Nokia N900

This is history repeating itself, so I wanted to share the story in case it will help someone.

For my cell phones I use Nokia. My next phone I wanted was N900 model. I was waiting for it, but it’s coming too slow to N. American market. So about a month ago I bought one on eBay, making sure it’s not a fake (asking the seller all kind of questions). The guy was a total jerk and lied all about it. I ended up getting a fake, which I complained about and got my money back (by PayPal) as a part of buyers protection plan which is great. Either way, this is not story about how I get tricked every time I buy a Nokia on eBay (yeap, it happened with previous models as well), but more to highlight the differences in case you buying one or planning, so that you don’t have to go through the same.

Packaging – amazing. From outside it is almost identical.

The only difference is Chinese ignorance to multiple European languages Nokia traditionally supports out of box

But that’s not something a lot of people would pay attention to. Weird thing is that inside, the box says Nokia-Asia. That’s not typical for Nokia either.

But who knows, times change, things change. Once I opened it to get the phone out, it was obvious – this is a fake. The packaging was… well, sloppy and really bad.

Seriously? Do you sell a $500 phone packaged like that? I don’t think so. You thought packaging was bad? Look at the phone itself!

Something to keep in mind – Nokia phones come with dark screen protector, the one that allows to see that phone is turned on/off, but annoying to be used extensively with it. And yes, it’s done on purpose. Then you look at it and WTF?! Two speakers? Why? Later I figured out that one is actually for the phone, another one to yell annoying sounds.

The back of the phone was… funny. Quality is not something fakers think about. So what if the logo is misaligned (BTW, Nokia embeds logo within the plastic, not just prints it on it).

Anyways. Camera is suppose to be 5MP with dual flash – good luck on that. Flash was completely missing. And the stand helper (is up on the image) is not snapping to the body, but has to be forced in – horrible idea.

Oh well, I decided to see what accessories would look like. Boy there was a real surprise.

You got to be kidding me. A plastic bag chewed up and stuffed into box so that “accessories won’t move around” (I presume so)? Well, at least I know what grocery store they go to… :)

Cool. Accessories. Hmmm, wall charger, really ugly headphones, USB cable that is not wrapped, nothing for standard TV connector, nothing for non-USB charger (compliance with chargers from models like N95), and 2 batteries. Wait a second, 2 batteries?!

Yeap. Well, then you lucky then. Extra battery. Great. But which one is the right one?… The one that is made in China and further processed in China or the one that is made in Korea and further processed in China. To make it even more confusing, the are not the same size (physical size)!

Let’s see what manual says.

Thanks goodness it’s in English. Not only you’ll get start using the phone, but also will get introduced to new N900. Oh, wait, shouldn’t it be vice versa? Just lets start reading. Ops.

Ok. Lets get to table of contents, it will have English section there. Well, maybe

Hmm, I know! I come from a place where you read from right-to-left, and books are opening on the opposite side. Who knows, maybe.

Wow, surprise, surprise. How nice… environmentally friendly. Sure. I think RPC waste way more natural resources than it protects, but that’s another story.

Note that URL – it’s a real link, the only catch – N900 is not found there! Well, who needs a manual anyways, right? Lets pop the hardware!

Wow, so many stickers to show it was tested for quality, yet nothing looks quality. Memory card reader looks really outdated, and sim card compartment, well, the door doesn’t actually holds the sim (normally done on cell phones), but only covers it. Let me see where the phone is made… hmm. Nowhere. I see.

Let’s turn it on. Horrible experience. Yes, the image matches Nokia, but it is so lamely copied. Sound that came out of that “thing” was just shocking.

Alright. Lets see it in action. Wait a sec, why everything is looking wrong?

No sensor. Not that touch screen and resolution are that great.

Aha, that’s the trick. You have to open the phone, only then it rotates the content. Dumb. Really dumb. And UI/UX are HORRABLE.

Ok. So far I was making fun of it. Yet this is not funny. I wonder how many people are out there, thinking they are using real thing, but instead using a hazardous device? (I am sure this will fail any health test). And it’s not only phones these days.