The most famous iPhone clone is at it again: HiPhone has a Nanoesque phone to tickle everyone’s fancy all the way to Christmas. Take that SciPhone! We surely hope you’d buy this one. In fact, I predict there will be a horde of surprised colleagues, friends, bosses, aunts, uncles, nices and nephews this Christmas when they all unwrap their new HiPhone F320.

You see, this iPhone clone is unique among iPhone clones–not to mention that it’s specifically an iPod Nano clone–in that it dares to be innovative. The HiPhone F320 doesn’t have a clickwheel below the screen but a dial-wheel. Unfortunately, the numerical keys are push-button and not the rotary type of old. Other features:

• quadband GSM
• 2.6-inch touchscreen
• 1.3 MP camera (video recorder)
• MP4/ MP3
• Bluetooth, FM

[via chinagrabber]

Below are some useful Youtube videos that helps you setup a CECT phone to a U.S. network. This may not work in all popular iPhone clones but in my experience they often use the same software and hardware parts. The videos can be found on this site.

Setup to AT&T


T-Mobile iPhone clone setup

Installing a JAVA .jar file on a CECT phone

More videos here.

The specs shows nothing special, really: 3.2-inch touchscreen, WiFi, JAVA, FM tuner, Opera browser and portable TV. It’s supposed to be the thinnest HiPhone ever at 11mm. Is this the mother of all iPhone clones? No, but other manufacturers should get an idea on where iPhone cloning should be headed.

[via chinagrabber]

This is a crazy thin laptop from our beloved HiPhone. Only 22mm deep, which is slightly thinner than the MacBook Air. Sure it’s plasticky and it only has an Intel N270 1.6GHz processor but for 12.1-inch 160GB netbook, the $450 asking price is fairly reasonable. They even have a cheaper model here, but you need to use a lot of SD cards. You’ll need to look at the photos provided here with some skepticism, as I don;t see any USB ports or LAN sockets anywhere in the notebook. I would wait till the people at Hiphone have a demo video at least posted in the site. You can check out the MacBook Air Teso to see how a product photo is done.

HiPhone iLaptop 2009 specs (full list here):

• 21.1-inch lcd
• Atom 1.6GHz
• 1GB RAM (?)
• 160GB SATA
• WiFi and ethernet LAN port
• 2 USBs (can’t find USBs in photo)
• dimensions: 302mm x 215mm x 22mm
• 1.4 kg

[store]

The WiFi + TV phone is the best HiPhone yet. Fortunately, it also clones one of the best looking phones around, and I don’t mean it’s an iPhone clone. The BlackBerry Storm form factor is a breath of fresh air on the HiPhone F06-Slim WiFi TV phone. You heard right, TV and WiFi (we rechecked and it appears WiFi TV doesn’t exactly mean it has WiFi). From the 3.2-inch touchscreen, the dual-stand-by dual-SIM to the Internet on-the-go via WLAN and the TV tuner, the Hiphone F06 Slim is packed quad-band GSM phone. The best part is it’s only $190.

[source]

The F06 Slim features…

*
TV, Touchscreen with handwriting input, MP3 player, MP4 player / record, Video Recorder, Sound Recorder, GPRS, FM radio, JAVA, Wifi, Calculator, Calendar, Memo, Alarm, Bluetooth function

But not sure why they call it “Slim”.

Okay, we cannot resist but post about this new HiPhone Nano. The F210 is flip iPhone clone that incorporates the stylings of Motorola Aura and may very well be a more effective fashion statement with the inclusion of an iPod clickwheel. It’s a direct descendant of this HiPhone Nano. It comes in two colors for now. Hopefully more will be added. For $139.99, you shouldn’t expect monster features in the F210, and don’t ask me about the logo in front. I don’t know what or who Egs is and if it’s connected somehow to HiPhone.

HiPhone Nano F210 features:

• triband GSM
• 1.4-inch screen
• VGA camera
• Bluetooth A2DP
• FM tuner
• Video and Music support

[via chinagrabber]

Check out our most popular HiPhone page.

SciPhone is another iPhone clone brand you should watch out for

Who knew that the HiPhone could share branding with the famour iOrgane phone. Shows you how little we understand about Chinese iPhone clones, though the resulting phone seems more like a Samsung Omnia clone. The iOrgane F8 HiPhone boasts a 3.5-inch touchscreen, TV receiver and it takes two SIMs at a time besides being able to work on an AT&T network (it’s a quadband GSM). It’s got video playback capabilities, Bluetooth A2DP and a camera. I seriously doubt this was made for under $40. Anyway online price for this baby is just $190, so besides being a HiPhone and a TV phone, the iOrgane F8 s a cheap phone.

Specs of iOrgane F8 Hiphone:

3.5-inch touchscreen
quadband GSM
TV and FM receivers
MP4 and MP3 playback
Bluetooth A2DP
TF card slot w/ 1GB TF card included
JAVA
1200mAh lithium battery

[via chinagrabber]

We’ve been bringing you iPhone clones galore since the Apple iPhone was first announced and we are not going to stop just because the New York Times has published a scathing feature on Chinese iPhone knock-offs.

The phone’s sleek lines and touch-screen keyboard are unmistakably familiar. So is the logo on the back. But a sales clerk at a sprawling electronic goods market in this Chinese coastal city admits what is clear upon closer inspection: this is not the Apple iPhone; this is the Hi-Phone.

Heck, they even mispelled our beloved HiPhone, putting a hyphen after Hi, as if to emphasize its mild, unassuming nature. We get that knock-offs are very easy to manufacture:

“Five years ago, there were no counterfeit phones,” says Xiong Ting, a sales manager at Triquint Semiconductor, a maker of mobile phone parts, while visiting Shenzhen. “You needed a design house. You needed software guys. You needed hardware design. But now, a company with five guys can do it. Within 100 miles of here, you can find all your suppliers.”

They’re also dirt cheap. A Shanzai (Shenzhen knockoff phone) could cost as little as $20 per unit to make. [nyt]

After five years Shanzai phones take 20% of the Chinese mobile market, and we assume it continues to be a growing market especially after Chinese deregulators stopped requiring licenses for cell phone manufacturers.. In today’s economic downturn, Chinese mobile clones are in a very good position. Both foreign and local “original” manufacturers are taking the hit. One reason may be quality: “Our phone is even better than the iPhone,” says Liu Zeyu, a Meizu salesman in Shenzhen. “Our goal is to create a phone that makes Chinese proud.”

Dean Baker on the American Prospect has a different view on knock-offs. HiPhone is not a fake iPhone because it is a HiPhone. Get it?

After the rather laughably Apple HiPhone Nano comes the gorgeously Apple N3+. This seems like a phone from an altogether alien line and I hesitate to call it next-gen or an iteration of the original knockoff HiPhone Nano coming only a few days after the first one. But here it is, HiPhone Nano N3+, presumably coming the same company who makes the HiPhone brand along with the similarly low price point–a discounted $189.99 from the same Chinagrabber online store. Here’s what you get for that amount: a sexy Nanoesque outer skin in metallic sheen, wonderfully knocked-off iPod clickwheel, then a 2.8-inch (sometimes it says 3.0 inches) touchscreen at the back side when you flip the phone open. The screen part of the HiPhone Nano N3+ rotates up to 180 degrees.

Features and highlights of N3+

• Clamshell iPod Nano design
• 2.8-inch (3.0-inch) touchscreen QVGA + stylus
• Triband GSM, GPRS
• Dual SIM with dual stand-by
• TouchWiz control (?)
• Shake control, magical Voice (?)
• Bluetooth
• Video and music support and FM tuner
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• TF card slot (1GB TF comes with the phone)
• game support
• 2800mAh battery

[store]

While the world is waiting for the iPhone Nano, HiPhone has come out with its own version of Nano, and guess what, it’s a clamshell. On the outside it has a dedicated media key reminiscent of the iPod clickwheel (it is the iPod clickwheel) and a monochrome screen that displays the time. Inside is a 2.4-inch touchscreen display and a numeric keypad. The HiPhone Nano even has dual-SIM support. Early adopters don’t get any bonus points with the hefty $124.99 price tag, unlocked of course.

HiPhone Nano comes in three Nanoesque colors.

HiPhone has drawn first blood. Now it’s Apple’s move. Read on for the complete specs:

[store]