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iPhone 5 Knockoffs Showing Up in China Already

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,555
30,882



Months before the iPhone 5 is expected to launch, Chinese counterfeiters have already started producing an iPhone 5 knock-off partially based on the leaked designs.




According to GizChina, this particular "iPhone 5" is being sold for $108 USD with a JAVA based OS, MP3 and MP4 playback and WI-Fi.

The images show a tapered edge design similar to the leaked case designs, though it's not exact. This "iPhone 5" doesn't have the mute switch moved to the opposite side as seen on the case designs. It also retains the usual look of the home button rather than an elongated design.




The body of the device is only 7mm thick while the iPhone 4 comes in at 9.3mm. The device is already being sold as an "iPhone 5".

Apple is expected to release the actual iPhone 5 sometime in September. Case leaks have already begun in China. These design documents are good enough to create mock products as we saw with the iPad 2. This design isn't exactly like the specs but does seem somewhat inspired by them.

Article Link: iPhone 5 Knockoffs Showing Up in China Already
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/01/iphone-5-knockoffs-showing-up-in-china-already/

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ChristianVirtual

ChristianVirtual

macrumors 601
May 10, 2010
4,122
282
日本
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_4 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8K2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Looks plausible ... Wonder how many will go to jail this time ...
 
F

fkhan3

macrumors 6502
Apr 28, 2010
383
0
lukefinch said:
I wonder how close these are to the real thing :rolleyes:

It just looks like some strange cross between a 3Gs and an iPhone 4.
Click to expand...

Looking at the pictures, not very close. They can keep this iPhone in China and give us the real thing :D
 
A

arbitter

macrumors regular
Nov 12, 2010
109
1
Belgium
Nah that won't be it, it looks ugly! I liked the 4's design, but I like anything new. Didn't quite like the 3G(S)
 
2499723

2499723

Cancelled
Dec 10, 2009
812
412
Wow. No sense of design. Though, I'd be laughing (mostly at myself) if the real iPhone 5 looked like this.
 
kalsta

kalsta

macrumors 68000
May 17, 2010
1,677
577
Australia
Oh, you bunch of wowsers… This has a rounded edge that actually looks comfortable to hold!! I wouldn't mind at all if Apple's design ends up looking more like this and less like an iPod touch.
 
I

itsalexaye

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2011
128
0
Michigan
i doubt it would look like this. I'm expecting something much closer to the iPhone 4's design. probably a bit thinner though
 
juannacho

juannacho

macrumors regular
Apr 26, 2011
195
59
So for the real thing, kinda like an iPhone 4, full metal border, slightly rounded off corners, bit of a taper and an edge-to-edge screen?

I'm cool with that.

Obviously this knock-off crap isn't going to have the posh, expensive screen and the overal quality of finish, but the general implications I think make for quite a nice looking (and ergonomic!) phone.

And then I can finally retire my 3GS to being the kitchen iPod full time ;)
 
J

jakester20

macrumors newbie
May 26, 2011
7
0
Why would you buy this fake junk...? pfftt China buy the fake iPhone 5 from the fake Apple stores just shut down? :p
 
G

getyup

macrumors 6502
Jul 2, 2011
294
0
Macaroony said:
How exactly do they think they can get away with it, or is there some loophole?
Click to expand...

Who's going to stop them??!?! Some loophole? LOL, sure, tell the Chinese government to stop allowing the sales of fake Rolex and see how far that gets you.

You should try traveling outside the borders of the US sometime. I'm in Bangkok all week and every electronics stall has fake iPads, fake iPods, iPhone 5, iPhone 5 cases, fake everything. There's no "loophole" it's just not something that is enforced outside of the US. Americans are the most litigious society in the world, and outside the US it's common to see street vendors and even shops all over the mall selling counterfeit merchandise.

I played with their "iPhone 5" knockoff, and for the most part it's crap, just like every other china-model iPhone has been to date... they're laggy and run a simulated java version of iOS. They do have an antennae that pulls out the bottom tho, so u can watch TV on it, hahaha... the only cool thing is it uses a full size SIM, not a crappy-ass microsim... but again if you don't travel outside the US you won't appreciate that as a benefit either.
 
Y

Ynot

macrumors member
Jan 14, 2006
62
20
they better hurry up :-D

if they hurry up they can Trademark the Name "iPhone5" in China and sue Apple wenn it brings out its model this Fall /s
 
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