I got a cute, iPhone-esque “Phonybaby” 3G phone from the “Dodgey cellphone market” in Shenzhen while I was there. It was very nearly usable (Really only storage capacity held it back). However it died 
! So I decided to pull it to bits and document the internals:
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Cool stuff. How much did it cost?
I’m a huge fan of these phones. I bought a “Doogee Latte 450” from eBay for $105 shipped a year and a bit ago. Its a bit more expensive now because our dollar went down. Its got 4 cores and 1gb Ram. But like you said, the only downside is the storage. It takes an SD card but lots of apps need to be installed internally (only 1gb).
What did you get to replace your phone baby? I’m probably going to get the next step up with the Doogees. Mostly because I like the brand name (sounds like dodgy ;))
Whelp, ironically, I had purchased a Chinese Mlais (Sounds like “Malaise”!) M52 phone to take over there as a “burner” that I could load temporary account details onto. Alas the shipping rules for lithium batteries must have changed some time around then as a lot of things I purchased with Li batteries would get “re-shipped”, so it took too long to get here (Arrived the day I got back). In the end I got a Motorola E (1st gen) because it was $114 retail.
I’m quite amazed at how good this phone is, so I kept it as my main phone back home. The main downside is only 2G of onboard storage (with the drawbacks you highlighted).
So I guess I’m on the hunt for a new phone again with at least 8G built in. I’d like to get a Moto G, but they don’t seem to be for retail sale in Australia. I’d consider another Chinese phone if I could get one with “later” Android and a 4-ish inch screen (the 5.5" on the Mlais was bigger than I expected and too big for my pockets).