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Meizu M8, the Chinese iPhone?
comment: 35 | Monday, January 29 (2007) 08:02AM | Posted by Austin Vaughan
An interesting item turned up in our forums. Supposedly, Meizu has a new PMP in the works - the M8 - bearing a strong resemblance to the Apple iPhone in both form and function. The pics are probably nothing more than concept art, but then again, we wouldn't be surprised if they were close to the mark. Meizu has a history of borrowing design elements from Apple, as with the M6.



• 57 x 105 x 11.5mm
• 3.3-inch VGA+ screen (720 x 480)
• WinCE 6.0
• 3 megapixel camera
• GSM & Chinese TD (3G) cell phone
• Standard USB port and dock connector
• TV out, Line in/out


Note: This isn't the first time that we've seen concept art for the M8 - check out this news post from back in November. Apparently Meizu has an enthusiastic fan base.

LINK (Meizu forums)
LINK (dapreview forums)

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Comments

Lone

Comments: 973
Jan 29 (2007) 08:30AM  

Nice, it looks like it has Internet Explorer and Outlook Express instead of Safari and Mac Mail




Allen
Location: Dub Vee Ooo
Comments: 1511
Jan 29 (2007) 09:07AM  

Ha... now THIS would be cool... and cheaper then the apple iphone.




Lacene
Location: Standing Here, Confused By Your
Comments: 841
Jan 29 (2007) 09:35AM  

the question is, would it ever become a reality, or make it to US shores.....




mhelliwell
Location: Victoria, BC, Canada
Comments: 44
Jan 29 (2007) 09:36AM  

What bugs me is that people - and no one in particular, but I can think of two people already, have said that Meizu has a "history" of borrowing design ideas from Apple. But there is no evidence that there's been a history other than the M6.




undesign

Comments: 805
Jan 29 (2007) 10:59AM  

LOL, looks better than the iPhone...actually, a LOT better, no wait, it makes the iPhone look piss poor, both aesthetically and specs wise. And, wait, hold on, is that something i see that apple doesnt do....one of the most important features in a phone and apple didnt add it because it wants to milk its customers like microsoft and big brother (so much for their 1984 commercial)....

....REMOVABLE BATTERY?!?!?!






bloodycape

Comments: 730
Jan 29 (2007) 11:13AM  

That must be the iphone skin because WM6 does not look like that or atleast from what I have seen [Linky]

and from what I read, it has CDMA and GSM tech so it is a multiband phone. I would think it will come to the states as we are the largest user of CDMA phones.
[ edited Jan 29 (2007) 11:15AM ]




mhelliwell
Location: Victoria, BC, Canada
Comments: 44
Jan 29 (2007) 11:58AM  

Just imagine this is real - imagine it comes to the US at the the awesome prices Meizu offers. That would be HUGE for Meizu. I don't honestly think it's going to happen - not to be pessimistic. But if it did, Apple would be out on it's ass, beat by a random Chinese company - and we would just laugh. Ya, that would rock my socks for sure.




Austin Vaughan
Location: Lenexa, KS
Comments: 770
Jan 29 (2007) 12:08PM  

even if it's not Meizu, within 5 years, this is where portable A/V tech is heading... a single device for all entertainment/communication. we're going to need a new name for this place




jbhitter24

Comments: 351
Jan 29 (2007) 12:09PM  

oh yeah and i would love it too. not to mention it has 3g which is the number one fanboy complaint of the iphone. not that i really know whats so good about 3g. is it just much faster browsing on the internet?




GeorgeXV
Location: UK
Comments: 10
Jan 29 (2007) 12:29PM  

If this is real it sure does look slick....

Holding out hope for something unlikely




Ricardo Dawkins

Comments: 383
Jan 29 (2007) 12:40PM  

is that screen touch based ?




shiftis
Location: Canada
Comments: 369
Jan 29 (2007) 01:24PM  

I don't see how the uppermost photos are iPhone-esque in any sense.

There are only so many ways you can make a touch screen phone, and Apple certainly didn't do it first.




jbhitter24

Comments: 351
Jan 29 (2007) 01:35PM  

its probably the gui that makes it look iphone-ish. considering it has the same grass background and similar transparent menu bars.




bloodycape

Comments: 730
Jan 29 (2007) 04:09PM  

I think they took wm6 or what ever version it is and added the iphone skin and buttons because clearly from that link on wm6 the screen shots show a interface that is similar to what is currently being used but it looks a little more like vista.




Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2408
Jan 29 (2007) 04:21PM  

this design is not dissimilar to the one we saw in November...

rough side by side:





bloodycape

Comments: 730
Jan 29 (2007) 05:22PM  

video of wm6 from cnet. [Linky]




dave95

Comments: 122
Jan 29 (2007) 05:53PM  

Only concepts - but the removable battery idea I like on the iPhone clone, and it has a front facing camera for video chat etc. This little company has b*lls though!





XooM

Comments: 57
Jan 29 (2007) 06:19PM  

Meizu's other history? "borrowing" stuff from apple, then turning around and making it better and cheaper




Breakdown

Comments: 228
Jan 29 (2007) 09:32PM  

Dominic

yeah . . . um, no. lol




Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2408
Jan 30 (2007) 04:26AM  

lol breakdown you see no similarities between the two at all?




Steve

Comments: 1197
Jan 30 (2007) 04:46AM  

I'd prefer Meizu's or almost any companies stuff rather than Apples or Microsofts lock-down/lock-in/sell-your-soul-to-us crap.





pecker

Comments: 501
Jan 30 (2007) 05:37AM  

lol @ steve!

Ill second that motion!




fraxos

Comments: 27
Jan 30 (2007) 07:09AM  

Actually this is how the M8 will really be. This is the almost-final version that the General manager of Meizu published on the company's forum.

[Linky]






Saijin_Naib
Location: Warren, NJ
Comments: 927
Jan 30 (2007) 08:27AM  

Rock out. iPhone isnt going to get marketshare if Meizu can hook this up with a carrier here and get it moving fast. Id rather use WinCE and a decent device than whatever mac-mobile they are using on the iPhone.




Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2408
Jan 30 (2007) 09:45AM  

found on the meizu forums [Linky]




abe5688
Location: Philly
Comments: 66
Jan 30 (2007) 08:49PM  

i want one. and i want verizon to get it. i don't need one, though, so i probably won't get it. but knowing that my provider has it is that security that would make me happy. even though i wouldn't spend my money on it. is that at all strange?




law1004

Comments: 55
Jan 31 (2007) 12:53PM  

no wifi internet browsing/MSN = no thanks




Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2408
Jan 31 (2007) 01:19PM  

fair enough complaint




bloodycape

Comments: 730
Jan 31 (2007) 08:26PM  

maybe that could be added with a wif sd or minisd or microsd card(which ever format it is using).




boatshit99

Comments: 5
Jan 31 (2007) 09:30PM  

what cheese looking phone. I wish I could beat down apple for introducing garbage phone so everyone can copy. Better yet I will also like to beat down MS for making a crappy phone os. Palm for introducing a phones that caused apple to bring out their trash, and BB for just making pure garbage. Its a vicious cycle of crap.




udauda
Location: the Golden State California
Comments: 61
Feb 01 (2007) 04:08AM  

"hey is that an iphone?"

"No, it's Meizu."

lofl-




tfgbd

Comments: 1
Feb 01 (2007) 10:47AM  

Guys, learn how to read! The specs say "Windows CE 6.0" NOT Windows Mobile 6!

Windows CE 6.0 is the newest version of Windows CE and the OS in which future versions of the Windows Mobile platforms will be based. (WM7, WM8, WM9?) Windows Mobile 6 is a custom Windows CE based standard platform from Microsoft and is still based on Windows CE 5.0 (same as WM5).

If this were running Windows Mobile, it could not look as iPhone-like or even have the resolution it has! It would just look like every other Pocket PC. Windows CE is a general purpose embedded OS where Windows Mobile is an open consumer-targeted computer operating system/platform (like Windows XP) based on a Windows CE kernel. MS MUST enforce very strict hardware and software guidelines to ensure that any program written for this standard platform will run on any manufacturer's device. OEMs must also promise a minimum amount of devices and even sign a NDA to even work with the platform. Plain vanilla Windows CE, however, is not like this. Plain CE is more like Linux in that each OEM can add/remove components and edit the source code to make their own custom "distro" (platorm) of the OS. With it, the OEM has near complete freedom to modify/remove almost any OS component. (even support for graphics itself!) A very common problem encountered in the communitys of custom (non Pocket PC) Windows CE device owners is the complete freedom OEMs have to choose OS components. Often the same program that runs on one device will not run on another manufacturer's more limited implementation of the same CE OS version (without hacking) or the OEM forgot an to add an important core os component (like Soft Input Panel support) that many programs need to start!

While Embedded Windows CE is not a standard platform, as long as the OEM creates a decently complete implementation of the OS and by copying over a few Pocket PC compatability dlls, you can achieve pretty reasonable Handheld PC and Pocket PC compatability with it.
CE6 also adds even more Pocket PC comatability to the core OS such as cellcore support. (CE 4.2 added rather basic Pocket PC application/API support)

I'm amazed this thing is running CE 6 already! It just RTMed a few months ago! Then again, its not even a real photo...so who knows if they even ported it yet...

Seriously... How is this thing NOT better than the iPhone! I mean its not just a phone but a full Windows CE computer as well! The iPhone does not even allow you to install software!

The only problem I can see is finding drivers for Windows CE 6 itself. CE 6 is almost an entirely new kernel. It makes many breaking changes to core os components and things like drivers. MS claims that its still very backwards compatible on the application level,so hopefully that will not be broken too much. Since this OS is so new and the source of CE drivers for some addon hardware are the Windows Mobile platforms (Which are still using the pretty unchanged since CE1, 5.0 OS) that could be a minor issue also. Though, many companies are aware of CEs embedded\industrial use and do provide drivers.

Also, just so you know... Embedded Windows CE comes with a full port of Internet Explorer 6.0.
Its not that cut down Pocket IE/IE Mobile that comes with Windows Mobile. It also has most of the codecs available in desktop Windows Media player for OEMs to use.

-TFGBD (Google me to contact)
[ edited Feb 01 (2007) 11:06AM ]




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