So many times, many people
walk in to mobile phone retail shops to grab a new Android phone but unlike
iPhones that run on Apple’s proprietary iOS software, Android phones run on
Google’s open Android operating system, making it easier and cheaper for
cloning manufacturers to produce fakes – and harder for consumers to
distinguish between a genuine model and a fake one thereby making many people
end up buying the cloned ones.It is just a waste of the money. Not only does
the phone not last long but also very poor in;
*camera quality
*speed
*battery
life
*storage ( very low in storage but displays a very high value when checked
on the phone) SO THE BIG QUESTION IS; HOW WILL YOU KNOW IF THE SMARTPHONE YOU
ARE BUYING IS ORIGINAL?Let’s start with the Samsung galaxy: The galaxy range of
phones are the most common hence are the ones with the highest number of clones
in the market. Manufacturers of such fake products take extra caution so as to
make the phone resemble the the original as much as possible.
OW TO CHECK IF
IT’S FAKE There are numerous ways to check if the galaxy phone is fake. 1. The
use of Samsung’s internally embedded codes. Just enter the phone’s dialer and
dial any of the codes below;
*#06# [Displays device IMEI number]
*#1234#
[Displays device current firmware]
*#*#1472365#*#* [GPS test settings]
*#*#197328640#*#* [Service mode main menu]
*#*#4636#*#* [Diagnostic and general
settings mode]
*#0*# [General Test Mode] When these codes don’t work for you,
then the phone is fake.
2. Checking the physical features of the phone
From the above picture, we
can see so many differences. The first most observable difference is that,
while the real phone has a very brightly coloured interface, the fake has a
very dim and blurry coloured interface. It can also be observed that the the
gap between screen and the side of the real phone is much smaller than that of
the fake. Also when the hand is rubbed on the Samsung logo, the fake’s can be
felt and also be pulled out but that of the original’s cannot be. The home
button is also one of the key features that can be used to check the
authenticity of the phone. Whiles that of the fake’s is hard to press, the
original’s is very soft and you can almost feel the smoothness in the press.
You can also check the picture above for observable features.
3. Booting
the phone into ODIN mode:
This is by far the best
way to check if your phone is original. All you to do is; *Press and hold the
volume down button *Press and hold the home button *Now press and hold the
power button too all simultaneously Now you just wait for the phone to boot
into the ODIN mode as in the image above. If it does, then your phone is
original (Now just press the volume down button the for the phone to restart.)
but if the phone keeps giving vibrational feedback for more than 30 seconds but
the phone doesn’t boot into the ODIN mode, then the phone is a fake. HTC,
XPERIA AND LG For these phones, it’s quite easier to differentiate between
their fake and original. This is because, even with the touch of the phone, one
can feel if it’s the fake or original. Also, the UI (User Interface) speaks for
itself. But sometimes, it can be difficult finding out.
Therefore, I will like
to introduce you to what is known as ‘adb’ mode of booting into ODIN mode since
these devices don’t really allow for key combinations. HOW TO BOOT INTO THE
ODIN MODE USING ‘ADB’ Requirements :
*Working rooted or unrooted Android device
*USB cable and PC
*Installed your device USB driver( Google it)
*Android
debugging bridge “adb”(Google it) Steps :
*Enable USB debugging on your android
device.
*Install adb and USB driver for your device model Samsung, HTC, Sony,
LG, Motorola, Google.
*Connect your device to PC by USB cable To boot into
recovery mode for all Android devices type in cmd window : adb reboot recovery.
