Just like when puppies do something unspeakable on your new carpet, it’s very easy for forgive the Soyes 7S for looking almost exactly like an Apple iPhone, because it’s just so damn cute. It’s cute because it’s tiny — no more than half the size of an iPhone 7 Plus, but perhaps twice as adorable. It’s not an iPhone challenger though, and the specification is slightly lacking in this unusual Chinese phone. Also, it doesn’t run iOS, obviously, but Google Android with a user interface to make it look something like an iPhone. Only smaller.
Soyes has a history of making small smartphones, which are sold through eBay and Chinese device importers, and a quick browse of its (outdated) website reveals in the past it has made phones the same size as a credit card. However, none are as visually interesting as the Soyes 7S, its miniature iPhone clone.
The screen is 2.54 inches and has a resolution of just 432 x 240 pixels, so it’s not going to challenge Apple’s phone for video or photo reproduction. It’s the same with the processor, which is a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek chip with 1GB of RAM. Turn the phone over and there are some chunky antenna lines at the top and bottom of the body, which appears to be metal. Cheekily, although it looks like there are two camera lenses, only a single 5-megapixel camera hides inside that raised bump in the top corner.
Just how much smaller is the overall package than the iPhone 7 Plus? The Soyes 7S is 95mm tall and 46mm wide, while the Apple phone stretches your grip at 158mm tall and 78mm wide. Squeezing all the technology and a 600mAh battery inside the Soyes 7S means the body is quite thick at 10mm, considerably more than the 7.3mm thick iPhone. It does seem to have a 3.5mm headphone jack, though, which many would consider an ‘iPhone-killing” feature. It also has 4G LTE, GPS, a selfie camera, and comes in various bright colors. Arguably, it has everything you’d want from a phone.
If Apple’s reluctance to release an actual iPhone Mini always frustrated you, and the Soyes 7S has caught your eye, you’re going to have to work hard in order to get one. It is apparently available on an unknown Chinese crowdfunding website, where it costs about $53, and has easily passed its modest funding target with two weeks left to run.
