China: home to 1.33 billion people and the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market. But while Apple is struggling to establish the dominance it enjoys in other countries, locals firms are turning over billions with mobiles that offer similar services for a fraction of the price. To be fair, if you earned an annual wage of $3,500 – the average in China – it’s understandable your eye would be caught by lower-priced competitors. Here are three superphones outselling Apple in the People’s Republic…
Huawei Ascend W1
Huawei’s phones are insanely cheap and powerful. So much so that, when Huawei launched a phone in Kenya, half the country bought one – overnight. This full-spec beauty launches next month and has already been dubbed ‘The Firebreather’ by excited Chinese geeks.
£153; huawei.com
JiaYu G2s
Launched last month, this dual-core (ie super-fast) Android phone has a 4in IPS display – IPS being the same tech used in Apple’s iPhone. Basically, it’s a lot like an iPhone, but far cheaper, and with the added advantage that it wasn’t designed by a ‘capitalist pig’.
£125; jiayumobileshop.com
Beidou Little Pepper
The world’s cheapest quad-core (ie blazing-fast) smartphone is being snapped up by Chinese buyers for an insane 999 Yuan (£100). If you don’t need all that power, the dual-core version is a mere £70 – both versions run the Android 4.0 ICS system.
£100; aliexpress.com
