Settle for the next best thing?

Aug 15, 2007 07:29 GMT  ·  By

Man, it looks like the Chinese can make a copy of just about anything. In fact, they don't even need to have the real product, as an image is more than enough. Nokia's yet unreleased N82 handset has just received a Chinese replica which looks just like it, feels like it, but is definitely not the real thing.

Nokia N82 is one appealing handset coming from the Finnish producer. The slim keypad buttons rather resemble some Sony Ericsson phone models, which makes this a bold attempt from Nokia to use. At this point, official specifications for the device are yet unknown, which makes it difficult to compare it with the Chinese copy.

What has surfaced over the last period on the N82 model is exactly what would interest people most. The main features bound to attract the interest of phone users are already known and don't manage to even come close to what the Chinese copy has to offer. The 5 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and auto-focus Carl Zeiss lens was obviously unavailable, so they packed the copy with a 1.3 megapixel one. That's a huge difference from the best possible performance and down to the basic one. Moreover, from the Nokia N82's support for TV-output, FM tuner and GPS capabilities, nothing can be seen in the copy's features. That's one huge disappointment, although not an unexpected one.

Aside from these differences, the N82 replica manages to pack only average performances, those that can be found in many other devices. One impressive thing is that the handset comes with a large 2.6 inch touchscreen. This only adds to the phone's height, as it comes in pretty compact sizes, at 108 x 48 x 14 mm and 75 grams in weight. The copy also includes Bluetooth connectivity and a microSD card slot.

As far as we can tell, the similarities between the two devices end up with the design features. That's impressive too, especially when considering the fact that they only had an image of the yet unreleased Nokia N82 to rely on.