Xiaomi’s Mi Mix is a striking looking smartphone with ceramic body, a big 6.4 inch display, and super-slim bezels on the top, right, and left sides.
But while the Mi Mix is a premium phone that sells for over $500 in China, a number of other companies have drawn inspiration from the Mix design and unveiled their own lookalike devices with less impressive specs (and less original designs).
We already took a look at a new concept device from Elephone earlier this month, but it turns out that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
For instance, Notebook Italia spotted several devices at the Hong Kong Global Sources Fair last week.
Doogee’s phone features a 5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel AMOLED display, a MediaTek Helip P25 processor, up to 6GB of RAM, and up to 64GB of storage… although some of those specs could change in the future.
The phone is expected to ship with Android 7.0 Nougat software, and has a physical home button below the screen with a built-in fingerprint sensor.
Bluboo’s phone also has a 5.5 inch full HD display, but this model features a Helip P20 processor, and 4GB of RAM, along with 64GB of storage.
Neither model has the ceramic body or unusual 2040 x 1080 pixel display of the Xiaomi model.
This model may be one of the cheapest of the bunch, thanks to a 5.5 inch, 1280 x 720 LCD pixel display, a MediaTek MT6737T processor, just 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage.
But the Umidigi Crystal does have a microSD card slot, dual rear cameras, and a front-facing camera in the small bezel below the display.
The company is also working on a Cyrstal Pro model with an OLED display, an MT6750 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage.
While most Xiaomi Mi Mix phones have a thicker bezel on the bottom than any other side, this model flips the script by placing the thickest bezel on top.
That actually makes sense, since it provides plenty of room for a speaker, camera, and ambient light sensor. But the bezel-free design on the bottom could change the way you grip and use your phone a bit.
Like most of the other phones on this list, the IDWELL MT6750 will probably be cheaper than a Xiaomi Mi Mix. This particular model has a 5.5 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display, an MT6750 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of stroage, and a microSd card slot.
There’s also a IDWELL D10 Pro with a full HD AMOLE Ddisplay, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage.
But Sharp did the whole bezel – less thing before Xiaomi, and I wouldn’t find it surprising if they were inspired by them…
But where is Sharp sales? Oh, no, they hit the bottom again. You know, may be sharp invented those no-bezels phones, but Xiaomi made them popular.
Like Toshiba made first smartphone with fingerprint sensor and guess who made fingerprint sensor popular? Right, Apple made them popular.
“slim-bezel smartphone inspires knockoffs”
You forgot the perennial knock-off.. the iPhone.