Saving is a very controversial thing. On the one hand, it allows you to save money and put it in reserve, and, on the other hand, it does not allow you to fully enjoy the purchases made here and now. Not that I'm a spender. On the contrary, I have nothing against those for whom pumping the muscles of humility is an end in itself and brings true pleasure. But sometimes to save is to consciously doom yourself to inconvenience. This happens all the time with smartphones. I explain on my fingers why you need to save wisely when buying a new device.
If a smartphone is too cheap, then the product is not it, but you
Despite the fact that a cheap smartphone is, in principle, a very not universal phenomenon, it can be quite dangerous. Practice shows that some vendors who want to offer consumers inexpensive devices, but at the same time want to not only lose money, but also earn some extra money, supply them with preinstalled malware. It can be anything from adware and spyware applications to viruses that steal money from user accounts in one way or another.
The problems of cheap smartphones
Xiaomi does not hesitate to insert ads into the firmware of their smartphones
Smartphones with ads are the most common. Manufacturers, in order to earn extra money on unprofitable products, install advertising software that displays all kinds of ads. Thus, users, without knowing it, generate a small but stable profit for the companies that have released their smartphone. The amount of earnings depends on how many elements with embedded advertising are in the firmware, what its quality is – casino advertising is traditionally paid more than for coffee machines – as well as on the number of devices sold.
The most common example of smartphones with adware are smartphones Xiaomi. The Chinese manufacturer has crammed banners wherever possible, thus providing itself with some income. In principle, this was a logical step, given that the marginality of smartphones Xiaomi is only 8-10% versus 25-35% for competitors. Calling an advertisement in MIUI malicious is not easy, but, on the other hand, it is still not very pleasant to watch it there while performing any actions. But it gets worse.
Dangerous smartphones on Android
An excellent example is Tecno smartphones, which recently came out to Russia. Of course, the manufacturer poured serious money into promoting its products by purchasing advertising publications in thematic media, which worked them out to the maximum. But for some reason no one except us said that quite serious malicious programs were found in Tecno smartphones, which, in addition to displaying ads, subscribed users to paid services and thus lured money from their accounts.
Chinese smartphones are more likely to stumble upon malware than all others
Tecno is far from the only manufacturer caught preinstalling malware on their smartphones. Here is just a small list of those who got caught on this in the last 2-3 years:
- OnePlus
- Motorola
- Lenovo
- Doogee
- Nokia
In fact, there are quite a few machines that come with infected software out of the box. Basically, these are, of course, smartphones based on AOSP, the free version Android without Google Mobile Services, which Google distributes without restrictions. As a rule, it is used by no-name brands like Doogee, etc., but in general, there are quite eminent manufacturers. Just worth Huawei, which is denied access to the certified version Android. Therefore, you should not build on brands. Better focus on price, reviews of other users and your own experience.