Tracking the products, trends and reach of China's local to global tech culture.
DEFINITION: Shanzai [San-zai -alt. sp.Shanzhai] 1. mountain fortress/bandit 2. a vendor, who operates a business without observing the traditional rules or practices often resulting in innovative and unusual products or business models.
DEFINITION: Shanzai [San-zai -alt. sp.Shanzhai] 1. mountain fortress/bandit 2. a vendor, who operates a business without observing the traditional rules or practices often resulting in innovative and unusual products or business models.
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 Android makes this the best iClone phone yet... period.
iPhone clones are never going to be as good as the original… and after playing around with at least 15 or so in the past I can see why; clunky hardware.. crap GUI (despite the ripped off iPhone icon set) and even worse.. Windows Mobile at the core. That all changes with the Aphone A6, which by way of the Android OS drastically bridges the gap between the iPhone and its iFauxne cousins. Read on to see how good this phone really is and a video of us putting it through its paces. To wet your appetite here are the Aphone A6 specs (according to the manufacturer): Multi-touch Capacitance Panel 3.5inch TFT LCD Screen(260000 color)High Definition GSM EDGE/WiFi Intelligent Cellphone Google Android 1.5 OS Dual-Core CPU(Fast at 300Mhz) by Infomax Technology Co 260MB FLASH、130MB RAM Support(GMAP、Opera Mini、FTP、PC-class Web Browser) Network Frame/Network Whiteboard/Weather Support Net-communicate (Skype/QQ/MSN) E-mail、Office Internal More Than20 Games and may download freely G-safe TM 2 Million-pixel Camera Support Bluetooth2.0 ，Mini-USB Support TF Slot(2G-16G) According to our sources (and until we rip apart this phone ourselves) this is purportedly the duel-core ARM processor from InfoMax at the heart of the device. Its notable also as we’ve only seen shanzhai phones from Marvell and now Infomax running Android… no sign of the ever popular shanzhai platform from MediaTek.  Here’s the video for you to get a first hand look at the device before we through put our opinions out there. Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!  Device Build quality Size is slightly larger than iPhone 3G or 3Gs, some bluish and highly visible discoloration on the back panel near some interesting looking speaker holes. The speakers sound loud and tinny. Typical of other iFauxnes we’ve tried. Volume rocker switch is in the same place as on the iPhone, works fine but there is no mute switch. Another rocker switch on the opposite side side guides you back and forth through applications on the device. You will note the Blackberry Pearl-like trackball, it feels good, responds well, seems totally pointless due to the high responsiveness of the touch screen, but might comfort some trackball loving users for better one handed navigation through apps. In a strange move along the bottom of the phone they’ve gone to a micro-USB headphone jack and USB connection to the PC. The micro-USB cover strip is a bit crap, I could see this falling off at some point. They also tried to copy the USB charging plug of the original iPhone but they’ve kind of cheaped out here and it actually doesn’t function out of the box for us. We had to buy a special universal charger and shove the batteries into that device to get any power for our Aphone A6. Speaking of batteries, the device’s back plate removes comfortably and easily. The Aphone A6 comes with 2 batteries… removable… decent enough battery life to count this possibly as a hardware advantage over the original iPhone which is NOT known for its own great battery life. The phone sucked about 25% of the battery life idling on standby over 24 hours and while we didn’t measure the juice used in the real world (yet) it SEEMS to be about normal compared with the real iPhone usage when playing around with apps and receiving calls. Under the batteries the SD Card and SIM card slots are easy enough to access but the little metal clips that help position them aren’t too stable. If you’re not changing these items often it shouldn’t be a big deal though. Where they didn’t cheap out and is very much appreciated is the touch screen. Its incredibly good. Its also where 99% of iFauxne clones perform poorly. So it was a pleasure to be swiping and pushing icons ONCE instead of four times to open and close programs and to move between screens. Its not a perfectly clear screen and some discoloration in the bottom left corner was revealed when in camera mode but it isn’t noticeable at other times. Phone Calls Phone call clarity was exceptionally good if a bit tinny. My original iPhone is not as clear and has a more muted sound. Very impressive. SMS SMS is fast and in terms of looks its one of the Apple iPhone GUI items that they’ve faithfully copied. The bubble-like conversation threads are as useful and graphically pleasing as the original. OS Info Android 1.5 and according to the device itself: Android Version number 05020004¬_76C15 IMEI 0000000000000 (er… no surprise here) Applications Weather forecast app looks very similar thanks to a redo (copy of Apple/Yahoo original) of the Google basic UI and functions pretty much the same. The phone call dial pad is skinned to look like the UI from the original iPhone and the rest of the apps pretty much perform and look like they would on any other Google Android based phone.. Which is pretty good. If you know Android you know this phone. Wi Fi was tested informally again but worked well browsing reasonably quickly, again comparable in terms of seed to the iPhone 3G (don’t know about the 3GS though). Media Playback, Web Surfing Our in-house device is on the road as we publish today but we’ll try and put it through more testing when we get it back later next week. I surfed around a little on the device using the Wifi connection and it was pretty much the same experience I’ve had on other Android based phones. Good but not quite as good as the Apple’s iPhone browser experience. Conclusions & Pricing Where other iPhone clones fall down this device stands up to the challenge. Its got a great, responsive screen and a good OS in Android. The copy of the Apple UI in the few areas where it’s used is good and the original Android UI is more than fine in most other cases. It's not as good as the original iPhone of course but its an impressive piece of work with only a few minor pieces of hardware that are poor quality, notably the USB port cover and the charger. Until we've tested it over time it's hard to say but the quality of the short experience we've had using with it as a phone has been good. Pricing is listed at uncontracted at 202 USD but its apparently not yet available in China for the domestic market. Possible Advantages over the real iPhone -If you’re an Android OS/app fan … then the software -Removable battery (comes with 2) -If you are a trackball fan, improved one handed phone navigation -Removable/expandable memory (SD Card slot) could give you more memory than Apple's 32GB allotment -If not into iTunes there are other ways to add content to your device by USB or the expandable memory (as an iPhone user I’m not an iTunes fan myself) -For Chinese customers it’s got WiFi which the iPhone in China doesn’t have… that’s a huge plus More Pics 
     
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Social Production & Operation Tablet Bag Design from:shanzai Studios How To Buy
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Idea Stream from Shanzai Studios
Below are the featured entries from Shanzai Studios iPad bag design project called "Operation Tablet Bag Design". Participating in Operation TBD is simple, free and gives you the chance to share ideas about a unique new product that will be tailored and manufactured to your needs.
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Asia Analysis
More Shanzhai Devices
COOL E93 tryin' hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Here’s an interesting piece of Shanzhai design. Touted as a “concept” machine, the COOL E93 (or is that N93? Take a look at the following...More pics & analysis... | |
 In Greek mythology Eros was the god of love and beauty – more specifically, erotic love. I don’t know if the shanzhai manufacturers had this in mind when they came up with the name for this 10-inch to...More pics & analysis... | |
 Yes, you read that right! I am talking about a quadricopter which can be controlled by your iPhone or iPod Touch. It soars through the air and literally transforms your iPhone or iPod Touch into a coc...More pics & analysis... | |
 There was a time when Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) were the only and best medium for inbuilt storage in notebooks. Although HDDs used in notebooks are smaller in size than normal HDDs, they still contribut...More pics & analysis... | |
 Based on Linux, the GP2X Wiz (nice name!) is a completely open multi-functional handheld entertainment device. The makers, GamePark Holding from Korea, say it’s different than other shanzhai video gam...More pics & analysis... |
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