Real or Fake Xiaomi HongMi?

[Ian Finnesey]

I bought my wife a Hongmi from a shop in Zhongguancun, Beijing. Then, since that turned out to be pretty good, I bought another one for myself. Mine didn't seem quite right. I checked, and yup, it was fake. Hers was real, mine was fake. Both were purchased from the same shop, about 2 weeks apart. So, since I've had my hands on both, I took pics and compared. Since I can't seem to attach the file, you can see it at my Tumblr, here:
http://ianfinnesey.tumblr.com/post/75372885875/i-bought-a-hongmi-then-i-bought-a-fake-hongmi

The visible differences are in the labels on the phone and on the battery, the shape of the battery, and the contacts for the power adapter (though that might just be a batch-to-batch difference...it's not exactly built to exacting tolerances).

The most obvious spec differences were:
ROM: 2g vs. 4g
GPU: Mali 400 vs. PowerVR SGX 544
Screen resolution: 960x540 vs 1280x720

Yes, I got my money back. The guy at the shop seemed as surprised as I was; I imagine he had a nice talk with his supplier.

 

[pjovp]

it happens and gladly you find a positive solution

 

[qbert456]

Good pics, thanks for the info.
Glad you sorted it!

 

[stufs]

Where did you buy it?

 

[Ian Finnesey]

Where did you buy it?

Zhongguancun, I can't for the life of me type the name of the store, since I don't know about 1/3 of the characters. It was shop B1016 in the basement of the second building away from exit A of the subway station.

Not to be too hard on them, I DID buy a real Hongmi there the first time.

 

[elfintears]

hi guys just wanted to check whether mine is real, would appreciate your help! Thanks!

 

[Ian Finnesey]

View attachment 7558 View attachment 7559 View attachment 7560 hi guys just wanted to check whether mine is real, would appreciate your help! Thanks!

Internal storage should be 4GB, but that might just be due to partitioning.

Otherwise, everything looks right. If that isn't a real Xiaomi, looks like you got more "clone" than "fake," which wouldn't bother me much.

 

[sta-s2z]

View attachment 7558 View attachment 7559 View attachment 7560 hi guys just wanted to check whether mine is real, would appreciate your help! Thanks!

original
i don't know any fakes with 1280x720 resolution

 

[elfintears]

Isn't the dpi supposed to be 320, and the processor mt6589? Not so sure about this though, sorry!

 

[Sly]

yes it should be
this processor is a dual core one, and the resulution is cheated somehow
its fake
try this one: http://order.xiaomi.com/service/imei

 

[elfintears]

It says it's real when I key in the imei though, which is quite weird!

 

[Sly]

to end this question, you should install a new stable rom, and than run the cpuz

 

[elfintears]

How should I go about doing that? I've tried using the method on another post on this forum but it wouldn't install.

 

[Sly]

what is the problem? why do not install?
which method was it?

 

[elfintears]

This one, http://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/xiaomi-hongmi-td-wcdma-cwm-root-guide.22095/

It wouldn't install when I'm in recovery mode for some reason.

 

[sta-s2z]

Oh, sorry, missed the cpu, yeah, seems to be a fake one

 

[pjovp]

Run an an tutu and show the results and phone specs

 

[Panipak]

Another way of finding out if the phone is a fake or not is to enter the security code, which is located behind the box, in the website.

There is a sticker with a scratch surface. Under it there is a 16 digit code. Enter this code to chaxun.xiaomi.com and it will tell you whether it is original or not.
Normally, the time you do that, the message wich will appear will tell you that the code is used for the first time OR

您所查询的防伪码已被查询过XXXX次 ---> Security code your query has been inquiries over XXXX times

On the site above, there is a field for the 16 digits and then a field where you have to do a math calculation (eg 5-4 and you have to write 1)

I cannot find 16 digits. Where can I find it, there are only IMEI , SN: and 13 digits on sticker.

 

[Ian Finnesey]

I cannot find 16 digits. Where can I find it, there are only IMEI , SN: and 13 digits on sticker.

Was it a scratch sticker?

There are phones that have fake numbers on them, or ones that are copies of a real phone's sticker.

 

[Panipak]

What's about this? I order it from
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Orig...MA-Quad-Core-Qualcomm-MSM8228/1890352955.html

I confirm with the seller before that I want Original Xiaomi Hongmi 1S Qualcomm MSM8228 with WCDMA version. The phone that I received is wrong version.It's TD-SCDMA version and cannot spport 3G in my country. I ask to return and get full refund from the seller but they still shirk me and still confirm that the phone that they sent to me is original and it's right version by show me the invoice that they bought from Xiaomi.com and impute me take another phone to show them and said the phone is their phone that sent to me. How can I do with this seller? How can I check that the invoice that the seller show me is real or not.

However, one thing that is real, the phone that I received, isn't same as description surely. The CPU is MTK 6582 1.3 GHz. This spec is made for china use only if it's original, isn't it? Please can help me prove about this.

 

[Ian Finnesey]

All original Hongmis use MT6589 @ 1.5ghz, AFAIK. It's fake. What's the GPU? I'm betting it'll be Mali 400. Original should be PowerVR SGX 544. Check the screen resolution, too. Probably less than 1280x720.

Also, TD-SCDMA is China-only, for the most part.

 

[Panipak]

All original Hongmis use MT6589 @ 1.5ghz, AFAIK. It's fake. What's the GPU? I'm betting it'll be Mali 400. Original should be PowerVR SGX 544. Check the screen resolution, too. Probably less than 1280x720.

Also, TD-SCDMA is China-only, for the most part.

 

[Ian Finnesey]

Fake. Screen resolution and renderer are wrong.

Christ, the fake I got scored way better than that.

 

[Panipak]

Fake. Screen resolution and renderer are wrong.

Christ, the fake I got scored way better than that.

Yes I think that it's fake but the seller still confirm strongly that it's original and they get it from Xiaomi shop. I still don't get full refund but now this store is frozen already.

 

[Ian Finnesey]

Yes I think that it's fake but the seller still confirm strongly that it's original and they get it from Xiaomi shop. I still don't get full refund but now this store is frozen already.

He's a liar. If he'd got it from the Xiaomi shop it would not be fake, period. (It can be a pain in the ass to buy from them, though...probably due to scalpers.) If he was buying from other sources, they could be real or fake, and he might not know until it's too late. But he didn't claim that, did he?