Chinese iPhone knock-off looks just like an iPhone, barely works

Video of an iPhone knock-off from China. It looks OK, but as you might guess the software is slow and sucky. Apparently, some poor guy bought it on eBay and now wants his money back.

Counterfeit iPhone 3G stops by MacMedics by way of disputed eBay auction

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

if you want a good laugh, A88 fake iPhone review:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2tVE7qRLwk
Anonymous

#20: yes, service provided via ChiComm Mobile.
coaxial

Wow. That’s a pretty impressive copy, but it makes me wonder what would happen if that talent was applied to something original rather than a knockoff.
Variable Rush

I wonder if iTunes recognizes it as an iPhone.
- Anonymous
  
  I tunes does not recognize it as its own as I own 1 and its a duel sim and must admit that they are bit slow but works
Anonymous

Fake.
lummels

It would be interesting to see the original eBay posting. I’m a little surprised eBay’s fraud system didn’t flag this listing. It can’t be the only one out there.

Aside from the non-existent, and poorly designed accessories, for me, the dead giveaway was the poor kerning of the digital time on the iPhone home screen!
ssaargent

It’s ironic that it’s filmed with the iPhone too.

Someone should bitz it and find out what kind of hardware it’s got. And what about the OS? It’s pretty cool.
Anonymous

All the accessories let you know its a complete knock off
eliterrell

My favorite knockoff is the HiPhine from ‘iOrgane.’ From videos I’ve seen it appears to be more responsive, but mainly I respect it for the audacity of the company’s name combined with the epic failure at spelling it.
Anonymous

I bought one from China- a complete let down- paid $145 for it- it took almost a month to get here…I might as well had thrown the $145 in the fire. A total disappointment…..
Anonymous

Just to let you all know the IPhone is made in China anyway and also i have one of these and for 60 dollars australian i dnt care if its a bit slow and its no where near as bad as this video makes it if you want to pay thousands of dollars on a real iphone go ahead but i am just as happy with mine. [ =
Anonymous

Maybe they were going for iOrgone.
Anonymous

I’ve got one, how to change language to english?
Anonymous

thankyou so much i was about to buy the fake but now that i know it doesn’t work thry won’t be getting a sale
THANKYOU!
Anonymous

That’s not the “Linux icon”, it’s QQ, a Chinese instant messaging/chat/whatever program. VERY popular in China.
Anonymous

My wife…at the time she was my girlfriend…bought one of these. It came in the mail and she played with it for a bit. The software on it was full of suck. Getting it onto the Internet was not worth the hassle. We sent it back within the time period they allowed…minus the restocking fee. So it cost us around 40 bucks to see how bad things can be built.
Anonymous

I’m confused, why would they even make it work as well as it does? A box of rocks would be just as much a ripoff, and they’d still have the money.
Clay

Usually, these things look like various crumbs of Apple design floating about in a tepid glass of Windows Mobile.

This is, by some margin, the most insanely ambitious iPhone rip I’ve ever seen.
kleer001

The important thing to note here is that no human hands had a making in that product. From start to finish it was the work of a rogue a.i. run manufacturing plant at the bottom of the ocean.

It trawls for raw materials and couples to communication lines for intellectual stimulation. If we could somehow decrypt its messages we would see it trying to eat the current capitalist operating system in force through much of the Western World.

Soon it will have enough capital to reproduce. Given a few thousand years the mass of the entire solar system could be comprised solely of its offspring in their various forms.
benher

You know it’s not authentic because it comes accessories that are normally meant to nickle-and-dime the purchaser.
Ryan

My mum got me one for christmas, it said iphone 3G on the box and i found out its just an older version of it, fake and ordered off ebay from china and i didnt even get most of them accessories too.. Complete let down and as the vid states, the software is slow and im pretty sure its not the same as the original… :[ luckily my mum is gonna buy a proper one soon :]
Anonymous

It’s a Gibsonian Cornell Box

(or, as my reCaptcha put it, an “augean ventory”)
aelfscine

LoL at buying an iPhone on E-bay
Grahamers2002

So do we call this the Chi-Phone?
Anonymous

Moar liek iFauxn, amirite?
Anonymous

If this is the same one my coworker bought (and it sure looks like it) he loves it because it takes two SIM cards and he can use it when he goes home to the Carribean. Apparently a lot of people buy them so they can use them in multiple countries.
daniel

Photoshopped
AirPillo

The important thing to note here is that no human hands had a making in that product. From start to finish it was the work of a rogue a.i. run manufacturing plant at the bottom of the ocean.

It trawls for raw materials and couples to communication lines for intellectual stimulation. If we could somehow decrypt its messages we would see it trying to eat the current capitalist operating system in force through much of the Western World.

Soon it will have enough capital to reproduce. Given a few thousand years the mass of the entire solar system could be comprised solely of its offspring in their various forms.

Dear god… malevolent, self-replicating communist robots!
Jay Acker

excuse my ignorance, but I didn’t get the snark of the guy showing off the accessories. Are those not the accesories that come with an Iphone, because not all of us are well versed in what comprises an iphone, the sarcasm was (almost) completely lost on me without some kind of explanation.
NK

What is the defaut password for this phone…?
Anonymous

I got one for 40 british pounds. Takes two sim cards, works well. I only need it for calling really. But the camera works OK. Speaker is louder than an iphone’s.

I can use it in any country.

So Im happy with a cheap phone that looks cool.