Edit: Oops, I was wrong. My S4 came in a wood inspired box.Even the design of the box is fake. My phone did not come in a wood-inspired box... it was white.
Incorrect. Duos (dual-SIM) variants have 16gb.Definitely fake. All the things the last poster said, plus it says 16 GB on the label. Note 4 is 32/64. No 16 GB at all.
Posted via the Android Central App
Personally this is why I never buy stuff on Craigslist which is basically the same thing. I'll sell on it but never buy stuff. I prefer to spend full price new at a reputable store like say the Apple store or etc then save a few bucks and have this possibly happenGood day all members,
Today, something very unfortunate happened to me. My brother and I each met up with our sellers to purchase our pre-owned Galaxy Note 4's ($730 AUD for mine and $720 for his), both claimed to be 1 week old and in as new condition.
When we got home, immediately we noticed both our Note 4's, while highly identical, are a little bit different. After careful examination and running several tests, I was devastated to find out mine is a very well built counterfeit. It's so well built to a point where I was not even a single bit suspicious that mine was a counterfeit while I was inspecting the phone before I made the cash payment, until I compared mine to my brother in law's. The parts that are supposed to be made of metal are made of metal. Please note that I had used galaxy S2, S3 and Note 3 before I decided to switch to a Note 4, therefore I could tell how a genuine galaxy feels like in my hands. Which is why I have decided to create an account here to create awareness that knock off's of this quality do exist.
Please refer below for hardware comparisons:
View attachment 149587
The one on the left is the counterfeit. Notice the difference in screen vibrancy and the 'back' and 'recent tabs' buttons are not lit on the counterfeit.
View attachment 149589
The one on the left is the counterfeit. There are slight differences in the size and shape of the home button and bezels.
View attachment 149590
The one on the left is the counterfeit. Notice the slight differences in the front camera size and position, the size of the font and the shape of the speaker.
View attachment 149591
The one on the left is the counterfeit. Notice the difference in colours and fonts of the notification bar. The type on the counterfeit belongs to an older model, Galaxy S4 or so.
View attachment 149592
The one on top is the genuine copy. Notice the difference in the colour of the sleep button, the one on the counterfeit has silver edges while the one on the genuine copy is all white in colour.
View attachment 149594
The one on the left is the counterfeit. Notice the difference in the shape of the flash, even the shape of the camera lens is slightly different.
View attachment 149595
The one on top is the counterfeit. The original battery has a lot more wordings on it. The sim card and sd card slots are also different.
Apart from the above, I have run a spec test on the counterfeit using the app "spec device". The results show that the RAM is 1gb instead of 3GB, internal storage is 16GB instead of 32GB, screen resolution and PPI are also substantially lower on the counterfeit. Which is why it feels laggier than the genuine note 4 and the screen is not as sharp and vibrant. The S Pen is also harder to pull out on the counterfeit compared to the original one.
I also noted that the firmware of the counterfeit has less features than the genuine note 4. For e.g., the camera lacks selective focus and the ability to download more camera modes and there is no option to change screen sensitivity. They both run on kitkat 4.4.4 but after googling the build number of the counterfeit, I found out that the ROM installed on the counterfeit belongs to Galaxy S5. The boot screens are also different, the one on the counterfeit shows an Android Robot with jelly beans instead of the model name. I did not find this out after I got home because the seller passed the phone to me without switching it off. Should I have realised this during inspection I would have been suspicious.
I also did an IMEI search for the counterfeit on several different websites. 2 of them say my phone is a Nokia registered in 2009 and 2 other websites say my phone is an S4.
Samsung Kies and Odin won't recognise the counterfeit but the computer does.
At this stage, I am trying to obtain a refund from the seller but the chances are slim as this was a cash deal so I am not covered by paypal or ebay. Can only hope for the best.
So, beware fellow members! Knock offs are getting better and better. Nowadays they can't be differentiated just by spotting spelling mistakes or build quality. You have to really inspect or know the phone inside out before making a purchase. Lesson learned![]()
Maybe I'm daft, but I don't understand why anyone is buying feature phones distributed worldwide by international companies from private dealers and on the street? And at full price too?
If the phone isn't available in your country yet, seriously...what are the odds that some dealer is going to have the genuine device? Pretty slim to me.
Furthermore, even if it is a matter of the phone not being available where you are just yet, you purposely set out to obtain it by means other than from a authorized source. So why are you so shocked that a criminal ripped you off?
I mean seriously, how many used Galaxy Note 4's could there be out there. The phone JUST came out. That story sounded suspect from the beginning. Even if they happened to be real, odds are that they are probably stolen. Not used. And you probably suspected that going in anyway.
I feel bad that it happened to you, but you knew buying a phone on the "black market" was a risk in the first place so the probability of something like this happening was already pretty high. You didn't get ripped off. You just ended up on the wrong side of the scam that you were trying to pull in the first place.
JMO of course.
Maybe I'm daft, but I don't understand why anyone is buying feature phones distributed worldwide by international companies from private dealers and on the street? And at full price too?
If the phone isn't available in your country yet, seriously...what are the odds that some dealer is going to have the genuine device? Pretty slim to me.
Furthermore, even if it is a matter of the phone not being available where you are just yet, you purposely set out to obtain it by means other than from a authorized source. So why are you so shocked that a criminal ripped you off?
I mean seriously, how many used Galaxy Note 4's could there be out there. The phone JUST came out. That story sounded suspect from the beginning. Even if they happened to be real, odds are that they are probably stolen. Not used. And you probably suspected that going in anyway.
I feel bad that it happened to you, but you knew buying a phone on the "black market" was a risk in the first place so the probability of something like this happening was already pretty high. You didn't get ripped off. You just ended up on the wrong side of the scam that you were trying to pull in the first place.
JMO of course.
Just curious. Did you ever call Samsung? I am Not suggesting they would give you a phone...What I an saying is this is propritory to Samsung and I am sure they would like to know. Who knows...in a perfect world they would offer you an $825 dollar credit. I know, we don't live in that world..but maybe. Any updates?
Posted via the Next Big Thing, My Galaxy N4
None of those sites are going to let you sell that phone listing it as a counterfeit.Hello,
Yes I contacted Samsung not long after the incident, provided them with some details and informed them to have a look at this thread for detailed comparisons. I was telling Samsung that if someone bought a counterfeit thinking that it is a genuine article, it might actually harm Samsung's reputation because the performance of the counterfeit would be subpar. You are right, we don't live in that world, no store credit given. Just a "thank you for letting us know".
Updates:
- No news from scamwatch
- Tried to sell off the phone for $250 by listing it as a Clone on the same website which got me scammed but my ad got removed because I listed it as a counterfeit and that is not allowed (so much for being honest eh?)
- Listed it as a Clone on eBay for a no reserve auction, a very nice lady pm-ed me to advise me to take the listing down as she had done the same thing last year with her counterfeit Galaxy Note 3. The winning bidder paid with paypal, got the phone, reported her to ebay and paypal for selling counterfeits, got refunded and kept the phone. Poor lady got double scammed.
- Currently I am appealing gumtree's decision to take down my ad. My argument is "would you rather I list the phone as genuine and scam another person? Is that what you want on your website?"
100% this.Personally this is why I never buy stuff on Craigslist which is basically the same thing. I'll sell on it but never buy stuff. I prefer to spend full price new at a reputable store like say the Apple store or etc then save a few bucks and have this possibly happen
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk