The Apple empire thrives on a highly secure ecosystem that keeps other hardware manufacturers out. With the success of its latest iPhone series, however, Apple is being attacked by clones.
The demand for the iPhone 6 is still strong, so much so that other hardware manufacturers have been releasing handsets that employ some of the handsets most coveted features.
For the Android faithful that aren't quite ready to switch sides, an iPhone "clone" may be just what's needed to keep them satiated.
The Xiaomi Mi 4, Lenovo S90 Sisley, Huawei Ascend P6 and Meizu MX4's likenesses to the iPhone 6 run from their aesthetics to the hardware inside of the handsets.
The Meizu MX4 -- Me Too!
Those looking to fool undiscerning eyeballs into thinking they are seeing an iPhone 6 need not look any further than the MX4. Despite having a bezel and home button ripped right out of the iPhone's design book, however, the MX4 has the hardware needed to satisfy any pocket that's hungry for a delectable iPhone 6.
The 5.5-inch MX4's Quad-core 2.2 GHz Cortex A17 processor fills a Gorilla Glass 3 face with a resolution of 1152 x 1920 pixels at a density of about 418 pixels per inch. While there's only a 2MP camera on its face, there's a 20.7MP shooter on its back that is capable of capturing 2160p video at 30 frames per second.
The MX4 also features Hi-Fi sound, a fingerprint reader and internal storage of up to 64GB.
Huawei Ascend P6 -- Does it Transcend?
It delivers a 4.7-inch display like the iPhone 6, but the Ascend P6 is slightly lighter than its Apple role model. It also has a slightly heftier battery capacity, but support for the fuel-efficient Android Lollipop may make that tidbit more significant -- the Ascend P6 is only upgradeable to KitKat.
The Ascend P6 is only available in a maximum memory capacity of 16 GB, but 32 GB can be added via its card slot. Those in love with storage may need to look to another iPhone clone to satisfy their needs.
The Ascend P6's 8MP camera puts out up to 1080p video at 30 fps, while its 5MP chat camera does 720p video.
Lenovo S90 Sisley -- It's 90, but not 100, Percent
Although not quite as blatant in its iPhone 6-like aesthetics as the MX4 is, the S90 Sisley may be overlooked by the Apple police when the handset is stood next to a collection of iPhones.
Inside the S90, there's a 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 processor and an Adreno 306 GPU. There's an impressive 8MP cam on its face and a 13MP cam on its rear.
The rear camera's video capture of 1080p 30fps falls short of the iPhone 6 by 30fps and its pixel density of 296 ppi falls short of the iPhone 6's 326 ppi. The 5-inch display puts it squarely between the sizes of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Xiaomi Mi 4 -- Me, Me, Me, Me
It's significantly heavier than the iPhone 6 and not near as slim. Driven by a quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400 processor, the Mi 4 pumps out full HD to its 5-inch display at a pixel density of 441 ppi.
The 8MP chat cam captures video at 1080p 30fps -- a solid draw for the selfie crowd -- and the 13MP rear camera can shoot 2160p video at 30fps.
The Mi 4 is available with up to 64 GB of storage space, but it appears to have picked up one of the iPhone's bad habits and omitted a card slot.
Bottom Line
The borrowing of aesthetics and features happens on both sides of the Android/iOS divide. As well as Apple leverages a single gigabyte of RAM and maintains one of the industry's most coveted cameras, there's a lot on the other side of that divide that enables users to "be together and not the same."
