Toptenz.net has an iPhone App: Top 10 List iPhone App
Chinese manufacturers piggyback off of successful products by cranking out thousands of copies, nowhere is this truer than with the success of the iPhone. There are literally hundreds of iPhone knockoffs, ranging from empty shells with the LED Apple logo lit up to exact copies (until the phone stops working and you crack it open to find all the parts are in the wrong place).
Here are our ten favorite wannabe iPhones:
10. Prada
We had to start the list off with the Prada for two reasons: one, because the name is so closely associated with great design, and two, because the design here is so flagrantly an iPhone it’s hilarious.
Seriously, Prada? How often do you complain about those evil pirates stealing your clothes, and then you turn around and do this? We’re going to buy knockoff handbags without wincing, now.
9. LG Dare
LG, on the other hand, should really know better. So, your big innovation on the iPhone is…to mess up the icons on the screen? Really? That’s your big sales innovation? Sheesh.
8. oPhone
The oPhone is the first of many fine Chinese products that will make this list, but it comes first because this is from a respectable manufacturer. Lenovo is what IBM’s computer division used to be before IBM became a trivia question. And, we see they’re carrying on the torch of innovation that led to IBM being taken over by a Chinese company in the first place. We think they just recycled the case from a Palm for this one.
7. The tPhone
Of all the competitors on this list, the tPhone gets the praise for being the most gutsy. They don’t even pretend they’re not ripping off the iPhone, they just get right in there and even steal the Apple logo, flipping it around so that, well, we guess that if you look in the mirror you can pretend you own an iPhone (image: chineseornot.com).
6. The 200 Fashion Mobile Phone
The 200 Fashion, on the other hand, is just kind of sad. It’s like they wanted to do an iPhone knockoff, they were so close, but the touch screen thing just wasn’t affordable, so they kind of stuffed a keypad down at the bottom and called it a day. There’s nothing sadder than piracy that fails.
5. The A88
On the other end of the spectrum is the A88, a knockoff so perfect you won’t even notice it’s a knockoff until you look more closely at the icons on the screen, and try to use the phone (which isn’t exactly a zippy, fun-filled experience) and realize you’ve been had. As counterfeits go, this one is awesome. Also, illegal.
4. The HiPhone
Second place in the fairly convincing knockoff sweepstakes is the HiPhone, which is just like the iPhone, but not quite enough for Apple to sue, because other than looking exactly like it, it’s one letter off. Somehow, we don’t think the Jimmy Hart Version laws really apply to consumer electronics, guys.
3. The C-002
The C-002 missed first place for one reason; that screen is terrible! Even in the few ugly as heck JPEGs we found of this thing, it looked like somebody had run over a monitor from 1995 with a steamroller. Who was this going to fool? The blind? The technophobic? It’s the details that make a forgery, people! I mean, really, if you don’t even care enough to get the details right…
2. Meizu M8
Of all our knockoffs, the Meizu M8 deserves credit for actually bothering to inject some of its own design elements. Instead of just looking completely like an iPhone, it injects a little bit of its own style into the mix. Granted that style makes it look like it’s from the late ’90s, but it’s a start, anyway.
1. CECT P168
Our number one phone gets the top position for a very simple reason. It’s kind of exactly what you imagine when you imagine “iPhone knockoff;” something with the same design that’s just not quite as good as the original.
For us, the hilarious part is the speaker grills drilled into each corner. They kept the speaker grill from the original iPhone design, but added another four. It makes this thing look like it’s made out of Lego. Or that it’s a kid’s toy. But this is apparently a fully functional phone. It’s just kind of ridiculous looking.
Although that pretty much describes all of the phones on this list…
by Dan Seitz
34 Comments
How is LG Dare a knockoff, the picture you posted shows an lg with the interface totally different from the on iOS has. Or do you believe that only Apple has the right to have a green bar above the screen ?
*black bar
I would be so embarresed if i wrote this article. Shiz will be here to show how bad you are at your job. You may want to take off the incorrect information.
This list was obviously compiled by an apple fanboy…
This comment was obviously made by an Apple hater. 😉
Um, this list is just awful. Move along. Nothing to see here.
iPhone and Android are parallel advancement; inevitable that some are close, to the other. However I prefer the open source option. The big thing is “Jailbreaking” for some people, doesn’t need to be done with Android phones.
Of course Android phones need to be jailbroken. That’s why they come with dozens of apps you don’t want that you can’t delete. Several are running processes, hogging memory, that can’t be shut down.
The Prada phone was already announced BEFORE the iPhone was released. And; LG Dare SO does not look like the iPhone. Many other OS use the same interface as the iPhone does.
does anyone really care about the iphone clones anymore? china produce tons of iphone clones that some of my pals are using it on day to day basis.
I purchased the CECT P168++ a few years ago. The worst cell phone I have ever had. So what do you think I did this time? I bought another CECT phone of course. This time I did a lot of research and praying. I was not going to spend $400+ for a phone just because it is an American phone company selling it. Crap for five times what the makers of most of those phones want for their products.
So this time I bought a CECT N97. So far it is a great cell phone. The best I have ever had. I'm a close to a true geek so I love discovering new things my gadgets can do now and then. This phone has so many I am still finding them. TV, WIFI, Radio, Two cameras (front and back), flash and flash light, okay, I will stop there but the list goes on and on. It all words very well. All this for $117. I bought two. One for me and one for my wife. I'm not sure why they used N96 software but then, what difference does it make? I guess the big question anyway is can you get reception on your new Iphone?
And the Iphone copied the Motorola A1000. What's your point?
hahaha china….you've done it again
the only real knockoffs on this list
oPhone – name
tPhone – name and logo
A88 – design
HiPhone – name
the rest is your run of the mill subpar smartphones, beeing a smartphone does not makes it a iphone rippoff
I'm not the writer of this list, but I am an editor for toptenz and thought I better check out the facts behind #10 before anyone's head completely pops off over the controversy. Yes, it looks like the LG Prada was available for sale before the iPhone. In that case it doesn't qualify as a knock-off, unless there is an iTimeMachine coming out soon that I don't know about.
On another note, the lists on this site are written by humans just like you, which means mistakes are made. The Internet is full of all sorts of intentionally misleading information- why not save your time (and your name-calling) for that instead of picking on this writer?
I also challenge any of you to write your own top 10 list and submit it… come on, you know you secretly want to participate – and it can be a lot of fun! I often invite the harshest critics to send in their own list and I haven't received one yet – prove me wrong and send it in! (Check out the guidelines from the home page).
Instead of challenging someone to send their top list, why not edit this article and correct it. In that way it will not mislead. I know you are pissed off with the name callings and stuff like that, because the writer is also a human capable of mistakes. But guess what, its the internet.
Hi Alister, I understand where you are coming from but we don’t usually rewrite whole sections of the lists once they have been published. If the error had been caught during editing, the list would have been sent back to the writer for changes, but I missed it. Instead, the corrections live in the comment threads – it’s not that common, but it does happen. The list is 2 years old now so definitely won’t be changed anymore. I haven’t challenged anyone to submit a list in a long time, I think I’m much mellower in my senior years as a TopTenz editor 🙂
My friend it appears your lack of research skills has been called…by people on the internet no less. You must immediately shutter this site and post no more forever. Someone attach the rock of shame!
Who is the retarded who does this list?, Iphone is a ripoff of Prada!!..crapple fanboys!!.
What about the Droid Incredible? total iPhone knockoff.
How is it, exactly?
Its more powerful than any iphone ever made.
Better camera, better calling capabilites.
Uses a truly open source OS insted of being tied down to crapple.
So how is it a knockoff? Because it has a touch screen and a candy bar shape (apple knocked them off other companies…)
Just because something is (arguably) an improvement over it's predecessor, doesn't mean it's not a knock off…
yes someone cares and that is me, if you can't get you fact right…. don't make a list !!!!
oh god forbid that its wrong like u never done any thing wrong in ur life u morons
Difference is the fool gets paid to write this rubbish
I'm sorry but yeah if you're going to publish something online on a site that is well read, get your facts straight. the iphone is more or less a knock-off of this prada phone by LG
dose anyone really care that there is one thing wrong because god forbid that someone post something that is not entirely correct on the internet. Like that has never happened before ever in the history of the internet
Yeah the LG prada was in SK and came out way before the Iphone, you need to get your facts straight before posting stuff like this on the Internet.
Pretty much anything you read on the internet is wrong. Including this.
Just FYI. The Prada is actually an LG phone that was designed by Prada. It came out in 2006 whereas the Iphone came out in 2007.
Therefore not an iphone ripoff.
YES! thankyou! I was about to write that in a comment.
You'd think someone writing this sort of artical would have look up their facts.
Its good to see someone with sense.
Shock and horror. Information on the ‘net turns out to be inaccurate.
So, the Prada phone is not a ripoff copycat, but the rest are.
And yes, every ‘android’ whatever phone IS a knockoff. Anyone can do a tear-down-and-copy job.
So do you want a Hyundai Sonata or a 328i?
I want a 328i? So do I get one now?
Ok let me get this straight. So every phone that comes out from now on with a touchscreen (and even a full keypad in the case of #6) is inevitably a rip off of the iphone? Yes I know there are truly full-out Chineese copies, but LG and ALL Androids? There where many phones that came out earlier than the iphone with similar features. My next list will be titled “Top Ten LG Prada Ripoffs” and take a HUGE guess with phone will be #1! If you want to argue that LG still ripped off Apple by use of a time machine or something, (probably also made by Apple right?) there are plenty of others that predate the Iphone. The Siemens SX56 (HTC Wallaby) was introduced all the way back in 2002 and came equipped with the Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition, an Intel CPU, and a Flash ROM, and what else but a touchscreen! Go buy another black turtleneck and a pair of old-man jeans Mr. Jobs.