HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

I just bought this phone on ebay and had a question on wether the phone is a clone or the real deal. So where better to ask than the experts here. I know i can tell by using the phone unfortunately all i have is still pictures. I think the phone has a theme therefore making hard for me to tell. The fakes ive seen use a system similar to a s60 which this is not even close to but the chinese improve their copies all the time sooooo. Maybe im being paranoid. Anyways here are the pics. Oh and thank you for your help.

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/8586/n900.jpg

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8599/n9001j.jpg

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/8750/n9002e.jpg

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/486/n9003.jpg

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/4633/n9004.jpg

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Looks genuine to me. If you can update the software with Nokia software updater you've got no problem.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Looks fine. You might like to read up on flashing it as it looks quite heavily tweaked.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Thats a fake by the looks of it because no way is the system menu like that and no way does it have office unless you installed and changed the menu completly.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Oh its getting flashed for sure. Im a clean freak. Maybe leaked 1.2 LOL.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

These pictures that you posted are original, people can do grazy stuff now with menu's etc...

This one is fake! look how well made it is but still different.

http://mynokiablog.com/2010/01/26/yo...n900-unboxing/

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Please further opinions are needed. I am starting to get angry if it happens to be a fake.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

System menu looks like that if you've got the Catorise package installed to sort them into nice catagories for you.

I reckon that one's real.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

i wouldnt buy off ebay... why?
1-once the sellers got has ya money he may report the phone stolen.
2-find out if its got 2 sim slots or 1... if 2 its a fake.
3-enquire wether its got wifi.. if not its a fake
4-if it has built in antenna for tv then its * fake
5- if the price is too good then look for fraud or scam


but to be honest if you personaly dont know the seller then buying a up todate phone from a non business entity is very risky....

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

GO into menu-settings-about and look at the version, that will tell you also.
But having said that its obvious none of these guys commenting here have seen a China copy yet lol.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Ive noticed that it is definately not factory setup. But then again i havent seen the repositories and packages available since i havent owned one yet. The chinese models OS dont even look close. The link provided is the clone i handled once. Its got the typical chinese skined OS.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

WHere did the Office come from then lol.
Is this a NEW N900 or second hand and from what country did you buy it?
China mobiles are THAT good you would have to open the damm thing up unless you knew the traits.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

I dont have the phone yet. The seller is sending the phone today and he sent me these pictures of it. I can identify within seconds of physically receiving the phone. I am exited i might get my n900 and anxious that I will be ripped off.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

It's not fake; this is a fake.

Whoever owned it before you has put either Catorise or Mymenu on it and they've changed the default icons.

Wouldn't surprise me if the current owner turned up on this thread.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

I figured it was original but with customizations. The chinese clones screen and os never look even close to those that have seen it. Unfortunately i havent had the phone yet.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

I'm almost 100% sure it's not a fake

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

thx hellnick as that echoed my previous points.... there are certain things copies just cant replicate..... even if the phone looks identical to the real deal.....

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Well this is still not 100% safe that it is the real N900 but he has not got the phone yet so how can he tell, i would for sure be asking the seller why the menu is not original of an N900.
Is it possible for you to put the link to this ebay buy on here so we can all check it out?.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Hmmm it looks ok until the photo of the menu...... i don't have any 'System' icon on mine, unless its something installed as 3rd party software? But the other photo's look ok. However notice the numbers on the files from Imageshack.... they have not been taken one after another that's for certain. Could the seller be using downloaded images and not ones he has taken? Fingers crossed!

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Have any of you guys been to China and seen just what they can do nowerdays? do you honestly think they cannot mimmic a true N900 menu?.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

I uploaded the pictures to the image hosting site hence why is not in order.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

@abill_uk yes I have been to china and seen the fakes and i also regularly look at the KIRFs on Engadget and eBay (it's an obsession/fascination).

There are no fakes as good as that one in the picture. You can tell by the screen resolution for a start. If it is a fake then it's probably made with identical hardware and it's good enough to run the standard Maemo 5 OS. I.e. a really interesting device! An 'N900' not made by Nokia.

People have linked in this thread to the clones - and you can tell as they are shat (no wifi, 320x240 screen, etc). The Chinese clones are usually for the internal market where they just want cheap devices.

One thing that did strike me when I was in china was that most of the locals weren't interested at all in the fakes. They haven't had years of branding, and so had no interest in the faux-lexs, prada bags, etc. I think the copiers copy western phone designs as it's easier than thinking up their own ideas!

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Seems genuine to me.

The fakes I have seen:
- mostly do not have double flash
- have a completely different camera.
- mostly have keyboards with a different font.
- do not have the blue paint inside the camera cover.
- look really cheap

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Yes you know as much as i do as i also found the same in HK but this guy has not even got his from the seller yet so is not possible to find out anything right now but you must admit the menu is just not standard and no way has office or the system icon lol so i can only hope being from ebay as he is protected anyhow that it is in fact real.
Incidently i did talk to one guy selling fake N900's and i asked him if he thought he would sell many and his reply was "when we get the menu sorted out more like the real one we should sell loads"
so based on that alone is enough to make me wonder lol.
Incidently i did find the place to be absolutly flooded with copies of most Nokia phones not just N900's and i dare anyone to try tell the difference just looking at them lol.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Some ppl here just consistently get behind the wrong things that you can use them as safe indicator of what something is when he say it isn't... :D

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

looks real to me too

maybe I am being stupid but the transparency on the fullscreen icon on MicroB is too much of a detail to fake out. Even first S60v5 firmwares (early 5800xm) didn't have transparency for the fullscreen icon.
________
Pattaya estate agents

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

May i suggest a trip to China as you will be rather shocked at the work being turned out nowerdays because of anything they can look even better than the real article, i know the fake N900's i seen were in fact very polished in my opinion making me wonder to myself oh why cant Nokia make em like that lol.
The keyboard by the way IS identical as is the rest of the case on the copies.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

There is already a KIRF'd PR 1.2 FFS!

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

@abil_uk

Is that your engineer opinion?

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

The chinese are able to copy the physical atributes of phones rather well due to them having the factories used to make most of the original models. So it is not to difficult to reverse cast the molds. Hence physically they can be quite acurate. However the OS is another thing entirely. They get close but usually take about 8 months or so do they get there. and mostly by skinning already used os that they have available. The best I have seen are copies of the android os and you can still tell they use lower resolution screens. Since that is one of the largest cost assosiated with making a cell phone.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Material\production costs don't lie. I've found KIRFs are made to look like the real deal from more than 2 feet, once you get closer than you can see the deficiencies. There's no point for them to make the item at the same or exceed the quality of the original.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Excellent suggestion, I would like to go there. ;)

I would not mind a fake if it is better than the genuine article.

I did disassemble a fake n900 and it was complete rubbish. Had fun thrashing it. The fakes I have seen were clearly fake but I'll take your word for it that there are better ones.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Yes i agree but they are getting very dangerously close lol

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

I would recommend people ask about this sort of thing BEFORE bidding or buying.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

I was actually shocked at some of the examples i seen but alas i have not had the opportunity like you to get my hands on a fake 900 lol oh it would have been fun taking that apart i bet ha.
Obviously they do fall flat on their faces with the software but sometimes its even better than the original because they implement loads more apps and usually throw in tv lol.
Yes a wonderful experiance for any electronics geek to go China so i do indeed reccomend it.
Anyway i hope this OP dont worry too much as i am sure its a real 900 not a fake but the menu got me straight away thats all i am saying.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Yes i agree there Texrat but i dont think this chap knows the N900 too well obviously why he came asking, but very right anyone should ask outright is it fake or real.(and keep record of the answer lol).
PS had to edit texy's name got it spelt wrong ooops dont wanna be shot now do i :p

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

Thank you guys, I honestly apreciate ALL your comments and suggestions. I am not worried about it since i can get my money back through paypal. I just wanted this device for a while now and got it for a good price. it goes against what I usually do but I had a small window of oportunity to get it at that price. I actually saw a fake in person recently and externally it was perfect, well almost. When i turned it on it even had the startup nokia video. Mind you well dithered considering the resolution and once it fired up I laughed at the guy. He kept insisting it was real, even after I saw the dual sim crap.

I wanted a true linux phone for a while now. Android was good but using a virtual machine on top really turned me off. I mean its great os and has amazin support. I followed the neo openmoko phone that got me exited but their execution failed. Oh well the n900 is my next best hope.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

I am sure all will be ok and you have came to own an N900 just about the right time because we await a new BIG update from Nokia hopefully very soon.
It is indeed the best mobile i ever owned and has a massive future of developments going for it thanks mainly to this very community so welcome !.

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

I am really exited to join you guys in the community. Honestly I have an addiction. I buy a phone not for the features but for the potential and this one is off the charts, everything i have seen including what people are complaining about just gets me more exited. I cant wait to open up the terminal and apt-get LOL. I am refreshing the ups page every 30 minutes. it is so sad.

THANK YOU GUYS!!!

Re: HELP ME spot a fake N900. THANK YOU!
 

JUST IN! They guy contacted me back, he said it is a real n900 he ordered from dell. (Single sim lol) He is sending me the receipts for the warranty from dell as well just in case i need it later. :D