CECT P168+ "iPhone Clone" Hardware First Impressions

This cellphone is also known as one of the original iPhone clones. The original model, the P168, even had an apple logo on the back and when starting up. While the P168+ doesn't have this, there are still a number of graphics borrowed from the iPhone in its interface.

The problem with this phone is that is being from China and having no support from CECT and very little documentation. Because of this, I will try to do my best to give as much and as accurate specifications as I can, but there will be many things about the phone that I will have trouble explaining, or even giving at all. If you know something that I don't, leave a comment or send me a message to let me know.

To start off, here is a run down on the specifications:

Operating System:
Internal Memory:
Screen: 240×320 (QVGA)
Weight: 120g
Dimensions: 117mm x 61mm x 16mm
Casing: Plastic
Camera: 1.3mp
Keys: 5-Way Directional, 4 additional side keys, up/down shoulder keys (left), single shoulder key (right)
Speakers: 5 front "3D" Speakers
Wireless: Bluetooth
Cellular Data: GSM Data, GRPS (1G Wireless)
GSM Bands: 900/1800/1900 (850 selectable manually on the 168+)
Expansion: MicroSD (Transflash)
Ports: Proprietary USB port
GSM SIM Card: 2 Slots
Total number of SIM card numbers supported: 200

Cosmetic Similarities to the iPhone:

Overall the P168+ looks a lot like the iPhone. This isn't surprising since the original version, the P168, was made to "compete" as an iPhone look alike. The original P168 even sported an Apple logo on the back with "iFone" and had a similar loading screen. The P168+ however did away with that. The back is now Apple logo-free and the loading screen now contains the Bluetooth logo.

p168ip
One of the original versions of the P168

P168+
The current version of the P168, the P168+

SIM Card Slots, Expansion, and Battery:

If you take the back off the the phone you will notice that there are two sim slots. This allows you to have two SIM cards in at the same time, although not simultaneously. Within the operating system you can switch cards and the phone is restarted. If your service provides it, you can also have one of your cards forward all calls to the other one.

Also within the back cover is a MicroSD (also known as Transflash) slot. Here you can put a TF card to store music, video, ringtones, ect. Most P168s come with a 256mb card, and the phone can support up to 2gb.

Unless your seller took it out, your phone will come with two batteries. These batteries are 3.7V and 1800mAh. The battery life overall is very good surprisingly once fully charged. I haven't tested talk and standby time, but I would guess you could possibly get about 3 hours of talk and a week of standby. This is without Bluetooth, Music, and Video however which would affect battery life.

Casing, Buttons, Screen:

The CECT P168+'s casing is very similar to the iPhone's. The phone mostly consists of a touch screen and has a few buttons on the bottom and along the sides. Unlike the iPhone, the P168+ does not have aluminum casing, nor a glass screen. The P168+'s case is completely plastic. This gives it a slightly cheap feel to it, but it is not too bad when compared to some other phones.

The P168+ has a total of 12 buttons. These consist of a five-way directional pad at the bottom surrounded by four more buttons, an up/down set of buttons on the left side of the case, and a single button on the right side. The directional pad is mostly used to navigating and selecting menus in addition to using the touchscreen. The two top of the four surrounding buttons are used for selecting options, which is typical for many phones. The bottom two are are call and hang-up buttons. The left two buttons on the side are mostly used for volume, and the right button brings up the camera or is used to select things.

The screen is about two and a half inches from corner to corner, just slightly smaller than the iPhone/iPod Touch's. The resolution of the screen is 240×320 which is rather low by today's standards compared to the Treo 650/700's 320×320 and the iPhone's 320×480. it is higher than most lower-end phones and is equal to older Windows Mobile devices. The quality of the screen is ok, but not spectacular. The screen is very reflective, even more so than most glass screens. Despite this and being low resolution, pictures look ok, and is decent for the price range of the phone.

Be careful when opening the back of the phone. It isn't easy (at first). The designers didn't include a grip on the battery cover so you have to push gently until it opens enough where you can pull it out. Many people overemphasize how difficult it is to get the battery off, but if you are gentle and don't force it, it is not too hard.

Bluetooth:

A nice feature that this phone has is built in Bluetooth. A big gripe with mobile phones and bluetooth is that many providers lock this down almost to the point where its not very useful. The P168+ however does not do this. This phone supports using Bluetooth for not only a headset but also supports wireless headphones and data transfer.

Camera:

CECT advertises the P168 camera as 2 Megapixels. In reality this is less. Most P168s's actual resolution is 1.3mp. My P168 for some reason will only go up to VGA (640×480) as far as I can tell. Beyond resolution, the phone has some nice features for the camera. Some of these include adjusting the white balance, effects such as Sepia, and frames. The quality of the pictures are not that great, but it is a phone, so this is not very surprising.

Speakers and Headphones:

The built in speakers are loud. The headset speaker's default volume level is equivalent to higher settings on many other phones. This can be set down, but not necessarily to the level of other phones. If you want a really quiet speaker, then you may be out of luck. The sounds that are especially loud are music and sound effects being played out of all five built-in speakers. The first time I tried using the camera the shutter effect almost made jump. I had set the special effects settings down under profiles, but it did not help. I eventually had to turn the effect off. Music can also get equally loud. This is great if you want to share music with other people, but if you don't have headphones then it may be too loud to hold the phone up to your ear to listen to. As far as making calls, the phone quality is mediocre. I can usually understand people just fine, but if the caller is a little quiet or English isn't their first language it can be difficult to sometimes make out what they say.

The included headphones are not very great quality. What's worse is that if you want to use your own you can't out of the box. The P168 does not have a headphone port and instead uses its USB port to plug headphones into. There is an adapter available, but without it you have no choice but to use the included headphones or built in speakers.

Stylus:

The P168 is not like the iPhone where you can do everything with your fingers. Like a PalmOS device you can do many things with your fingers and the keypad, but some tasks such as text input require the stylus. The stylus is stored in the bottom of the device which it can be pulled out of. When the stylus is pulled out it expands in length. Beyond this, there is nothing special about it.

Battery:

The battery is rated to get about three hours of talk time and over a week standby time. I have had mixed experiences with this. When it comes to standby time, the phone is great. It been lasting me for about the time its been rated for. After trying to talk though I have been only getting 9min 30sec before the battery died. I emailed the reseller and he told me that some of the wall chargers recently have been defective and unable to give a constant charge. He suggested I charge with the computer until I get a replacement charger.

After receiving the charger my battery life is much better, but not great. I usually get a few days of normal use per charge. The thing that bothers me the most about the P168+ is its tendency to seemingly just "die" because the battery ran out. The power gauge is not reliable in the slightest.

This concludes my initial thoughts of the Hardware of the P168+ a year ago. I will follow up with an up to date review of the phone after using it for about a year and my thoughts on Chinese Phones.