How To Identify Fake Or Chinese Clone Phone

Buying fairly used smartphones or buying phones from roadside stores popularly known as showcase can equally mean purchasing fake, clone Chinese phones those are the avenue for the sale of this fake smartphones, not to worry if you are on a low budget but need to purchase a fairly used(Belgium) phone, the tips on this article can help you identify the originality of any fairly used smartphone you might come in contact with, so that you can easily identify if that phone is fake or Original before purchase.

Android operating system is relatively cheap, this gave room for imitations, since most Android smartphones cost more, Chinese tech companies offered to help by producing cheaper smartphones, with cheap hardware components of course, its nearly impossible to Identify the fake one among this clone(copy versions) of these smartphones, because the design resembles with little or no noticeable changes, this can rue you to purchase them in the name of the fairly used original versions.

The sad thing about these cheap clone phones is that the repair parts (hardware and software) are not readily available in most cases, that’s to say that if these phones develop any issues you will have to dump them, for a new device, secondary most of them don’t support 3G or 4G network even when they claim to have it ,automatically crippling your internet enjoyment, what about the hardware, the RAM and ROM, that one is another wahala, most of them came with barely 1GB RAM & 4GB ROM but will Claim to have 3GB RAM and 32GB ROM, if you have ever entered the Chinese(clone) phone bus, you will understand better☺️, over hanging will kill the phone , here are tips on how to identify fake phones

How To Identify Fake Or Chinese Clone Phone

# 1 Physically Examine the Phone:

You can easily identify a fake phone by simply taking a look at the design, even though these clone copies looks just like the original version there are still some noticeable changes in the build material, these clone copies are made using substandard materials and technology, you should take your time and inspect them and compare them with the original versions,

# 2 Check Display Quality:

The look of the screen is one of the easiest methods of identifying a fake phone, the picture and display quality of most of these clone phone are substandard with heavy light or dull display, you can check this by taking a snap with the phone, exam the photo quality.

However, if you are uninformed enough to have purchased these phones with a dull display you should check this post on how you can customize the display color of your android phone

# 3 Check The Logo:

You can easily spot a fake android device by taking a look at the logo, in fake phones the logo is usually printed with paints, unlike that of the of the original versions,

# 4 Texture Of The Screen:

The screen is very important. Not the display this time, but the screen texture. Original Andriod phones should come with a screen’s glass material. If you run your finger through it and it feels like plastic more than glass, then the device is made of cheap glass material. Essentially, It cannot be original.

# 5 Check The IMEI info For Android:

Another easy method with which you can identify fake phones is through the IMEI number, I recently used this method to spot a fake Chinese phone, I didn’t see or touch the phone, I only asked for the IMEI, ran the test and boom the phone that claims to be Infinix note 10, has the IMEI of IPhone 4

IMEI number is the 16 digit number that identifies any phone, IMEI numbers are usually printed at the back of the phone beneath the battery compartment, you can equally dial *#06# to ascertain the device IMEI number, once you got hold of the 16 digit IMEI number

• Visit IMEI.info,

• Paste the device IMEI on the column provided, pass the captcha and check,
• IMEI. info will automatically check and give details of the device if the details are different from what the device is said to then give it a run, you are about to buy a monkey in the name of a Gorilla

# 6 Check The Specification:

if the phone comes with a box, check the full specifications and compare it with what you can see the phone do, most times since its fairly used( second hand) the box is usually not available you can check the specifications only by performing a google search with the phone model, if the features of the phone is different from the specifications then its fake

# 7 Check For 3G Compatibility:

wow I almost forgot this factor, it needless to say that most of these Chinese clone phones do not support the popular and faster 3G network because most of them can’t afford the technology, though some of them do, the majority don’t, this should even be the first verification you should make, any Android smartphone without a support for 3G network is a no for me be it clone or original, unless you wouldn’t use the phone for internet activities, like Facebook, WhatsApp call, video streaming and basically any internet activity, without 3G these internet activities will craw like a snail. So first check if the phone supports 3G network following the instructions below:

• Insert your sim card on the Phone
• Restart the device and allow the network to reflect
• Head straight to settings, Under network and connectivity, or mobile networks,
• Look for 3G service or preferred network type if don’t see any of this then it doesn’t support 3G network and its so fake
• IF you these options then you select 3G only as the preferred network type, Switch on your data and check if the 3G or H+ sign will pop up
• If it does, good!!, continue with other checks

However, if you are uninformed enough to have purchased these phones without 3G compatibility you should read this post on how you can use 3G network speed on a 2G enable phone

# 8 Check the serial number For iPhones.

If its an iPhone, check its serial number and perform verification on the website.

• To get an iPhone’s serial number, go to Settings > General > About phone.
• Once the serial number is got hold of, input it here: selfsolve.apple
• It will check your phone’s warranty period.
• If the system gives you a prompt “We’re sorry, but this serial number is not valid. Please check your information and try again,” its more likely that the iPhone is fake.

# 9 Check the software For iPhones:

iPhone clones are easy to detect because iPhone clones are not Java capable instead Android is used as their OS. The clone manufacturer cannot use iOS because it’s Apple-exclusive.

• Remember also that the iPhone has the iTunes App Store, not Google Play.

# 10 Check The Phone Device Info with An External app:

You can check the real details of the phone with the aid of external device info apps, you can get one of them from play store, we recommend , CPU Z or Droid Info apps, you can download any of them from play store It will let you test your device’s speed and will later detect the full specification of your phone and device’s name.

• If it will display another phone’s manufacturer’s name, then you have acquired(about to acquire) a fake phone

# 11 Use This Quick Short Codes To Identify If the Phone is Fake or the Original:

• *#1234# [Displays device current firmware]
• *#*#1472365#*#* [GPS test settings]
• *#*#197328640#*#* [Service mode main menu]
• *#*#4636#*#* [Diagnostic and general settings mode]
• *#0*# [General Test Mode

If you get no response after dialing this codes, then there is no doubt that the phone is fake

To lap things up, you don’t need a suit sayer to tell you that a device is a clone, some simple factors most times tells that at a glance, you cant have a phone sold for 60k at the price of 15k and expect it not to be fake.

Hope you found this information useful, did any of these methods or any other help you unveil a fake or Chinese clone phone? share the experience with us via the comment box, don’t forget to share the post with friends.

Best Regards