Meizu M8 Flash demo hits the scene, looks mighty familiar

How much ASCII will be spilled, how much bandwidth utilized on this legendary (if vaporous) iPhone killer before it becomes a real reality? Like the tail end of a torrid love affair, we're not even sure if it's the phone itself that we dig or the soap opera that we enjoy so much. And now, hot on the heels of the hands-on video that has captured the imagination of the entire world, Meizu has posted a flash demo of the M8's UI for those of you thirsting for a closer look at the thing. SPOILER ALERT: It bears a strong resemblance to the interface of a certain Apple product.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[KAIKAI @ Nov 23rd 2008 2:53PM]

this time it looks pretty original
damn this looks legit :)

[1234321 @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:14PM]

it's not really very original but what's good about it is that it looks like it will work and work well, not like very cheapo chinese knock off, plus it looks like it has things people have to beg apple for, like a file explorer, copy and paste, etc. Also it runs on Windows CE so maybe other apps can be installed too

[GiF @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:07PM]

Even if it is legit they can't copy the iPod touch/iPhone's touchscreen. That thing took years of hard work designing.
I MAY be an Apple fanboy.
Probably cause I've owned 4 MP3 players and 3 of which are iPods.
Anyway, no one can possibly copy the touch's smooth lines and elegant touchscreen interface.

[KAIKAI @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:27PM]

to my understanding
....its just a regular touchscreen
with special software...........

[TinTom @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:52PM]

"cheapo?" this thing has a pricetag of like $750 dollars.. no windows mobile, lucky to get wifi, would rather have the D80i Phone - which is around Half the price that this will be - http://www.mp3nmp4.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1692

[BratPAQ @ Nov 23rd 2008 11:42PM]

@GIF

apple didnt developed the multi-touch screen, so i dont think its safe to make an assumption that no one make the same touch screen like iPhone, cause Balda AG can sold the same touch screen to other manufacturer.

[M @ Nov 24th 2008 9:05AM]

I don't know about you but I don't trust anything which has Times New Roman

[OneLove @ Nov 24th 2008 10:57AM]

I lost interest at "loading...4%"

[hexoDAT64 @ Nov 23rd 2008 2:54PM]

I actually like it. I like the design of the browser better then Mobile Safari. Hopefully it runs well

[MRCUR @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:02PM]

Their browser looks exactly what Safari uses to look like on the iPhone pre-2.2. Although the icons are a little different now from how they used to be, the OS on this device still has the fundamentals of the iPhone OS.

[JZ @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:36PM]

If its Opera it not only looks better, it actually is better. Mobile Safari is nice but extremely slow compared to Opera. That said, it looks similar to a previous interface... c'mon its not like its anywhere unique. Palm had this interface about 8 years ago on my Vx, and if i remember correctly that creditcard PDA even had this already. So yes it lacks some uniqueness, though sofar the only refreshing GUI lately seems to be mobile Ubuntu which is round instead of square. Though.. we like square and thin and unlocked. Put that together and you get a Meizu which probaly also got the latest hardware and the quality of Meizu is rather good actually.

[xconan @ Nov 23rd 2008 10:16PM]

from what i've read they use webkit the same browser (originally Kbrowser but forked into different versions) used in iphone, in some samsung phones, and not sure if LG uses it.

[brandon @ Nov 23rd 2008 2:55PM]

I really don't care about this POS anymore....

[Saad Rabia @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:19PM]

Thank you for buying the M8, testing it for a week, then giving us your great and intelligent review.

[SirPasta117 @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:22PM]

lol i dont care about this POS because its just an Asian knock-off

[iEye @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:43PM]

In rare occasions the knock off can be even better than the original.

I have a Shuffle 2 clone that I purchases for $9.99 CAD, looks exactly the same as the original, the battery has a smaller capacity, but at least it plays MP3, WMP and WAV. I'm not paying Apple $50 for a shuffle. Times are tough...

[brandon @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:45PM]

Probably contains high levels of lead paint XD

[iEye @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:57PM]

SYLVANIA (curtis) I don't think they would risk a law suit just to re-badge a cheap player.

http://www.curtisint.com/web/browser.asp?productID=SMP1002&catName=MP3%20PLAYERS

[broli @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:31PM]

Brandon while you're at it be careful of them terrorists.

[Jeff @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:41PM]

Hey iEye...where did you buy this for $10 CDN? Hopefully somewhere in Toronto?

[iEye @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:54PM]

@ Jeff... Canadian Tire (Product #99-6498-6)

Blue,Green,Silver,Black & Pink

[Jeff @ Nov 23rd 2008 6:00PM]

thanks a lot ieye... It would be something nice to have so I don't have to run my iPhones battery dry just to listen to music

[gad get @ Nov 24th 2008 3:25AM]

Wait, so iEye's Canadian? I'm ashamed!

[Cardbored @ Nov 23rd 2008 2:56PM]

I wish I could read whatever language that is :[

[gigamaster89 @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:53PM]

It's Chinese

[gm76 @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:09PM]

I hope it has localization support with Engrish text already built into the product!

[xconan @ Nov 23rd 2008 10:11PM]

It's simplified chinese not traditional chinese with a lot more strokes.

[mike @ Nov 24th 2008 8:19AM]

I hope you're joking. Are you living under a rock. 1.5billion Chinese out there brah.

[joe23521 @ Nov 24th 2008 9:41AM]

I am almost certain that it will have Chinglish built in as well.

[mvp @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:00PM]

I can't tell what it "resembles"....perhaps the Apple II?

[ShogunMaster @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:02PM]

Menus represented by Icons? Damn, they stole that idea from Palm!

Miss my Treo 600...

[Patriks7 @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:03PM]

Ok, so setting up your icons in a similar way to the iPhones is copying it? I'm guessing that Android and a lot of other touch phones copy the iPhone then?
Wow.. Well guess what.. OS X is copying WinMo with the bar on top..

[who? @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:06PM]

It's not just the where, it's everything!

Similarities:

1. Time? Same spot exactly (top middle)
2. Signal? Same spot exactly (top left)
3. Battery? Same spot exactly (top right)
4. Icons? Same spot exactly (starting at the top and going from left to right)
5. Icon names? Same exact color and area (white, located underneath each app)
6. Dock? Same spot exactly (separated by a small increment from the rest of the icons)
7. Background? Same color exactly (black)
8. Default screen orientation? Same (vertical)
9. Calender icon? Uses same format (day of month on white area and month on the top)
10. Settings app? Same color/basic symbol (gears)

I could keep adding to this list all day, but I have other things to attend to, post a reply with all the minute, hardly noticeable details whenever you find the time.

[Gnormie @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:16PM]

@ Who?

My phone has 7/10 of those and was released about a year before the first generation iPhone. OMG they copied LG!!!

[Gnormie @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:19PM]

*correction*
it's 9/10

[KGG @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:29PM]

@who?

if you look at the battery... its actually facing the opposite way of the battery on the iPod touch.....:O

[Mike @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:52PM]

It's not that the Meizu looks like the iPhone, it's that the iPhone looks like the Meizu! :)

[who? @ Nov 23rd 2008 6:45PM]

If you've been following the Meizu drama, then you all know it is a plain and simple copy of the iPhone OS, why defend it?

[Ray @ Nov 23rd 2008 9:14PM]

@Mike

In russia, iphone clones YOU!

[xconan @ Nov 24th 2008 1:08AM]

meizu did have other designs and different icon looks from a company that they hired to do their graphics. however it doesn't look like they incorporated their design though. anyway hopefully meizu or someone will make a skinning tool for it. there's definitely lots of themes and designs that can be made for it since it's based on win ce 6.

[Jakob @ Nov 24th 2008 2:39AM]

Who? Look:


1. Time? Same spot exactly (top middle)
2. Signal? Same spot exactly (top left)
3. Battery? Same spot exactly (top right)
Hmm?

4. Icons? Same spot exactly (starting at the top and going from left to right)
Yeah I wished they would start at the bottom and going from right to left.

5. Icon names? Same exact color and area (white, located underneath each app)
Both Palm OS and Windows Mobile do the same. Copycats! They should remove the "feature".

6. Dock? Same spot exactly (separated by a small increment from the rest of the icons)
Sorry but Meizu does not currently support the Dock feature

7. Background? Same color exactly (black)
Don't want to argue with that!

8. Default screen orientation? Same (vertical)
Don't want to argue with that

9. Calender icon? Uses same format (day of month on white area and month on the top)
Ditto

10. Settings app? Same color/basic symbol (gears)
Agree with that one, a little to familiar

[)law( @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:07PM]

It does not resembele a iPhone, iPhone dosnt have flash

[Samboini @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:11PM]

I can has flash?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wNf9rEPoc8Q&feature=related

[who? @ Nov 23rd 2008 6:47PM]

And the iPhone doesn't resemble you- it's popular!

[loocas @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:07PM]

You've gotta love Apple! They come up with some mighty great idea (of combining others' great ideas together) and totally fuck it up... Then there comes the, always, late competition to pick up where Apple left and make the final product that everybody, FINALLY, loves! :)

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:04PM]

Yes, the iPhone is a huge f**kup, that's why it's been selling more than its main rivals and *only* sold a couple millions...

Troll

[loocas @ Nov 23rd 2008 4:13PM]

Selling more than rivals? Which rivals are you talking about?

I'm not saying that iPhone doesn't sell, but it's a mediocre cell phone, or is it not? But, other companies that take what Apple "invented" and avoid what Apple "fucked up" make very good mobile phones with very good features for very good money (you can't say that about iPhone).

[loocas @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:10PM]

There must be more iPhone owners than I thought, low ranking me to oblivion in less than 20 minutes is something... ;)

[Nick @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:21PM]

In that case, would you mind giving us some examples of what exactly Apple has "fucked up"? And if, in your opinion, Apple has "fucked up", why is every other company (or rival) out there making similar phones? Which rivals? Hmm let's see..

-RIM
-Nokia
-HTC
-Samsung
-LG
-Sony Ericsson
-Palm
Etc...

[loocas @ Nov 23rd 2008 5:57PM]

@ Nick

"why is every other company (or rival) out there making similar phones?"

And that's the whole point! ;)