The Demo Site

First the unboxing, now the review.  Meizu's M8 wannabe-iPhone still isn't quite within the grasp of buyers, but IT168 have reviewed an early sample and, despite the delay, come away impressed.  It might never have been blessed by Steve Jobs, but the 3.4-inch touchscreen handset - with a 3.2-megapixel camera and either 8 or 16GB of onboard memory - seems to have its own charms.

Particular praise goes to the M8's GUI, which is apparently one of the more successful Windows CE 6.0 reworkings, and while the phone's non-production firmware had a few issues Meizu are confirmed to be working on them in advance of the handset's release.  Overall, IT168 declare the M8 to be more than just an Apple copy by virtue of its excellent performance.

Of course, there's still the question of who would actually buy something so obviously "influenced" by Apple's design.  The specs of the M8 leave a little to be desired, too; EDGE may have been enough for the first-gen iPhone, but the absence of 3G will leave owners of the newer version cold.  It's likely to be a hit in China, however, and we'll probably see a few make their way to the US and Europe courtesy of importers.

[via iTechNewsNet]