Keepin' it real fake, part LVII: Ultimate knockoff phone rips four separate brands

We get a wee bit excited round here when brands collide to create interesting new spinoffs, but this handset is full-on ridiculous. Our creative Asian friends weren't happy with a simple gaming handset, they had to bust out a Windows Mobile-esque OS, with a dash of faux PSP, a splash of Nintendo all wrapped in almost Anycall. Notice that great big PSP logo on the back? Well that's all there is for Sony content here, the handset is actually loaded with NES games and Pac-Man? Of course, we have to congratulate on the Samsung F520 double slider thing going on here, we feel that this is definitely a winning idea, but of course this handset only copies and is definitely not the brainchild of Samsung. Packing dual-band GSM a-la 900 / 1800, a 1.3 megapixel shooter, a touchscreen, and support for up to 2GB of memory, the mystery manufacturer handset definitely has the goods. This is without a doubt the pinnacle of Keepin' It Real Fake fare, and we think this could only be topped by some clever use of iPhone branding and maybe a Coca-Cola color scheme. This one won't be hitting carriers over here, but at the end of the day, who really cares? We are justifiably in awe.

[Matt @ Sep 20th 2008 5:49PM]

I bought the Anycall [hone from EBAY, $160 awesome phone.
Does anyone know where i can get more info on its features etc ??

[Liu Kang @ May 17th 2007 3:38PM]

Chinese - always the immitator, never the innovator.

[S. Chen @ May 18th 2007 2:27PM]

you know, it's really bad, on your part, that immediately you thought of Chinese.

[Nando @ May 17th 2007 3:38PM]

Neat, I guess.

[andy @ May 17th 2007 3:43PM]

"Chinese - always the immitator, never the innovator." erm, you should read a history book

[Matt @ May 17th 2007 4:05PM]

Yes, because ancient Chinese discoveries are completely relevant to discussions about technology ripoffs.

[Christian Martin @ May 17th 2007 3:52PM]

This thing is actually kind of hot.

[erg @ May 17th 2007 3:56PM]

I would get one if they plaster on the Apple logo.

[Bill @ May 17th 2007 4:03PM]

Curse those Chinese for stealing, let's see, gunpowder, paper and printing, silk, the compass, cast iron, the crossbow, porcelain.

[Bill @ May 17th 2007 5:14PM]

He He, Discoveries?

"Hey, look at this assortment of incredibly useful materials and objects I "discovered" just laying here on the ground."

All those things ARE technology.

[MasterCKO @ May 22nd 2007 5:37PM]

they're relevant to the xenophobic comment that he was replying to.

[fred @ May 17th 2007 4:07PM]

DUDE! Is that Popeye on that phone? !?! I'd buy five of those! Apple had better watch they're backs, with the threat of the Popeye playing phone lirking around out there.

[Perrey Z. @ May 21st 2007 2:10AM]

You're talking about the red baldy character? No is not Popeye, is a Tokyo Movie Shinsha show called Anpanman, that thing is the main character of the show., in it, he picks pieces of his head {his head is a huge bun} and feed the needy, pretty weird show but is been onb the air since 1988. BTW his friends are breakfast related things such as cheese, tea, muffins, etc.

[MarkG @ May 17th 2007 4:22PM]

"Chinese - always the immitator, never the innovator."

A few decades ago, you could have said that of Japan or South Korea.

[Alan Strangis @ May 17th 2007 4:36PM]

If it was quad band, I'd almost want to buy this just for the ultra-real-fakiness.

If it came with Robotron 2084 I'd TOTALLY sign up to save the family while rocking the dual D-pads.

[Matt @ May 17th 2007 5:39PM]

Tomato, tomahto.

What I mean is, you can't say that the Chinese consumer electronics industry isn't fueled by ripoffs just because they invented some stuff a couple thousand years ago.

That's like saying the Packers are a good team cause they won some Super Bowls.

[dave @ May 17th 2007 5:11PM]

touchscreen and comes with 2500 playable nes games...2 please

[Bill @ May 17th 2007 5:52PM]

Touche!

Just to be on topic, though. While this seems like a pretty nifty convergence device, I personally, can barely justify owning a cell phone to begin with(but I do) and have never been interested in gaming with my eyes crossed.

[zed @ May 17th 2007 6:00PM]

No GPS???It has room for one more!!!

[kyle allen @ May 17th 2007 6:01PM]

that is quite possibly the coolest phone since the n-gage!! (yes i do realize i have horrible taste in phones)

[Steve @ May 17th 2007 7:06PM]

"Of course, we have to congratulate on the Samsung F520 double slider thing going on here, we feel that this is definitely a winning idea, but of course this handset only copies and is definitely not the brainchild of Samsung."

So, using that same logic, all clamshell phones are just copies of the Motorola StarTAC 85.

Right?

[MCJ @ May 17th 2007 7:32PM]

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/03/13/samsung-sph-b5200-dmb-phone-with-gaming-pad/

I think you make a mistake, this is really SAMSUNG phone!!!!!!!!!!!!!
isn't it?

[Tony Rayo @ May 17th 2007 9:55PM]

I don't think Samsung would have a PSP-esque logo on the back of their phone though. The weird thing is, some of these "rip-off" products end up being better than what we already have. I can't say that this is an example of that, but they shouldn't try to ride the PSP... they'd have better luck making it look like a DS!

- Tony R.

[geoff rathbone @ May 18th 2007 1:22AM]

i'll taake one of those

even if its imitation

[Tony Rayo @ May 17th 2007 9:51PM]

It reminds me a bit of the Helio Ocean as well, but did Samsung come out with the design first? Sorry, I really don't follow cellphone news until I need to buy a new one; which will probably be coming up soon as I switch from Sprint to Verizon. If anyone has any recommendations for a power-user on a budget I'd be glad to hear them =).

- Tony R.

[shimman @ May 17th 2007 10:08PM]

i think "AnyCall" is what samsung phones are named in korea.

so whoever copied exactly as the samsung's dmb phone with game pads, i guess did a decent job, but i have no idea why they put anycall & psp logos on their phone.

i would pay it for 50usd ;)

[ZSX @ May 18th 2007 1:36AM]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-SuperLCD-3M-Cam-512M-NES-games-Double-Sliding-MB2000_W0QQitemZ330119189658QQihZ014QQcategoryZ3312QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

There you go. It isn't cheap though £124.99 + £19.99 p+p on eBay.co.uk

The Pocket PC interface also looks totally 'shopped.

[Alba Meira @ May 18th 2007 7:51AM]

LoL... I'd buy one. It can't possibly be any worse than the crappy phone I have now. And 2GB capable? That's fine.

[cuby @ May 18th 2007 2:05PM]

i'm sure the chinese could innovate if they wanted to. perhaps it's just cheaper for them to manufacture knockoffs that undercut those companies who need to recoup major $$ from their R&D costs?

that said, i don't know how the employees at these companies sleep at night.

[S. Chen @ May 18th 2007 2:32PM]

my last comment was for Liu Kang.

[T.H. @ May 18th 2007 4:42PM]

You people always saying the Chinese can only imitate have to excuse the many inventions that fueled the basis of todays technologies. You also have to excuse the many people abroad (especially in the US) who are Chinese and making wonderful new discoveries or furthering and refining existing ones. Some of you might have heard of Taiwan. It might surprise you to know that Taiwanese, an area once known for it's cheap knockoffs, are in actuality...drum roll please...Chinese.

[Dan Pritchard @ May 18th 2007 8:51PM]

T.H.-

Taiwan is not China. China = the big Communist dictatorship that exports billions of dollars worth of crappy merchandise every year, most of it knockoffs. Taiwan is a democratic nation that China wants to re-conquer so they can make it suck as much as China.

I think the people here who are saying (basically) "China sucks for having no innovation and just ripping everyone off" are talking about THAT China.

Anecdote:
My last 12" Apple PowerBook was made in Taiwan. Other than a Toshiba hard drive which failed after a year or so, I have never had any problem with it. My friend bought a 12" PowerBook a year later after production switched to Mainland China. His had many quality defects by comparison (keys didn't quite sit flat, screen had brightness anomalies, etc. In my opinion that's the difference between Taiwan quality and China quality. Nothing is lower quality than Chinese manufacturing. Just ask the hundreds of dead dogs and cats who died 'cause of a bunch of greedy Chinese jackasses trying to pad their protein levels by putting crap in pet food.

Now, all that said, I'd buy one of these phones! Though innovation is to be encouraged rather than ripping off existing stuff, what's cool about this is cool PRECISELY BECAUSE of the Chinese zero-respect-for-IP philosophy--NES Emulator on a phone? AWESOME. No legitimate vendor would have the balls to do that 'cos they don't want to get sued. If this phone were from a legit vendor, it would just be yet another DRM platform and the carriers would charge people $5 per month per game for the privilege of playing, like the damn US carriers already do.

[Matt @ May 23rd 2007 10:06AM]

Pointing out that the Chinese are frequent imitators of electronic gadgets has nothing to do with xenophobia or ancient history.

[MasterCKO @ May 23rd 2007 11:23AM]

when the comment said "Chinese - always the immitator, never the innovator" and mentioned nothing of electronic gadgets, then yeah, it has something to do with both. If you can't see why, I don't really feel like arguing the point with you.