Chinese knock off android phones?

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This might be a stupid question to ask from a this type of community but the Chinese knock-offs or the endgadget term 'KIRF' phones

1. The sciphone N19
2. The sciphone N21
3. Aphone A6

Are these really android?
and if so arnt they upgradable to, for instance Android 2.0
and cant they be flashed with roms from other devices? (I'm kind of new to this and I dont really know what a 'rom' is, yet!)

Their only imitations. Which means the hardware inside is different. So you won't be able to flash a ROM designed for a G1 for example since the imitation and the G1 have different hardware (drivers)....

You might be able to install an updated android system assuming it's not a lookalike system, for example a regular Nokia OS with it's "Face Painted" to look like android lol. Also remember, the hardware inside it probably bare minimum to just run what it came with....

the video

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but this looks pretty convincing that its android, isn't it?

Originally Posted by kurt.hewett

but this looks pretty convincing that its android, isn't it?

It might actually be android. You probably won't be able to use the custom roms you find here because of hardware differences but it looks like it's running an actual android system. Remember android is Open Source so it's even easier/cheaper for the Chinese to do this, lol...

i wouldnt buy any of these phones...not even for 50€

> i wouldnt buy any of these phones...not even for 50€

From what I've seen, an Android phone intended for the Chinese domestic market...

* Would be "rooted out of the box". They wouldn't even bother to try protecting it.

* Would be electronically compatible with two dozen other Chinese domestic Android phones. They might have different button layouts, screen sizes, batteries, and build quality, but the biggest single thing driving their firmware would be the manufacturer's ability to slap one of Google's reference builds into it more or less verbatim.

* Would put most American and European phones to shame insofar as aesthetics go. Cheap Chinese stuff might have nonexistent build quality, but even the lowest-quality crap to come out of an anonymous factory somewhere in Harbin or Chonggqing is going to look attractive, if not downright cool.

* Almost without a doubt, would be the most feature-packed ghetto-fabulous phone you could pull out of your pocket anywhere in America. Nothing on the phone might work reliably (or for more than 3 months before breaking), but if there's a feature you can pack into a phone... it'll be there.

* If you were fluent in Mandarin or Cantonese, and stumbled across one in China, it would probably be so cheap, you could buy two spares for less than it would cost to insure a PDA phone for a year and pay one replacement deductible for any carrier in the US.

Speaking of which... check out dealextreme.com if you want to see some crazy stuff you can buy directly from China. I've bought about a hundred bucks worth of stuff from them over the past year, and I've grown to be rather fond of them. They have a ton of phones I've never really looked at too closely since none of the phones they sell will ever work on Sprint, but they might have something Android-ready if you're in Europe or can live with EDGE-only in the US (I seriously doubt any phone sold in China today can do 1700/2200 or 850/850 UMTS). I'm still laughing about their "iFhone" models, or the phone running some unknown OS (probably some flavor of LiMo) that looks like A brown European Hero... or the "NOKLA N95"

Originally Posted by mrandroid

It might actually be android. You probably won't be able to use the custom roms you find here because of hardware differences but it looks like it's running an actual android system. Remember android is Open Source so it's even easier/cheaper for the Chinese to do this, lol...

They are real Android, period. We can make any kind of WM/Android GSM mobiles under USD$100! Just figure out how much HTC gain on you guys!

Originally Posted by miamicanes

> i wouldnt buy any of these phones...not even for 50€

From what I've seen, an Android phone intended for the Chinese domestic market...

* Would be "rooted out of the box". They wouldn't even bother to try protecting it.

* Would be electronically compatible with two dozen other Chinese domestic Android phones. They might have different button layouts, screen sizes, batteries, and build quality, but the biggest single thing driving their firmware would be the manufacturer's ability to slap one of Google's reference builds into it more or less verbatim.

* Would put most American and European phones to shame insofar as aesthetics go. Cheap Chinese stuff might have nonexistent build quality, but even the lowest-quality crap to come out of an anonymous factory somewhere in Harbin or Chonggqing is going to look attractive, if not downright cool.

* Almost without a doubt, would be the most feature-packed ghetto-fabulous phone you could pull out of your pocket anywhere in America. Nothing on the phone might work reliably (or for more than 3 months before breaking), but if there's a feature you can pack into a phone... it'll be there.

* If you were fluent in Mandarin or Cantonese, and stumbled across one in China, it would probably be so cheap, you could buy two spares for less than it would cost to insure a PDA phone for a year and pay one replacement deductible for any carrier in the US.

Speaking of which... check out dealextreme.com if you want to see some crazy stuff you can buy directly from China. I've bought about a hundred bucks worth of stuff from them over the past year, and I've grown to be rather fond of them. They have a ton of phones I've never really looked at too closely since none of the phones they sell will ever work on Sprint, but they might have something Android-ready if you're in Europe or can live with EDGE-only in the US (I seriously doubt any phone sold in China today can do 1700/2200 or 850/850 UMTS). I'm still laughing about their "iFhone" models, or the phone running some unknown OS (probably some flavor of LiMo) that looks like A brown European Hero... or the "NOKLA N95"

Don't be stupid! I am currently providing one of your "so -call" Cheap craps Android to a French operator! 15k each month. Let me tell u one thing, there is something called CE standard, or FCC in the US; ROSH.....etc. As long as our product passes those test in the lab, we have international standard certificates. I can also answer your doubts on the UTMS question. There is something called electronic IC chipset which send/recieve UTMS signals; furthermore, we do not have to invent it as Americans/Europeans gave it to us because they beg for our RMB. I think Huawei is at least 5 time the size of HTC, right? Moreover, most of the current WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA base station equiptment is provied by Huawei worldwide! Android, which google gave Huawei for FREE because google wished Huawei to modify their Hisilicon smartphone(hardware) platform to use it instead of Windows Mobile; and the Hisilicon platform supports both OS on the same PCBA. We are a small firm, and we are current selling more than 250k smartphones per year, let alone those mega size manufactures!

As long as someone has money, products/technology would look for them to buy or invest. Americans, just keep your tunnel vision; that answers why our country is more and more wealthly and yours could only loan to pay-up depts. I am waiting for your bankruptcy!

P.S. I have never done a deal to sell to the U.S. not due to our own quality, just because Americans have no money but big-mouths!

P.S. Your unknown OS is called MTK platform(Mediatek), which partly owned by Foxconn; captures more than 65% of world wide GSM market in 2009! Samsung and LG are both their customers on the dual sim models! MTK will launch their smartphone platform on Android/WM this quarter!

So if China is so wonderful, when are you guys going to invent something original instead of just using your near-slave labor to put out cheap copies of American and European inventions? Something new and original that doesn't "borrow", abuse, or our right steal the intellectual property of the West?

Just curious.

calm down guys. seriously. this isn't the right place for any kind of political debate.

Talking about phones... there are a couple of reasons why chinese phones are cheaper. one of the main reasons: the development costs are much lower. most chinese phones are knock-offs, they don't have to pay any fancy designer and reverse engeneering requires less ressources than actual inventing and developing. in addition to that work simply is much cheaper in china as you probably know.

there is something called CE standard

c'mon. passing the CE tests is nothing to be proud of. 79cent plastic toys have CE-logos.