There’s no question that Meizu, the Chinese-based company, likes to emulate Apple’s iPhone. They do it in such a way, though, that legal action has never been taken against the company. This is helped with the inclusion of Android as the Operating System of choice, along with the company’s utilization of an original User Interface. But, that’s not stopping the physical aspects of the device pulling down ideas from the Cupertino-based company.
The M9, which is set to ship some time in October solely in China (to start, hopefully), features a display that will have a resolution of 960×640. That is remarkably similar, if not exactly like the iPhone 4’s display. The screen’s size, though, will be 3.54-inches, which differs the two devices, even if it is a difference that no one would notice in real world usage. Other similar features include the 1GHz processor, along with the 512MB of RAM tucked away under the hood.
The M9 will feature Android 2.2, apparently, but you’ll barely notice it, as the company goes to great lengths to change the layout of their devices. As we mentioned above, it’s supposed to come out in October of this year, but Meizu is pretty legendary for their missed deadlines, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens. As you can see from the images herein, the UI is certainly Meizu’s, even if there are similarities to others out there. But, with that processor and display, if the M9 does indeed hit the market, it could easily be considered one of the best Android devices out there.
[via MeizuMe; thanks, David]
In Canada and USA, I have seen many non brand products that imitate the look (not 100%, of course) of some brand name ones like Head & Shoulders, Oil of Olay, Coke, etc. but there is no such kind of thing as being counter sued by the main company. Consumers nowadays are smart to distinguish the orginal one from the others. It is up to the consumers to choose any non-brand-name products to use as long as those products do not cause any safety problem. Apple’s law suit against Meizu M8 is just a business tactic to suppress its competitors and monopolize the iphone sales using the power of a richer company. The “imitated shapes” that Apple complains about were already seen on other products before Apple iphone was released. Iphone technology is not a something that Apple owns and invented, other companies should have equal right to compete with each other, on quality and price.