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Would you buy an Android iPhone X clone for under $300?

Would you buy an Android iPhone X clone for under $300?

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Attack of the clones

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You probably aren’t familiar with Leagoo, a small Chinese smartphone company. But chances are you’re very familiar with its products, which appear to be heavily inspired by popular flagship phones from other companies.

Leagoo’s latest phone, the S9, is no exception, setting its sights on Apple’s flagship iPhone X, complete with reduced bezels and the infamous notch that has become the device’s hallmark design feature. (Leagoo is also beating Samsung to the “S9” name by a couple of months, because the company looks like an equal opportunist when it comes to borrowing ideas.)

Heavily inspired by the iPhone X

According to Leagoo, the S9 will cost just a fraction of the iPhone X’s $999 price range, with the copycat set to run for “under $300.” That price isn’t getting you the greatest device, though: the S9 features a MediaTek P40 processor (a competitor for Qualcomm’s midrange Snapdragon 670 chip), 6GB RAM, and 128GB of storage. The display is a 5.85-inch AMOLED panel, and the cameras — housed in a vertically oriented iPhone X-style module, of course — are a pair of 16MP sensors.

There’s not a ton more information on the S9 out there beccause Leagoo hasn’t even officially announced it, despite sending over high-resolution pictures and a spec sheet to The Verge’s tip line. But it’s clearly an iPhone X clone, right down to the glass and aluminum design.

Leagoo hasn’t even officially announced it

To slightly differentiate its device, Leagoo has opted for a fingerprint sensor on the back, the bottom bezel looks a little taller than Apple’s (similar more to the Essential Phone in that regard), and, of course, there’s a Leagoo logo on the back.

If Leagoo’s last phone — the S8, which cheekily copies Samsung’s Galaxy S8 flagship — is anything to go by, the S9 probably won’t be a “good” phone in the same way that the iPhone X is the best phone you can buy right now. But if you have $300 burning a hole in your pocket and you really want to get in on that #notchlife without giving up the comforts of Android, then that is technically possible now (if not entirely recommended).