Why pay a thousand bucks for an iPhone X when you can pay $300 for an Android lookalike

The iPhone X may represent the future of iPhones, but the phone’s starting $1,000 price tag is an expensive pill for your wallet to swallow. Its design can also be polarizing, given the phone’s notches at the top that make it look like Ben Affleck’s Batman. There are Android fans who like that design, however, and for them, the Leagoo S9 might be up their alley.

At first blush, the S9 is a spitting image of the more expensive iPhone X, even down to the Wi-Fi, signal strength, and battery indicators on the top right. Turn it around, and the S9’s likeness to the iPhone X continues, with the rear cameras’ vertical arrangement and the continued use of glass and aluminum.

Where the S9 differentiates from Apple’s offering is with the fingerprint sensor on the back. Also, the volume and power buttons are on the right side, whereas the iPhone X’s volume buttons are on the left and the power button is on the right. The S9’s button arrangement is a weird choice, especially since the buttons appear to be the same size.

Finally, the S9 features a bit more bezel at the bottom than does the iPhone X.

Even with the differences, there is no denying that the S9 is an impressive-looking copy of the iPhone X. Where the illusion breaks apart is with the specs — the S9 sports a 5.85-inch AMOLED display, MediaTek’s mid-range P40 processor, 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, and a pair of 16 MP cameras around back.

Most importantly, the S9 comes in at $300, significantly less than the iPhone X’s wallet-aching starting price. Even with the low price, however, I can’t sit here and recommend that you find a way to get the S9, though I wouldn’t blame you if you went out of your way to do so.