China Mobile Phones
Chinese mobiles took over the sub-continent market in the early 2007. The two major countries where these mobiles really made some strong sales were India and Pakistan . Later on these mobiles took over the United Arab Emirates market. Although in the U.A.E people still go for the genuine stuff and prefer buying the original mobiles rather than Chinese clones of some N-series mobiles. But still these mobiles gained some popularity over there and the reason basically is the explosion of Chinese day to day products. Huge mega stores started to open over there just to sell these low cost Chinese products. Least to say these products are really handy and cost effective as they are sold for mere 3-5$. The reason for such low prices is definitely the low cost of importing such products from China into U.A.E. These are the major places where these mobiles began sales and you could buy a N-series cloned mobile just for 50-60 $. Same is the case in India and Pakistan . Especially in Pakistan these mobiles selling like crazy, as already the Pakistani market is filled with piracy and non-genuine items these latest mobiles have really boosted the sales of mobiles in the country.
China mobiles in Pakistan are some of many other products that are taking over the tech market and it is really hard to find genuine stuff. Situation is same in many other countries where the growing Chinese economy has been eating up all the high cost products.
Difference Between Chinese Accessories And Chinese Duplicate Mobiles
Unlike the usual Chinese mobiles and mobile accessories, these mobiles which I am talking about are extremely low cost clones of some of the most popular mobiles made by Nokia. Although some other mobiles of brands like Sony Ericsson have also been cloned but the major mobiles that have been duplicated are Nokia N-series cell phones.
The Chinese mobile accessories sold for the original mobiles are also low cost not because of there low quality but the low cost of production in China and if you go to the market you will only find these accessories occupying the market most like the other tech stuff that has recently dominated world markets.
Nokia N-Series Clones
Like I mentioned the N-series mobiles are the major products that have been duplicated. Because of the popularity of these mobiles, these cloned versions are selling like hot cakes. In Pakistan you would get a N-series mobile for up to PKR 35,000 and at about 7 times less you can buy the cloned version for PKR 5000!! . These mobiles are packed with almost the same features but are a bit fragile so you have to take some extra care of them and they only come with a seven day trial warranty. My friends who have tried it out found that they work fine up to one year and some have given figures of proper working for only a month.
Nokia N-95 Clone
Here is a review of some of these cloned Chinese versions of the conventional Nokia mobiles:
Nokia N-95
After the release of the Nokia N-95 it started to gain real popularity and it was time that the Chinese brains also start to get there hands at it and make a clone out of it. So the released there own cloned version of the Nokia N-95. This mobile looks quite like the nokia n-95 even with a nokia logo at the back just like in the original one. It has also got some great features and these things come up only for a mere 120-130 $ in Pakistan.
It has got features like; 5-mega pixels digital camera and 1.3 mega pixels camera for video calls, 3.5″ QVGA touch screen, Bluetooth, FM radio and microSD slot, it supports 2 SIM cards etc.
But 5 mega pixel over here is not really 5 mega pixel and the quality is really not high but it still is quite good. It has got Bluetooth but no FM radio some have even reported that the Bluetooth doesn't work properly.
Nokia N-90
Just like the Nokia n-95 the Chinese also started to device new plans and cloned yet another Nokia N-series mobiles and like the N-95 you shouldn't expect much from it either but still for 150$ you can sure play with a fake N-90. Its prime features include; QWERTY keyboard,2.4″ QVGA external and 2.8″ QVGA internal screen, stereo speakers, 1.3 MP camera, stereo Bluetooth and microSD expansion slot. In terms of pre-installed software, there's some office documents viewer as well as Nintendo emulator that can double up as a dedicated-gaming device. So at first glance it is easy to fool any one because it really looks like the original one but still you won't get all there is in the original N-90.
Nokia N-73
The Nokia N-73 mobile was yet another of the long list of mobiles that have been cloned by Chinese mobile companies. Some companies fake the original ones and change the brand names of Nokia to something else, one of which is Nokir. The Nokia N-73 faced a similar fate and was cloned by one such company it came up with features like; dual band GSM phone that houses a 2.6″ QVGA touch screen and a 2 megapixels camera. MP3 and MP4 are supported and the memory expansion used is microSD,it is smaller and lighter than the N73 (110×55x14mm 105g) so for all fun purposes it really catches the eye of the younger generation who want to play with all the latest stuff for almost free and it really costs nothing more than 100$.
Nokia Fake N-73
Nokia 5610 - Xpress Music
Last but not the least the latest cloned mobile released by a Chinese mobile company is the clone of Nokia Xpress Music. This mobile is really going popular and once again has some distorted name of 'Nokia'. It has got some features like:
- 2.4 inch TFT LCD screen.
- Support MP3 and MP4 playback.
- 1MP camera, High resolution camra, get clear pictures.
- Built in FM radio.
- 72 polyphonic ring tones distinctive pleasant.
- T-flash arbitrary expansion slot.
- Supporting ligting.
- Mini individuation modeling.
- MP3 songs can be set to ringone.
- Support WAP/GRPS.
- Support bluetooth data transimition
And once again you get all that for just 70-80$!!
Durability Of Chinese Mobiles
Mobile phones that are made originally in the Nokia factory are released into the market after being put through a no. of tests. Unlike these cloned mobiles which I don't think are much tested. These mobiles are extremely fragile and come with no warranty and neither they get repaired so you wouldn't want to rely much on these phones. There are also a number of software glitches and sometimes you might end up with your software all corrupted. These things can happen very ofte and can also appear in the original version but can get fixed. So you can't really predict anything about these phones and what my personal figures show people are buying and using these mobiles and they seem to work fine if not good.
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