The A-Z of buying a genuine phone
Jun 22, 2006
Nothing is as disheartening as roving shopping malls for a mobile phone, only to end up with a fake. Doubtless, many mobile phone buyers take counterfeits home.
By Vision Reporter
Nothing is as disheartening as roving shopping malls for a mobile phone, only to end up with a fake. Doubtless, many mobile phone buyers take counterfeits home.
So how’s a shopper to tell a fake mobile phone?
“You can drop a genuine Nokia phone several times on the floor or into a puddle of water and it would not black out. Genuine Nokia phones are made to be indestructible. But that is not to mean that people should be careless,†says Eunice Karugonjo, the marketing manager of Simba telecom, Uganda’s official Nokia distributors.
Maria Naddumba, a mobile phone dealer on Mutaasa Kafeero plaza, says ‘refabs’ are often in Motorola and Nokia brands. These brands, when genuine, have serial numbers starting with 3... Should you see a Motorola with a serial number beginning with ‘01…’ leave it alone. Ensure the serial number on the box, the phone’s screen and at the back (beneath the cell), are the same.
Besides, many ‘refab’ dealers won’t allow to open their counterfeit Motorolas. Why? You would smell a rat upon seeing plastic stickers patched over the screws. Genuine Motorolas do not have such stickers.
For Nokia phones move with a tape measure. If the charger in the same box with the phone has a cable less than one-and-a-half metres, do not buy the phone.
Original Nokia bear the official label of Nokia Corporation and are made in Finland or Germany or Hungary. However, refabs bear dubious labels as Nokia mobile company or Nokia communications and claim to have been manufactured in Hong Kong or China.
Next time you hit the malls to buy a phone, do not take home a ‘refab’.
Nothing is as disheartening as roving shopping malls for a mobile phone, only to end up with a fake. Doubtless, many mobile phone buyers take counterfeits home.
So how’s a shopper to tell a fake mobile phone?
“You can drop a genuine Nokia phone several times on the floor or into a puddle of water and it would not black out. Genuine Nokia phones are made to be indestructible. But that is not to mean that people should be careless,†says Eunice Karugonjo, the marketing manager of Simba telecom, Uganda’s official Nokia distributors.
Maria Naddumba, a mobile phone dealer on Mutaasa Kafeero plaza, says ‘refabs’ are often in Motorola and Nokia brands. These brands, when genuine, have serial numbers starting with 3... Should you see a Motorola with a serial number beginning with ‘01…’ leave it alone. Ensure the serial number on the box, the phone’s screen and at the back (beneath the cell), are the same.
Besides, many ‘refab’ dealers won’t allow to open their counterfeit Motorolas. Why? You would smell a rat upon seeing plastic stickers patched over the screws. Genuine Motorolas do not have such stickers.
For Nokia phones move with a tape measure. If the charger in the same box with the phone has a cable less than one-and-a-half metres, do not buy the phone.
Original Nokia bear the official label of Nokia Corporation and are made in Finland or Germany or Hungary. However, refabs bear dubious labels as Nokia mobile company or Nokia communications and claim to have been manufactured in Hong Kong or China.
Next time you hit the malls to buy a phone, do not take home a ‘refab’.