TMZ passes this cheap Android clone off as iPhone 6 — and CNBC fell for it!

iPhone 6 Android clone (TMZ 003)

As per usual, there’s no shortage of iPhone 6 clones. Virtually each and every one of them classes as a plasticky Chinese knock-off — though, quite frankly, some are in fact elaborate. Anyone can order an iPhone 6 clone online, with prices starting as low as $100.

It goes without saying that these laughable devices, based on a truckload of iPhone 6 rumors, typically run Android and sport a user interface skin that does a bad job mimicking iOS 7 aesthetics.

Though not fooling bloggers, the iPhone 6 clones have proved themselves too tempting a target for linkbait outlets such as TMZ. The infamous celebrity news and gossip website is now notoriously jumping on the opportunity to troll the nation by offering an Android-based iPhone 6 lookalike as the real thing.

And guess what? CNBC fell for it!

The images in this article were posted earlier today by TMZ.

In order to make the story more believable, the gossip website quite vehemently claims the images it “exclusively” obtained show off an iPhone 6 device that was “smuggled out of a Foxconn factory in China.”

Right.

iPhone 6 Android clone (TMZ 002)

Enter CNBC.

The broadcaster immediately ran a story headlined as ‘The best iPhone 6 photo leak yet’ and promoted on the its Twitter channel. “New photos have surfaced of what may be Apple’s iPhone 6,” reads CNBC’s SEO-optimized post on Twitter.

An excerpt from CNBC’s report:

What may be the clearest pictures yet of Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 6 emerged on Friday—from, of all places, the Hollywood gossip website TMZ.

TMZ did not make clear who the person was who now holds the phone, or whether Apple had responded in any way to the leak

TMZ’s purported iPhone 6 shots couldn’t be farther from the real thing.

Setting aside for a moment the fact that no iPhone model has ever been smuggled out of Foxconn plants, the shots clearly picture an Android-driven device with a bad iOS 7 mockup.

iPhone 6 Android clone (TMZ 001)

A lot of things here scream fake.

For instance, the new iOS 8 Health app is nowhere to be seen. The fonts also don’t look right, especially on the Calendar icon, and you’d expect them to at least feature the iOS 8 Home screen layout which Apple uses on its own iOS 8 homepage.

And here’s an elaborate iPhone 5s clone, dubbed the Goophone.

Goophone (iphone 5s, image 003)

I wrote about other iPhone 6 clones in this article.

iPhone 6 knockoffs have been around for months now and it’s bewildering and mind-blowing at the same time that established outlets such as CNBC would fall for the obvious hoax, without as much as providing standard disclaimer (the pinch of salt and everything) as to the legitimacy of the photos.

Bad reporting, indeed.