Yesterday, I had someone approach me that asked about the "pink iPhone clone." First, I thought the person was talking about a skin or custom cover that was pink in color and designed for a knock off. Then, when she assured me that she was not talking about a skin, I figured that she meant the Xphone, as this newer iPhone clone comes in many custom colors like red, gold, blue, and silver. But, she persisted that she was actually talking about a pink CECT i9. So, of course, I had to investigate and I found out that she was indeed right. There are a few sellers who have come up with a way to customize plates on the i9 to make the phone any color you can imagine (pink is very popular). There is even a gay pride model that comes in a rainbow of colors.

But, this is very different than the XPhone, which comes standard with the colors I've already listed (as well as black if this is what you want). So, as I can now see that people may confuse these two phones, I'll go over their differences (and similarities) in this article.

Tri band Versus Quad Band: The XPhone is a tri band and the i9 is a quad band. Both will usually work for most GSM carriers, but if you are on the 850MHz band, you'll most likely need a quad band. You can check with your carrier to be sure.

Similarity In Features, (Including Shake Control And Dual Sim): These phones are both very similar to one another, since they are both iPhone clones that has all of the features we've come to expect from these knock offs (Bluetooth, Internet, MP3 / MP4, radio, handwriting recognition, camera / web cam, etc.) And, both have the very popular novelty feature called "shake and tilt" or "swing to the music" that allows you to forward songs, music and video by shaking the phone. This also means that you can tilt the phone to move the image from portrait to wide screen.

Also, both phones have two sim slots which allows for two numbers or networks. This is probably the most popular feature on most clones. The difference here is that the CECT i9 has dual sim active whereas the X has dual sim standby. This means that the i9 allows both cards to be online at once, while you have to switch back and forth between the two with the X model. (Most people don't find this to be a big deal though.)

Java Support On The i Model: Probably the feature that makes the i9 so popular is the fact that it is one of the few models that supports Java. This means that you can download third party games, applications and software via Java 2.0. Many people take advantage of the gaming this offers, but many also use it for Microsoft productivity software like Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word.

The XPhone does not have this feature, so if this is a deal breaker for you, but you still want a color other than black, you may be better off with the specialty color option on the i9.

Price: The price on both of these phones is very similar and is usually not a deal breaker either way. Depending on how much memory the phones have, you'll likely pay somewhere in the $100 - $150 range.