Telling the Difference Between Chinese "Fake" Cell Phones and their "Real" Counterparts

1. The Phone's Appearance
Branded phones most likely will have many testers and researchers whose job it is to design a phone that looks and feels good. These workers spend uncounted man hours testing different appearances and designs in an effort in an attempt to produce a phone with a good look and that falls with a certain price range given to them from above.

Off brand phones made in China rarely will do this. They most commonly will purchase a pre made case mold and then use their own electronics and components inside. These moldings will often be similar internationally famous brands like the iPhone or a BlackBerry, and doing so makes a big proportion of the Chinese manufactured phones look like lookalikes (actually this is often the main reasoning when they bought the mold). Why this is so, besides using already famous brands well know designs to boost their own sales, is that it is less expensive to get a pre existing phone mold than it is to do all the research, and produce your own.

2. The Phone's Internal Chipset
Well know brand name phones use a wide variety of internal chipsets for their different phones. Often these chips that are used are done so in relationship of potential performance vs price. High MHz speeds within chips are incredibly useful when a phone needs to run some of the newer apps and functions, so are a most when it comes to the latest smartphones. Phones marketed to a lower end base can make do chipsets that have a processing rate that is much slower, letting the price of the phone be reduced.

Non brand phones made in China are incredibly likely to be using only the MTK chip. The MTK chips from MediaTek Inc are in their second generation (with the first still commonly used).

Being an older design, the MTK6625 is the first generation of the MTK series (often used now for cheaper phones), and besides allowing all the standard phone functions, also gives the phone the possibility of a touchscreen, WAP internet capabilities, and basic media features (video camera, MP3/4 player, ect).

The MTK6235 is the higher end chip which comes with faster MHz processing making lager screens possible, cameras with higher resolutions, 2.5G connection using EDGE, and Wifi capabilities.

The MTK6225 and the 6235 are not comparable with chipsets from famous name brands when it comes to processing speed, however, Chinese manufacturers find them to be excellent choices since they let a phone have many of the features available to older generation phones and cost much less (while being very available.

3. The Phone's OS (Operating System)
Phones from famous name brands very commonly have made an OS that that is unique for their phone, examples including Apple's OS X for iPhone or RIM's BlackBerry OS on the 9500. When a company wants to save a little money they get rights to use another companies OS (such as Windows Mobile) and either leave them alone or tweak them to make it unique.

Chinese off brand phones have the same OS most of the time, called "nucleus OS". For these manufactures, this is a very good choice as the nucleus OS is known for being very easy to program for, not being a processing speed hog (necessary since the phones are using the low power MTK chips), having no problems with supply since it is very common, and still giving the ability to make a phones interface look slick if done right. All together, this adds up in costs of time and money while the phone is being developed.

4. The Phone's User Interface (UI)

Branded phones will have custom made user interfaces built off their OS. This is so they can have a individualistic feeling that separates them from the pack of other cell phones.

Chinese off brand phones also are able to create a wide variety of differing UIs when using the nucleus OS. Many times however, they use this ability not to make a brand new UI that could distinguish them from other UIs, but to recreate a more famous UI from branded phones. They do this either to complement the phone's molding (also patterned on branded phones) or simply as a shortcut to make a slick looking interface that is already proven to be popular. The most common user interface that is often created for phones will be based off the iPhone icon driven interface.

As can be seen from some example phones, Chinese phone manufactures have the possibility of making some devices that really are different (internally and externally) as famous brand name phones, but in an attempt to keep costs down they will often make lookalikes and fakes. One piece of advice I offer is you take care of any supplier that you have from China. Their catalog may include tons of "Name Brand" phones at very low prices, and the phone might even look just like a actual model, but that possibility that they are not exists. Please do remember this when you buy phones from China that you think are branded.

To see some of the better non brand name phones avaiable from China as well as refurbished name brand models, please follow this link.