Buying and living with an Honor Phone - Chinese Version

[Susi12]

I fell in love with a phone. As ridiculous as it sounds, I'm someone who loves technology, and I saw this gorgeous phone in my neighbor's hands on my last flight and decided to buy it. If you've never seen the Honor Magic VS2, go check it out, very expensive indeed, but also very special. Best phone in it's category to ever hit the market, so of course this has to be the phone for me.

 

It now looks like we will be staying in China for a few more years, so the phone will probably stay inside China 95% of the time. Also, the phone is so much cheaper here (~30% less, which is just a LOT of money in this price range) so that I will try to buy it in China. And this is of course the point where the questions come up.

 

Question 1: Where would you buy such a VERY expensive phone in China? In my home country, I've never bought a phone in a flagship store, instead I'd go to Amazon and buy the cheapest. Why? Because customer service is usually provided by the manufacturer, and I've never had a problem with repairs, etc. Now I tried to look at taobao, and I have some trouble finding out if the phones sold there are even new? Whenever I ask a seller directly, they seem to answer that the phone is used, but I can never tell from the description. Is this just me and my bad translator, or is this common? Would you go to a store? What kind of store? Or buy online? Where? I asked in the (expat) WeChat groups in the neighborhood, but expats seem to only use iPhones, I didn't get any recommendations there.

 

Question 2: How do I get all the apps I need to survive (VPN, Google, you name it...) to work on a Chinese phone? Is this even possible? I read online that Honor even allows you to download some of the Google apps directly if you sign up for it - for traveling purposes. [Sorry, I didn't read the whole thread about VPN etc. in the forum (too scared, it's too big), if all the answers are already in there, let me know and I promise I won't ask again.]

 

Thanks for you help here 😀

 

 

 

[nicklinjm]

If you are in China the easiest way to buy an Honor phone is probably through Huawei's physical stores no? A quick Baidu search just showed about 7-8 Huawei stores near me (in Beijing). Would not rely on the Taobao stores as I doubt they offer proper after-service / warranty / repairs.

 

Not sure about the 2nd question as I don't have an Honor phone. In my case I have a Vivo (Realme) with Google, VPN, FB on it but in my case it is an 'unlocked' one I bought in Hong Kong. Hope that helps.

[cncorrect]

You should buy it from their official website: https://www.honor.com/cn/. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting a fake one or encountering other issues. I doubt you'll be able to buy an Honor phone in a Huawei store, as they are no longer the same company.

[vellocet]

Speaking as someone who has been  a solid Xiaomi customer for the last decade I say: only buy new, buy from the flagship store nearest you, and get the highest level of insurance they offer.  I don't know about you but I'm always having phone misfortunes so it's been well worth it not to have to mess around with third-party repair shops, etc. A phone is something  you use every day  in every aspect of your life so it's worth dropping some coin on. 

Online buying is always a pain, when you go to the shop you get the phone right then and there. You can look at the colors, etc. Plus they will transfer all your old files over from your old phone while you wait. Budget a couple of hours for this, go see a movie or walk around the mall or something. 

Xiaomi built special hooks into their MIUI system for Google Play and there is an app called Google Play Services that lets you install Google Play. Seeing that Huawei is an "enemy" brand now to the DC regime  I don't know what the situation is with that.  Maybe you could install a replacement firmware from XDAdevelopers but that's a gigantic pain in the ass, I gave up on that.  You might just have to give up on Google Play, I don't know. You can use aPKs to install and update software, but that means developing technical skill and knowing how to do it.  There are other app stores you can download like FDroid but in my experience they have too little software to be useful. 

[Lu]

On 5/23/2024 at 11:34 AM, Susi12 said:

Question 2: How do I get all the apps I need to survive (VPN, Google, you name it...) to work on a Chinese phone? Is this even possible? I read online that Honor even allows you to download some of the Google apps directly if you sign up for it - for traveling purposes.

I'm afraid my knowledge about this is old, so do wait for others as well, but: I bought a phone in China in 2012 or so and it was close to impossible to install apps on it that were blocked in China. Took it to a phone unlocker in Hong Kong, but he was unable to do it. A colleague of mine at the time managed, but he said it has been a risky operation and there was a chance he would have bricked the phone. I don't know if this is still the case for phones bought in China, but for me this would be a reason never to buy one there.

 

Since you live in China officially, perhaps you could consider buying one on holiday and ask the VAT back at the airport when you fly back home to China.