Lenovo's X1 for China is full of KIRF, win

Okay, there's some amount of originality here, but enough to justify a Red Dot design award? What you're looking at here is the award-winning Lenovo X1 -- as opposed to, say, the Sony Ericsson X1 -- which is a triband EDGE handset Lenovo sells in China. To us, it looks like an Instinct with a slide-out keypad and TouchWiz, but what do we know? Coincidentally, Lenovo calls this totally original UI "Touch Dream," which sounds just a little bit (okay, a whole lot) like an HTC device. So, to summarize: Sony Ericsson and HTC branding, Samsung design, made by Lenovo. Right then.

[Thanks, Bin Xu]

[aikions @ Mar 23rd 2009 10:48PM]

It's a real bootlegged item?

[Labeeb @ Mar 22nd 2009 8:56PM]

wow, kirf just keeps on comming

[Janky @ Mar 23rd 2009 9:30AM]

To be fair, only the software is KIRF. I don't see how anyone saw Samsung Instinct in the hardware design. The shape and perhaps colour is the only similarity between the two. The button layout is different, the back is different, the top is different. Not to mention that the Instinct ISN'T A SLIDER. KIRFs don't win the red dot award. Nicely designed cell phones do. At least give credit where it's due. The whole SE/HTC connection you thought of is just stupid.

[Oxford @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:07PM]

WOW! I had to check back at the label to be sure it didn't say "SAMSUNG" because to me that looks like the TouchWiz interface by Sammie.

[Homeboy @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:17PM]

Right on point. I see no originality at all, looks like a reskinned samsung or like any other touch screen LG phone.

[rogier.schuitema @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:13PM]

..did you even read this article before posting? And still too late to claim 1st reply, better luck next time.

But yeah, awfully coincidental all this. I guess they got that design award for scavenging or something then :S

[a ham sandwich @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:27PM]

it does look exactly like TouchWiz, but prettier.

[a ham sandwich @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:28PM]

o and fake

[TareX @ Mar 22nd 2009 10:16PM]

shame shame shame

[Michael L. @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:19PM]

Wow. This blatant disrespect over trademarks, copyrights and patents in China are just getting more and more out of hand, now that multi-billion dollar companies KIRF's each other...

What's next? iRiver releasing a jPod made exclusively for China? Or Asus announcing an Aspire Two in Chenzhen? (:

[Giles @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:30PM]

Well maybe when they start KIRFing each other, they'll actually start getting pissed and do something about it...

[dan @ Mar 23rd 2009 4:35AM]

They're more likely to hire mercenaries and start a private war than lobby for stronger copyright - if they enforced copyright then the entire Chinese manufacturing industry would collapse!

[Phoenix @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:16PM]

*cough* Team Fortress 2 *cough*

[children @ Mar 24th 2009 7:24PM]

iriver is korean.. it shouldnt be compared to the likes to chinese..

at least iriver has many innovative designs..

[htd @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:23PM]

still missing directional pad, the best maybe the best put together

[Sam hitch @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:30PM]

also the # pad looks like the Nokia N86's

[JAG @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:38PM]

ewww touchwiz.... couldn't they at least imitate something better?

[Shank @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:39PM]

We have here more proof , that feature rich doesn't equal iphonekiller. Next!!!

[Gad Get @ Mar 22nd 2009 10:22PM]

You just had to bring up the iPhone, didn't you?

[Mobius_1 @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:39PM]

Uhh in this day and age it's pretty damn difficult to come up with an entirely fresh and innovative design. Heck, every big touchscreen phone pretty much resemble each other unless you look very carefully or spend way too long on Engadget. I think this is a nice looking phone, and I bet this is gonna be cheaper than all those it's ripping off, and I'd respect them for this as long as they steer clear of the phrase "MP7 player".

[joe23521 @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:52PM]

Ripoff names? Can't argue with that.
Copycat of the Instinct? That's reaching a bit, methinks.

[Wesley @ Mar 22nd 2009 9:59PM]

I like this phone. Nice girl on their webpage too.

[KilgoreTrout @ Mar 22nd 2009 10:02PM]

I always found this obsession Engadget seems to have in defining all similar touch screen slabs as "clones" a bit silly; I find totally forgivable and ininfluent if 2 rectangular slabs of glass end up looking like each other; but until now I had never seen such a blatant copying of SOFTWARE : this does'nt look like Samsung's TouchWIZ : this IS Samsung's TouchWIZ.
Even when dragged out of the sidebar, the widgets (like the player in the pic) are just the same; it appears that the best Lenovo could come up with was just to change some colours and some (but not all) of the fonts.
Even LG, which often likes to get inspired by Samsung for their phones hardware designs, it developed a new (and apparently very good) UI for their new Arena to make Win mobile usable on touch screen devices.
I don't thing Samsung should tolerate such a blatant rip off.
Beside the excellent TouchWIZ UI one feature that makes me love my Omnia is the genial mouse & mini mousepad that makes the stylus totally redoundant.
Well, I would have forgiven Lenovo if they copied a great hardware feature like that (mousepads are mousepads after all); or even if they would taken from the competion the shape (more or less touch screens are all the same anyway) ; or the materials (they are limited too) , the feel, or even the name (X1, Dream, iFuze, iWhatever) ; but I draw a line at blatantly copying UI interfaces.
I had never seen this before.
And Lenovo did'nt need this shame: if Samsung, HTC, LG, SE, Toshiba and others could come out with their own UI to slap on top of Win Mobile , Lenovo could probably have come out with something too.
Shame on them.
BUUUH

[shravan @ Mar 23rd 2009 12:38AM]

Is the Arena a Winmo device ?

[xconan @ Mar 26th 2009 12:13AM]

borrowing design and style cues seems to be the norm in the auto industry. it doesn't matter as long as they borrow the best ideas and make it better but on the contrary it seems that they can't beyond that and make it something more innovative than just the looks.

[carcass @ Mar 22nd 2009 10:11PM]

What I don't get is whats the point of the slide out keypad if this has a touch screen? Sure a qwerty makes sense because its easier to type on than the screen but I don't think typing numbers was ever the issue. The palm pre has it right with its vertical slide out QWERTY.

[JS @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:29AM]

I second that. I up-ranked you, but I guess others haven't.

Anyway, I agree, it's totally ridiculous to have a slider with merely a number pad. That could mean other aspects of the phone itself aren't well thought out either.

[CJ @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:05AM]

Er, Chinese-only phone.

Means that a qwerty keyboard is a) useless, and b) very useless.

since this appears to have a touchscreen, most chinese users will use the handwriting recognition software that undoubtedly comes bundled with the phone.

[midnightblade @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:30AM]

Untrue. What makes you say that being a Chinese phone makes a qwerty keypad useless? A large majority of people in mainland type chinese with pinying on their phone the same way they would on their computer so it makes sense to do it this way. Elsewhere (Hong Kong/Taiwan) they use different methods (stroke/bo po mo fo) But a qwerty keypad is certainly not useless and writing is a PITA, why do you think most people in the US don't write on the screens of their cellphones?

[midnightblade @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:34AM]

Though I might also add that a number pad is perfectly suited for using brush stroke to write Chinese in which case it's perfectly natural to have a number pad which would be infinitely easier than using a touchscreen writing/keypad.

[Gad Get @ Mar 22nd 2009 10:24PM]

You have to admit, it is a very attractive design.

[Tedeks @ Mar 23rd 2009 8:44AM]

The design definitely looks nice, but the proof is in the pudding. I wonder how the phone will compare to other devices on the market.

[honeybee @ Mar 23rd 2009 5:47PM]

You have to admit, it is a very attractive design.... which has nothing else but borrowed ideas.

[Jen @ Mar 24th 2009 8:54PM]

well said... china is always proud of its copy'bilities. lame...

[_Aurel_ @ Mar 22nd 2009 10:59PM]

Why even bother just adding a dial-pad when your phone is touchscreen .

Pointless to the max.

[midnightblade @ Mar 23rd 2009 5:49AM]

A number pad is perfectly suited for using brush stroke to write Chinese in which case it's perfectly natural to have a number pad which would be infinitely easier than using a touchscreen writing/keypad.

[Greg Mcp @ Mar 22nd 2009 11:07PM]

I have Touch Dreams now and again. I usually wake up with... hmmm.. maybe I shouldn't describe this in detail.

[shawnlaw13 @ Mar 22nd 2009 11:13PM]

touchwiz？

[tekd @ Mar 22nd 2009 11:13PM]

Who cares if the names are similar to other products, did you guys even bother to look up what the Chinese market names are for everything? Just because it's similar in English doesn't mean anything. And I highly doubt Lenovo is out there trying to convince Chinese people their phone is the same as an HTC phone, it's not like Lenovo isn't a huge brand itself-it has no reason to convince anybody that their phone is anything except Lenovo made.

The name X1 has been used before Sony Ericsson anyway, so it's not like that was the most original name. It was a Samsung laptop at some point too.

As for the UI, well I haven't seen it. It's probably not the most original, but at this point you're going to be using the same UI elements unless you want your phone to suck.

[Joe Anstine @ Mar 22nd 2009 11:19PM]

.....er, I'm sorry, what?

[chengdude @ Mar 22nd 2009 11:29PM]

It's Lenovo in name only; they sold off their handset division early last year, so don't blame the folks making ThinkPads and IdeaPads.

[aaajhs00 @ Mar 22nd 2009 11:45PM]

WOW...is that a Chinese phone? they sure have developed in technology.... though it's only in copying other products...

[aaajhs00 @ Mar 22nd 2009 11:56PM]

you know what? I actually like the Samsung Touchwiz interface too.

[BratPAQ @ Mar 23rd 2009 12:15AM]

usually read only High Ranked post as to not waste my time, but no High Ranked post yet as the time of posting this.

So I guess its up to me to post something that will get high ranked...so here it is:

Does it ble....ah crap, nevermind.

[darkmax @ Mar 23rd 2009 12:36AM]

Wow.... it actually looks good... probably dual-sim like most China phones.

[midnightblade @ Mar 23rd 2009 5:53AM]

Nope. The page says it doesn't support dual-sim cards.

[Jeetu @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:52AM]

I dont think any1 else said this .. but when i first saw the pic it for a sec looked like a slimmer version of the apparent next to-be psp we've seen pics of recently ... any1 think so ?

[nowayman @ Mar 23rd 2009 2:23AM]

that looks real beautiful.

[technician @ Mar 23rd 2009 3:43AM]

I disagree with the author here, first of all, this device won an international design award, Red Dot. When first look at it, no one would immediately see Sammy or HTC or Sony Ericsson. Have you ever seen any copy phone products that look as half decent as this ? :D. This is made by Lenovo (if it is true) then it has even more credibility since Lenovo has a reputation of making high quality stuff and their kick ass designs (the Ophone and Pocket Yoga, Ideapad, Ideacenter A600 ). Enough said !

[hazard @ Mar 23rd 2009 5:44AM]

Hmmm, a Lenovo phone .. intriguing .. does anyone know what the OS is? I presume it's Linux