For those still using PHP 5.3, you can use https://github.com/youngj/httpserver (disclaimer: I wrote it) -- it's a standalone development HTTP server written in PHP that only depends on the php-cgi binary.
Even with PHP 5.4, I find it more useful for development than the built-in cli-server, since it gives me more flexibility to simulate the various directives in my nginx configuration files (e.g. gzip_static).
Even with PHP 5.4, I find it more useful for development than the built-in cli-server, since it gives me more flexibility to simulate the various directives in my nginx configuration files (e.g. gzip_static).