So we finally had the chance to lay palms to Meizu's M8 prototype. Better yet, we set it up side by side with it's muse, the Apple iPhone. Let's be clear, the prototype is not functional by any stretch of the imagination. It simply turns on and then slaps up one of three images representing the home screen, dialer, or media player depending upon which of the three physical buttons you press along the bottom of the main display. The capacitive touch panel does not work at all. While the physical components may or may not be in place, this is clearly a very early engineering sample. Having said that, Meizu claims that the hardware is complete and final -- they are only working on their Meizu OS tweaks to the Windows CE 6.0 base. However, the GUI and icon designs are pretty much locked in at this point with only minor changes expected before this hits China this August for a to be determined price. Unfortunately, Meizu is still working on their international deployment strategy (duh, they're looking to sign up distributors at CeBIT) so they are not willing to commit to any dates or prices. Gotta say, for all our justifiable M8 bashing, the mini One felt good in the hand and the additional hard buttons, 720 x 480 pixel display, 3 megapixel camera and likely el cheapo price tag have once again perked our interests. Still, it's a long way from it's original 3G HSDPA and kitchen-sink roots and a bit too late (GSM/EDGE in 6 months, Puh-leeze) at this point to be anything more than a novelty outside of China. Nevertheless, the development lifecycle has been fun to watch. Click through for the main features and specifications expected at launch. Video in a jiffy.
Update:
Video now available, also of
the UI.
So here are the final specs and features now expected at launch:
- quad-band GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
- Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
- 802.11b/g WiFi
- 3.4-inch 720 x 480 capacitive touch LTPS TFT-LCD
- 3 megapixel autofocus camera
- 667MHz ARM11 processor
- WinCE 6.0 based Meizu OS
- H/W encoder/decoder
- 107 x 59 x 11.9-mm
- 8GB of 16GB of flash NAND
- TV-out
- phone, music, video, camera, internet browser
- automatic backlight and display orientation adjustment
posted March 4th 2008 4:36AM
lol, the specs look identical to the iPhone.
I guess china R&D = take apart iPhone, remove processor, ram, mobo, radios; add custom 720x480 screen + battery..throw in windows CE 6...pir8 the software to run it and you have iPhone ripoff.
Chinese "innovation" at its best!
...just like their BMW/Merc/china cars!
then dont be obssessed with making comments about anything related to chinese products if you think they are worthless. dont u have better things to do in your life? u can say whatever u like, but china is still enjoying the fastest economic growth rate in the world.
"but china is still enjoying the fastest economic growth rate in the world"
Wouldn't that have to do with the fact they have the most people of any country in the world? No wait, it must be their engineering prowess. That's the ticket!
its really a shame to see this thing comes live.
Engadget should take a stand on products like these and call them for what they are: uninspired pieces of junk. Companies need to realize that when they blatantly copy other companies' designs, they just end up looking like idiots who don't know what they are doing. Engadget should either denounce companies for thinking they can get away with this, or don't post anything at all.
i agree, apple should stop doing that, copying everyone elses ideas.
*feeds the idea that meizu made it first*
Actually, did the Meizu company reps have any reaction when you guys pulled out the real iPhone and started doing some comparison shots? Their reactions might have been interesting to see.
If it's cheap, they will buy it: that's how china sees the economy. It's always the $ comes first, human life is last on the list. Doesn't matter what product they try to copy, at the end it is the dumb asses who actually pay for these products.
Engadget has posted prior knock-offs: even the SonyEricsson W800i phones have been duplicated but done so poorly.
"Although everything is made in china, there's almost nothing made by china" - at least anything that is tech/clothing/anything of popular/value.
Poonany-
did you just claim that technology and clothing are the only things of value in the world AFTER denouncing China for putting money first?
The Chinese are extremely family oriented.
And ironic you say they care about the dollar more than the people when every day you're an American. Are you kidding me?
After reading a few comments it is quite clear no one on this board has any knowledge of the Asian culture.
When Toyota first came to America they were "blatantly ripping off" American design. Their cars were a little underpowered, cheaply made, but they ran. They kept getting better and finally took over the car market in the 90's.
And China has been a communist country for such a long time these people do not have a choice to buy the iPhone. iPhones are actually a very hot commodity there, and those who can afford them are envied greatly. Any chinese man will tell you there is nothing like the real thing. These people are dirt poor in a country with very little government aid, and you're commenting on their dignity? They could just as easily comment on your ignorance.
Do not mix this with other 'asian countries'. China is the only one making 90% of worlds products but copying 100% of the products themselves. The problem is their products get worse and worse. Blatant copy cats reproducing any modern/profitable/popular product but it's proven their copy designs are shit. Look at the cars - you don't even spend years developing your car designs and yet you decide it's best to start shipping them and having them tested - lol, what a joke that is. Who will trust your brand after it fails publicly?
Not to mention, everything is moving so fast in china, it's actually a bad thing. Slow down, learn, and grow from your mistakes. Xeroxing products left and right at light speed to make a buck clearly shows your intentions - which is to make the buck so who cares if people get ripped off!? Why do you think piracy and bootleg products sell so well in china?
Here's something to ponder about: if you can't afford something luxurious, you can't buy it. But yet people in china want to have that "image", they would pay cheaply for knockoffs just to show off. It's all about face-what's even more moronic is why are these "poor" chinese people in such a need of an 'iphone'? 1st thing I'd do is earn enough to eat; buying a luxury item such as an iPhone is last on my priority list if I were poor.
As much as it sucks to hear it, china cares more about making a buck more than anything-even above human life! Look at all those toxic products coming straight out of china...we are just beginning to witness how products are made in china just to save a buck!
You sound like an ignorant, arrogant fool.
Open a history book. Go to Wikipedia.
Child labor laws didn't go into effect in America until the 1920s. Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Our country owned black people not even 100 years ago. There are bigger problems in the world than copying blank media.
I do not like some of China's foreign policies and there judgment is questionable at times, but this is a country just trying to grow and expand, and westernize. They learned how from us.
You're just so foolish. "slow down and learn." Maybe you should've told that to Bush and the rest of America when we entered Iraq on false information. Give me a break.
I'd like to add that the iPhone is most successful within the new generation of young graduates in China looking for western culture. It's not as much greed as it is distraction.
看着你们这群sb说的就烦!说实话我就是用着破解的iphone等meizu，当然我在中国。作为一款很值得去期待的产品，我为他骄傲，虽然他经历了无数的跳票。
模仿iphone怎么样？我只能用我使用半年多的体会告诉你iphone的设计很完美。m8吸收其精华无可后非。
什么叫抄袭？apple的律师还没出来说什么呢。科技界根本不存在模仿=抄袭这一说法。中国现在制造了世界所需求的，我相信不久的将来我们的智慧能“创造”出更多世界人民需求的产品.中国的强大是任何国家不能阻挡的！尤其 是USA.
最后希望m8早点面市。至少中国有几亿用户等着你！预定16g！
good. haha
Wow, Mobipocket on a 720x480 pocketable device, if this thing has the same audio quality of the Meizu M6 it will be a godsend.
Le clone le plus réussi de l'Iphone d'Apple,c'est ici..
http://cect-p168.offretravaildomicile.com/
Chinese are late,the Korean seem to be ahead
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/21/tomato-disappoints-with-its-video-touch-knockoff/
http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/01/09/iriver.iphone.clone/
I don't think you guys understand how it is over in China. Most people cannot afford the genuine brand name items. A genuine copy of Windows costs like a month's salary over there. A real licensed DVD costs like a week's salary. The same with other famous brand names and items we take for granted. So the Chinese make their own copies of things, which they sell much cheaper to the general population so they can have something similar.
"Theft" is theft. Pure and simple. There's nothing to justify this carbon copy. At least LG had a working sample..wait they are Korean manufactured...
@Alex-
Wake the fuk up will ya? China is still closed - less than before but still very closed-esp closed minded. Obviously you have zero experience living about chinese cultures judging from your ideology about "western" influences into china. From crappy ass cars, to bootleg windows XP/Vista being sold without any consideration for the hard work put into it, to fake name brand hand bags, shoes, clothing, to fake ass jewerly, cell phones, toys, guns, hand bags...damn, everything!
It's all about "image" homey. So I guess it justifies stealing IPs because the economy is growing so fast...lol, lead is still being used! time to stop making that buck!
I should make this clear: I'm talking about MAINLAND...I should not say "chinese" as in a whole...
MAINLAND is the one I am referring to. All bootleg, pir8ted, garbage comes out from MAINLAND. HK chinese are actually very tech eccentric, modern, and pleasant compared to MAINLAND.
Stealing IPs, just basically destroying a market. Major reason for all the necessary bootleg products is due to the corrupt ass govt.
As a chinese, I'm sorry to that.
Give us ten years, we will please you.
ooo, "O2-DE"??? hey engadget...
anyway, it looks like an iTouch.
but can apple do anything about its similarities with the iPhone?
identical to the iphone. neizu should hire a design team and stop copying from other brands.
hmmm, pretty nice phone. if its cheaper than the iphone then im deffinitely getting it.
it amazes me the amount of racist bulls**t I read on these meizu posts. You dumb american f***s are so ignorant it amazes me. You f**kers are going to be sucking chinese dick when your oil runs out and your economy collapses. Who do you think bails out amercian banks?....China.....you dumb fuckers. Who makes all the clothes u fat fuckers wear? who makes all your tech crap and cheap shit plastic toys and bullshit you gorge yourself on? china. you would not have a computer or a mobile phone or a tv without china. What you don't understand is china doesn't give a fuck about the US. Your a minor spot on their ass. In 2O years or less China will have the biggest economy in the world. Your all brain washed by bullshit corporate branding, it means f**k all. All this tech shit comes form the same place you dumb clowns. Why do you think there is a cloning/faking problem in china? Cos companies like apple went over there to exploit china's cheap labour for there THEIR AND YOUR OWN GREED, to feed you fat american c***s. The chinese were making clocks and paper thousands of years before your joke of a nation even existed and the europeans were still running about with clubs and wearing sheep skins. What you don't realise is in 20 years China will own you. The centre of the world will be china. Never underestimate the chinese, their work ethic far exceeds any thing you lazy fat fucks are capable of. Once they have mastered the art of imitation they will go on to exceed the capabilities of any westen/south koren/japenese tech company at an astounding rate and 10x better. Read some books and educate yourselves about Chinese history and what is going on there now, because it will have a huge impact on your sad lives. And as for meizu, your all living in a f**king dream world. All the big japenese/south korean and large tech brands rose to prominance by immitating and copying western products during the late 70's and 80's. You would have no samsung no sony no toshiba none of it without imitation and copying. None of you apple fan boi dick suckers would have 90% of the componenets that make up your overpriced piece of s**t phones without companies copying each others design. You all need to get your head out of your asses and see the bigger picture.
LOL! Best comment, EVAR! Apart from the "China will own you, China will be the center of the world" sentiment, I endorse this comment. Seriously though, he/she is right on the money. Americans for some reason feel this odd 'superiority' over other countries and while our values have 'evolved' somewhat from what they used to be, everything is not alright. We're number 1 because of our military and only because of that. Other countries are technical number 1s, educational number 1s, environmental number 1s and quality of living number 1s. All we have going for us is that on a military level, we kick ass - not something to necessarily be proud of. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud...I just don't think I/We are better than anyone else.
There's alot of poverty and prejudice that exists in our own society, and before pointing out the 'wrongs' and downsides of another culture we need to start with ourselves. I just wish that these comments didn't generate such heat. Ah well.
On a more, on topic note. I like it! If it ends up at $150, I'd buy one.
lol. i love this post. ouch, the truth hurts. it's pretty damm insulting, but true. corporate outsourcing and our all out wild consumerism will be our demise. consume ourselves dry. then when we really do realize it, we'll be back to where we started, we the people vs corporate america. ;p i dunno that will probably just end up with the corporations hiring outside help to decimate the patriotic rebels, and end up killing themselves because we were the ones making them fat. then the world toasts to our destruction, and turns the US into a giant sewer where they send all the crap phones to because we all just want free phones, they don't have to be good, just free after i sign my soul over to a contract. alright... enough. i'm going to start bawling if i go on. self criticism is good sometimes i guess.
sidenote... why don't these people just use a different GUI? it looks too damm similar to be attractive to me.
at least,meizu has done a good work on the advertisement of their product.how come so many news about it on engadget?
the phones Gui is very similar to iphone and the external part 2,
in other words its a clone,
sme ppl may argue , dat havin a button at the bottom does not mean its an iclone, but dude, have alook at the vedio, and u;ll know its an iclone...
魅族minione发布其实比IPHONE还早。只是大家都不知道罢了。
虽然现在开发度不高，不过以后肯定要完善的。
PS：盖世太保真流氓for the “Meizu CeBIT booth shut down by German authorities”。
Meh.
Looks like Meizu lost already.
yarrgh... what's with the round corners? i don't mind it if they were smaller, but it just seems like a waste. might help with the impact if you drop it, but why ever plan on droppin the damm thing. can't wait for someone to design a huge touchscreen phone that actually looks nice. the prada phone looked pretty nice, but suffered from the same round syndrome that seems to be taking the world by storm. come to think of it, i don't think i'd like a nice looking bling bling phone. i prefer sony ericssons and their ugliness to the sleek elegant designs of lg and apple. so now i'm hoping SE or some other ugly not so interested in my design is hot, makes their own touch screen phone that's not as pretty, but has what i want. you know... like 3g and stuff. maybe a phone that can actually load a content rich page in less than 30 seconds. yah. i'd like that.
If my memory is correct did not Apple copy the Zerox Star to make the Lisa and then the Mac. The first and only great thing that Apple has ever done is multi-touch on the I-phone. Even OSX is just another flavor of BSD Unix. We Americans must try to be fair when we evaluate other countries and their products.
Meizu start to modify the M8 UI. I hope it will look different with the Apple IPhone .
Here is the company which design the M8 icon:
http://www.eicodesign.com/portfolio/60.html
Looks Good & similar to iPhone, but what abour the PERFORMANCE?
Will it be equql to Apple? which is Proven Company & Technical Back up.
No Radio is disadvantage in India.
No mention of Accessories? What abour Hands Free Operation?
No mention of Photo Flash. USB Port availability?
Availability in India?
ok, Sam Winter
How is it that you complain that Chinese companies and such rip off western products.. If u had an Iphone you'd see a label on the back saying built in JAPAN. It was designed in CA but Japan has the components along with china.