N900 from Singapore - is it a scam?
 

Hi,

I plan buying myself a new N900. I noticed a relatively cheap (450 PLN = 110 EUR = 145 USD) N900 on a Polish site similar to eBay. [1] It is sold as a new device, with 12 months of warranty. It ships from Singapore, for 30 PLN (= 7 EUR = 10 USD), within 15 to 24 days. Is it something like this worth buying? Is it a scam/fraud?

Btw. is it possible to buy a new N900 at similar price somewhere else?

[1] http://allegro.pl/nokia-n900-3g-gps-...440343174.html

Re: N900 from Singapore - is it a scam?
 

It is hard to say. It is hard to believe that there are any new N900s still around. But, the site looks legit. Who knows?

Re: N900 from Singapore - is it a scam?
 

There are still some new N900s [1] but they cost at least 700 PLN (= 175 EUR = 230 USD), so it's still quite a lot as for a 5-year-old phone, isn't it? N900s cost 700 PLN 3 years ago. Good condition used ones cost now about 350 PLN. Would it be better to buy a good condition used phone or go for the Singapore new?

And the link in the previous post is just an offer in the bidding portal.

[1] http://allegro.pl/listing/listing.ph...+n900&buyNew=1

Re: N900 from Singapore - is it a scam?
 

100% Chinese refurb, you can tell by looking at the box.
It is a real N900 board with new exterior everything, they take non-functioning N900s and rescue them. I have had two purchased together which lasted a week and was never fully functional and the other lasted two months with the SD card reader never working. Some people get a nice phone but it is a N900 lottery.

Re: N900 from Singapore - is it a scam?
 

And how do you know it? Which box properties indicate it's Chinese refurb?

Re: N900 from Singapore - is it a scam?
 

Hmm... The back of both of my N900 boxes do look a little different than the box on the website, but I don't know if that is enough to indicate whether the device is authentic or not.

A pic of one of my boxes:

Re: N900 from Singapore - is it a scam?
 

The Nokia box has a spacebar on the N900 impression, the fake one just more keys.
I will dig around and see if I still have a real and fake box, no promises.

Re: N900 from Singapore - is it a scam?
 

This video helps me a lot, i hope it will help you to...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xd7IVCV3Jg

Re: N900 from Singapore - is it a scam?
 

My box looks quite similar to the box on the website, but what I noticed is that the 450 PLN one has no TV cable,

https://spideroak.com/share/NVQXE3LJ...c/IMG_0001.JPG

Re: N900 from Singapore - is it a scam?
 

That is a pretty good video though other than the box I had some different indicators and accessories, the IMEI missmatch might be a tipoff.
The biggest indicator, which you can't check before you buy, was opening them up after they failed, the circuit board looked like an ashtray, it actually looked like they had removed/swapped surface mount components to rebuild the phones. The biggest problem was the EMMC was degraded to the point that neither would enter flash mode no matter what I did. I have flashed good N900s even successfully testing the flash mode on another N900 when I tried to flash these rebuilds, there is a long thread on my attempts to save these phones.
Like I said I have seen people get these rebuild-from-trash N900s and be happy, at least immediately, one of mine was fine for a month but the other had a full contact book and some non-working apps that couldn't even be reinstalled. It is a neat small business hack getting these dead phones to boot, but not when sold at newish prices. My suggestion is that you only buy from individual sellers with obviously somewhat used phones, this is the only way I have avoided fakes. Being used it also helps find phones with tougher USB ports which have withstood the test of time.
I actually wish that these rebuild shops were part of this community as I suspect they have mastered direct jtag flashing and many other advanced DIY fixes which we do not have documented.
What is kind of cool is that the N900 is such a great phone there is a market for fakes this long after it's release.