It isn’t often that we see a huge device manufacturer rip off a competitor. Sure, we’ve seen iPhone copies in the past, but this one comes from the third largest handset maker in the world, Lenovo. Today, the company released the Lenovo S90 “Sisley”, a 5-inch phone with a Super AMOLED 720p screen, a thickness of only 6.9mm, and an incredible amount of inspiration from the most recent flagship by Apple.
The perfect phone for MIUI 6.
You’d think the most important features of a phone are “innovation” and “creativity.” Ripping off a good design is the worst thing one could do…
I don’t think a lot of people were exactly thrilled about the design of the iPhone 6 to begin with.
I agree, but its such blatant copying in this case. Not just the phone, but all the press shots too. Its not a lack of originality, but something else entirely.
To a western audience, that looks like cheating on a grand scale. Its not fair, offensive, and not in good taste.
To other cultures, its actually awesome that they went so far to emulate a product from a company known for their quality.
True, but this is a Lenovo phone (pre motorola purchase), they are not sold in the west at all, have you ever even seen a phone from this 3rd to 4th largest phone brand in the world?
Anyway I suspect most of the similarity is accidental. They didn’t have time to copy the iPhone6 since release. It just how a modern phablet looks, you might as well argue the iPhone6 plagurised Samsung or HTC, since the iPhone6 looks more like a standard big Android phone than a classic iPhone.
Edited 2014-11-07 15:13 UTC
If the reason why you think it was accidental, is due to the time frame, you’re vastly underestimating how easy and common it is to get leaked specs of iphones.
Yep got one in my pocket (A880)- it is quite good for a A880 phone. I personally rather hope that Lenovo does sell out of China. The question will then be does Apple sue them left right and centre like Samsung and risk losing the China market – Apple is current the most poplar and aspirational phone in China but the Chinese government can soon put an end to that.
Oh, look! It’s a rounded rectangle with a screen! They she did copy the latest iPhone.
In the comparision picture with the green bulb wallpaper, it looks as though the Lenovo is actually a more aesthetically pleasing device, from just the design of the buttons and the trim.
The iPhone 6 doesn’t really look all that nice though (5S was much better), so it can’t be that hard to improve upon.
Well….based on the unsolicited positive comments individuals have made re my iPhone 6, it would seem that your opinion is off the mark. Excellent design, feel and function…with an ecosystem Lenovo is clueless about.
Apple releases the iphone 6 on Sept 9. Lenova blatantly copies and releases it on Nov 6. That was fast!
Actually, I think Lenova was working on their phone before Apple announced the iphone 6.
The iphone 6 design has been leaked since at least June…
http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/14/photos-purported-physical-mockups-of-…
But that is besides the point really… I won’t get into the argument about this deign being ripped off – yeah, its obvious but I don’t much care.
Thing is with a modern phone like this the “design constrained” parts boil down to the PCB, the battery, the screen, and the component arrangement. Screen and battery are easy, there are lots of ready-built options available for cookie cutter designs. Doing a custom PCB layout for components for VARs experienced with all the ICs is not terribly hard either, especially if there is no custom stuff going on. It takes literally a few weeks to work out how to fit it all together if all you are going for is a rough X/Y/Z layout (i.e. fit into specific width/height/thickness).
All that is left is a frame/case design and fabrication. There are plenty of experienced manufacturers doing this that have gone through it repeatedly over the years – it only takes a few weeks now a days to get a fab line up and running (again, for a cookie cutter design like this).
Just saying going from a integration tested components (this is the part that takes time) to a PCB and case design and fab can probably be done is a matter of 60-90 days if you keep things simple. Particularly in China.
There isn’t much of anything more simple than a hollow aluminum shell design like this with a no frills featureset… Its cheap to make, easy to work with, and simple to manufacture. I think Lenova (being they are Lenova) could easily go from nothing but ID testing to this in 90 days if they really wanted to.
They had 6 months… They could have easily had a phone in the pipe that already had roughly the right design/layout to work in this case design and they decided to play copycat during the last leg of manufacturing. Who knows.
I personally don’t care that they ripped off the design (its like one of the most simplistic designs on the market – its boring really), I just think it is lazy is all. They lost a bit of respect from me.
Edited 2014-11-07 00:13 UTC
It used to be that if you see a huge white phone it’s Samsung. Now half the time it’s an iPhone.
Give me a f*cking break. These two phone may look similar to each other, they don’t look the same. I could easy tell the difference in look alone with both unit turned off. iphone have fewer dot on top front, there a round button on the center bottom front on the iphone the s90 has only touch button, etc. So give me a f*cking break when you say these phones look the same because they don’t
It’s more likely a copy of MIUI 6, isn’t it? And OpenOffice is a copy of MS Office and MS word is a copy of WordPerfect. And Lotus 123 is a copy of OpenOffice. Abiword is a copy of OpenOffice writer and notepad is a copy of Abiword. Did I mix that up?
What’s the point of this article again? To say that a smartphone is looking like another smartphone? Good finding, mate.
Does anybody else think that Google chrome look like Firefox? What about Internet Explorer? It looks like a browser to me too.
Edited 2014-11-07 07:46 UTC
It resembles the iphone6 close enough to raise a few eyebrows, however, it’s currently China-only, and my guess is it will remain that way, exactly because of the very high resemblance.
That said, I’ve always wanted to see an iphone with android on it, so…
But but but…wasn’t the iphone 6 a copy of the M8?
This one has a different screen size and no Touch ID
I don’t think this phone is a copy, but the marketing material pretty much is
I really haven’t cared much about cell phones in like 2-3 years now. Their time has come and gone. Mine does a lot of sitting around wanting attention at this point, and basically just does my messaging and my news reading if i can’t find my tablet or someone else is using it. oh and it’s a nice hotspot when needed.
plus it really is expensive month to month.
i guess i’m spoiled at this point, i ride these iPhones hard for years and since the 3G i haven’t had any problems. i take it for granted.
thom is right – i use fewer and fewer apps, and i do less and less social media the older i get, and i’d be happy with just a smart watch and a tablet assuming the watch ultimately can work standalone.