BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS — As I was walking around the show floor at MWC today, I noticed a number of smartphones that looked very familiar — yet they were being paraded by Chinese companies I’d never heard of. I saw what looked like a large iPhone 5, an entire range of Samsung Galaxy devices, and a number of high-end HTC handsets.

Except they weren’t really Apple, Samsung, or HTC devices at all; they were actually cheap clones that were trying their best to look like the real thing. They even had fake accessories that were identical to the originals.

BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS — Here at Mobile World Congress, ZTE is showing off the Grand Memo, its new super-sized smartphone that packs a giant 5.7-inch display. That’s 0.2 inches bigger than the Galaxy Note II’s display, and although that doesn’t sound much, it’s instantly recognizable when you pick up this handset for the first time.

GooPhone, a Chinese manufacturer famous for its clones of high-end smartphones and tablets, has today revealed the N2 Lite, its Samsung Galaxy Note II copy. The device comes with a 5.5-inch display, and even has its own S Pen, and at first glance, it almost looks identical to the real thing. Pull away its plastic, however, and and you’ll find it’s very different.

It’s taken a heck of a long time, but Samsung’s original Galaxy Note — the “phablet” that inspired a whole host of super-sized smartphones — is finally getting its much-anticipated Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean upgrade. The software is arriving over-the-air and via Samsung Kies to devices with the GT-N7000 model number, and it’s said to be hitting users in Asia first.

LG announced its super-sized Optimus G Pro last week, a 5.5-inch handset that’s coming to do battle with the Samsung Galaxy Note II. The device will be coming to Korea this week, the company has now confirmed, before making its way to North America during Q2 2013.

In addition to its impressive 1080p display, the Optimus G Pro will also be the first smartphone to offer a quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor, which is the successor to the popular Snapdragon S4 Pro.