That's What Reverse Engineering Means.............

china in "lead"

Few years ago, the knockoff phones weren't that widespread, and the ones on the market were so different from the genuine ones that they looked like separate models.Today there is a huge variety of mobile devices and the manufacturers keep flooding the market with new models. The more expensive ones do not fit everyone's budget, but at the same time, the quality and the technology of the knockoffs is improving. Now you can find fake phones, which are almost identical with the original model at a considerably lower price. Main source and market for such “fake phones” is China, but they are often sold on EBay and other global sites. The most attractive brands to be cloned are Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, and the well-known iPhone, the first being the most copied. Most frequently distinguished features:To keep it on the safe side, the knockoff manufacturers often change the brand name in such a way that makes it hard to spot. For example SanyEricsson, SangEricsson, SnogErisscon, SunyElicsson, SunyElicssom, ScnyEriosson are only few of the names given to knockoffs of the Swedish-Japanese concern.
There also are many Nokia clones, having a slight change in the name so it still reminds of the original. The logo of the Finnish cell phone manufacturer (the two shaking hands) often appears on the start screen of the fakes.Naturally, all this is done to mislead potential customers into thinking they are buying genuine products. But the price difference, which is usually huge, should make you think twice. It’s almost like buying a $3000 Rolex for $300 of that guy on the street (though with knockoff phones is more like purchasing a $600 phone for $250).

Even though they look like the originals on the outside, the menus of the knockoffs are totally different. The presence of some logos (e.g. Windows, Nokia) shouldn’t fool you, because the Chinese made phones (the fake ones we are talking about) are very different in functionality and software. Sometimes you can find such a unit with even the software looking quite authentic. Most of the time, the OS, which the fakes are running on is identical on all of them and possibly is a product specifically developed for the purpose.

One thing we should say about the hardware of the knockoff phones is that very often they have a touch display or pretend to have one. This happens even if the genuine device doesn’t have touchscreen. You can figure this out by inspecting the package (look for a stylus) or if you see these icons under the screen. Another funny thing the “smart” guys tend to do is, putting a sign on the camera saying 3.2-megapixel, when it is only 2-megapixel for example. We can only speculate about the rest of the surprises under the surface.