..From Tech to Art - Bikes to Cars - Hills to Beaches :-: October 2013

"Is my Samsung Galaxy S3-S4-Note 3, ORIGINAL?"

Yes, if such a question does not come to mind, please reconsider. I am a tech enthusiast and when i see a fancy, expensive and pricey gadget i wanna know all about it.

So when i happen to spot a friend playing around with a Samsung Galaxy S4 (which btw was fake) i was pretty surprised as i knew in no way he could afford One, but seemed rather happy with the new purchase. So my Kidas started, and i asked him the device to play around with, and within seconds of playing around when i switched off the device to get to the Recovery Mode, guess what??? and then the Download Mode.

The Recovery Screen in Chinese

The Download Mode Upside-Down

So i instantly told him that the device was a Fake and that whether he knew it was one, to my surprise he did not. So i quizzed him on the details of Purchase and Price, he immediately told me, he picked up the device for Rs.15,000 from a dealer in Nausari, Gujarat and also told me it was sold to him at a discount, it seems these Fakes go for nothing less than Rs.20,000 odd out there. The public out there must be spending on the fake devices, just for Flaunting it in their Business Circles i assume.

The same sentiments are shared in Mumbai as well, where i have personally found such pieces at Haji-Ali, Mumbai Central Stn, Lamington Road, Bandra Hill Road, Andheri West, Borivali West and Indraprasht, Just to name a few of the locations where you pick up your piece from, be Aware, very Aware :-)

However i did find occurrences online of fake pieces being sold on the Various E-Commerce Website, one such instance is from http://www.shopclues.com

http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/shopclues-received-fake-version-of-samsung-galaxy-s4-from-shopcluescom-c856433.html

But anyways i was pretty curious to get to the whole dealings and operations of these dealers, and not to forget to scrap out the innards of these devices and expose them here. So i borrowed the device in the same pristine condition he received it in, along with the packaging et all for a WEEK.

Once the Box got in my hands, i was pretty Shocked and Stunned, at the level of duplication these Copiers go to. The box, the accessories, the device, they all seemed so genuine again, not a hint of doubt would awaken in anyone's mind on the level of perfection. Below is the Unboxing of the Device.

I posted that i owned the device on Facebook, keeping the original Fake Price of Rs.15,000 that my friend got it. And to my surprise, my Facebook message folder and Whatsapp was flooded with request asking for the price of device that i got it at (guess everyone who knows me, knows that i only buy mobiles at extremely ridiculous and crazy prices, whether selling my own and bartering it with another usually). So i had people offer me from Rs.25,000 to Rs.20,000 in cash for the device, which even i after letting them play with it dint change their mind. It went to an extent where i had this one guy who placed Rs.20,000 in my hand saying that the device was his now, and that i get the box and accessories the next day; even after letting him know that the device was not an Original S4, but a fake. I had to literally run away, cause he just dint seem convinced. The people i tell u, no wonder these Pirates/Copiers make a run with the bucks and have such a thriving business, thanx to the ignorance in these so called RICH FOLKS :-P

The Fake S4 Box

The Fake Seals at the Box Packaging

The IMEI no with a Made in Vietnam Signage

So along with such amazing packaging how could i blame the poor guy into not believing that the device aint a Fake. However there are other ways to Prove whether a device is Fake Or Not and the Details start as below, by installing these very simple apps. A must when your picking up the device.

CPU Z - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cpuid.cpu_z

Genuine Galaxy S4/Note 3 - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hotdog.truth&hl=en

1. So like i found out the Device did not have Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A15 but just a dual-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 of which the SOC i aint completely aware of, one strange thing is even for a fake, it had a Mali-400 GPU, my good old Galaxy S2 has it and that is a beauty of a device.

2. It did not have a Full HD Resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches and 441 ppi Pixel Density, 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of the promised Internal Memory but instead was a mere 540 x 960 pixels, 4.7 Inches and 240 PPI Pixel Density, 512 MB Ram and 1.27 GB worth of Internal Storage...ahh this is interesting; It came with a default ROOT-ACCESS.

3. None of the Sensors functioned the way it was supposed to, a rather big disappointment even for a fake, it could have done better at least in this department, but alas the Pirates don't care about us at all.

Anyways this is the most basic thing anyone could do first, as he/she gets their hands on an expensive device such as the Galaxy S4.

Fake Firmware Info

Fake 16 GB on Internal Mem

Below are the System>About of the device for you to get an idea of the Firmware Fake that's running. Here we are talking about the entire firmware being designed, so as to replicate the entire Original Device Look and feel. It takes it down right to the minutest of details. Even the Kernel Version seems Legit.