By Rae Edwards

In my opinion, there’s no question that the original CECT P168 (AKA the iPhone clone or iClone) inspired a whole industry of unlocked knock offs which not only convincingly copied the original, but added bonus features that were very popular to consumers, myself included. That’s probably because there are many people like me who love the latest technology but don’t want to pay full price for it.

Some of the Chinese additions that I believe enhanced the original are: two sim slots so that you can have two phone numbers or plans if you want; a removable battery so that you are not dependant on the dealer every time the battery dies; additional surround sound speakers; and the fact that the phones are always unlocked so that you are not stuck with AT&T and can use which ever carrier you wish.

The original P168 is tri band and works on GSMs GPRS 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz. It pretty much allows you to do everything that you can do on an iPhone including surfing the web, sending email, watching or playing MP3s/MP4s, recording voice or video, and enjoying Bluetooth.

Last year, a quad band version was released to include the 850 MHZ frequency so that the phone could be used world wide. The quad band version was sometimes called the P168 plus and added a slide unlock feature. It still had all of the smartphone bells and whistles as well as the bonuses. I have both the tri and quad band versions of this phone and I love them both.

Now, there is a newer 2008 version which has added enhanced editing abilities on the 2.0 mega pixel camera, an e-book reader, and an improved MP3/MP4 and video recorder. I think the e-book reader was a very smart move as more and more publications today are in PDF format.

Interestingly, this latest version is not that much more expensive than the original, averaging about $140 or lower if you know where to look. I predict this price will come down as more become available, and I believe the e-book reader will greatly appeal to our mobile society.

To view video, close up photos, specifications and real time rock bottom pricing on this new phone, click here