Source: Wired.com
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If so, Apple must be feeling mighty good about itself right now. These handsets all try to emulate the quintessential Jesus phone with touchscreens and copycat graphics. But when we roll up our sleeves and drill down, cracks begin to show.
In honor of the benevolent beard-god of Cupertino, we rate the strength of every iClone with black turtlenecks, five turtlenecks being a nearly flawless facsimile with one turtleneck being a messy mockery not even worthy of the term iClone.
Samsung F700
There seems to be a little quid pro quo at work with the F700. Samsung's answer to the iPhone brings a squint 2.7-inch touchscreen, sports HSDPA (but no Wi-Fi) and uses a drag-and-drop interface (without multitouch). Happen to be typo-allergenic? The F700's full QWERTY keyboard makes typing relatively glitch free. And the 5-MP camera? More than twice as powerful as the one on the iPhone.HTC Touch
The Touch is two parts iPhone nemesis, one part clone. First off, it's smaller, runs Windows Mobile 6, zips about the internet on HSDPA/EV-DO, and arguably has a better paint job. But the iPhone does have the Touch licked in screen real estateHTC's 2.8-inch display is barely roomy enough for those with dainty digits -- forget the sausage-fingered. How does HTC work around this? By including two stylus' with the handset.
LG Voyager
LG found the easiest way to build an iContender -- it just slapped a 2.8-inch touchscreen on the enV. Luckily, the Voyager gleaned most of the fine features from its less tactile cousin. Speedy EV-DO connectivity, a QWERTY keyboard and a host of multimedia features easily take the Voyager beyond clone status.
However, no Wi-Fi support flunks it right back to the remedial class. Oh, and that tiny touchscreen it boasts? Let's just say it's more suited for caveman-like pokes and less for elegant finger whisks.
CECT P168
China spews out iPhone clones like The Empire pumps out Storm Troopers. But in the P168, CECT has managed to rip off almost all of what made the God phone iconic. Nods to Cupertino include a 3.5-inch touchscreen, a metal frame and Mac OSX-style wallpaper and startup images.
Six-speaker, 3-D sound and dual sim cards are nice, but with no advanced sensors, P168 users are missing one of the iPhone's biggest perks -- effortlessly switching from landscape to portrait modes with a flick of the wrist.
Six-speaker, 3-D sound and dual sim cards are nice, but with no advanced sensors, P168 users are missing one of the iPhone's biggest perks -- effortlessly switching from landscape to portrait modes with a flick of the wrist.
Meizu M8
Meizu's M8 lives in a dreamworld between major cloneage and vaporware. Although shrouded in speculation and wrapped in mystery, the M8 supposedly runs a version of Windows CE 6.0 that's been dressed up like Apple's GUI. The similarities don't stop there. This copycat features 4-MB and 8-MB flash versions, Wi-Fi, tilt sensors and a 3.3-inch touchscreen. Setbacks? Meizu has been sketchy on the release date and the unit only supports standard touching. Fanboys of the iPhone's uppity multi-touch need not apply.
LG Prada
The Prada captures just one of the iPhone's features perfectly: pretension. As if bearing the name of a posh Italian designer wasn't enough, this never-to-be-available-in-the-U.S. phone is sleek, and sports a 3-inch touchscreen. Unfortunately, beauty is only skin deep for this Apple polisher. The Prada embarrassingly relies on a sparse GUI and is missing an on-screen QWERTY keyboard. With Wi-Fi not making the cut either, it's mind-boggling that the Prada is more expensive than its iMuse.
