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At least they can't fit freakin' steel nuts into a microSD card.

Xiaomi's advertised prices are always a kind of bait-and-switch; they're notorious for having seriously limited production runs for their directly-sold models. If you want to buy the unlocked model at the advertised price, you'd better order within 5 minutes of the announcement or they'll be out of stock. This isn't an exaggeration - their previous model sold out in 3 minutes 39 seconds

Fortunately for those that didn't manage to get hold of one, the mobile operators have plenty of Xiaomi phones; all you need to do is sign this new 2-year contract and pay the full list price of the phone. What, you expect a subsidy? Not unless the contract you sign up for is absurdly expensive. So the real price is actually significantly higher than the advertised one.

After a few months the unlocked models can eventually be found in shops and the operators start offering similar subsidies to other similarly-priced phones, but by that time the price/spec advantage isn't so great compared with other competitors.

Also, the Tegra 4 model mentioned in the article is exclusive to China Mobile; it's not a China/International difference as some people said above. Other Chinese operators China Unicom and China Telecom also get the version with the Snapdragon 800 chip.

So they produced something that sucks, but if they improve what they do, they can produce something in the future that doesn't suck?

The problem was the review (in context of your Microsoft comments they get a free pass too often and are blocking the market for Fledging OS's), is that A €69 / $90 (including €30 / $39 balance) for prepay customers was not compared as one. These are not flagship products they are aimed at the very bottom of the smartphone market. Now admittedly hardware in that market is getting better. I notice http://www.gizchina.com/2013/06/27/goophone-x1-set-to-be-worlds-cheapest-quad-core-phone-at-less-than-100/ Goophone are planning on selling a quad core phone for $100...but that in an uncertain future.

The bottom line is I saw some pretty advanced phones for very little money.

I am in shock and awe. Apple apologists have been arguing that Chinese workers(Foxconn) are cheaper than robots for forever, while Apple have smugly told the president that iphone manufacture will not return to America(They only argue to the Tax Man they are Irish...not the Irish tax Man obviously), because their workforce is does anything for biscuits. They have promised with must gusto to move the the less complicated parts of (one of its products) for PC manufacture(seriously) to the states to great fanfair...and failed to deliver.

Apples instance and investment in what accounts to slave labour (ironically now simply redundant) has cost the company its cutting edge products to long refresh cycles, and heavy dependences on its rivals technology, which actually manufacture products, and have thousands of patents on touch-screen technology and update there phones every three months. Its profits dropping now its devices are considered Mid-range at best...At least they proudly pay no profits on those ever shrinking profit margins. At least it to Collect a Billion for its few design patents...Sorry 400Million...Less.

I notice Google is getting Motorola to manufacture the cool named Xphone in the United States. I think its a good strategy. It would have been a better one for Apple...they chose to give the money back to shareholders instead...while avoiding paying tax again with ibonds.

Apples Apologists continued defence of Android is only winning because of cheap Chinese Phones ignoring its where the cheap (with high margin) iPhone is made, is coming true only they unlike the iPhone are "Great Value" Look at the Neo N003;iOcean;X7;UMi X2;JiaYu G4 http://www.gizchina.com/2013/03/05/poll-neo-n003-vs-iocean-x7-vs-umi-x2-vs-jiayu-g4/ all phones that destroy the iPhone a a fraction of cost, sporting (1.5ghz now)Quad cores and 2GB of Memory and 13 Mega-Pixel cameras and full-hd 1080P (and Multiple Simslots ;) They are incredibly tempting.

I think the bottom line is you can have buildings full of robots *anywhere*.

If you look at the Android phones being sold in China, Africa, etc. they are not phones like the Galaxy models. They are basically phones that are just steps up from feature phones.

China actually has some pretty nice android phones that are on par with the iPhone 5 or the Galaxy S3.

The Xiaomi M2 has a 1.5GHz quad core, 2GB ram, 720p screen, and it runs MIUI 4.1 (Android 4.1 with a custom chinese rom). It costs $310, which is less than half the price of an iPhone 5 (and it has better specs than the iPhone). The Xiaomi M2 is basically on par with the newly released Nexus 4, but it costs $50 less.

There's also the Oppo Find 5 which will have a 1.5Ghz quad core, 2GB ram, 16 or 32GB storage, 1920x1080 resolution (1080p screen!), 2500mAh battery, and it runs Android 4.1. It might also be the thinnest smartphone to date.

They have cheaper phones too, like the Beidou Little Pepper which is only $156, and it has a 1.3Ghz quad core, 1GB ram, 5MP camera, 800x480 screen, and runs Android 4.0. There's also the older dual core variant for only $110.

If you look at the Android phones being sold in China, Africa, etc. they are not phones like the Galaxy models. They are basically phones that are just steps up from feature phones.

China actually has some pretty nice android phones that are on par with the iPhone 5 or the Galaxy S3.

The Xiaomi M2 has a 1.5GHz quad core, 2GB ram, 720p screen, and it runs MIUI 4.1 (Android 4.1 with a custom chinese rom). It costs $310, which is less than half the price of an iPhone 5 (and it has better specs than the iPhone). The Xiaomi M2 is basically on par with the newly released Nexus 4, but it costs $50 less.

There's also the Oppo Find 5 which will have a 1.5Ghz quad core, 2GB ram, 16 or 32GB storage, 1920x1080 resolution (1080p screen!), 2500mAh battery, and it runs Android 4.1. It might also be the thinnest smartphone to date.

They have cheaper phones too, like the Beidou Little Pepper which is only $156, and it has a 1.3Ghz quad core, 1GB ram, 5MP camera, 800x480 screen, and runs Android 4.0. There's also the older dual core variant for only $110.

Honey, grab the maple syrup and the cheap viagara. We're celebrating. Now, if only we looked at Apple's patents then we can really stir some shit up.

The "upshot" of which would be an Icecream Sandwich: http://www.gizchina.com/wp-content/uploads/images/apple-android-rival-blow-job-sign-china.jpg

Doesn't make sense since the Chinese patented it first?

Seems there is more info at gizchina http://www.gizchina.com/2010/12/28/ubuntu-tablet-details-surface/

http://www.gizchina.com/2010/12/23/exclusive-leaked-images-reveal-ubuntu-powered-tablet/

Google has a cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:h8oRGG22slsJ:gadgetizor.com/the-tablet-season-brings-a-new-ubuntu-powered-tablet/6304/+http://gadgetizor.com/the-tablet-season-brings-a-new-ubuntu-powered-tablet/6304/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

2010 has been all about tablets - there is the iPad and a plethora of Android tablets - and it seems like it is going to continue to 2011.

Now it seems we have a different contender. A few days back, some pictures of an unnamed tablet running Ubuntu has cropped up. The device is said to be running Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition and the boot time reported to be almost instant.

The specifications of the device are said to be as below:

        * Intel Atom 1.6 GHz
        * 2 GB RAM
        * 32 GB SSD Hard Drive
        * Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat"

UNE 10.10 supports multi-touch but there has been a dearth of devices which uses its multi-touch features. While I am very excited to see a tablet running Ubuntu, I do not think Ubuntu is ready for tablets yet. For now Honeycomb seems like the OS for tablets.

And another thing, in the images the button has the Windows logo. Puzzling!!

Source: http://www.gizchina.com/2010/12/23/exclusive-leaked-images-reveal-ubuntu-powered-tablet/
Via: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/12/leaked-images-of-mysterious-ubuntu-powered-tablet/