N95 Clones, a Global problem? I think so.

Cloned N95-2 without MicroSD slot

There is another clone out, this time, another 8GB cloned N95, made in Korea, and this time, is cosmetically identical to the untrained eye.  This one does not have the card slot like the poorer clone, which was a dead give away.

A few of the things to check without the device actually being turned on, but these differ across different clones of the same model, for example, in the photo below, you can see, the camera lens armature is very small, whereas the original lens of the N95 is 4 times as big, also, on some poorer clones, the LED next to the main camera is square, not round.

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Clones Camera lens

To summarise

1. Screen protector is on upside down to how its fitted on the genuine N95.   On the clone, the tab is over the secondary camera, but on the very latest clone, this is fitted as the genuine one, see last image below of the latest clone.

2. Look at the main camera, (see photos (Right/clone-Lower Left/Genuine)), now take a closer look at the actual lens.  If its very small, this points to a lower spec camera.

3. Check the Mini USB port, on some clones, you cannot see the separate connecting pins, whereas you can on a genuine.  On the latest clones of the N95-2, they have made the usb port identical to the genuine one.

Genuine Camera Lens

This is becoming a Global problem now, and to which has encouraged myself to contact Nokia about them, thus still waiting a reply.

There are 8 N95 clones on the market place now, all ranging from different levels of detail, and the latest ones even show a result when *#0000# is entered, again to try and fool the unsuspecting buyer.

firmwareversionks6.jpg

The firmware you see (right) is what one of the latest Cloned N95-2 shows when *#0000# is entered into the keypad.  Obviously the cloned software has been hacked, or programmed to display this, to fool even more.

Keep an eye on my blog for updates.

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There are links in my blog to the articles I have put a lot of time, and money into researching these clones, and trying to educate people so they know what to look out for when in the market place for a new N95.

The only dead giveaway is the operating software, but with cloned stocks getting mixed in with genuine handsets, even genuine sellers don't know what they are selling, and many will not open the boxes, switch on the device to find out, because then, they could not sell it as new sealed in the box.!

As said, this is a global problem, and you only have to take a look on eBay.com to see for yourself how much of a problem this really is, with sellers not really knowing what they are selling too, stating in their listings as the N95 8GB they are selling is a scaled down version, when in fact, its not even manufactured by Nokia.

New 8GB Clone (June08)

Keep an eye on my blog for updates.  There is also a cloned N96 already out, which again, you can find photos within my blog.