GizChina reports one Chinese manufacturer is already churning out lookalike iPhone 6S handsets from its carefully arranged assembly lines. The design of the resulting devices looks almost identical to that of Apple’s crafted flagship products and the clone is even offered in several authentic colours, including rose gold. Unlike the real thing, the back cover can be removed to access the battery and dual SIM slots.
Shown off in a video by ARMdevices.net, the device runs an old version of Android skinned to resemble iOS 9. The icons resemble Apple’s designs and the usual Android app launcher is eschewed in favour of the iOS system of placing every shortcut onto the home-screen. Open any of the apps and it quickly becomes apparent it isn’t an iPhone at all, as Android interfaces will naturally appear.
The $37 (£22) price doesn’t get you much more than a ripped-off Apple design. As with other cheap clones, the internal specifications leave a lot to be desired and don’t include any of the real iPhone’s cutting-edge features, such as 3D Touch and Siri. The 5-inch display has a resolution of just 960×540 while the Spreadtrum processor is based off ARM’s aging Cortex-A7 design. The phone has just 4GB of internal storage and 512MB of RAM.
iPhone copycats are nothing new. The market for fake handsets has boomed in recent years and the savvy shopper can also find renditions of premium Android devices made by major manufacturers like Samsung. In the past, companies like GooPhone have risen to the top of the cloned handset business, although they rarely make an appearance on the backs of the devices they make. This unbranded iPhone 6S fake appears to be by a different manufacturer though.
It isn’t even just unknown Chinese brands that are copying Apple. The recently announced HTC A9 deliberately resembles an iPhone as the company tries to turn its fortunes around by using a design that is already popular with consumers.
From HTC’s perspective, it’s actually Apple that’s doing the copying though. Apple’s iPhone 6-series could be seen as being based on HTC’s own M7 line of smartphones and HTC has said it sees the A9 as reclaiming something it first brought to the table before Apple popularized it.
