iPhone 5

Our guard brought this to the house today, proudly claiming that he had just purchased the new iPhone 5 at the market here in Phnom Penh - the "Chinese version," as he said. "You can't get these in America yet. China is ahead of America now." Well, in a sense, I guess it is.

Admonishing me for having paid hundreds for my 3Gs a couple of years back, he tells me he only paid $31 for his iPhone5, new and in the box. And, after playing with it a bit, it feels and works as well as one would expect of a $31 telephone, maybe even a $35 phone.

He let me toy with it a bit, 'toy' being the operative word here. In hand, it feels almost like an empty box, weighing less half of my 3Gs. Perhaps that's a good thing. It does seem to function. The telephone works, and if you bang on the touch pad hard enough, so does everything else - the camera, notepad, calendar, etc. - albeit extremely slowly.

Bpple iPhone 5 - Front

Bpple iPhone 5 - Back

Bpple iPhone 5 - Serial. Note the nod to international trademark law, the makers changing 'Apple' to 'Bpple.' I'm sure that makes it all alright. It's not a knock-off, it's a Bpple. I can't quite figure out how to pronounce it though.

Bpple iPhone 5 - Camera mode