I love repairing old phones, but I hate it when I get the wrong parts. So when I bought a non-working S4 from eBay and hoping that I can repair it, my heart sank when I notice the back side looked funny. Today, I will share how to spot a fake Samsung Galaxy S4.

First thing I open the S4, the circuit board looked way too different and the housing looked weird to me.

I knew I had an inferior phone, but (whoa!) I never knew that S4 clone models had this nice craftsmanship. The sticker claimed it was a GT-I9500. At the end, I wasted $30 for a broken knock off.

Pop quiz! Which of these stickers is the real one? Top one, I just type the IMEI number in an online EMEI checker. The fake one had a Nokia IMEI number! I continue my investigation and there are some subtle differences.

I guess I will post more pictures of the fake s4 circuit board, the sim card side: the underside:

My research about this S4 clone knockoff is that this model is called the S4 clone MT6517 or the s4 clone MT6572 or S4 MTK6575 or anything with s4 clone MT****

So I suggest that if you want to buy a real s4 phone, please contact the seller for a picture of the backside or that you get an IMEI number and you can do more research on the number and make sure its not blacklisted. Just use your favorite search engine and put the words "IMEI check" and the top 5 queries will do.

For more clues in spotting a fake s4, please check out this video:

---