Meizu mocks up the M8 MiniOne

These pictures of what appears to be a Meizu M8 MiniOne have been popping up all over, but according to postings by CEO Jack Wong, this is just a final design mockup to judge the "feel" of the device, and isn't real -- in fact, it's not even made of the planned production materials. That's pretty random -- and probably way more effort than necessary, since we'd think you could judge the feel by, you know, purchasing and holding an iPhone.

Update:New UI design?may be.

[nosleepidiot @ Dec 14th 2007 1:26PM]

Man....if they put WinMo on that thing, it would be awesome

[paul34 @ Dec 14th 2007 1:33PM]

But then it wouldn't be as much of an iPhone "inspired" device

[Eddiettr @ Dec 14th 2007 1:33PM]

How can you get the 'feel' of a device when you don't use the correct materials?

[Jonathan Bergeron @ Dec 14th 2007 1:40PM]

I'm all for it, if it's cheaper than the iPhone.

[St. Stephen @ Dec 14th 2007 1:40PM]

"..since we'd think you could judge the feel by, you know, purchasing and holding an iPhone."

wow sign up fast for the Engadget comedy tour! ;P

[Darnell @ Dec 14th 2007 1:47PM]

Great line.

[wrabbit @ Dec 14th 2007 2:52PM]

I love it when engadget does the funny.

[Flashpoint @ Dec 14th 2007 1:43PM]

Well, I for one welcome the Meizu.

If you design a georgeous fashion phone and then tell me I can't buy it unless I'm on AT&T which currrently has poor transfer rates - and I can't switch SIM cards when I travel to Asia, expect me to go to your competition when they make a reasonably good product even if it does resemble yours.

"KEEPING IT REAL FAKE" doesn't sway me in the least.

[waiownsyou @ Dec 14th 2007 2:57PM]

I think you should worry more about "KEEPING IT FULL OF GRAMMAR."

"You has won (1) new message text. Press Meizu two read swiftly."

[Todd @ Dec 15th 2007 2:06AM]

How do so many people miss the point? Companies like Meizu don't -create- devices like this. They -copy- them (right down to the icons on the screen). If that behavior harms the companies that actually spend the money to do the real R&D, who is going to create the next next-gen devices?

The copiers are only good because there are good devices to copy. Take those away and were stuck with the painful status quo.

[Mr Corsini @ Dec 14th 2007 1:56PM]

haha, yeah I love their attempt at 'humour', stick to straight forward gadget blogging I think. Can't wait to get my hands on one of these, it's gonna be amazing. Hope they sell thousands more of these than the chinese iphone when it's finally released. Teach apple a lesson.

[Akshat @ Dec 14th 2007 3:05PM]

'Attempt' at humour? I thought it was funny enough. And true enough.

[Michael LaFramboise @ Dec 14th 2007 3:57PM]

I fail to see how its gonna be "amazing" unless they also rip-off the OS - and I mean not just in looks but also in function

[bob @ Dec 14th 2007 2:01PM]

vapor, that if it ever comes out will have a crap unresponsive ui, crappy non multi touch screen, no updates in future and its roughly the same price as an iphone, thatll prob be on version 2 by the time this ever sees the light of day.

[Al @ Dec 14th 2007 2:24PM]

Yeah it maybe the same price but you will be getting something like 32gb and or 16gb for that price. So at least is has a one up on the iPhone there atm. Not to mention the company devices are not as bad as people think they are.

[bob @ Dec 14th 2007 2:43PM]

yeah, we'll see

[Dax @ Dec 14th 2007 3:54PM]

This phone is junk. How could any CEO allow such a shameful copy to come out of their company? It will be poorly executed in every detail, be it aesthetics, build quility or UI. Expect street vendors to be selling it on the subways.

[SteveMB @ Dec 14th 2007 4:48PM]

Obviously you Apple fanboys have never owned a Meizu produt because your head is stuck so far up Steve's ass.

[palehorse @ Dec 14th 2007 2:09PM]

I'm all over this thing if it's a halfway decent UI, a good browser, WiFi, works on Tmobile USA out of the box, and comes in at half the price of the iPhone, or less... but I won't hold my breath!

[roole @ Dec 14th 2007 2:39PM]

LOL. For all those hoping and salivating: Good luck finding one. (You may want to explore the company website -- the English version -- to form your own judgment. I highly recommend the "discussions" section. It's a riot.)

[roole @ Dec 14th 2007 2:46PM]

Here's a typical comment from the website administrators (this one is from about a week ago -- there's not a great deal of activity in the forum, unfortunately):

http://en.meizu.com/userforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1896&FID=12&PR=3

[Mark @ Dec 14th 2007 2:42PM]

"...and probably way more effort than necessary, since we'd think you could judge the feel by, you know, purchasing and holding an iPhone."

You mean like Apple designers were judging the feel of their future iPhone by, you know, purchasing and holding an LG Prada phone?

With the iPhone, Apple did nothing but steal features from numerous other mobile manufacturers and wrapped them into quadratic, glossy icons. And now it's acting like it's the mobile world's messiah while being more restrictive than M$ has EVER been.

Me? I'm waiting for the Meizu miniOne. Because I am not going to pay twice it's value for a shiny piece of yesterday's technology just because there's a half eaten fruit on it.

[waiownsyou @ Dec 14th 2007 2:58PM]

That's like saying Texas Instruments ripped off the Abacus.

[Me @ Dec 14th 2007 3:02PM]

This comment should go right underneath every engadget iphone news post. This years most overrated *anything* is easily the iphone.

[omegamale @ Dec 14th 2007 3:34PM]

i own an lg prada, i bought it to tide me over untill the release of a 2nd / 3rd gen iphone, as far as i can remember both phones surfaced within a ballhair of eachother, having played around with in iphone, it is obvious it took nothing from the prada, its leagues away. the look, feel and functionality of the prada is pretty crap in comparison.

it really is, as most are becoming.. an iphone wannabe.

it's always impressive how much hatred some people can express towards a success story.
the iphone is easily the "messiah" of all phones, you dont have to like that, but you really can't deny it.

and on 1st gen as well, they are a mere speck of what they are to become.

look at the difference between the first ipod and the ipod touch, thats only 6 years evolution.

the superiority of this device is a great thing, as it has woken up the whole industry and i'f that isn't a 'saviour' then what is?

as users we deserve the standards it has now set.

this new rip off could well turn out to be a great device, and companies will unashamebly rip off the iphone as there can't be much wrong with being 2nd best to the iphone, if i was in the market, i think thats where i' like to be, an aggressively different device, such as most of the new nokias only get the brownie points for tech used, though none in the user expeiriance and glimpse of the future.

as i said, i'm waiting patiently for 3rd gen iphone before i get involved with them, they really have only just begun.
i can only hope my lg prada holds out as long! i'm on my 2nd screen replacement! and there is no software available for it, you'd think with an interface based phone i'd be able to customise the device in some way.

the 1st gen iphone as a mere piece of hardware will be no different in 7 years as the little g3 imacs that are still sitting in bedrooms running tiger.

its a design classic, the prada is not.

[Mark @ Dec 14th 2007 3:22PM]

@waiownsyou: Then the same goes for the Meizu miniOne, because (on the sheet, addmitedly) it's way more advanced than the iPhone. GPS anybody? 3G? SCDMA, not just EDGE? Twice the memory capacity? TV out? USB host? OS based on WinCE kernel (open for 3rd party apps WITHOUT hacking)? 3MP cam instead of 2MP? 0.3MP video cam for video conferencing? Replaceable battery? Aluminium casing instead of heavier stainless steel? Smaller in dimensions? Touch-screen 0.1 inches bigger with DOUBLE resolution (720x480). All that, for HALF the price - WITHOUT having to sell my mobile soul to a carrier NOT of my own choosing?

Hell, yeah. I'll GLADLY do without multi-touch for THAT.

[MacVicta @ Dec 14th 2007 4:02PM]

"You mean like Apple designers were judging the feel of their future iPhone by, you know, purchasing and holding an LG Prada phone?"

The Prada phone was on the market a whole 3 months before the iPhone shipped. If Apple designers bought and purchased one to judge the feel of their already completed product, then they must have been extremely satisfied considering how cheap the Prada feels in your hand compared to the iPhone.

"Then the same goes for the Meizu miniOne, because (on the sheet, addmitedly) it's way more advanced than the iPhone."

How does the same go for Meizu when Apple proved their product by having it on the market for 6 months? You're comparing specs on a sheet that detail what Meizu hopes will come true to a device that actually exists? Specs that have already dwindled from what Meizu initially announced and will likely be changed even further?

There is no comparison, Marky.

[N30 G30 @ Dec 15th 2007 9:24PM]

"That's like saying Texas Instruments ripped off the Abacus."

LOL!! Milk started coming out of my nose when I read that. It's night time. I drank milk during breakfast.

[kelvlam @ Dec 14th 2007 2:47PM]

another knock-off version of iPhone to be?

[Zorque @ Dec 14th 2007 3:10PM]

I was gonna say "It's not too iPhone like" but then I saw the icons. Oh, well.

[Akshat @ Dec 14th 2007 3:42PM]

@ Mark

You may want to reserve judgment till this thing is ACTUALLY OUT. God knows how long this ballyhoo has been going on for. It's easy to write spec sheets, but slightly harder to release a successful product that does all it promises.

[Mark @ Dec 14th 2007 3:53PM]

True enough, point taken. We'll see. If it does not do all that it promises, there's still Google's Android. ;-)

[Greg @ Dec 14th 2007 3:54PM]

This company should be sued to death.

[Michael LaFramboise @ Dec 14th 2007 4:00PM]

Too bad you can't do anything to them while they're in China, and anyways, not like they can get the rights to sell their crap anywhere else...

[dave @ Dec 14th 2007 4:38PM]

since when does china have intellectual property laws? finding grounds to sue on is impossible unless they try to export it to a country that protects legitimate products.



and i, for one, think the phone looks great.....i usually hate fakes, but if this thing has all the features it promises, maybe apple will get a clue to include 3G. for the time being, though, i'm sticking with my sprint power vision phone and a regular iPod touch. which also includes double the capacity of the phone for the same price.

[Constable Odo @ Dec 14th 2007 4:11PM]

Effin' FAKE, FAKE, FAKE. Wait till you see the UI. Tap 20 times to open an application. Tap twice to freeze the display. Tap once to reboot. It'll have a dozen more hardware features than the iPhone and only half of them can be accessed before you start pulling your hair out.

Oh wait! I keep forgetting this handset doesn't exist except on paper, so all the things it will be able to do means squat.

They got the nerve to call this an iPhone knock-off. This piss-poor copy of an iPhone oughta be shot out of a cannon into the Pacific Ocean.

This crappy battle cry of "I'll be happy to get it as long as it's cheaper than the iPhone" is so sad. They need to wear a T-shirt saying "I only buy goods that are cheap and I'm proud of it." No expensive items for these people. I'm not buying a Mercedes, I want a Yugo instead.

Bow down to the iPhone, the world's mobile messiah. Grovel at it's feet, you WinMo chumps.

[Matt E. @ Dec 14th 2007 4:12PM]

Look were I found some of their other products:
http://www.walgreens.com/search/search_results.jsp?_dyncharset=ASCII&term=meizu&x=0&y=0

[seoultrain @ Dec 14th 2007 5:51PM]

The M6 is the best media player in that price range, save for the 30gb zune that's gotten so cheap. you have no idea what you're talking about.

[Matt E. @ Dec 14th 2007 6:40PM]

@SeoulTrain: What are you talking about? I merely put up a link to other Meizu product offered by Walgreens.com. I've said nothing, either positive or negative about them. I'm personally looking forward to the release of the M8 MiniOne.

[MrE @ Dec 14th 2007 4:43PM]

What's with the long pinky nail? Is that distribution for the crank Meizu hands out to their product designers?

[T H @ Dec 14th 2007 5:38PM]

Of course not.. he plays the banjo

*crickets*

[T H @ Dec 14th 2007 5:36PM]

"and probably way more effort than necessary, since we'd think you could judge the feel by, you know, purchasing and holding an iPhone."

Oh SNAP Engadget!

Disssssssssssss

[Mr Corsini @ Dec 14th 2007 9:04PM]

people have to realise that most people who own an iphone and have payed money for apples overpriced closed platform and feature lacking phone are not likely to support this product as they don't want proper codec support, a platform open to developers, a high res screen, an unlocked phone, no contract, no using itunes, no converting files to proprietry apple formats. The majority of them probably have little concepts of the benefits of an 'open' platform with proper file support and without the 'chains' and lack of features offered by apple (which they attempt to mask with a user friendly and good looking GUI). And all you people saying this will not be released are unbelievably naive. Do some research please, you are so uninformed you should not even be commenting. Meizu has a very large following in China and are expanding abroad. Thousands of people are anticipating this phone, go read the posts in the Meizu chinese forum or on any meizu fansite there is no way it will not be released.

[roole @ Dec 14th 2007 10:15PM]

Hail, hail! We're not worthy..........

[Jeff @ Dec 15th 2007 12:45AM]

Until there is a product in our hands, everyone here is going to keep saying its a fake. And besides...who DOESN'T prefer a fancy GUI over functionality anyways!

[Charles @ Dec 14th 2007 9:04PM]

Having bought an iPhone for a while, starting to feel the inadequacy of it.

A few thrills of the multi-touch technology, and well, yeah, for the price it's quite a good all in one entertainment phone.

But the format of video supported is poor.

Looking forward for the MiniOne's release, hoping for a second phone anyway, it seems to be a much better (proposed spec) phone than the iPhone.

[Mr Corsini @ Dec 14th 2007 9:05PM]

I suppose some people will always have a closed mind......in the words of apple themselves......think different

[Grayson @ Dec 15th 2007 12:17AM]

Closed minded? No, more like rational and realistic.

[Jeff @ Dec 15th 2007 12:46AM]

Hey is the MeizuMe site down for you guys?

Did the Apple fanboys DoS it?

[Kizorblade @ Dec 15th 2007 5:47AM]

Nope, working fine for me. It's just you and your stupidity.