Chinese Android smartphones

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Chinese Android smartphones

whatever7: Jul 26, 2001; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Nobody has talked about the round corners of that screen yet.

That round screen is going to be the future of the smartphones.

Square screen phones will become minority in 5 years, like the square smart watch of today.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2016 22:58

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 17:50

whatever7: Jul 26, 2001; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

LastInLine posted:

It's common knowledge that Xiaomi can silently alter user data on a per-device basis. Of course Chinese parts suppliers have also been caught installing backdoors in their kernels. Here's AllWinner doing it and here's MediaTek doing it and here's Foxxconn doing it. Wow, either every Chinese parts vendor is seriously sloppy or it's just an amazing coincidence that software under control of the Chinese government is vulnerable in a way that can identify and target specific individuals! Oh well, nothing to see here!

Using your phone to pay is dumb anyway. Android pay doesn't even offer any meaningful discount. I am waiting for Amazon Pay to hook me up with real deals.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2016 23:21

whatever7: Jul 26, 2001; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Alan_Shore posted:

I'm sure the NSA can look at anyone's personal info whenever they want. What is China going to do to you?

Well basically NSA will look through all the Arab sounding names, and China will look through the Chinese dissidents, so if you are a pasty white guy you are good.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2016 04:41

whatever7: Jul 26, 2001; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

LastInLine posted:

Given the flap between the FBI and Apple last summer, it's safe to say that there aren't intentional backdoors being there. Even if there were, you can speculate and say that maybe there are backdoors engineered into western handsets. On the other hand we know, with 100% certainty that there are backdoors in Chinese handsets.

It's one thing to say that "Hey it could be happening to everyone!" but it's quite another when you can be absolutely sure it does happen in a specific case and yet still defend it. It's not a defense of it in any case. "But my sister did it too!" didn't work when I got trouble as a five year old, what kind of idiot would accept that defense from a malicious government?

Nah if NSA has a backdoor in the soc level for iPhone, they wouldn't sacrifice it for this guy's work iPhone.

Also NSA has backdoors in all US carriers, they probably looked through all the text/email of that iPhone already and decided it was clean.

BTW, China also has complete cooperation of Chinese carriers. They use it a lot more literally for domestic police investigation. For example, a guy got killed in some remote road, they pulled the record of the nearby cell towers, got list of unknown sim card that was not locals and pinged the tower during that time. They then crossed reference to nearby cell towers to filter out the sims that moved very fast during that time. They were able to catch killer who was basically randomly passing by the area and killed for pocket money.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2016 13:49

whatever7: Jul 26, 2001; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

LastInLine posted:

That's all stuff to be expected and also completely irrelevant to the point I posted. Of course governments have access to the infrastructure, but we're talking about devices.

So to be succinct:

We know there to be backdoors in software produced by Chinese companies, and malicious actors, both state agencies and malware producers can find and exploit those backdoors.

Of course you can't safeguard yourself against a state actor, but certainly one would be wise to avoid devices with known, exploitable security holes? It seems like the argument being posited is that because perfect security is impossible, there is no value in caring about it at all which is just ridiculous on its face. Do you leave your door unlocked simply because a SWAT team can break it down if they want? Do you use the use the knowledge that battering rams exist to justify not even owning a lock?

Again, it's not like this is theoretical or unproven. It is known with 100% certainty that these exploits have been and will continue to be present. Is it just the assumption that there is nothing valuable worth safeguarding on your device? Or is it the assumption that since you don't know about it personally and intimately that it may as well not exist and is therefore not a risk?

I haven't owned any China phone yet, not because I am afraid of being hacked but every time I tried to get a China phone, I came across a better LG or Samsung deal. If you are in the US, its very easy to find better deals.

I do read Chinese btw. When I hang out in Chinese tech forums, the only kind of hacks I saw were personal data leak through installing apps from 3rd party app markets. Most of the posters on Chinese tech forums are pretty tech savvy btw. If you assume otherwise you are wrong. If I have a specific question about for example my Fuji camera and 3rd party external flash, I can get better answer in a Chinese photography forum than a English forum. That's fine if you don't trust the Chinese hardware. I understand it but I draw my conclusion from my experience.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2016 16:47

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 17:50

whatever7: Jul 26, 2001; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

I will pick up any 1gb prepaid phone under $20.

So far all my favorite cheap rear end phones are koreans. $20 1.5gb Tribute HD and $40 LG volt last year.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2016 15:48

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Chinese Android smartphones