Whether you love shake and tilt or you hate it, you have to admit that it's out there. What used to be considered just a novelty feature is now included in a huge number of clones. And, this is probably because many people find this feature useful. It's convenient (at least I think so) to be able to advance music, photos, video and media by only shaking the phone. This saves you the frustration of having to scroll and fumble around. It's also cool that these shake and tilts will right themselves and their images no matter how you tilt the phone or at which angle you are staring at.

But, until recently these "shake to the music" clones were known pretty much for just this one feature. Most weren't quad band and they didn't support Java which meant that you couldn't download or play third party software, games, or applications.

However, that's all changed with the release of the 168 mobile (aka the SciPhone or the CECT 168). This article will discuss the popular, new features on this phone.

Few would argue that in today's economy, it makes a lot of sense to go with a carrier free phone because you aren't stuck with an expensive network who will likely up the price as soon as the introductory period is over. But, until pretty recently, many of these clones were tri band, which left some consumers out.

The i68 is quad band and supports GSM 850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz (with automatic switching between bands). It is also dual sim which means that you can have two phone numbers and carriers on one phone. For example, you could talk and text using AT&T, while web browsing on T Mobile.

The SciPhone i68 also has one of the larger capabilities for memory on the market. Although it's more common to see them holding 2 - 4GB, they have the ability to hold up to 8GB.

Despite this huge capacity for memory, this mobile is also a good deal smaller and thinner than most of the knock offs, weighing only 95 grams and having the dimensions of 114 x 60 x 10 mm. Many people love this, even though the size can affect typing / inputting txt documents for those with very large hands. For this reason, the 168 is sometimes called a "mini clone" or "mini HiPhone."

Probably the biggest deal about the SciPhone is that it supports Java. With the older iClones (P168 and the quad band version), you could not download additional games and software. Now you can download thousands of games, software and productivity applications which makes it almost like you have another phone. Examples are Outlook Express, MSN, Office, and PowerPoint, to name only a few.

This smart phone has all of the cool features that we've come to expect from the imports, like an over sized 3.2 inch touch screen with the "flow touch" interface; dual sim slots; full MP3 / MP4 capabilities; an e book reader, FM radio; a built in 1.3 mega pixel camera / web cam; Internet capability; and emailing, texting and messaging via GPRS and WAP 2.0. Data transfer is via USB cable.

The talk time on this one is a generous180-300 minutes. Standby is around 150 hours. The speakers are sharp and I find the picture and photo quality to be very good. I wish they had upgraded the camera, but the pictures are better than I expected.