This cheap knockoff looks exactly like the Xiaomi Mi 4

Fake phones are a real issue. We’ve heard of a number of cases of people who’ve been duped thinking they got a great deal on a high-end phone only to find out later that the phone is a fake.

The makers of these fake phones have gotten so good that it’s difficult to tell the fakes from the real stuff so be weary of “too good to be true” deals promising high-end phones for cheap.

Speaking of cheap phones, the already good value for money Xiaomi Mi 4 now has a fake version and according GizChina that managed to get their hands on it, the fake Mi 4 — on the surface, at least — is a damn good knock-off complete with built-in IR blaster.

For US$150, the fake Mi 4 looks virtually identical to the original but when you get your hands on it, you’ll be able to tell that something’s not quite right. For starters the build quality is not as polished as the real deal (there’s quite a lot of light leak coming from the capacitive buttons and LCD panel), and then there’s the odd “No.1” logo o the back part where the Mi logo should be. Also, the specs is crap.

The fake Mi 4 gets an el-cheapo 1.3GHz quad-core processor and a paltry 1GB of RAM (versus a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 and 3GB RAM on the original Mi 4). The 5-inch display is a 720p unit instead of the full 1080p IPS panel you get in the original Mi 4. The battery capacity is much smaller as well at just 2,250mAh battery versus 3,080mAh in the Xiaomi Mi 4, and you get forget about LTE support as well.

You can check out full details of the fake Mi 4 here, and if you’re going to get a Mi 4, make sure it’s the real deal. There’s also a fake Redmi Note as well, so be careful

[via]