Gizchina Exclusive: JiaYu G4 Unboxing and first hands on video!


It’s been a very very long wait, but we have finally received our JiaYu G4 review unit! Keep reading for the first every JiaYu G4 unboxing videos and Gizchina hands on photos!

What a great morning! We woke up to see the sun shining, a lovely blue sky, but most excitingly a brand new shiny JiaYu G4 waiting on our doorstep! We couldn’t wait to get the box open and get our hands on the much-anticipated quad-core phone and took the opportunity to record a JiaYu G4 unboxing video!

Watch the Gizchina JiaYu G4 Unboxing video

 

JiaYu G4 first hands on impressions

Gizchina News of the week


First impressions of the phone are very good! The overall design is very similar to the Xiaomi Mi2/M2s but the larger display makes surfing the web, viewing photos and operating the camera a much more comfortable experience.

Although we haven’t installed any games or apps on the phone just yet, we can report that navigation is very responsive with zero lag, we wonder if the same can be said about the 1080 UMi X2?

Build quality is excellent too, but we’ll report more on this and other aspects of the JiaYu G4 later in the week when we publish our in-depth review.

Like the new JiaYu Mobile International page on Facebook.

JiaYu G4 hands on photos

jiayu g4 hands on rear

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

Previous Xiaomi laptop rumoured to launch in August
Next Video: Gizchina UMi X2 unboxing!

106 Comments

  1. May 12, 2013

    Thanks Andi been a bit of a wait but worth it…one question…does the 10mm feel particularly chunky and thick or is it ok?

    • May 12, 2013

      It depends what you are use to. My Xiaomi Mi2 isn’t the thinnest phone, so the G4 feels fine for me without a case, with a case on it feels a little on the large size though

      • Chris Bhikharie
        May 12, 2013

        Hey Andi. Just wanted to say hi for the first time. If I have any questions on china branded phones, I will be sure to ask you. Talk to you later.

  2. CESAR
    May 12, 2013

    gj andi.

  3. nikhil
    May 12, 2013

    so you received 1gb ram version?

    • May 12, 2013

      yes

  4. Airyl
    May 12, 2013

    Amy giveaways coming soon Andi?

    • Airyl
      May 12, 2013

      Any*

  5. Simon
    May 12, 2013

    Excellent, keep the video unboxings & reviews coming. If it possible to get your hands on a IOcean X7 that would be cool (as I think it might be a dark horse). Hopefully Jiayu will up their game now 🙂

    • this!
      May 12, 2013

      this!

  6. May 12, 2013

    Hey Andi, do we have the option to choose the full back version instead of black front and white rear as in your case?

    • May 12, 2013

      I’ll have to check, this might just be unique to review sample s

  7. wolf
    May 12, 2013

    Could you test if it has the USB-OTG function? Thanks!

    • May 12, 2013

      I think this is an engineering sample, and it does not support OTG. Not sure though.

    • buyer
      May 12, 2013

      Hi, those the luck of USB-OTG function is a hardware luck support or only software luck spport?

  8. May 12, 2013

    thanks andi and your voice is very good too

    • May 12, 2013

      Haha thanks 😉

  9. May 12, 2013

    Also, I notice that the capacitive buttons don’t light up?

    • May 12, 2013

      No they don’t

  10. Rob
    May 12, 2013

    Hey andy
    Many thanks for this hands on preview!
    Is this the advanced model,or the lighter version?

    • May 12, 2013

      Its the 1Gb “basic” version. There are no samples of the ‘Advanced’ yet

  11. May 12, 2013

    Thanks for your replies Andi. Lastly, does this phone have a notification LED like the G3?

  12. Feallan
    May 12, 2013

    Could you test which WCDMA frequencies it supports?

    • Burnt_52
      May 12, 2013

      I second this comment. I see 2100mhz but I’m hoping it supports 850mhz

      • Clarita
        May 26, 2013

        I am also very much interested…Please Andi answer us! I aldo need the 850!

  13. Simon
    May 12, 2013

    Can I clarify with these Chinese phones whichever one you choose whether it be Jiayu, Umi etc you will be getting stock “vanilla” android, they won’t actually be customised (not that it matters)

  14. wacky
    May 12, 2013

    Good job nice to finally see a english unboxing 😉

    How are the buttons? Ive heard that there was a problem with them because they are in the back cover. Do they work good or not?

    I hope they will also release a full black version where the capacitive buttons light up. Guess i will wait till next week to decide wich one comes out best the Jiayu or the umi.

    • May 12, 2013

      Not had an issue with the buttons yet, but will keep an eye on this

  15. William
    May 12, 2013

    Hi Andi,
    Could you please check the charger to see the charging speed?
    It is 500 mA, 1000mA..?

    Thanks

  16. tomcat
    May 12, 2013

    GPS performance and lock would be of big interest as many people had issues with the G3 and the 6577 in general

  17. Peter
    May 12, 2013

    And this piece has no CE-conformitx signs too…

  18. lukis
    May 12, 2013

    Andi,

    1. Does any problems when using G4 that backlight of touch buttons are absent?

    2. Why do not you have to wait for the advanced/high version of G4?.. 🙂

    • May 12, 2013

      1) No, but I am use to this as the Xiaomi Mi2 doesn’t have backlight on the navigation buttons either.
      2) I didn’t ask for the phone, they contacted me and told me they would send it 🙂

      • May 12, 2013

        I hope they contact me to and send one in that case haha 😛

  19. Peter
    May 12, 2013

    At Pandawill-forum they write that launch date for G4 advanced are canceled too.
    Now it should be around the middle of August …

    I think the real launch date could be a christmas gift – launch in January 2014 or later 😉
    In this case they could use the MT6589T Power Chipset with 2GB RAM

    • May 12, 2013

      I spoke to my contact at JiaYu last in the middle of last week (I think) and at that time I asked if they would launch a MT6589T version G4, the answer was ‘Maybe’. I wouldn’t be surprised if the 2GB RAM advanced model ends up being a G4 Turbo.

      • Manos
        May 12, 2013

        Good Job Andi ! thats good news for anyone but they are too slow I think!
        We need the G4 Turbo!

        Please tell them to make it faster! 🙂

        • Simon
          May 12, 2013

          Not too fast though, we want a quality product 🙂 not some rushed job

      • Simon
        May 12, 2013

        Excellent then it will be the Battle of The Turbos: Jiayu G4 vs Umi X2 vs Neo N003 vs the rest…….

    • Peter
      May 12, 2013
      • May 12, 2013

        Changed it to a link for you 😉

      • Simon
        May 12, 2013
        • RobertNL
          May 12, 2013

          @Simon,
          Did order more then once with them and all is fine. You can find these kind of stories about almost all big (web)shops.

          • Simon
            May 12, 2013

            Ok fine. I’m glad you have had good experiences with them.

      • robert
        May 12, 2013

        Yet main order page says presell 15/8 and underneath says 15th may.

  20. Albert
    May 12, 2013

    Andi, when Umi X2 will arrive to u, pls check for me (and for many other peeps) very important phone specs like the real aperture size (schould be F/2.2 or F/2.4 in youth version) and WCDMA support (850 or 900Mhz). This specs are writed on first internal side of “phone-book” box or beter do photo like this:
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=149923345181631&set=a.149923138514985.1073741837.124395347734431&type=3&theater

  21. Airyl
    May 12, 2013

    How is the camera compared to the Mi2?

  22. May 12, 2013

    Andy,

    pretty please use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aatt.fpsm when testing smoothness of device in UI and the webbrowser. It shows frames per second rendered at the topright side of the screen.

    Thank you.

  23. anony
    May 12, 2013

    do you have any 1080p 5″ phone to compare the screen with andi?

  24. cpurage
    May 12, 2013

    Hi Andi,

    I love you guys, I am very pleased to see that video and Andi please, you owe me this … check the WCDMA BandMode in the MTK Engineer Menu and post some pictures of it or just include it in the next video review, cause I just want to be sure what kind of frequencies is the G4 supporting, cause for the UMI X2 I can asure you that it supports WCDMA 800/850/900/1900/2100 and here is the proove:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ikGgyVzUhoA#t=615s

    • cpurage
      May 12, 2013

      just go on 10:15 and there is the MTK Engineer Menu and the supported BandModes 😉

    • Baylex
      May 14, 2013

      So.. Umi X2 has backlight capacitive buttons.. and the Jiayu G4 doesn’t?? don’t like that…
      can anyone confirm if the Umi X2 has corning gorilla glass 2 has the Jiayu G4??

  25. Lola
    May 12, 2013

    well let’s just say it didn’t impressed me much
    they had some sort of original design now the phone looks just like a goophone

  26. Anthony
    May 12, 2013

    Andi please test
    first gps lock time
    and generally gps lock time

  27. May 12, 2013

    So jiayu is going to delay the advanced version g4 phone? really it will be delayed until after summer?

  28. bitmax
    May 12, 2013

    Hi Andi,
    Been following your blog for quite some time 🙂
    I must say its awesome!

    Can you please also test the battery performance for Jiayu G4 and Umi X2 (when you get it ) as well please? 😀

    • May 12, 2013

      umm..also Andi how would you rate the build quality of Jiayu G4 vs Umi X2?

      Which one should I go for? (in short starting from screen ppi quality and build quality to performance and battery consumption 😀 )

      I am sure more people would now get themselves stretched out in-between these two competitors :s
      Thanks..

  29. Yuki
    May 12, 2013

    I think theyre needlessly removed the symbols from touch buttons.

  30. Aeonia
    May 12, 2013

    hi Andi..huge fan of ur site and just wishing that in the next video u would show us some gameplay of a HD game probably gameloft like NOVA 3..or Modern Combat 4 not temple run…we would all like to see the performance of the powervr 544 in gaming..and if possible load up some 1080p videos….

  31. Simon
    May 12, 2013

    I think Andi has quite a few videos which he will post up during this week. So don’t worry its all to come.

  32. May 12, 2013

    Looks to be a very nice device. Looking forward to more videos/hands-on.

  33. andrew
    May 12, 2013

    Andy, I would like to see some benchmark testing done by this site using the popular Antutu.
    If Chinese manufacturers really do consider this site a viable way to giving their latest product exposure, then I’m sure there would be no objection to benchmarking pre-release.
    We as consumers need to be more fully informed and what better way than through this already ‘trusted’ site.
    I want to know about ‘bang for buck’, as does everyone else.
    There are 2 or 3 tech sites that do amazingly comprehensive reviews on the big brand name smartphones etc. So rarely do they benchmark and if they do it’s a combo that no ones heard of, with the exception of a few hardcore techheads.
    Back on topic though. The G4 looks great and your partial review is positive. I’m interested though in the JiaYu G6 & ZTE’s Nubia Z7, but I want assurances before I spent another 4 – 500 dollars on another Chinese phone.
    My Huawei Ascend Mate scored 15468 when I ran Antutu. 1080p & 720p video replay are very poor & scrolling web pages lack fluidity.
    Both Samsung’s S4 & the HTC one scored around 22,000+.
    Both have double the RAM and more highly clocked quadcores.
    It appears though that vertical integration & optimization are much more refined on the known brands, and yes if Samsung alone has an annual R & D budget of $6 billion,
    you would expect the product to work very well.

    • May 12, 2013

      Hi, I’m working on a full review now which will include all the benchmarks ETC, however if you go in to our forums you can see that I have already uploaded screenshots of Antutu on the G4 (https://www.gizchina.com/forums).

      Once the G6 is out I’m sure we will get a review unit.

      If you want a phone with benchmarks above 22,000 get a Xiaomi 🙂

  34. May 12, 2013

    Andi, could you please tell us if the G4 supports Bluetooth v4.0 and Wi-Fi b/g/”n”? There are conflicting specs on the web…

  35. Narayan
    May 12, 2013

    Of particular interest (above what everyone else publishes in videos):

    Ring:
    1. How loud is the ring? Can it be heard on noisy streets?

    Microphone:
    1. Does it have noise-canceling microphone?
    Can it filter out street noise for the other end?
    2. Can it record voices clearly in a large room?

    Speaker:
    1. How loud is the speakerphone (hands-free) mode?

    Camera:
    1. The “glass” of the camera seems huge compared to other phones.
    So how is its low-light performance? (candle-light and indoors, such as basement parking)
    2. How is the burst mode? (what’s the frames-per-second, and how many taken in a burst?)
    3. Can we zoom in/out during video shooting?

    GPS:
    1. How fast does the GPS lock?
    2. Does it lock indoors, or does it need outdoor?
    3. Does it have GLONASS?

    FM Radio:
    1. Can it record the FM radio?

    Battery:
    1. How long does it last on video?

    Regards,
    Narayan

    • Simon
      May 13, 2013

      One step at a time Narayan, hes only had the phone for a short period. I’m sure he will get round to doing a full review

  36. Nova5lag
    May 13, 2013

    I had one on order with Merimobiles for months and without warning they cancelled my order and (at least) instantly refunded my money. I ended upgrading to a Galaxy S4 instead because of the wait. It does look great though.

    • buyer
      May 13, 2013

      Hi, those the luck of USB-OTG function is a hardware problem or a software problem that can be solved?

  37. Francisco Martins
    May 13, 2013

    andy where you order this phone?
    what you recomend

  38. Francisco Martins
    May 13, 2013

    i andy whre you recomend to buy this phone?

  39. May 13, 2013

    Review is not complete. Forgot the most important thing – the work.

    WIFI-internet surfing, Audio and Video (at max. Brightness).

    Put prog Battery HD Pro and re-test and write all.

    It is advisable to Jiayu G4 Advance version.

  40. robert
    May 13, 2013

    Hmmm, they would’ve had my cash in an instant but the delays….. I see the ascend p2 launches in UK in a couple of weeks, and with the jiayu delays I ‘could’ afford it, and the lte looks tasty, esp as we still don’t know what frequencies the g4 rolls with.

    • Simon
      May 13, 2013

      Surely the Huawei Ascend P2 is much more expensive >£400

      • robert
        May 14, 2013

        Looks like being £350, so with the jiyau delays it is now in budget. Lte ………unlimited data…….payg……..drool…………:)

        • Simon
          May 14, 2013

          What do you think about the Huawei Ascend D2 Mini, I think that will launch soon too ?

          • robert
            May 14, 2013

            Saw the spec in April ?? on here, to be honest I never looked too closely as heart was set on g4 …….but now I will have a search about for more info. Bands for 3g be important though….

    • Simon
      May 14, 2013
  41. Fan
    May 13, 2013

    Hi Andi,
    I love you site, i broke my horriable phone last month and i am going to buy Umi x2 or Jiayu g4 for sure. I would be happy if you will test heavy games like modern combat 4 on them and make a Versus review between them.
    thx

  42. jaaber
    May 13, 2013

    Does it have a notification LED?

  43. drftxs13
    May 14, 2013

    Hi Andi, yeah I also want you to check the WCDMA BandModes of the phone please, can you please check them from the MTK engineering menu ?

  44. May 14, 2013

    Hi Andi,

    Very good site, I have been following in the last few month. How does the G4 feel in compare with the Xaiomi Mi2s?
    I want to buy one of these two phones and I am leaning a bit more to the Mi2s because of MIUI, which look good. Do you know if there is a MIUI ROM coming for the G4?
    The advantage for me with the G4, is the dual sim. Does it work probably?
    If I get a single sim phone, then I have to get the nokia 105 aswell, 35 days battery for only 20$:)

    Thx

    • May 14, 2013

      There will probably be a MIUI port for the G4 in the future. I love my Mi2, the G4 feels very similar and the design is the same, but the MIUI on the Xiaomi is much better, but I would expect so as it’s double the price 🙂

      • Simon
        May 14, 2013

        As it should be, if you pay alot more you should be getting alot more in total fairness.

  45. Simon
    May 14, 2013

    Is it true Xiaomi are the developers of MIUI ?

  46. Cyrux
    May 14, 2013

    Hi Andi, just another question about thickness.
    How does G4 compare to G3?

  47. Simon
    May 14, 2013

    Just saw your response on other post. You can delete this comment & the one above.

  48. May 14, 2013

    when a complete recension?

  49. Nono
    May 14, 2013

    Hi, i see that sensitive buttons dont have light but do they at least vibrate ? If anyone can answer…Thx !!