A million and one Chinese companies cloned Apple’s iPod, using the same form factor in competing MP3 players and mobile phones. It was inevitable, therefore, that a raft of iPhone clones would emerge shortly after the real iPhone’s announcement, but I don’t think anyone was expecting them to come out quite so soon!

The pic above shows the first, and what must be admitted, a rather good clone, called the Meizu M8 (iPhone’s on the left, in case you can’t tell!). More impressively, its feature-list is a step above the iPhone, comprising many features that people wanted to see in Apple’s iconic gizmo.

Its full feature list is as follows:

• 57×105x11.5 mm
• GSM/TD-SCDMA
• 3.3 inch 720×480 screen
• Bluetooth
• 3 MP camera
• Video calling
• 30 fps video recording at 720×480 resolution
• TV-Out

Still no 3G, and presumably the interface won’t be quite as neat as the iPhone’s, but at least you aren’t locked into Cingular for 100 years, or forced to pay out $3,000 (OK, slight exaggeration!).

Not sure what Apple will make of this, but as if to laugh in their patenting face further, Meizu have chosen to use Microsoft’s Windows CE 6.0 as the M8’s operating system. Oh, sweet irony!

[Source: Engadget Mobile]