The Chinese ones are hard to figure out. My own 'trick' was to find a reputable dealer (using an escrow, like AliExpress) and use Youtube to look at the phones.

The Chinese ones are hard to figure out. My own 'trick' was to find a reputable dealer (using an escrow, like AliExpress) and use Youtube to look at the phones. There's usually _someone_ who has uploaded a video of a phone you're interested in. Also, be extremely careful in buying "clones" that don't care about trademark. Word on the websites I deal with are they are the ones that don't care about quality. The 'mostly clones', that don't mind attaching their own name to the product are usually pretty solid devices. The guy who I've been buying from is http://www.aliexpress.com/store/108763 http://www.aliexpress.com/store/108763 , ELE Team. I have a phone from them, as did a buddy here in the office (I work at Indiana University IT). He got the same model just shipped in a few days ago. We both absolutely love the phones. I've also been eyeing the ELE Team's $200 retina Android tablet. Pretty crazy cheap tech. The other big trick is to check which frequencies the phone uses. If you use a TMobile or subsidary, you're getting 2G because of the whole lack of 1700MHz.. But that's because TMob chose a pretty much oft used GSM frequency.