iPhone X clones flood MWC and this one’s damn ugly

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iPhone X clone
The Leagoo S9 is one of the better iPhone X knockoffs.
Photo: Benedict Evans

Mobile World Congress 2018Chinese smartphone makers turn up to Mobile World Congress with awful clones every year. This year, the iPhone X is the hottest handset money can buy — and just as expected, it has copycats all over the place.

Some of them are downright ugly — like this monstrosity from Oukitel.

Smaller smartphone makers have been copying the iPhone for years. Ripping off its iconic designs and slapping a significantly cheaper price tag on them is a surefire way to make quick cash. And it’s never going to change — MWC proves the immitators are still alive and kicking in 2018.

iPhone X clones keep coming

Leagoo is one Chinese manufacturer that’s using the iPhone X’s design in an effort to boost sales. Its S9 and S9 Pro handsets have glass panels front and back, held together by a metal frame, and a near edge-to-edge “notch display.” They also have an all-too familiar rear-facing camera setup.

The S9 and S9 Pro pack a fingerprint scanner, unlike iPhone X, but it sits on the back of these devices so that there’s plenty of room for a big, ugly Leagoo logo beneath their displays. And believe it or not, this isn’t the worst iPhone X copycat on show.

Oukitel is also demonstrating some of its devices at MWC. One of them, complete with its own notch, runs a version of Android that died out long ago. It clearly hasn’t made any optimizations for the display, either, with the time in the top-right corner cut off by the screen’s rounded edges.

Sadly, these phones will sell to those who are desperate for an iPhone X but don’t have the $1,000 budget — and the clones will keep on coming. It seems Apple still hasn’t figured out how to shutdown the smaller Chinese handset makers, but it will surely have its eyes on them.

Via: Benedict Evans

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