S5E Purchased in China - Differences / Concerns

[theregulator]

I lost my previous tablet on a recent trip to China and purchased a S5E as a replacement while there. I was able to set it up while there and then reset it and started over once back in the USA. That being said, I'm curious what differences there are between models sold in different countries, and should I be specifically concerned about a machine manufactured for the Chinese market.

On factory reset the unit looks to Chinese websites for initial setup. Access to the Play Store seems normal once the apk is loaded. All the apps I've downloaded from PS seem to run without issue and are updating as expected.

Security patch level shows August 2019.

TIA

 

[anon(7901790)]

You touched on one of the differences already, the fact that it defaulted to Chinese sites during the initial setup. That would be a little worrisome for me. I trust the PRC about as far as I can throw it. I wouldn't be surprised if the Chinese variant had some kind of spyware on it. I'm not saying it does, I'm just saying that it wouldn't surprise me if it did. The PRC government is not known for its human rights record and honoring the privacy of its citizens.

Beyond my concerns about the PRC and the cybersecurity concerns involved, there are some differences; mainly with hardware. I believe non-US variants uses Samsung's Exynos processor instead of Qualcomm's Snap Dragon. Functionality should be little different than the US versions. Since you installed the US version of Play Store, then all of your apps should install fine.

Since you didn't specify, I'm assuming it is the WiFi version and doesn't have LTE enabled. Updates should come directly from Samsung. I have the Verizon LTE version and I'm running the September security patch.

The warranty is probably not valid. Since you bought it in the PRC, then I'm sure (not 100% though) that there is no US warranty. Therefore, if you do have a hardware failure, Samsung USA may not honor the warranty.

Ultimately, you shouldn't have any problems functionality wise, it is the security portion I would be concerned with. There are documented cases of Samsung (and other OEM) devices being sold in the PRC and other Asian markets that had PRC installed malware/spyware pre-installed on the devices.