The Most Blatant Hardware Clone Ever: Droid X360

September 2nd, 2012, 13:15 Posted By: wraggster

The recent patent tussle between Apple and Samsung gives a fascinating insight into how intellectual property is safeguarded in the US. Companies are quite prepared to sink millions of dollars into litigation in an attempt to remain one step ahead of their rivals, and often the cases put forward appear nonsensical and flimsy to all but the most eagle-eyed patent lawyer - hence Samsung's bemused statement following the recent trial (which it lost) that Apple has essentially copyrighted 'rectangles and curved edges'.
Contrast this situation with the burgeoning electronics market in China, and the notion of bickering over tiny details seems almost laughable. In the sweatshops of the Far East, anything goes - something which is proven emphatically by the Shenzhen XunLong Droid X360, a handheld console which at first glance seems to have been manufactured purely to infringe the copyrights of as many companies as possible. Of course, the diminutive nature of these firms helps them to avoid the wrath of Sony, Motorola and Microsoft's lawyers - all of which have good reason to feel suitably aggrieved by the very existence of the Droid X360 - and we can't even begin to imagine how difficult and impractical it must be to file legal proceedings against a company in China, irrespective of how many dollars you have in the bank.
The irony is that despite the dodgy nature of the Droid X360 - which cost us around £75, including shipping from China - in some respects it actually manages to trump the console on which it is based. While it might lack the build quality and level of refinement displayed by the PlayStation Vita, it scores points in other key areas - you can use it to surf the web, send and receive emails, watch HD movies (both on the unit itself and on your TV using the bundled HDMI cable) and download thousands upon thousands of applications from the Google Play market.

[h=3]Droid X360 and PlayStation Vita: Separated at Birth?[/h]To the untrained eye, the Droid X360 and PlayStation Vita look practically identical. Everything from the positioning of the buttons to the transparent shoulder triggers has been faithfully replicated on the Chinese pretender; the key differences are a thinner body and the removal of the touch-sensitive pad on the rear of the device. In terms of weight, the two consoles are again quite similar.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/df...id-x360-review

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