screen. Has decent cameras (13Mp with F2.2 optics on back / 5Mp on front). All works fast and fluid.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev. I was wrong, sorry. What I am lookin for is something max size like an iphone.

Anybody knows a cheap but small smartphone like HUAWEI Ascend P6?