Meizu M8 unboxing and hands-on!

Yes, folks -- things are about to get really real. We have managed, through a series of delicate negotiations, to get our hands on an honest-to-goodness Meizu M8 -- heretofore the stuff of pure legend. At first glance, the build quality of the phone is actually pretty decent -- it's mostly plastic, but everything seems to snap together firmly. The battery (which is removable, naturally) is quite large, though we haven't had a chance to test its life in any significant way. Of course, the real showpiece here is the software -- which admittedly owes its entire existence to the iPhone. We've found that it's quite snappy, and the styling and functionality of the UI is really kind of impressive (though this did spend a long time in the oven). Still, the phone's KIRF roots are clear -- you can judge for yourself in the gallery below.

Thanks to the good folks at MP4 Nation for the hookup!

Gallery: Meizu M8 unboxing and hands-on!

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[MikeC @ Mar 27th 2009 1:37PM]

Everytime I hear "Meizu", I want to say "Gesundheit" :/

[Hedonismbot @ Mar 27th 2009 3:55PM]

Welcome to another MP4 Nation dot net player review!...

[000000 @ Mar 27th 2009 7:11PM]

Really this phone has to offer some crazy stuff to be chosen over an iPhone. I mean the app store alone. And it has a smaller screen. Nowadays if you don't have a large application library forget about it.

[Matt @ Mar 28th 2009 1:55AM]

Aww... No App Store to Buy I-Fart and I-Beer on your Meizu M8... Come on people how many pointless crap-apps are on the app store... I think Blackberry, Palm and others are learning through Apples mistakes on the app Store Idea... How many Apps can you put on a IPhone before it crashes 10 times a day?... Cause the Touch does it all the time!

Sure I know Apples making bank on the App's... But seriously, At what Cost?

[scabby @ Mar 27th 2009 1:37PM]

Come on... I hate Apple, but this should be absolutely illegal. If you got rid of the Meizu logo, this would be an exact copy of the iPhone (minus the originality).

[Gnormie @ Mar 27th 2009 1:41PM]

Although it has obvious roots in the iPhone I don't think we should really be punishing companies like Meizu who take a product and attempt to improve it instead of just releasing a half assed product and riding on the wake of anothers' success.

Besides you can't own the intellectual rights to a black rectangle with a screen in it - as shown by the LG Prada. And if you look at the software on this thing - again it obviously has roots in the iPhone but Meizu has made an effort to improve the iPhone OS rather then just copying it directly.

[Joe Blow @ Mar 27th 2009 2:00PM]

Oh whatever, every phone with a touch screen looks like an i-phone. Get over it. It's called competition and it drives innovation.

[Patriks7 @ Mar 27th 2009 2:04PM]

" as shown by the LG Prada"
Well you have to admit, that this is more of an iPhone copy than the iPhone is a copy of the LG Prada. I have the iPhone, Prada and Touch HD, and software wise, the iPhone comes out on top out of all three of them. But I have been looking at the new Prada, as the keyboard looks nice, but the software still hasn't convinced me.

[Yamagushi @ Mar 27th 2009 2:20PM]

I agree with scabby. I dont know whats up with these replys saying it has "roots" in the iphone. This is a straight up 100% iphone rip off, upon first glance i thought this was the "Keeping it real Fake" article. Remove the M and replace it with an iphone symbol and 90% of people wouldnt be able to tell them apart by simply looking at it.

Gnormie, yes you can own the rights to a black rectangle with a screen. Its called patents.

This doesnt look similar to and iphone. It looks EXACTLY like an iphone, down to the shape, button placement, speaker wholes, and even the silver border.

[TareX @ Mar 27th 2009 3:01PM]

Yes, I can't believe this is making it to the states. It does look exactly like the iPhone.

As regards the Prada/Touch HD argument, com'on, you know what I mean. We're not talking about the "idea" of a touchscreen-only phone, we're talking about the exact same design.

It doesn't help that the UI also looks the iPhone's.

Sincerely,
A devout PC

[scabby @ Mar 27th 2009 3:05PM]

The thing that I disapprove of is the blatant theft of aesthetics. It's hard to make a touchscreen phone look anything other than a slab, and sorry for Apple(-lovers), LG did get there first with the "touchscreen slab" look. But if you look at the iPhone and the 'Prada' phone, there's little mistaking the two. The aesthetics set the two apart, along w/ the interface.

To me, this is like grabbing a Ferrari (Chevy, more like it), taking the badge off of it, and putting your own on it. Just because you took the time to buy an angle-grinder and get good w/ it...

I'm not a legal expert, but as someone who owns a business, this makes me cringe.

[lancelott @ Mar 27th 2009 3:19PM]

@ Gnormie:
Meizu tries to "innovate"? That's laughable... So is everyone who *reallY8 believes this is nothing more than a cheap ripoff.

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Mar 27th 2009 3:42PM]

Why does Engadget give so much publicity to something that so blatantly infringes on others' IP? Counterfeiters and rip-off artists are absolute anathema to technology R&D, because they deprive the truly innovative companies of the revenue that fuels further R&D and that move technology forward. 'Tis shameful.

[HemanC @ Mar 27th 2009 5:17PM]

@Yamagushi
"black rectangle with a screen" is too general to be able to file for a patent. If it was filed and approved, HP/Compaq, HTC etc... will be suing Apple for their iPhone long before they can sue anyone. iPhone will be at the very bottom of the list before they can sue.

Multi-Touch is good idea though, not sure if it ever gotten approved or not.

[Patriks7 @ Mar 29th 2009 7:54PM]

"As regards the Prada/Touch HD argument, com'on, you know what I mean. We're not talking about the "idea" of a touchscreen-only phone, we're talking about the exact same design."
The thing is that the iPhone, Prada and Touch HD really don't look similar at all.

[A-T @ Mar 27th 2009 1:38PM]

Where can I get one from?

[psp @ Mar 27th 2009 1:43PM]

I couldn't find it on mp4nation, but Here you go http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20665

[sacapuntas @ Mar 27th 2009 4:23PM]

warning- be careful. There are different versions of the phone out there... that is why the owner of MP4nation is holding off on selling them until a proper version is released that can work well in America/ the rest of the world.

[Bonqueesha @ Mar 27th 2009 1:38PM]

I wish they'd taken more pics of the OS and less of the build quality. It looks nice, though.

[JohnTitor @ Mar 27th 2009 5:14PM]

what's funny about it is that while it's a copy of the iPhone OS, it's built on Windows CE 6, so they beat winmo to being first to use winCE and beat microsoft at making an os to impress engadget

[Rick C @ Mar 27th 2009 1:38PM]

I don't understand. There are so many iPhone haters but yet... every other phone is trying to catch up to it.
Whatever.



-72 days til they announce the new iPhone

[KilgoreTrout @ Mar 27th 2009 6:50PM]

Nobody is so stupid as to hate a phone dude ; what free minded people find repellent is the idea of a company that pretends to have absolute control on the platform, the programs , the apps, etc. of a gadget they produce even after it has been sold to a private, particularly if through manouvred hype and and viral ads pretends (and often manages) to convince a sizable number of ( misinformed ) consumers that the inferior products it sells are the state of the art and the cutting edge of technology and keep a straight face too.
But while the commercial tactics of Apple are quite unsavoury to people who like to have control of their choices, what is often more difficoult to stand for these indipendent minded folks , are the rants of all those misinformed, uniform and quite silly masses that insist (sadly often in good faith) to repeat the mantras of their conventional wisdom without realizing ,(or maby too scared to admit even to themselves) that their sorry ass has been taken together with their dollars.

[Imsaffor @ Mar 27th 2009 1:40PM]

Now if only there was a good source for the rest of us. I want one.

[required @ Mar 27th 2009 1:40PM]

That looks sort of like the LG KE850 that Apple copied when they made their iphonepodtouch. j/k

[lancelott @ Mar 27th 2009 3:25PM]

iPhone is hardly a ripoff of the Prada (LGKE850 )... They were released withing 6-7 months of each other and the iPhone was under development for a long time so...

That's different.

[pete @ Mar 27th 2009 11:14PM]

why isn't this included in the weekly "Keepin' It Real Fake" series? this is an iphone clone, and they even went as far as saying it got the software ideas from the iphone as well. wtf?!

[Swimatm @ Mar 27th 2009 1:41PM]

It's cool I guess, but I do prefer the real deal.

[Wicker24 @ Mar 27th 2009 2:00PM]

How do you know which you prefer? have you actually tried this phone or even held it in your hand?

[Kelmon @ Mar 27th 2009 3:17PM]

@Wicker24

It all depends on what you want, of course, but it's fair to say that this phone lacks GPS and for some (myself included) that's a big deal. I don't know exactly why Swimatm prefers the iPhone but you don't necessarily need to actually use the Meizu to know that it is or is not for you.

[Wicker24 @ Mar 27th 2009 3:35PM]

@Kelmon

I do agree with you to a point, but all I was looking at was swim prefers the real deal (IPhone) which I also own and more than likely would prefer aswell, but could not possibly make that distinction until seeing them side by side. Just did't seem like a phone options/OS argument.

[KilgoreTrout @ Mar 27th 2009 6:57PM]

You shouldnt, many of the shortcomings and blatant failures of the originar Apple product seem to have been corrected and fixed in this thing.
I think it's silly to blame Meizu for trying to produce an iPhone that actually does what it should.

[lalo3000 @ Mar 27th 2009 1:44PM]

the Fake-Pod. It's not cool, non-American Companies stealing american companies ideas....and you wonder why the economy is in a recession...

[Imsaffor @ Mar 27th 2009 1:46PM]

Because chinese-made products are REALLY the cause of our recession...

[haX0r @ Mar 27th 2009 1:54PM]

Yes and outsourcing our jobs too. Thanks to the likes of IBM: "Technology services giant is in the process of shifting a large number of jobs to lower-cost regions, such as India."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032502626.html?wprss=rss_technology

[Deeznuts420 @ Mar 27th 2009 2:06PM]

THEY TOOK OUR JERBSSSSSSS

[letstakeawalk @ Mar 27th 2009 2:18PM]

You do know the iPod, and many Apple products, are made in China, right?

Maybe if Apple had their products made in facilities here in the US, they wouldn't be as easy to copy... IP would be easier to enforce...

[Dax @ Mar 27th 2009 2:26PM]

Why are all the good comments low ranked? Some serious T-R-A-S-H is lurking about.

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Mar 27th 2009 4:08PM]

I agree Dax. When everybody's value system aligns with these pieces of trash that believe it's ok to wontonly skirt laws and copy others' work, then innovation will decline because the profit motive will be diminished, if not destroyed for the companies that do the hard work in the first place. Copygadget.com is available, Engadget might want to go ahead and register that name for when they're forced to change business models.

[Hazel @ Mar 27th 2009 1:46PM]

Uhh, what do you mean non-American Companies are stealing American ideas? Japan & Korea had touch screen products wayyyyy before we did!

[Bender Bending Rodriguez @ Mar 27th 2009 3:46PM]

How many other capacitance based touchscreen phones can you name? How many cellphones and PDAs prior to the iPhone used your finger, not a stylus, as the main input device? How many focused on rich media and internet open standards?

There is absolutely nothing in the iPhone that anyone else couldn't have done, yet despite that it wasn't done until the iPhone did it and this newcomer to the cellphone industry is now taking the most profitable segment, the smartphone market, and turning it into the mediaphone market that everyone is now playing catch up to compete with. With Meizu at one end making a device that can only be sold in countries with lax laws on copyrights and trademark. Yet despite the blatant copying from the bottom up it still taken them over 2 years since the iPhone was first demoed and they first sent out vaporware photoshopped images of what there device was going to look like in "6 months".

[Pingles @ Mar 27th 2009 1:47PM]

The more iPhone clones the better.

It's the only way to keep Apple on their toes.

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Mar 27th 2009 4:35PM]

Seriously, what is with all the stupid comments being highly ranked? Rip-offs don't drive innovation. Serious competitors like HTC, Palm, and Blackberry do that already. Chinese reverse-engineering just siphons off money from real R&D, whether it's Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, American or Finnish.

[pete @ Mar 27th 2009 11:17PM]

+1 funke for having some common sense!!

[tails2 @ Mar 28th 2009 4:31AM]

@funke

HTC IS a Chinese company. They are based in Taiwan which is part of China.

[xconan @ Mar 28th 2009 5:06AM]

I thought Taiwan was independent of the PRC therefore not China.

[tails2 @ Mar 28th 2009 5:14AM]

@xconan

Well maybe you should leave that thinking cap at home cos it isn't doing much for you

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Mar 29th 2009 11:01AM]

Tails, you're an idiot. Taiwan is NOT China. It has never been ruled by the communist government, and hopefully never will. If it had, can you imagine how far behind they'd be right now? Not to mention all of the historical artifacts and art that were moved to Taiwan would've been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution.

When I referred to Chinese reverse-engineering, I meant specifically the shady outfits that do this stuff, NOT every Chinese engineering company. Asus, Foxconn, Garmin, Nvidia and all of the other companies that are based in Taiwan call themselves "Taiwanese", and not "Chinese", so your point is moot anyway.

[Hazel @ Apr 6th 2009 5:45PM]

I agree, Pingles!

[FNG @ Mar 27th 2009 1:55PM]

I though you said "I want Pringles" must be time for a snack.

[Eitan Mendelowitz @ Mar 27th 2009 2:52PM]

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