Keepin' it real fake, part CCXXIII: VAIO W netbook clone handily beats Sony to market

Turns out by the time Sony went official with its inaugural VAIO W netbook, it was already old news to the Chinese KIRF market. The "VAIO" pictured above apparently came out some time in mid-June and does a laudable job of honoring the actual one's chassis, although the keyboard is more traditional than Sony's isolated / chiclet stylings. Throw in a 10.2-inch LED display, 1.6GHz Atom processor, integrated graphics, a 160GB HDD, 1GB RAM, and decently convincing packaging and you'd be liable to think you went through a time warp spotting this in Shenzhen. It's got a pretty sizable head start on the legit version, but something tells us this particular model won't be trying its luck elsewhere in the world.

[Via PMP Today and Cloned in China]

[tiger578 @ Jul 12th 2009 8:31AM]

Is it just me or are most fake products chinese by nature?

[Techie @ Jul 12th 2009 8:47AM]

You say what?

[redcard @ Jul 12th 2009 9:30AM]

Most real products are Chinese by nature. But well spotted

[Will @ Jul 12th 2009 9:30AM]

Shit, this guy's on to something.

[Quantumphysics @ Jul 12th 2009 11:07AM]

One of the things I realized living in China is that the Chinese brand made products (Golden Yip, Gao Xing, Mei Tian, etc) are vastly inferior to the Japanese and American brand products being made in China. The one thing that stands out most is that China doesn't have a globaly recognized electronics maker like the several Japan does. Its almost as if "made in china" is a brand name.

[Don @ Jul 12th 2009 11:26AM]

i dont know bout anybody else but im loving those fakes.. cheap and "basically" the same specs

[kevincahoon @ Jul 12th 2009 12:38PM]

Hey, nice Meizu in the picture!

[fluxusfuxus @ Jul 12th 2009 1:03PM]

I don't know, I think those headphones are racist by nature.

[Sea Urchin @ Jul 12th 2009 1:04PM]

We need to pass a law that no chinese company is allowed to have patents in USA. If they do not respect anyone else's patent, why should we respect theirs.

[DanielT @ Jul 12th 2009 2:13PM]

@fluxusfuxus: HAHA, I repsect your keen eye.

koyaanisqatsi?

[souravgh @ Jul 12th 2009 2:49PM]

@Quantumphysics

Lenovo, Haier, the list is small though.

[technician @ Jul 12th 2009 7:14PM]

@Quantumphysics

How come you live in China and you don't know Lenovo, Haier and Huawei. Even I don't live in China and I still know them.

[the4thheat @ Jul 13th 2009 12:31AM]

Yeah there's the few really good companies like Haier, Huawei (my cousin is one of their engineers and they definitely aren't paying him to rip off other products), and Lenovo. Also a couple decent car companies like SAIC.
But I was annoyed at just how many really mediocre brands manage to get away with having sub-par products in China. Some of the stuff wasn't even that much cheaper than really good products. Like Li Ning sneakers-I took a look at all the sneakers because I saw their stores everywhere, and I get that he's like a sports legend but the sneakers only looked modern when the actual cushions and stuff were straight out of like 1970's sneakers.
Even fairly "good" brands seem to make only kinda acceptable products, which I think is a real waste. Most Chinese people there say that they always export the best products, and they feel like they get the crappy products at home but really a lot of those home market products would cost more on customer support and returns than the actual item cost. It's not quite as much of a problem in China where the labor is cheap so getting stuff repaired and whatnot can be done cheaply but you can't possibly sell those products elsewhere when the labor for the repair would cost three times as much as the thing is worth.
I'm sure they'll get better though. At this point I really think the fact that some of the companies are still basically supported by random municipal governments is really harming a lot of the companies more than helping. Like there's literally like 100 brands for every random product you want when about 95 of those brands should really be out of business.

[GingerFox @ Jul 12th 2009 8:36AM]

Why not just buy this one then? Same specs lol Except the after care will be lacking but might not be too big an issue haha...china

[Darwin @ Jul 12th 2009 8:45AM]

Sony after care service? That's pretty laughable. I wouldn't be surprised if the Chinese after-care was actually better.

[gonintendo @ Jul 12th 2009 10:04AM]

well, they sent me a new psp in a week no questions asked.

[TREX6662k5 @ Jul 12th 2009 10:49AM]

Are you sure its a PSP though?

[TechNewb @ Jul 12th 2009 8:51AM]

Why does China allow so much illegal activity, and an even more pertinent question: Why does Engadget cover so much illegal hardware? I don't see people coming to produce and make products in China for much longer if all they do is allow people to rip their IP. Bad for business.

[Aguiluz @ Jul 12th 2009 8:54AM]

Because the Crapgadget and Keepin' it real fake series are awesome. ;P

[eminemjamesuk2 @ Jul 12th 2009 9:35AM]

You're kidding me right? Where else would they go to manufacture their cheap plastic goods?

[TREX6662k5 @ Jul 12th 2009 10:49AM]

This guys a total newb n stuff

[the4thheat @ Jul 13th 2009 12:42AM]

I think it's pretty obvious why in a country where the average person makes ~$3000 a year (non PPP since a computer item can't be scaled for labor parity like a meal as it costs mostly the same in China or the US or Japan) why a knockoff VAIO that costs $300 like all the other netbooks would be more attractive than the one that isn't out and costs $500.
That's the same damned reason why nobody in China buys the legitimate DVDs, and why pirating software was/is so rampant. I remember back in like the 90's when I went and the average income was even lower back then, buying a legitimate copy of Microsoft Office Professional would have meant something like 2 months salary on top of the fact that a computer cost so much more back then so already the whole family had to save up for like a year to buy the hardware.
So every single PC had a pirated copy of Microsoft Office that cost 5RMB, along with a pirated copy of Windows that cost another 5RMB. Like the prices were just so not payable that people mostly just laughed if you suggested getting the real one because there's just no way in their minds that it made any sense to spend half your years salary on a word processing suite.
I think at least now media and software companies have tried to adjust their prices so that they don't try to charge the exact same amount in every market, but then again that's also lead to people in richer countries paying more for the same software and being banned from servers if they bought the asian market version. Like when Valve banned all the people who had Thai CD-Keys.
But at least they can actually sell legit copies now because you gotta realize nobody's gonna spend like 3 weeks salary to play a video game when they still have to pay rent and eat.
Same thing for that Gucci wallet or whatever. The brand name might be nice but when the real one is like 8 months salary you literally couldn't ever afford it (assuming you want to have food to eat).

[Aguiluz @ Jul 12th 2009 8:52AM]

http://ur.lc/619

^^ Google Translate page

It looks like a clone, right down to the box. The specs are pretty decent too, but the Li-Ion battery might go kaboom.

[Damo @ Jul 12th 2009 8:55AM]

Are you sure you aren't confusing the Clones battery going Kaboom with the real thing? Don't Sony have a long past of dangerous batteries?

[Aguiluz @ Jul 12th 2009 8:57AM]

I'm well aware of that because I read it here. But Sony did a responsible recall, and I don't think this company will give a crap if their batteries are known to be defective.

[Aguiluz @ Jul 12th 2009 9:00AM]

OFF TOPIC: For goodness sake engadget, when will you fix the avatar system? I'm stuck with this avatar 7 MONTHS since December 25 of last year.

[Aguiluz @ Jul 12th 2009 9:01AM]

OFF TOPIC: For goodness sake engadget, when will you fix the avatar system? I'm stuck with this avatar 7 MONTHS since December 25 of last year.

(Sorry if double post, I think I forgot to enter my password.)

[Aguiluz @ Jul 12th 2009 9:01AM]

(Oh, darn...)

[Jimbo @ Jul 12th 2009 9:14AM]

Just the nature of it being Chinese doesn't mean the battery is going to go kaboom. Hint, majority of the knockoffs come from the same places that make the OEM supplied batteries. My Aspire One came with a 3 cell battery pack. I wanted something to last a bit longer, bought a 9 cell on eBay from a Hong Kong seller on recommendation from a friend. Turns out the cells are made by the exact same manufacturer as the one supplied with the Aspire One...

However, when it came to the battery recall, it was the *SONY* manufactured batteries that made up the lion's share... affecting Apple, HP/Compaq and Dell the most. At this point, I'd be more inclined to trust a third party battery.

[guru80 @ Jul 12th 2009 12:23PM]

I actually read through that translated paged...I have a headache now :(

[icepod @ Jul 12th 2009 9:42AM]

最近瘾科科是不是出了个中国山寨系列啊？

[gonintendo @ Jul 12th 2009 10:07AM]

我們在這裡講英語的好友

[gonintendo @ Jul 12th 2009 10:08AM]

that's what google gave me for we speak english here buddy :)

[icepod @ Jul 12th 2009 10:14AM]

sorry...

[tunmutaer @ Jul 12th 2009 9:55AM]

owh how much i love chinese...

[Sax25 @ Jul 12th 2009 2:38PM]

...same... sweet and sour pork is my fave!

[xcrunk @ Jul 12th 2009 9:58AM]

The Sony beatdown continues.

Is it just me or does the entire AOL blog network just enjoy beating up on Sony, no matter what they do?

Seriously, it's getting so tired to read article after article in which Sony somehow gets the shaft. Sure, some of it is well deserved, but at this point, it's just becoming monotonous.

[tekdroid @ Jul 12th 2009 10:31AM]

1) this article is about a fake VAIO-branded product, not made by Sony
2) nowhere does it speak negative of Sony (if you feel it does, please mention where)

[xcrunk @ Jul 12th 2009 11:58AM]

Tek, your right....wtf was I thinking?

I hate China, you suck. Never forget Tienanmen!!!! Too bad the Chinese people will never know what occurred. As the government has conveniently hidden the truth. And I hate out government for allowing us to import crap from China, even given their poor human rights policies!

Still, I haven't commented on this stupid knock off....knock off suck! There!

[idiot @ Jul 12th 2009 5:12PM]

xcrunk, hate is pretty strong word. Every government does things they are not proud of. Remember Watergate, Katrina, Guantanamo? And there are the countless sexual scandals, bribery, fraud. The bottle line is, human right violations and political scandals occur in almost every country and, having been living in the United States for over a decade, the US is far from being free of these social problems. Honestly, freedom in America is kind of overrated. You always have to worry about being sued or some random strangers may point a gun at you. Visit another country once in a while, and you will realize many people are living just fine in those "less-free" countries.

And if you want to talk about government hiding the truth, you should really try watching international news (BBC doesn't count). The US mainstream media (and most of the Americans in my experience) are still holding onto the cold-war era mindset. You never hear any positive news about China and Russia in the United States, but every time China or Russia does something embarrassing, the media would amplify it a million times. Seriously, what has China ever done to hurt the US, besides providing inexpensive goods and billions of loan? China is not our enemy; Islamic fundamentalists, terrorists, global warming, and energy shortage are.

[tekdroid @ Jul 13th 2009 5:57AM]

xcrunk,
I still don't know how your second comment relates to your first comment, which was about Engadget unfairly hating on Sony, as far as I could understand.

[techpinas @ Jul 12th 2009 10:19AM]

Interestingly, it looks decent and solid. In fact, it looks better than some *authentically branded* netbooks out in the market today.

[icepod @ Jul 12th 2009 10:19AM]

Welcome to China...

[Sax25 @ Jul 12th 2009 2:40PM]

..have a nice prison.. erm.. day.

[tekdroid @ Jul 12th 2009 10:27AM]

What the Chinese don't know is that I'd be more satisfied without the VAIO branding (or any branding) as long as the quality is there. If companies want to pay me to advertise their stuff, that is another thing...

[DarkLight @ Jul 12th 2009 10:31PM]

Amen!

There are A LOT of Chinese electronics that I would be very proud of, if they only removed the fake branding (or got an original name with an original logo)

[Michele @ Jul 12th 2009 1:26PM]

It's a shame those fakers are feeling proud of their jobs, and they are enjoying the attention they are receiving. Sigh...

[ichheissesuperfantastisch @ Jul 12th 2009 11:51AM]

I don't see why the KIRF series exists on Engadget US. If anything, they should appear on Engadget Chinese, because these products are clearly intended for Chinese consumers within the Mainland China market (and maybe stuff HK visitors buy on a trip to Shanghai or Shenzhen) and they deserve fair warning (should they need it).

I can see the entertainment value in writing about them, but all these posts invite are comments about how 'China pirates everything, no originality, etc etc', all of which are likely to be written by teenagers with no idea of how imitation has been the hallmark of the industrial design process throughout history. Toyotas were originally considered ripoffs of Ford models; which of those two make better cars now? I'm not defending piracy, (least of all that which blatantly infringes on brand copyright like this), but it's a bit rich to read critical comments of China's disrespect of IP by the same people who act like the the Pirate Bay is some sort of anti-corporate martyr.

[RLBurkes @ Jul 12th 2009 2:59PM]

"blah blah blah blah blah..............but it's a bit rich to read critical comments of China's disrespect of IP by the same people who act like the the Pirate Bay is some sort of anti-corporate martyr."

Good Point!

[Fakes @ Jul 13th 2009 12:03PM]

This is very sad to see the clones hitting the market at this stage. More details http://www.carbroker.org