Some people call them iPhone clones, others call them showing up in the same touchscreen. Whoever started developing first doesn't matter anymore; we just want to know which sexy iPhonish smartphone deserves our children's "college fund" the most. Hit the jump for our Frankenpreview of the different "iPhone clones" coming to the market, and see how they stack up against the Vision of Apple.

iSoftPhone
Price: $100
What??
It's not actually a phone. It's VoIP software that just looks like a phone.
But!
Hold your Macbook up to your ear, and that hipster chick eyeing you up at Panera will never know the difference.

Neonode N2
Price: N/A
2-inch 176 x 220 display
2 Megapixel camera
GSM Quadband
GPRS
Mini-SD slot
OS: Proprietary

What? ?
The N2 uses a innovative, but non-intuitive gesture interface. But its bigger problem is its limited data capability since it lacks newer, speedier transmission standards. And without WiFi as backup, there is a limit to just how "smart" this phone can be.
But!
It's only half the length of the iPhone and weighs just a little under 2 Nanos (about half the weight of the iPhone). You have to appreciate the aggressively small form factor coupled with an interface that, at the very least, confronts the issue of impossibly small buttons.

Teclast T59
Price: N/A

3.5-inch display (VGA)
3G
Wi-Fi & GPS
OS: Windows CE

What? ?
The T59 is 100% concept renderings at this point. As far as we can tell, they haven't even built a mock-up for beautiful models to pretend to be talking to us on yet. So until we see it...let's just say we've been hurt before, ok?
But!
The largest model (as in product, not the hot model mentioned above) is said to hold a massive 16GB of music and videos, which is double that of Apple's phone and bigger than any company's options on this list. But more importantly, it sports an FM radio!

LG Prada
Price: $778

Specs:
3.0-inch display, 240 x 400
GSM Quadband
EDGE data
2 megapixel camera
microSD
OS: Proprietary

What??
The Prada lacks both WiFi and built-in storage—considering the hefty price tag (you are charging even more than Apple, LG), these features will be more than missed. Plus, Europe and Asia get the Prada first while we convince ourselves that the pink Razr is still all the rage.
But!
The Prada is a bit smaller than the iPhone, can't be worse than the Chocolate and...it's not the iPhone—as they made clear. And Apple has become so bourgeois...

Meizu M8/MiniOne
Price: N/A
3.3-inch VGA touchscreen
GSM and TD-SCDMA
3MP camera (back), .3MP camera (front)
TV-Out
OS: Windows CE 6.0

What??
This product is the real deal knock-off, actually changing their design post-iPhone announcement. Consider the MiniOne the technological equivalent to breast implants. Sure they look may look good, but do they really offer the same user experience? (That question isn't rhetorical, btw).
But!
720x480 video playback at 30fps might mean we'll actually use the Meizu for porn daily tasks, especially with its TV-out option. Maybe the more important aspect of PMPs is less regarding the 3-inch screen clarity, and more about the device's ability to interact with home theater equipment—wherever you may be.

However, the long and short of it is that most of these Apple alternatives won't see American releases soon, if at all. So even though it may seem like the market has flooded abruptly with thousands of magical touchscreen phones, the choice may (unfortunately) be easier than you'd think. – Mark Wilson

Just in case you weren't sick enough of it, Newlaunches has a summary of the top competitors for Apple's iPhone, all of them previously featured in Gizmodo. They start at number 5 with the Meizu we-swear-we-really-didn't-clone-it! M8 PMP, the Windows Mobile 6.0 smartphone that really wants to be an iPhone when he grows up. Going up is the small Neonode N2 which, like the iPhone, lacks 3G connectivity, and the phone that could actually fly if fully open and thrown with enough brute force: the Nokia N95. At the top, the LG KE850 of Prada and Laura Ocaña fame and, finally, the Samsung Ultra Smart F700, the smartphone of choice for korean ninja cyborgs and people with skin allergy to screen-based keyboards. We will have to wait a few months to see which phone really grabs the cash of consumers, but looking at them now, would you sign up for the iPhone or any of these five? – Jesus Diaz

Top 5 competitors to the iPhone [Newlaunches.com]

10. Possio GRETA
When it comes to ballsy innovation, no touchscreen or banana phone beats this combination fax machine, printer, copier, scanner and cellphone in one. Why they painted it the color of maroon nail polish is a question that can probably only be answered by a regional manager for Dunder-Mifflin.

9. Motorola Q9
The Jay Leno chin is gone, the color is much, well, blacker, and it's a true global phone. Sometimes it's the little things that make all the difference.

8. RIM Blackberry 8800
The jury is still out on SureType, so RIM took all the best features of the Pearl (including the nipple-like navigator) and combined them with a full QWERTY keyboard. Crackberry-licious.Gallery.

7. Nokia 6110 Navigator
A GPS phone with 3.6 Mbps throughput will keep you one step ahead of pursuers, that's for sure. The $600 price tag, however, means that you are being chased by debt collectors. Gallery.

6. Samsung U100
Two words: Wafer thin. 5.9mm. Gallery.

5. LG Prada
The LG Prada is so hot right now it could take a crap, wrap it in tinfoil, put a couple fish hooks on it and sell it to Queen Elizabeth as earrings. It's going to be break-dance fighting with the Samsung U100 later tonight. Gallery.

4. Motorola Z8
A hinged slider phone that automatically switches into landscape mode? Everyone is going to want to try it once. Gallery.

3. Nokia N77
The great thing about Nokia is that they can take a bunch of features that everyone has seen before—mobile tv, push-to-talk, FM radio, micro SD slot—and freshen it up by turning the phone sideways. Gallery.

2. Samsung SGH-F520
This side-to-side and up-down slider with a touchscreen wins the award for the most iPhone-competitive handset at the show. Its Achilles heel? It will probably never be released outside of Korea.

1. Neonode N2
This phone, which uses an open software platform, probably has a snowball's chance in hell of being used outside of the homebrew mobile phone club. But the 3-inch tall, gesture-controlled phone is also a true harbinger of phones to come.

–Noah Robischon

Here's the stat splatter, and how that gesture system works.

The gesture control promises a screen free from softbutton clutter, and that it'll be all but unusable by anyone but those initiated into the neonode's cryptic control system.

The device claims to have an open software platform (meaning: won't be picked up by us providers anytime soon) and because it does calendar and address book synching via Activesync, we have a feeling it's built on a Windows platform.

I expected counterattacks to Apple's offering but how fast did this little company develop this thing? It's more than likely that they'd been planning this touchscreen offering for awhile now. Unless it's vapor. (Where are those real photos?)

UPDATE: Photo courtesy of Vincent N.

Name:

* Neonode N2

Storage:

* MiniSD card

User interface:

* Neno user interface

Applications:

* MP3 Player (MP3, WMA, Wav), Calendar and Address book synchronized using ActiveSync

Telephony:

* GSM Quadband 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 Mhz bands, GPRS

Messaging:

* SMS and MMS

Bluetooth:

* Obex, Headset, FTP profiles supported

LCD:

* 2,0" (176x220 pixels) colour display. 65K colours

Audio:

* Stereo sound in headphones, Mono loudspeaker, Vibration engine

Image:

* 2 Megapixel Fixed Focus Camera, Still pictures, Video play-back (MPEG, WMV), Video Recording (MPEG4)

Dimensions:

* 47x77x14,7 mm (WxHxT) Weight: Approx 70 grams

Battery Capacity:

* Talk 4 hours, standby 200 hours

Neonode n2 [via slashphone]