China’s Meizu clones and supersizes the iPhone 5C

Chinese phone maker Meizu today unveiled the M1 Note, which looks like a shamelessly cloned and supersized iPhone 5c.

While the Meizu M1 Note – with its 5.5-inch screen – is a lot larger than Apple’s iPhone 5c, it has the exact same plastic body, buttons, and choice of colors (hat-tip to AndroidCentral for spotting this). The design elements not pilfered from Apple, such as the large rear camera lens, are carried over from Meizu’s flagship MX4. Here’s a Meizu M1 Note and an iPhone 5c side by side, showing what we’ll charitably call a homage to Apple’s artwork:

Although the visuals look far from original, the very aggressive price makes this an interesting move that’s worth watching. By starting this strongly-specced phone at a mere RMB 999 (US$160) for the 16GB version, Meizu is taking a stab at Xiaomi’s cheap Redmi 1S and Redmi Note phones, which have proved to be the best-selling devices in Xiaomi’s line-up.

The average price of a new phone sold in China is US$233, so it makes sense for Meizu to make something more affordable than its MX4, which starts at US$280.

Here are the M1 Note specs:

• 5.5-inch 1080p screen
• 13MP rear camera; 5MP at front
• MediaTek MT6752 processor
• 2GB RAM
• 3G and 4G support
• Weight: 145g

See: 3 years on, Alibaba’s not giving up on its mobile OS

(Source: AndroidCentral)