Remember the Meizu M8? The iPhone clone that tries to do everything the iPhone can, but can’t? Looks like Meizu might be heading in a new direction. We’re hearing rumblings that the Meizu M8 is getting geared up to run Android. Very interesting. An iPhone clone running the open source Android OS. I suspect those that enjoy the iPhone’s form-factor, but are disappointed in the lack of current Android hardware selection… might be tempted to give this a look if this actually happens.
What say you out there? Would you be willing to give the Meizu M8 a spin if the device ran Android?
Meizu is looking into opportunity to introduce more devices for different market segments. More precisely, the company behind the world’s famous iPhone clone is working on CDMA and TD-SCDMA versions of the device, which will be called M9c and M9t, respectively.
Not much details are known at this stage, except that the M9 will use pretty much the same hardware as its predecessor - M8. Sadly, we expected some boost in the specs, but guess that will have to wait for some other chance. Moreover, it’s not like we’re able to buy these phones in the Western hemisphere, anyway…
By Dusan Belic on Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 at 6:10 AM PST In Meizu
Here’s an interesting piece of news for all of you guys and gals who plan to travel to Shenzhen, China. The folks behind the world’s most famous iPhone clone, Meizu M8, have opened a new (is it first?) flagship store in downtown Shenzhen. While there you can sneak peek at the company’s flagship handset and compare it with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s original work. Note here that we like the way Meizu “sounds” with better screen and camera. However, we can’t support anyone who infringes on copyright, hence WE DO NOT — I repeat “WE DO NOT” — advise you to grab the M8. If you want it that bad - it’s your call, it has nothing to do with us.
(Note: Image above is not the way Meizu’s store looks like, it’s a Photoshop work. Photos of the store are available from this page.)
Has it really been two years since Meizu announced their iPhone clone? If any other mobile phone manufacturer had taken two years to go from product announcement to actual product launch, we’d have written them off as a non-player in a mobile space that’s becoming fast saturated with touchscreen smartphone options. But, lucky for the infamous iPhone copy-cats at Meizu, we’re still intrigued by the Chinese-made Meizu M8.
The Meizu M8 has been reviewed by IT168.com and they’ve apparently come away impressed. The Meizu M8 sports a strong feature set and even boasts a finger-friendly user interface that does a good job of covering up the handset’s Windows CE roots. Add to that a high-resolution 3.4-inch touchscreen (480 x 720), a decent 3 megapixel camera, removable battery, and an iPhone-inspired piano-black casing, and the Meizu M8 starts to sound like a capable yet sleek smartphone.
The company behind the world’s most known iPhone clone seems to gear towards the launch of their M8 handset. The iPhone-like device should hit the stores in select markets this month (or at least we heard so), hence Meizu decided it’s about time to invest in web design. Their new website look much better, featuring the M8 on the homepage.
As far as I see, everything is ready for the launch, except the English version of the site, prompting us to think we’ll still have to wait to see the famous iPhone clone hitting the western hemisphere. In the meantime, we can at least enjoy video of M8’s user interface. Or not, it’s your call…
It’s been a long and copyright-infringing road for the infamous iPhone clone. More than a year after announcing its intention to take on the iPhone in the touchscreen-slate smartphone market that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) helped redefine, Meizu is closing in on their rumored launch date for the Meizu M8 MiniOne. To be fair, any touchscreen smartphone with a slate form-factor could easily be called an iPhone clone, but the Meizu M8 takes the whole “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” thing to heart.
Don’t believe us? Check out this newly leaked video, found by Engadget Mobile, of the Meizu M8 user interface in action - displayed on China’s YouTube rip-off, no less. If the graphical elements and UI animations look familiar, that’s because the M8 MiniOne you’ve probably seen the “inspiration” hanging out at your local Apple store. And you thought multi-touch was only available on the iPhone and iPhone 3G…
The anticipated launch of the Meizu M8 is coming soon, at least before the end of 2008 from all I can tell. The Taiwan based Geek IT Store will be launching the so-called ‘iPhone Killer’ (I’ve heard that before) starting in the Chinese market and the Indian market to follow, starting in December.
The 8GB model should sell for somewhere around $380 and $470.
It’s been some time when we last heard about Meizu and their famous iPhone clone - M8 MiniOne. Now, apparently the Chinese company is finally moving towards launching its device. According to posts by the company’s CEO Jack Wong, the first Meizu devices will start selling within a month. Initial basic version will come with 128MB of memory and an unspecified amount of permanent memory. A second version, with 256MB of memory and 8GB of flash storage, will reportedly ship in October for a price equal to $320.
With icon animations and familiar UI, the Meizu M8 could very well prove to be a hit. The UI design changes are reportedly the work of eico design, and features sparkling animations and LED-like indicators for missed calls and messages.
Of course, seeing as how Meizu CEO Jack Wong hasn’t yet gotten his more-hype-than-substance handset to market, we could just be looking at some enthusiastic mock-ups that may or may not ever materialize. By the time this thing launches, it’ll be a couple years behind the competition and likely phased out through multiple news-cycles.
Remember this year’s CeBIT and shutting down of Meizu’s booth? Apparently that has nothing to do with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) — the Chinese company hasn’t paid a dime for the MP3 licence usage.
But today I don’t wanna talk about that. Rather I want to point out that Meizu has tweaked the M8’s UI a bit to further differentiate themselves from a “certain iPhone.” I’m not sure they’ve succeeded, or to put it in other words I’m not sure they wanted to succeed. More screenshots follow after the jump and you be the judge whether this reminds you on Apple’s work or not.
