The hidden costs of buying cheap stuff from China. Story by Alana Semuels • 7y. ... yet none of the three phone stores I went to in San Francisco’s Chinatown could find a SIM card that worked.

That isn’t to say that buying smartphones from China isn’t without its pitfalls. There are questions about where to buy, who to trust and what happens when something goes wrong.

Chinese e-commerce websites are perfectly happy to sell individual items, like electronics parts, to U.S. consumers. You don't need agents to take advantage of cheap Chinese imports.

Chinese phones?! Ugh! Sounds cheap right? ... the device which you are looking for in the same price range in your country. So go ahead and make you first attempt at buying a phone from China.

Potentially you are buying a phone from half way across the world, from an unknown company, based on a few specifications and a couple of photos! ... Cheap Android Phones China Opinions.

In April, Alcatel, which is owned by China's TCL Corporation, ... About 74 percent of consumers still buy their phones through a carrier, ... Best Cheap Phones . Best Camera Phones . Best iPhones .

Should you trust a low-priced Android phone from a brand you've never heard of with your security and privacy? The fact is that many low-priced Android smartphones have had security and privacy ...

CNET's Marguerite Reardon explains in this edition of Ask Maggie why those too-good-to-be-true deals on cheap smartphones from China should be avoided. Marguerite Reardon started as a CNET News ...

But the days of cheap camera sensors being the best you can hope for in a lower-cost phone are long over. For instance, the Nothing Phone 2a and OnePlus 12R come with a 50MP main camera while the ...