New Korean Samsung galaxy phones? Real or fake?

superferret · Post by **superferret** » Mon Mar 05, 2018 11:24 pm

Here's what I did to test it in case someone's interested:

1. I watched the video above to be able to identify fakes. From the video two things in particular made it easy:

a) I opened Camera and looked at the options, it did have all the options a real Note 4 has and not the generic version fakes have
b) I looked at the S-pen and it looked like the real one, not the fake kind also it I checked that it supported the hover feature, which fakes cannot

2. I checked the IMEI by entering #*06# and entered it into imeipro (borrowed wifi from the shop), imeipro told me the imei is good

3. I ran through all the checks that are available by entering *#0*#, these include tests for the touchscreen and the hover feature also and a lot of other things, a couple of them I didn't even know what they are.

4. I took headphones (can test in the menu in no. 3 above), a micro SD card (checked in My Files) and a Cambodian SIM card to test the headphone socket, the micro SD socket and the phone being unlocked respectively.

5. Removed the back cover and checked the water indicator, which shows if the phone has water damage as well as inspected the sockets for any rust which also shows water damage.

6. I took an OTG cable and a pendrive (must be FAT32) with apk files for antutu version 6 + antutu 3D test version 6 + Phone INFO app. Installed all these at the shop. The Phone INFO tells you the processor which should by either a Snapdragon 805 or an Exynos 5433. It also tells you the resolution of the screen which should be 1440 x 2560 pixels. Antutu benchmark took a while to run and the score should be around 66.000 if the processor is not overheated, since at the shop it was overheated I got 45.000 there.

It was a bit of work but at least I know this phone is in perfect working order.
The battery in it was not original though, and mine has Android 5, so I'll still have to upgrade to 6 and root it.

armchairlawyer · Post by **armchairlawyer** » Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:17 pm

Great feedback. Many thanks.

shnoukieBRO · Post by **shnoukieBRO** » Wed Mar 07, 2018 11:45 pm

Mobile prices in Cambodia are not cheap. If brand new and too cheap Samsung it must be fake in my book. Check official Samsung shop for real price.

I think I read that fake samsung also display fake specs on the phone. In reality their performance camera is crap compared to real deal.

Safer to buy in Thailand.

superferret · Post by **superferret** » Fri May 25, 2018 6:31 am

shnoukieBRO wrote: ↑Wed Mar 07, 2018 11:45 pm Mobile prices in Cambodia are not cheap. If brand new and too cheap Samsung it must be fake in my book. Check official Samsung shop for real price.

I think I read that fake samsung also display fake specs on the phone. In reality their performance camera is crap compared to real deal.

Safer to buy in Thailand.

Don't know about Thailand, but I'm pretty happy with my purchase, it's not fake, and it's way cheaper than Europe. I've bought about 5 old galaxies and none of them were fake, a couple had issues because
of the khmer modifications, but this Note 4 is perfect.

StroppyChops · Post by **StroppyChops** » Fri May 25, 2018 6:36 pm

superferret wrote: ↑Mon Mar 05, 2018 11:24 pm Here's what I did to test it in case someone's interested:

1. I watched the video above to be able to identify fakes. From the video two things in particular made it easy:

a) I opened Camera and looked at the options, it did have all the options a real Note 4 has and not the generic version fakes have
b) I looked at the S-pen and it looked like the real one, not the fake kind also it I checked that it supported the hover feature, which fakes cannot

2. I checked the IMEI by entering #*06# and entered it into imeipro (borrowed wifi from the shop), imeipro told me the imei is good

3. I ran through all the checks that are available by entering *#0*#, these include tests for the touchscreen and the hover feature also and a lot of other things, a couple of them I didn't even know what they are.

4. I took headphones (can test in the menu in no. 3 above), a micro SD card (checked in My Files) and a Cambodian SIM card to test the headphone socket, the micro SD socket and the phone being unlocked respectively.

5. Removed the back cover and checked the water indicator, which shows if the phone has water damage as well as inspected the sockets for any rust which also shows water damage.

6. I took an OTG cable and a pendrive (must be FAT32) with apk files for antutu version 6 + antutu 3D test version 6 + Phone INFO app. Installed all these at the shop. The Phone INFO tells you the processor which should by either a Snapdragon 805 or an Exynos 5433. It also tells you the resolution of the screen which should be 1440 x 2560 pixels. Antutu benchmark took a while to run and the score should be around 66.000 if the processor is not overheated, since at the shop it was overheated I got 45.000 there.

It was a bit of work but at least I know this phone is in perfect working order.
The battery in it was not original though, and mine has Android 5, so I'll still have to upgrade to 6 and root it.

That's possibly the single most thorough bit of investigating for genuineness I have ever seen on a a consumer product. Kudos.

There are two other questions/scenarios to consider.

1. Is it a genuine but unauthorized product? It may have been made by the same people who make the original branded and authorized products, using the same parts (possibly rejected), but without the knowledge of the brand company. That is, someone might be making dollars on the side by assembling things (phones, backpacks, running shoes, whatever) in another location using legitimate parts. Alternatively, the products may have been stolen from the supply chain.

2. The product may not in fact be new. Spend some time watching young guns in some of the malls cleaning and resealing laptops to be sold as new, when they're clearly not. I ran some tests on my latest phone - albeit not as thoroughly as you did - and was satisfied that it was brand new in an unopened box. Later, I noticed the bastards had forgotten to remove all their selfies from the internal storage. I have a shrink-wrap setup for the company so the sealed box is no surprise, but it looked vanilla at the time of sale.

superferret · Post by **superferret** » Fri May 25, 2018 9:59 pm

Thanks and good points. I just stayed with the older model Samsung Galaxy line, so I can't comment on other phone types, the ones I bought were all USED, not new. These are mostly
Korean original phones.
The one I have currently is still like new, perfect condition in everything. That's why I did the testing, because there were in fact some damaged models being sold as good, and also some
fake ones, but I immediate recognized them as fakes, just by watching the youtube video. The only issue with this Note 4 is that since it was a Korean telecom model, the update to Android 6 does not work . I guess you'd have to be in Korea to do that, so if want Android 6 and not 5, I'll have to flash it myself. Some others being sold had 6 on them already.

shnoukieBRO · Post by **shnoukieBRO** » Sun May 27, 2018 6:49 pm

Personally I would only trust a purchase made from a repunable official dealer of phones.

You may have been sold a used phone repackaged like a new phone or it may have been a rejuvenated model.

superferret · Post by **superferret** » Sun May 27, 2018 9:36 pm

shnoukieBRO wrote: ↑Sun May 27, 2018 6:49 pm Personally I would only trust a purchase made from a repunable official dealer of phones.

You may have been sold a used phone repackaged like a new phone or it may have been a rejuvenated model.

It's like everything else at the market, do you know what you're doing or not when you go shopping? Like I said,
there were indeed fakes, and fake new ones being sold, but I spotted these immediately and most of the time the sellers were honest telling me it wasn't original. The rest were all REAL USED ones and they did
not attempt to misrepresent these. With the note series it's very easy to tell the fakes because there's no fake on the planet that can emulate the S-pen hover feature. You can check this in one second.
Initially I tried to test one that looked good in the shop, but the lady got all upset at my testing, so I moved
on to the guy next door who was happy to let me test it. Clearly the first lady knew her phone had issues i.e. prior damage and saw I was going to be able to identify it,
so she sent me away.

Heng Heng Heng · Post by **Heng Heng Heng** » Mon May 28, 2018 8:30 am

I bought an S7 edge a while ago from Cellcard. When I was in Thailand, I saw obvious fakes on sale. The first clue was the box. The real one does not come in a chocolate box type box. It's more like the old style vcr case.

Fake phones come in fake cases. Fake ones have really bad cameras too.

New Korean Samsung galaxy phones? Real or fake?

Re: New Korean Samsung galaxy phones? Real or fake?

Re: New Korean Samsung galaxy phones? Real or fake?

Re: New Korean Samsung galaxy phones? Real or fake?

Re: New Korean Samsung galaxy phones? Real or fake?

Re: New Korean Samsung galaxy phones? Real or fake?

Re: New Korean Samsung galaxy phones? Real or fake?

Re: New Korean Samsung galaxy phones? Real or fake?

Re: New Korean Samsung galaxy phones? Real or fake?

Re: New Korean Samsung galaxy phones? Real or fake?

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