Video: Exclusive hands on with the JiaYu S1!


It took hours to get out there, but the trip to the JiaYu Shenzhen factory proved fruitful as we got to play with the JiaYu S1!

We arrived at JiaYu’s factory hours late and just as everyone stopped work and headed to the canteen, but Felix and Wade from JiaYu made us welcome and even let us play with a few of their new phones!

JiaYu S1 Hands on1

jiayu S1 hands on

The JiaYu S1 is a big step for JiaYu. It is the first phone they will offer with a 5-inch 1080 display and the first model of theirs to run a Snapdragon 600 CPU!

jiayu S1 hands on

jiayu S1 hands on

We had some hands on time with the pre-production sample. Although the sample did suffer from a sticky power button, the rest of the package was just perfect.

jiayu S1 hands on

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The 5-inch display is attached to a stainless steel chassis giving the S1 incredible stiffness. No sensible amount of force will flex this phone, so you need not worry about placing it in your back pocket while sitting down.

JiaYu have packed the S1 with all the must have features including a display by Sharp, front and rear cameras by Sony, a 1.7Ghz S600 CPU, 2GB RAM, 32GB memory, NFC and wireless charging.

jiayu S1 hands on

Some of you might be disappointed to see that the there is only room for one SIM and you cannot install a SIM, plus 2300mAh battery is non replaceable, however it wouldn’t deter us from buying this phone!

JiaYu S1 hands on video

JiaYu told us that the S1 will be ready for launch in October. We expect this to mean that pre-sales will begin ahead of the October holidays and the phone should begin arriving with customers by the end of the month. And yes, they mean October 2013 πŸ™‚

Previous UMi Cross Full Specifications, limited launch October
Next Exclusive - Hands on video with the stainless steel JiaYu G5!

39 Comments

  1. Viktor
    September 18, 2013

    I am more confident in the production month of S1 than G4, mainly because it utilises an older CPU. There should not be any ‘unknown’ parameters in the assembly, apart from the usual licence issues.

    It all depends now on the price, they should take into account that the Nexus 4 with 16GB is $249… so a Chinese phone with 32GB should not be more expensive.. shipped.

    Although the G4 Advanced is still around $300 shipped, they should really reconsider their pricing.

    • September 18, 2013

      Wise thoughts. Agreed.

    • foggyflute
      September 18, 2013

      There’s no way a phone with S600 and 1080p screen can be cheaper than a phone with S4 Pro and smaller 720p screen. The best they can do maybe around $320 in china.

      I can buy oppo find 5 for $340 here in Vietnam through official distributor and warranty, it’s a proved good phone so only if I can get this one cheaper than that, no.

      • September 18, 2013

        340 USD for find 5 with 600 snap edition. Are you joking and its not a fake? That’s cheaper than anywhere reliable I have seen in China. Anyway great deal there.

        • foggyflute
          September 18, 2013

          Wait, checked again, it’s S4Pro, not S600, S600 edition only available in China. It’s 6.900.000 VND – 326 USD. A limited sale off through September to celebrate the National Day happened in September 2nd. Unlikely the price will go up again, maybe clearing the way for N1.

          And I have no use for better cpu so everything with 2GB or rams for browsing is good enough for me, S4 Pro still a very good deal.

      • Viktor
        September 18, 2013

        Minideal are preselling the S1 for $269.
        It might be a hoax, but it’s close to the Nexus4 flagship.

    • September 18, 2013

      The one flaw of the Nexus standard is that the battery specs suck and no removable back, hence no micro sd. That’s why the Google phone didn’t totally take over the whole market I think.

      A bigger battery (removable) and micro sd feature is worth an extra 50 bucks easy. So its more fair to factor around $300 instead of the $250 for comparison sake. That is if a phone has the removable back and sd.

      Victor is right on the pricing aspect. If customers in the US are gonna buy Chinese phone brands, they want it to be cheaper than the brands they are already familiar with and trust. If the Jaiyu S1 was $250-$275 China retail price, it’ll come in about $300-$325 shipped for sale in the US. That puts you fairly competitive with the Nexus phone. (which as much as I want to, I can never buy the Nexus just based on the battery issues)

      If it wasn’t for Google phone, the Chinese brands would have a way easier time with their prices. That Nexus is the eternal thorn in their side.

  2. September 18, 2013

    Looks a lot like the Neo N003. But I feel they missed a trick with the launch date, October will probably be too late for a snap 600. Also, as Viktor said, with the G4 advanced costing upwards of 300$, the value proposition expected of a Chinese device will probably be missing on this one.

  3. September 18, 2013

    ” And yes, they mean October 2013 πŸ˜€ ”

    Hahaha! Just hope Wade isn’t reading your post πŸ˜€

  4. Airyl
    September 18, 2013

    Andi you lucky lemon you. Getting your hands on a phone that’s probably going to take forever to be released. Was there a microSD card slot Andi? And how was the camera?

    • September 18, 2013

      Camera was great, no SD card slot though

      • Greg
        September 18, 2013

        Nooooooooooooooooooo!

      • Darevintage
        September 18, 2013

        No SD card slot?!!! After all the waiting! Gosh!!!

        • anony
          September 18, 2013

          I thought this has been known for a while from andi’s article not too long ago. They’re trying to be Apple or Google, neither of which are as successful as Samsung (thought it sort of work for Xiaomi in China I guess).

      • September 19, 2013

        No SD Card slot is baaaaaad….

  5. josef
    September 18, 2013

    The rom and the phone looks alot like xiaomi, meh, not so great in my opinion unless its 100usd less then the mi2s.
    Josef.

    • Airyl
      September 18, 2013

      Looks more like LG’s UI to me.

  6. September 18, 2013

    If this is reliable and decent built, realistically if it is near the 300-350 USD mark its pretty good. I think xiaomi is killing everyone with their amazing pricing because they have massive industrial backers like cm and kingsoft so they can almost afford to loose money to gain massive market share. Other companies just can’t match them. A snap 600 thing in high end 6589t 2gb ram territory is not bad

  7. anony
    September 18, 2013

    No card slot and non removable 2300mAh battery will deter me from buying the phone.

    Also, doesn’t it actually looks a lot like Neo N003 in real life?

    • September 18, 2013

      Nope, it looks nice πŸ™‚

    • October 25, 2013

      i think S1 is smaller than the neo n003. Dimensions point out 138mm, n003 is more than 150mm

      however i didn’t like that it doesn’t have SD extension. Low non-removable battery is always a trouble too, and i rather wait a little more for 8-core mediatek and LTE! here in my country they are starting to use LTE and i think that in 1~2 years a phone that don’t have LTE will be outdated!

  8. Marius
    September 18, 2013

    Andi have you asked them about open source kernel code ? It would be a big help to the open source community and one of the signs Jiayu is taking itself seriously.
    I still have no idea why Chinese companies are so afraid of releasing the source code. It’s not like the source code for the Snapdragon 600 is much of a secret and the Jiayu specific customizations aren’t of any use to other companies that have different hardware.

    • September 18, 2013

      Yes, I did. In fact it has been something I have been trying to drive in to each company I have visited, but they don’t look like they are going to give…

      • Marius
        September 18, 2013

        Thanks for trying anyway. I still don’t get their reasons but I can’t find anything rational.
        Come to think of it I think even Xiaomi are not releasing the source code. Still many are releasing it, including TCL so I might just buy a phone from them.

      • September 18, 2013

        The xda developers forum wont touch it then. They are on their own with the software. And everyone is gonna think there’s spyware or something hidden in the source code too because of their refusal to release it.

  9. Harald
    September 18, 2013

    It’s the phone of the Jiayu

  10. NewOne
    September 18, 2013

    why the fuck don’t they take the design/materials of the beautiful G5 for their flaggship phone instead.
    Also they should ad dual sim/standby, at least 3000mAh (replaceable), Wifi 2.4/5ghz, and stock android (maybe even announce 4.4 as an update) and maybe a version with S800 and Lte,

    Just give us once a complete Smartphone – no compromises anymore (e.g. camera front/back is crap …)

    • September 18, 2013

      I also saw the S2 while I was there πŸ˜‰

      • Airyl
        September 18, 2013

        Wow, and I thought that thing was still in it’s planning phase. What did you see Andi, a render or the actual phone?

      • Darevintage
        September 18, 2013

        S2? Okay… Don’t tell us they made u swear an oath not to tell us about that Andi πŸ˜€ . Please tell them to make it a complete phone. They should at least add LTE and SD card slot to the mix.

        • NewOne
          September 18, 2013

          right I forgot to mention the sd card slot, interesting news ….

      • NewOne
        September 18, 2013

        Just looked up the specs of the S2 on gizchina and here http://www.jiayuofficial.com/jiayu-mobile-phone/jiayu-g5.html….disappointing πŸ™

        • September 19, 2013

          That wasn’t a link to an official JiaYu website or the S2

  11. Allanitomwesh
    September 18, 2013

    The battery is my biggest concern,having it smaller than the Find 5 is not good,the Find 5 already struggles to see the second day.Sure it’ll get you to the evening but with Jiayu I have come to expect a second day.

    • September 18, 2013

      You get 1.5 days on your Find 5?

      • Allanitomwesh
        September 19, 2013

        I wish! About 22hrs use time with light use.

  12. Pedro
    September 18, 2013

    No micro sd slot? Why imitate Apple or Google when the people want this?? Argh! Imitate the good things, not the bad things! It all depends on the price, but unfortunately I’m almost sure that I will not gonna buy S1!

  13. FTP
    October 19, 2013

    What happened to this one? No news yet. I thought it might come out this month.

  14. Zsoltee
    November 19, 2013

    Andi, you misunderstood, they actually mean October 2014 LOL πŸ˜€
    Btw. any new “leaked” info? πŸ™‚