14 DAY TRIAL // Hop-on Inc., the American company that recently presented the 10 buck Anti-iPhone, has come up with a whole new line-up of affordable mobile phones. This is a good thing, of course, since lots of people need affordable handsets, as they might not have the money for devices like Samsung Omnia, Sony Ericsson W960 or Nokia N95.
What's not good about Hop-on's new devices (some of them, at least) is that they brazenly copy Nokia's way of making phones. For example, we have the HOP1803, a handset that brings the following features: dual-band GSM connectivity (850 / 1900 MHz or 900 / 1800 MHz), a 1.5 inch CSTN screen with 128 x 128 pixels and FM radio. Nothing wrong so far - for an affordable phone, I mean. But if we look at the HOP1803 (and we are doing that), we instantly think about Nokia's 5310 XpressMusic handset, released back in October 2007. There's also an "X-Press Music" sticker on the HOP1803 phone and, even more, the device has the same music control keys that the 5310 comes with - the difference is that the keys of HOP1803 are not real, as they're just "paintings" on the case of the phone.
Another new Hop-on handset, the HOP1801, has more advanced features: a 2.5 inch TFT touchscreen display with 320 x 240 pixels and 262K colors, a 2 Megapixel camera, a Linux-based OS, tri-band GSM connectivity, microSD card slot and so on. Not bad, but anyone familiar with Nokia's Eseries line-up of smartphones will recognize the design of Nokia E61 in the HOP1801.
Furthermore, Hop-on introduced the HOP1805, a device that resembles, in terms of features, the XpressMusic-wannabe handset. But when it comes to design, the HOP1805 looks like lots of Nokia's classic candybars.
Now, copying cell phones is in no way a novelty, but I don't think I've ever seen an entire line-up of handsets to resemble the products of another manufacturer. Well, Hop-on now shows me that, in the world of copycatting, everything is possible.
