Posted by First thing that comes to most people’s minds when hearing “Made in China” is cheap and low quality products. While maybe that was true some years ago, now you can find some great products coming out of China.
This is mainly due to Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, OnePlus, UGreen, Huawei, etc that leverage on the infrastructure and know-how that China accumulated over the years by manufacturing products for western companies, to create equal quality products for their lineup. And the best part is that these high quality products are being sold at a fraction of the cost of equivalent products you can find in the US and Europe.
Chinese brands Xiaomi, Huawei and OnePlus are now global and their phones and tablets can be found in US and EU stores. These are the Chinese brands most people know. There are great products though that these and other Chinese companies make that are not available in the US and Europe and are not only great deals but are also of great quality. Huawei makes excellent laptops, Xiaomi has products ranging from phones to rice cookers and brands such as UGreen make top quality PC and phone accessories.
In order to buy these products you need to import them directly from China. There are a ton of websites that sell Chinese products but I recommend using the sites listed below that are tried and tested over the years:
â—‰ Gearbest
One of the most reputable websites with Chinese made products. I’ve used them many times and I have no complaints. I purchased my Xiaomi laptop (Mi Notebook 12.5”) there years ago which I still use to this day without any problems (runs Arch great btw). A bit pricier that competitors but you have peace of mind shopping from this site.
â—‰ Banggood
A direct competitor of Gearbest. Equally reputable with similar products. Sometimes you can find better deals in Banggood so it’s good to visit this site as well when looking for something specific, especially from well known brands such as Xiaomi.
â—‰ geekbuying
Another competitor to Gearbest and Banggood but not as large as the aforementioned sites. Still a good place to browse for items when searching for something specific.
â—‰ TradingShenzhen
While not as known as Gearbest or Banggood and while they offer nowhere near the product range the previous mentioned sites have they still have a good selection of phones and especially laptops (Xiaomi and Huawei) at excellent prices.
â—‰ AliExpress / Temu
Unlike the sites already mentioned that are standalone stores, AliExpress and Temu are platforms that various Chinese sellers can list their products for sale. Both stores have the most variety of products and the best deals, since usually you can find the thing you are looking for being sold by many sellers. However these are also the most risky options as there may be times where the products are of “questionable” quality. But even so you can still file a dispute and arrange a refund with the seller as the sellers try to avoid negative feedback due to the high competition on these platforms. Make sure to read the product reviews and order from sellers with a lot of order history.
I would recommend using AliExpress and Temu for small and low cost products.
Note: When importing things from China you should keep in mind that these are subject to import duties in your country. So take that into account when assessing whether something is a deal or not. AliExpress sellers are usually very keen in helping out with this and sometimes declare lower values prior to shipping. Store sites such as Gearbest also offer shipping from or through EU warehouses to bypass import duties in other EU countries.
YouTube is a great source to find reviews for most of Chinese products, especially phones and laptops. So it’s a good idea to look things up before buying.
Coupons
When looking for deals take a look at this excellent spreadsheet created by Unboxing Specialist with all the latest coupons and deals by Chinese stores for a wide variety of products.
If I still haven’t convinced you about products made in China and prefer to purchase things from Amazon and such then maybe you want to read this post about buying things from the US that are not available for shipping in your country.
