Attack of the Clones!
 

Today i stumbled upon a spam thread that got deleted really fast.
The content of the thread was some random chinese webstores with "free worldwide delivery" so out of curiosity opened one of the sites and checked out their smartphone section.

It was flooded with cheap copies of most smartphones out there, XTC, SE, Iphone, Nokia, you name it and they are all running android 2.2.
After some googling about the validity of these devices i stumbled upon this http://armdevices.net/category/chip-provider/mediatek/

What do you think? How long will it take for them to start churning clones running Meego? According to some analysts, not long - Quite a few chinese companies are already working with Meego and the prognosis is that it should overtake Android in the chinese market in the next couple of years.

I don't know about you guys but that makes me quite content. Its always nice to have options, if Nokia, LG or any other of the mainstream companies out there will not produce a suitable N900 replacement my bet is these guys will.

Re: Attack of the Clones!
 

I can't wait! Cheap phones with OK hardware and Linux... Love it!!

Re: Attack of the Clones!
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...4ugMJdk#at=108

Check this out. Each of their devices can be made with either capacitive or resistive screen :)

Re: Attack of the Clones!
 

Ooooh, those iPhone4 clones are nice, they would look even better running MIUI custom ROM IMO

Re: Attack of the Clones!
 

Agreed with Minkin.

I think these devices are much cheaper than the larger companies (obviously tax, advertising, trademarks, patents, carier fees etc) and offer most of what you want but in the end of the day, they make you feel like you want a little more.

Like what if it had a capacitive screen, what if it had GPS built in, or digital compass, what if it had real 3G speed and higher resolution screen ??? It makes you feel like "hey I would pay you double, if you had those features".

But I think the best compromise is to buy a namebrand through private listing (ebay etc) which has been used, then you'll likely pay sensibly and get those features that are crucial for most of us.

Re: Attack of the Clones!
 

Maybe they are not viable alternatives now but they should be in the future since hardware is getting cheaper and cheaper.

http://www.clonedinchina.com/2010/06...ed-tablet.html

Re: Attack of the Clones!
 

HAHA nice to see you have started a usefull thread, makes a change :p.

Definitly a market to watch as China is just about as good as anyone else now and hell they are sooo cheap in comparison.

Re: Attack of the Clones!
 

Sadly i can't say the same for you.

Back on topic, check this out, they even have devices that can compete with top of the line android smartphones and they are a lot cheaper.

http://www.clonedinchina.com/2010/12...t-unboxed.html

Re: Attack of the Clones!
 

uuuuu noobish china phones, you will be lucky if it works for more than 2 weeks. Most probably battery will run out in 2 hours, you will be charging it for 2 days, constant crashes and reboots.

As soon as something is half cheaper than something similiar somewhere else, you wil get fake or something which is nice only on the box.

Believe me, you better pay more for something which you are sure that it works, than for cheaper brick. (Or at least these are my experience, these clones are just same like everything else from laser pointers to guns. just look at ebay)

Re: Attack of the Clones!
 

You probably have experience with older chinese clones that don't even run a real Smartphone OS but are only trying to trick the user in to thinking they run Android or Symbian with screensavers and wallpapers.

The devices i posted and those on clonedchina website are genuine. They have been reviewed by plenty people outside of China and have developed quite large fan groups in china and throughout the world, like the Meizu M9.
Personally, i believe the time where you can assemble your own phone, or at least pick some of the hardware parts, like you can do with PCs now is close.
Go Go Chinese Clones :)