How to know identify?

A few days ago, a supposed Sony Xperia Z4 cell phone came into my hands and I was asked to solve its almost full memory problem. At first glance this equipment looked good and did not give rise to suspicions about a fake or clone. Things changed with a few minutes of use. The following paragraphs will not only come in handy for anyone who wants the original version of this equipment, but even for those who intend to buy the counterfeit, because even there there are quite well disguised lies.

Physically, this clone or fake of the Sony Xperia Z4 is difficult to recognize, especially if the authentic device has never been seen (as is my case). Currently the clones take very good care of the typography and the exterior finish, which were previously key points to detect them. In this case, the Sony and Xperia brand logos are pretty well finished and the exterior finish feels top-notch, with its glossy black and glass finish. At first glance, you definitely think of an original phone.

Things are not entirely obvious if you look at the computer software and the information it provides. To realize that it is a fake, you have to keep in mind at least some specifications of the authentic device, such as the internal storage, which is originally 32 GB. In the software of this fake device, by going to Settings> Storage, you can see that it has barely 8 GB of internal storage. And this gets worse.

Applications were previously recommended to detect cell phone replicas or counterfeits. These apps are key to fully unmasking these phone trinkets and also to knowing what you actually have or buy. Even a person who is aware that he is buying a counterfeit is deceived to a higher level, as the software of these devices is manipulated.

In the images above you can see how the software of this device claims that it probably has 8 GB of internal storage, but with an application like CCleaner you can see that it actually only has 1.25 GB of internal storage and barely 512 MB of RAM. Of course, the rest of the specifications are not even similar to the original cell phone, starting with the processor: a Mediatek MT6562 with two cores at 1 GHz. The original Xperia Z4 comes with a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 with eight cores, which has a speed up to 2 GHz, and is paired with 3 GB of RAM.

The manipulation of the computer software (putting aside the startup software that comes in Chinese language) is quite well synchronized in various menus and information of the computer. As the storage is consumed, this consumption is shown based on the false 8 GB. Here a phenomenon occurs that is curious for the user: the five or ten applications that you have installed, or the few multimedia files that you have, consume several GB of space and you have run out of available storage too soon. Add to this that the cell phone has become too slow (something obvious considering the limited processor and minimal amount of RAM).

Once the equipment is low on storage, things get complicated, since the user cannot download applications from the Play Store (not even the Aida 64 application or similar to verify its real specifications). Even if you try to install APK files, you may get an installation error for unknown reasons (in this case, you have to try the APKs of different applications to see which one works). This can be solved by cleaning the memory, deleting data from the installed applications (which by the way, some applications like Facebook are suspiciously pre-installed) or cleaning the memory with applications like CCleaner. Due to the limited amount of memory, this procedure must be done quite frequently.

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