I want to call out grey market sellers in HK out on this, because it's really irritating me. My housekeeper was sold a Lenovo S90-U, which is hardware-wise a decent, affordable phone but its "-U" moniker means it's designed for domestic China use. The Android operating system software has been purposely crippled to satisfy local requirements. No Google apps are installed and other features have been clumsily hacked off, such as changing APN settings disabled, system software updates crashing the settings panel, etc. I found all this out trying to help configure her phone for use in Japan using a prepaid SIM. The phone would probably be fine for use in China but to sell this phone outside of China is basically ripping people off.

Warning to everyone ... if you're buying a phone, please pay attention to what locale it was originally designed for, especially if that locale is China. Other than software pitfalls, there are also other hidden downsides like not getting the right antenna bands for use in your locale.

As for the grey market sellers, you guys suck for trying to rip off my housekeeper.