XGODY M874

The M874 is a 7-inch phone tablet (phablet) manufactured by XGODY (XGo Dy) Corporation in China. XGODY is a Shenzhen Xin Sheng Shang Technology Company that has been trading over eBay for some time. This phone has the MT6572 dual core processor operating at a speed of up to 1.3 GHz and Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system. It is compatible with 2G and 3G networks and is unlocked to operate over any network carrier. More information regarding the specs is in the specification page.

Review

I was recently looking for the cheapest 7-inch (LCD) phone and was considering various Samsung and iPhone options. However, being a blogger, money is always a problem; therefore, I was drawn to the XGODY M874 on eBay. Everything looked impressive except that it was a Chinese phone. After some research, I discovered that nearly all mobile phones with famous brand names have a manufacturing origin of Shen Zhen China; therefore, this phone was no different.

The Chinese have a nice little earner going... America gives them free technology to copy, and all of their cousins in Shen Zhen factories churn out these phones for almost nothing. It is one of the reasons why they never have to import anything! The M874 is 18 times cheaper than the Apple iPhone 7 (approximately £810). If it is half as good as the iPhone, then I will be impressed. Having lived long enough, I fully understand the old adage that you get what you pay for, therefore I was not expecting much from a phone that costs only £44.99! However, I was pleasantly surprised.

Wow! I like this thing!

Since the M874 is an Android phone, you get free apps through the Google Play Store, which saves a huge amount of money. This phone also has GPS capability, therefore I installed one of the most useful apps you can have which is Google Maps. I have the same app on my Samsung phone and it works brilliantly, except now I can see it on a larger 7-inch screen.

I also installed the voice recognition app, which is very useful if you struggle to type on the simulated keyboard. With voice recognition, you simply ask Google questions and it brings back the information you need. These are the two most widely used applications and they work fine on this phone.

The screen resolution and brightness were decent; the battery life is decent as well. The maximum loudness of audio sound was good. The FM radio worked well, however you will require a pair of headphones, which also behaves as the antenna. It also has a G-Sensor, so you can install all those free apps that measure speed using this sensor.

One nice thing this manufacturer has done is not provide a cheap pair of headphones that usually ends up remaining in the box. Most people like to use their own style and quality of headphones, and therefore this strategy saves the customer money. I was using my vintage Sony MDR-W15, which I usually use with a Walkman, and it sounded decent.

Downsides

Although the box and packaging are first class, the box is not factory-sealed. The manufacturer says that they test each phone before dispatching to the customer. I always prefer factory-sealed goods, because that way, you know intermediaries have not tampered with the phone.

The quality of support usually makes or breaks the popularity of a product. This factory does provide email support, however it takes 24 hours to receive a short reply and they do not always understand, nor answer your questions fully, which means having to ask again and waiting another 24 hours! However, if you perceiver, then eventually you do get some progress. A replacement battery for this phone is also very difficult to find, and after contacting the company, they told me that they no longer manufacture it!

When changing the brightness of the LCD screen, the app would freeze and produce the following error.

"Launcher3 isn’t responding. Do you want to close it?" They told me to do a firmware reset, after which the error message went away.

Although this model is available in three different colours, their eBay listing shows mainly a silver coloured model, and there are no provisions to choose a colour when you place an order. Therefore, the colour you get is pot luck! The one I received had a copper/gold coloured back, which was a surprise! Therefore, when you place your order be sure to tell them which colour you want.

The front and back camera resolution is 2.0 MP, which is very low spec for today’s standards. You will need to keep the camera extremely still and have plenty of light for any reasonable photography.

If you can endure or overcome some of these woes, which are not really that serious, then a tablet phone such as this could be useful. They are always improving their product and service and therefore you might get something even better!

Cost/eBay

The XGODY M874 is usually for sale on eBay for approximately £44.99. It appears that the manufacturer is selling directly through eBay, which is highly beneficial as it eliminates all the intermediaries thereby lowering the final cost to the customer. One of my reasons for buying it was because it was through eBay, and had it been through any other outlet, then I probably would have ignored it.

Buying on eBay is very safe because you receive protection from their first class purchasing system as well as their PayPal system, therefore buy with confidence!

This Article Continues...