14 DAY TRIAL // Nokia's phones are probably the "most cloned" ones from all the mobile devices ever released on the market. And since cloning a handset can be done even before the real and official device gets to be released, the N96 Nseries flagship, which should hit the market sometime in the third quarter of 2008, inspired lots of anonymous producers to copy it.
The ultimate (and almost identical with the original) N96 wannabe comes from China - no surprise here - and it's offered unlocked, for only $249, to all those who are interested.
This Chinese vaporware device is presented, first of all, as "one of the best phones out there". Maybe out there in a Chinese village, we can believe that. Moreover, the N96-like handset is also said to be a "fashionable PDA" - I guess its producer doesn't know yet that the N96 is not a PDA.
Aside from its look, almost identical to the one of the real N96, the new Chinese phone has features that are far from those packed in the device it tries to pass for. We have tri-band GSM connectivity (900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz), a 3.0 inch display with 262K colors and a 320 x 240 pixel resolution, stereo Bluetooth, dual 3D speakers, FM radio, embedded games, a 2 Megapixel camera with flash and video recording, support for several languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese, etc.) and so on.
Because of its limited tri-band GSM connectivity, the handset cannot work in North America, so users from there who might want such a phone won't be able to use it.
Anyway, in case you're curious, there's a video presentation of this "Nokia N96 PDA" and you can watch it below. Although the video is more than 4 minutes long, the phone is shown only in the first and a half minute, the rest offering nothing but a "black screen" and music. Enjoy (I guess):