SciPhone smells success with Android-powered clones, orders up an army

You know that N12 we were thrilling about back in June? After faking Android with the Dream G2+ as a skin over its regular OS, SciPhone decided to put real Android on the N12 much to our surprise. Now in the works are the N16 (a phone that looks so much like the Magic that SciPhone just stole the real Magic's press shot instead), the LG-styled N17, and a Storm-esque N19 (pictured). At least the N12 and N16 have 624MHz Marvell processors and 3G, while the N19 sounds to be a non-3G phone running a mere 400MHz chip and 128MB or RAM. The N12 is due this month wherever clones are sold, no word on when the rest will follow.

[Via PMP Today]

[JordanClay Posted Oct 5th 2009 9:39AM]

ZOMG 400mhz, and no 3g! I hope it has MMS too! If not then just release an update for it in 3 years!

[DarKlar Posted Oct 5th 2009 9:48AM]

1GHz or GTFO.

[monkey with glasses Posted Oct 5th 2009 9:49AM]

Wow, engadget respects a Kirf. Normally it should be, KIRF part CC XXXVII.

[kris120890 Posted Oct 5th 2009 9:56AM]

Its not a kirf

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 5th 2009 11:08AM]

Yeah it's an honest (ok maybe there might be a few discrepencies about labor) attempt to make a smartphone.

[hondamx525 Posted Oct 5th 2009 9:59AM]

624mhz, thats higher than any android phone out!

Go Sciphone!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 5th 2009 10:09AM]

Still crappy old ARM11 though, no doubt.

[dr steve brule Posted Oct 5th 2009 4:22PM]

@aaron, it says marvell in the article, not sure what benchmarks are like on that though.

[inevercheckthis Posted Oct 5th 2009 10:18AM]

This is becoming more of a cell phone blog and less like a tech blog every day. how many of the last 20 blog posts are cell phone related?

[saturnblackhole Posted Oct 5th 2009 10:34AM]

are cell phones not gadgets? also i find they balance phones and everything else equally.

[StvDvs Posted Oct 5th 2009 11:56AM]

11 out of the last 20, or 55%.

[sockatume Posted Oct 5th 2009 10:53AM]

Have we confirmed that the N12's actually running the real Android, though? I mean, they were unafraid of ripping Android off, I doubt they'd be above simply telling people that their fake Android is actually the real thing.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 5th 2009 5:41PM]

Since PMP Today included a strange google-translate link to my post I'll clarify the Sciphone thing: the N16 and N17 were dropped and the shells kept for other (java-based) models.

The N12 comes with either WM 6.5 or Android (optional) and is supposed to come out end of october. If...and I stress that IF that happens, Sciphone promised to send me a preview-phone. Anyway, I updated the info on my website.

mmm...usually Engadget is good with their sources (no hard feelings)
Source: http://gadget.blog.nl/software/2009/10/05/sciphone-drops-n16-n17-keeps-the-shells-for-other-models

[savagemike Posted Oct 5th 2009 6:18PM]

awesome !!
I was totally hoping android would blow up (or some other open OS) and allow all these cheap knock off companies to just flood the market with actual product at way under the inflated rates of current cell phones.
I mean it's nice a phone has so many features... but does it really need to cost as much as a laptop?

[Zvonimir Posted Oct 5th 2009 8:51PM]

@Merijn

I see that the N12 is available to order on dhgate. Is this a pre-order? Anyone have any idea?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 6th 2009 2:34AM]

@Zvonimir
That is indeed a pre-order, albeit a very rickety one. Sciphone is reallly exploring its hardware right now, as they have to make do with whatever devices they already produced (this is very common for Chinese companies). The N19 for example, does not come with many Android-like features, so despite the low price (I reckon around $ 100) it may not go beyond the status of prototype.

The N12 looks solid, although I suspect they could drop Android altogether for this device and make it a WM 6.5-only. Let's hope that doesn't happen...