iPhone clone gets keyboard in case

Another fake Apple mobile spotted at trade show

16 October 2009 9:52 GMT / By Lars-Göran Nilsson

It's no secret that there are plenty of fake iPhone products on the market, but attend a trade show in Asia and you'll see more than your fair share. There are of course rip-offs of other phones as well, although most of those don't tend to add much in terms of functionality.

In this case we spotted a rather intriguing fake, as this handset from one of the many Shanzai's displaying their wares, actually adds interesting features that we don't expect and will never be added to the real deal.

It's really a simple idea, a keyboard integrated into a protective case with a customised connector for the phone. Although it's not a great keyboard, as among other things, the layout is terrible, it does at least get the job done in a fairly elegant way.

However, the interface to the phone is anything but elegant, as it's using a row of connects that runs nearly the full length of the right hand side of the phone itself.

Apart from this, the handset itself doesn't really have any standout features, but it's interesting to see that the manufacturer decided to call its music player application "iPod", something we're certain Apple won't be all too happy about.

We wouldn't recommend anyone investing any money into one of these knock-offs, but if nothing else, this is an interesting design study into what the iPhone could've looked like with a keyboard.

 

Full tags
Phones, iPhone, Clones, Mobile phones
UK Shopping
mobiles.co.uk, three.co.uk, carphonewarehouse.co.uk, Nokia.co.uk, o2.co.uk, orange.co.uk, phones4u.co.uk, t-mobile.co.uk, vodafone.co.uk, ebay.co.uk
US Shopping
bestbuy.com, ebay.com

share Subscribe to RSS feeds email story save story print story pdf

Comments

  • Its an interesting idea, and to be honest, the keyboard doesn't look all that much worse than the one on my little Asus eeePC 70. What I want to know though, is how good are the chinese clones - there are hundreds available on ebay alone, mostly from Hong Kong or Shenzhen, but there are virtually no reviews (certainly almost none in english that I can find) on the web. Some of the features of these things look to be actually useful and I would love to know if they are worth the effort and expense of getting one. Posted by Me Wombat, UK

(Will not be published)

  (Next time sign in to bypass captcha)

Latest in Phones

Latest on Pocket-lint

Top 10 Broadband

Compare 50+
broadband packages

Home Broadband »

Pocket-lint poll

Q. Do you use the same password for everything?

Vote YES Vote NO

» LAST TIME
When asked Do you check emails, twitter or surf the internet in the loo? 65% said yes and 35% said no

About Pocket-lint

Pocket-lint is your one stop shop for gadgets, technology and consumer electronics, bringing you the low-down on the latest televisions, cameras, phones, GPS and much more. Whether it's learning about what's hot in the world of Apple, finding out about the latest home cinema kit from Samsung and Sony or merely seeing what not to buy, we have you covered. So check out our reviews, news, comment, hands-on photo galleries and videos. Enjoy.

Top products

tip us on news

reviews hub

Rss feed

Follow us on Twitter