An interesting review of the Meizu M8, a Windows CE device strongly resembling Apple's iPhone, has appeared on the French website Le Journal du Geek. "We expected an evil clone, but were treated to a particularly well done device," writes author Gregori Pujol.
The M8, shipping now in China -- and India, according to Pujol -- has had an extended gestation period to say the least. Meizu first showed non-working prototypes of the device, whose hardware and software bear an extremely strong visual resemblance to the Apple iPhone, as far back as Feb. 2007.
The M8 has a 3.4-inch display with 720 x 480 resolution, and, according to Le Journal Du Geek, uses capacitive touchscreen technology -- like the iPhone, but like no other shipping Windows device we know of. The device also includes a 667MHz ARM11 CPU, 256MB of RAM, 8GB or 16GB of flash storage, a three megapixel camera, and dual-band (900/1800MHz) GSM connectivity. (For more specifications, see our earlier coverage, here.)
The M8's hardware and software look an awful lot like Apple's iPhone
The M8 includes an accelerometer that automatically switches its display from portrait to landscape modes when the phone is rotated. An uncommon feature when the iPhone made its debut, this is no longer rare. However, the M8 also retains a jaw-dropping physical resemblance to the IPhone, though it's smaller and lighter: Meizu says the 4.16-ounce M8 is 0.47 inches thick, 4.25 inches high, and 2.3 inches wide, whereas the 4.7-ounce iPhone is 0.48 inches thick, 4.5 inches high, and 2.4 inches wide, according to Apple.
Even more likely to raise the ire of laywers in Cupertino is the M8's software, which has clearly been crafted to look like that running on the iPhone. Instead of Apple's OS X, the M8's operating system is Windows CE, provided with a homegrown "Mmobile" user interface. Touting "Mmobile operating system" and SDK (software development kit) for third-party software development, Meizu doesn't say whether its phone will run standard Windows CE binaries, but we found screenshots (below) on the company's website suggesting that it does.
Drilling down into the M8's user interface reveals its Windows CE core (Click any to enlarge)
According to Le Journal Du Geek, the M8's software "responds well," and is "fluid and comfortable," just as it would be on an iPhone. Pujol adds that unlike HTC's TouchPro 3D addon to Windows Mobile, Mmobile changes the phone's look and feel completely. "I was unable to find a single Windows box or menu," he writes.
Lauding the device's ability to play back a variety of video formats without re-encoding, Pujol also says that the M8 goes beyond the iPhone in several ways. For example, he writes, there's cut-and-paste support. In addition, when the device is connected to a PC, it appears as a USB mass storage device, letting files be copied to and from the phone using drag-and-drop. Alternatively, ActiveSync is also supported, he adds.
Pujol's review concludes, "the Meizu M8 is one of the most successful clones in the market, if you can even call it a clone." He adds, "we expected an evil clone, but were treated to a particularly well-done device that leaves many competitors behind."
Meizu's M8 in action Source: Le Journal Du Geek (click to play)
Further information
To read the review of the Meizu M8, which includes extensive photography, in its original French language see the Le Journal Du Geek website, here. To read the review in English via a Google translation, go here.
To see a Chinese website that apparently contains a repository of third-party software written to run on the M8, see here.
