AFTER releasing an iPhone clone in the Philippines, SKK Mobile is at it again, this time coming out with a smartphone that apes the Huawei P9, intellectual property be damned.

You’re looking at the SKK Hyper X Alpha, a dirt-cheap copy of Huawei’s best-selling flagship to date, which surpassed 10 million shipments in 2016. We doubt SKK could move as many units in a year, though the Alpha’s P4,299 (about $87) price tag should make it a popular choice among the cash-strapped.

Interestingly enough, SKK has chosen not to highlight the dual-camera array on the Alpha’s back (which its original-design manufacturer or ODM partner conveniently nicked from the P9), leading us to wonder if it really has two rear-facing cameras, as the promotional image suggests. The major selling point, according to SKK, is the now-ubiquitous fingerprint sensor on the rear. We’d bet our bottom peso that the Hyper only has one camera, and it’s a 13-megapixel affair.

We’d bet our bottom peso that the SKK Hyper Alpha only has one camera, and it’s a 13-megapixel affair.

As for the rest of the hardware, it’s about as pedestrian as it gets for a 2017 budget release: 5 inches of 720p real estate; quad-core CPU with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage; 8-megapixel front camera; 2,700mAh battery; and Android Marshmallow.

We’re seeing a pattern here, SKK, and it could get you in trouble. Maybe not now, not in the immediate future, but it’s best not to poke the bear. Or in your case, bears.

Video you may want to watch: Cherry Mobile Flare 5 preview

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