Recently, I paid $12 at Mingtong Digital Mall for a complete phone, featuring quad-band GSM, Bluetooth, MP3 playback, and an OLED display plus keypad for the UI. Simple, but functional; nothing compared to a smartphone, but useful if you’re going out and worried about getting your primary phone wet or stolen.
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How is this possible? I don’t have the answers, but it’s something I’m trying to learn. A teardown yields a few hints.
These are amazing products for a specific niche, and the young teenager in me who got his first cellphone at 13 marvels at the price of this thing.
Doesn’t realy impress me.
My father bought a new phone last week:
13€ including 20% VAT here in austria from a local retailer:
https://www.hofer.at/de/angebote/technik-angebote/detailseite/ps/p/b…
Dual SIM, microSD, camera with flash, bluetooth…
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Edited 2018-09-24 19:51 UTC
The article is 5 years old. A lot happened in the ridiculously cheap phones department since then.
necromancy
Just saying. Must be much cheaper nowadays
When I was the last time “going out” I ~woke up in emergency
(under drip, after a CAT scan of my head, but unfortunatelly I don’t remember the procedure 
…must’ve been fun)
And for a minute or two I thought I lost my phone, but then I found it on the bottom of my shoulder bag. I even apparently used it quite normally when I was moving through a train station, and perhaps city, on autopilot, taking a selfie (like I do for over 10 years, to combine them in a “look how I age” video one day), though I gave it wrong name/year in a YYYYMMDD format…
This is simply dumping going on at the end of 2G’s lifetime. Hard to sell very low end phones that aren’t going to work much of anywhere in two years.
A more relevant question is, why are 4G phones so much more expensive in the US and EU than they are in China? Why are there over 200 cell phone manufacturers in Asia and less than a dozen selling in the US/EU.
An example of what you can get for $99 from an Asian phone manufacturer. https://www.dx.com/p/umidigi-a1-pro-18-9-5-5-inches-mtk6739-1-5ghz-4…
Similar phones in the US/EU market are in the $400 range.
Indeed! This is the most high-end phone in our household at the moment, great phone, USD 80 !!
https://www.dx.com/p/doogee-x30-5-5-hd-android-7-0-3g-phone-with-2gb…
And these are generally free shipping too, so Europe should work..?! Doogee phones in general are incredible value for money, and quite durable.
Edited 2018-09-26 00:21 UTC
Look your phone up at https://www.kimovil.com/ and it will tell you what carriers it will work on.
Your Doogee X30 does not work in the USA. Only the Doogee S60 or S70 will work on US carriers.
Very interesting… I guess I am lucky it does work on my network in Canada..!
Hm, in general, limiting phones that work on a network seems to be mostly a thing of US carriers; in rest of the world, if its GSM compatible, it will tend to work…
AT&T lets on most any phone, Verizon is much more restrictive. But the comment was not directed at the carrier allowing the phone onto the network. Different networks in different countries operate on different radio frequencies. The phone’s hardware has to support the frequencies used in that country. Many Asian phones do not work in the US because they are missing the hardware to support US frequencies. Asia and the USA use different bands.
it’s also pretty much “US vs rest of the world” when it comes to frequencies…
Amazing site, kimovil.com..! Couldn’t believe how many models of obscure brands like Doogee they list! (But no Dengo…)
Apple’s profit on the iPhone XS max is $800 per phone.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/363997/report-each-iphone-xs-max-costs-ap…
Well DOOGEE probably isn’t paying any patent licenses that mainstream phones build in to the price.
Also, they’re probably getting paid to include backdoors and spyware.
Edited 2018-09-27 15:36 UTC
You’re probably right about paying licenses, maybe that is why they aren’t sold in the US?
Backdoors are probably common in most brands & makes.
Spyware – perhaps..? I guess it would have to get rooted first to ascertain?
I kinda doubt any MediaTek-based phones are in the $400 range…