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Fake Chinese iPhones Look Pretty Convincing

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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One forum user posted for help getting his new iPhone activated through iTunes. As it turns out, the iPhone was purchased in China just last week. After some photos of the phone were posted, it was clear that the phone is a very convincing knock-off of the actual iPhone. The packaging appears authentic, and at first glance the phone itself looks pretty similar. The proportions are slightly off, but the icons are identical except for the presence of a Penguin icon which launches a Chinese game:


002932-fake4_500.jpg



Other differences can be seen, including the use of a standard USB plug on the bottom, instead of the usual dock connector. Other minor differences of type face and user interface placement would not be easily noticed by anyone who didn't own an iPhone themselves.

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Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/07/03/fake-chinese-iphones-look-pretty-convincing/
matt18 said:
yeah, i agree!

although, it is impressive....
Click to expand...

I thought that they had just copied the the OS over to their knockoff version, but seeing as how some stuff is clearly wrong, does that mean they made it themselves? If so, they did a pretty good job.
 
Why would anyone think they could get a real iPhone from a non authorized dealer? Hmm. Maybe I am just to good at spotting fakes that this would never happen to me, but man that really sucks.
 
bacaramac said:
Why would anyone think they could get a real iPhone from a non authorized dealer? Hmm. Maybe I am just to good at spotting fakes that this would never happen to me, but man that really sucks.
Click to expand...

The packaging appears identical so it's unlikely you would be able spot the fake before you got it home. You have a point about unauthorized dealers, perhaps. But most non Apple-fanatics don't know Apple's distribution policies.

arn
 
arn said:
The packaging appears identical so it's unlikely you would be able spot the fake before you got it home. You have a point about unauthorized dealers, perhaps. But most non Apple-fanatics don't know Apple's distribution policies.

arn
Click to expand...

still i want to open it before hand

also how much was it?
 
Well, I can only imagine that his Daddy, didn't open the iPhonie packages b/c he and his luggage had to get through Customs checkpoints in China and the USA, and declare all three of them and if the packages are open, Customs may not allow them in or out...:eek:
 
jmadlena said:
I thought that they had just copied the the OS over to their knockoff version, but seeing as how some stuff is clearly wrong, does that mean they made it themselves? If so, they did a pretty good job.
Click to expand...
That depends on what the applications themselves look like. It's fairly trivial to write a lock and home screen like the iPhone's. I wouldn't count on a lot of identical underlying functionality--if they did a convincing job past the home screen, then it is impressive indeed.
 
In China, it's called the HiPhone, very similar, though there are some quality differences with the casing, not as round nor well assembled as the real iPhone. Goes for less than $170 US here...:)
 
Wouldn't mind some pics of the rest of the interface, see how far they've gone with the copy job.
 
Haha, that is great! Who buys expensive phones for cheap in some shady Chinese market without opening the package to verify the contents? He's lucky he didn't get a rock!!

First of all, if it was in a shady Chinese market to begin with that's a sign that its a fake. Is there anything real at all in a shady Chinese market? Or any shady market?

Second of all, if this kid plays his cards right, he might be able to sell it on eBay as a collectors item, a one of a kind Chinese version of the iPhone. I'm sure some rich d-bag will buy it just because he doesn't have one already.
 
umm..

this is what you get for buying a shady chinese product.

This is not even a very convincing knockoff. I could tell before noticing the capitals, penguin, mini usb, that the very sizes of the black above and below the screen were not standard.


I mean you get what you pay for.

And if you pay full for that then well,

you deserve what you paid for.
 
no fair! i want to play that penguin game on my iPhone!! :(:(
is it like that one that used to be on the Sega GameGear, where you had to push blocks on ice around to squash these orange things that would try to eat you? that was awesome
 
SFStateStudent said:
Well, if it's a "knock-off" from China, I'm sorry to say, it's NOT "a one of a kind" but rather 1, 2, and 3 of 6,000,000; sorta' like the Borg...:eek:
Click to expand...

i know. thats why i said "if this kid plays his cards right."

anything can be sold. this "iPhone" was sold.

i don't think ebay allows legit sales of these devices. so if he makes it clear that this is a special chinese version, which there aren't as many of on ebay, then he might be able to convince some rich guy to buy it. its called marketing. i've seen worse examples of frivolous purchasing. its a long shot, but not out of the question. especially if he only paid $170 for it.
 
This is the kind of crap we have to put up with. There's so many chinese made knock-offs that get passed off as the real thing. We're constantly getting customer returns for failures that after investigation turn out to be fake. The customers even bought the fake stuff through reputible means. China needs to start acting like a real country and enforcing a few international laws.
 
Aside from the fact that it's not an iPhone, how is it? Is it any good? Has the user gotten it to work with his carrier?
 
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