Here’s how to spot a fake OPPO N3

Fake phones aren’t a new thing around our parts, with fake flagships circulating the market and even budget phones having no escape from getting counterfeited.

Earlier this year it was discovered that there were counterfeit OPPO phones floating around the market, with the brand themselves warning against buying the phones from non-legitimate sources. Now they’ve announced that they are in the process of cracking down on counterfeiters selling the cheaply priced clones and have published a video showing how to spot a fake OPPO N3. So far over 744 cases so far have been reported with fake phones ending up at OPPO’s service centers by the droves showing just how bad it has gotten.

They have also put together a handy video detailing on how to spot a fake OPPO N3 versus the real deal side by side:

The OPPO phones most often cloned are the OPPO N3 and Find7 among other more popular models are found being sold both online and offline, sometimes to unsuspecting customers not knowing that they are purchasing a fake. Very often the device is nothing like the real deal, with missing accessories, incorrect hardware and sometimes even looking vastly different from the actual thing in terms of size and features.

So here are four ways to spot a fake OPPO N3.

1. Display

The differences in display from the original article and the fake are quite obvious, with the genuine 5.5 inch OPPO N3 using an IPS LCD display at 16M colours and 1080 x 1920 pixels and Colour OS 2.0 is sharp and crisp while the clone’s display is oddly tinted and has a lower resolution.

2. Rotating camera

The clone OPPO N3 does not have a motorised rotating lens that can be activated via onscreen gestures (pictured at the left) and has to be rotated manually while the genuine N3 can be automatically manipulated and has a 16 megapixel Schneider Kreuznach certified camera. The clone also only has a 5 megapixel rear camera and is missing the O-Touch key.

3. Specs

On top of coming in a wrong sized box and sub par accessories, the genuine N3 (as pictured on the right) will have a VOOC Flash Charge and USB, quality earbuds, O-Click 2.0 Bluetooth remote as well as a fingerprint scanner on the back.

4. Battery, circuit board and connectivity

In addition to the OPPO N3 using an non-removable battery, the inside of the fake device is very different from that of the actual article. The genuine N3 also uses a micro coaxial cable and double-sided printed circuit board (PCB) whereas the fake product as an unregistered and possibly dangerous battery as well as an easy to bend flexible printed circuit (FPC). You will also find single sided PCB with stickers in the fake holding the internals like it has been taped together. This is particularly dangerous because the parts are likely to have malfunctions and heating problems that could put you at risk due to their toxic nature or at very worse, literally explode.

OPPO strongly recommends that you only buy their phones from their official retailers and partners to avoid injury or unknowingly buying fake products.

UPDATE: OPPO Malaysia has announced an online IMEI checker to find out if a device is an original unit.