There’s no question that the cell phone clones have been fully embraced by consumers. While there may have been initial hesitation to put one’s faith in a knock off, the manufacturer’s sweetened the deal with so many bonus features on unlocked phones, buyers just could not resist.

The truth is, in today’s economy, the clones make a lot of sense. First, they are cheaper in price than the original – usually running about ¼ to 1/3 the price of their mainstream counterparts.

Second, they are always unlocked so you can use them with any carrier your chose. This can add up to a lot of money over the life of the phone.

And, many have added bonus features like dual sim, a removable battery, a TV out feature, and additional speakers.

While the touch screen phones are extremely popular, not everyone likes to text with one. Thankfully, there are a few clones on the market with touch screens and full keyboards / scroll bars. The MTK228 is a great example of this.

This phone has become a brisk seller because it has: a 2.6 inch touch screen with finger touch; a sufficient 1.3 mega pixel camera with auto focus and the ability to function as a webcam; WAP, GPRS, SMS, and MMS messaging and voice mail; Bluetooth 2.0; a built in FM radio; up to 8GB of memory; a full keypad and scroll bar; full MP3/MP4 capabilities; the Picbrige interface ; and NEC game software .

This phone doesn’t look much like the iPhone at all. It is small, sleek, black, and includes a stylus.
Its performance is very solid. I find it to be very quick, functional, and intuitive. I have not had any problems with it and would not hesitate to recommend it – especially to texters.

Perhaps the most attractive thing about this phone is its price. You can sometimes pick one up for well under $50. This is probably the cheapest clone of the bunch.

Considering that this phone is packed with features and you aren’t stuck with one particular carrier, I think that’s a great deal and a great phone for folks who are just as interested as texting, gaming and listening to music as they are talking on the phone.