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How the Chinese bred all of Russia into fake iPhones.
How the iPhone is "restored" and who does it
On the left is a typical nook of a mini-factory iPhone refs. On the right is a real and normal Chinese factory that Apple would work with.
Unofficially refurbished iPhones began production a long time ago, in the days of the iPhone 4. By about 2014, this process was built on a giant scale in China.
There are practically no artisanal refurbished iPhones Xs , XR and Xs Max now . But the iPhone X has already appeared among them. There is nothing to say about older models - there are tens of millions of them, this is no exaggeration.
There are a huge number of mini factories in China clandestinely producing their own iPhones.
It is almost impossible to find a completely original iPhone of this model in Russia now, the market is so oversaturated with such "Chinese".
IPhones are produced by factories in fabulous volumes: these are not 100-200 phones per month or even thousands. Hundreds of thousands of handcrafted iPhones per month!
There are about 100 factories themselves. If you walk around the Shenzhen market, you will come across four dozen shops selling similar iPhones. It is from there that all this self-collection goes to the territory of Russia. Naturally counterfeit.
On average, one Chinese person sells in bulk about 300-400 phones a day. There are more than a hundred representatives of these Chinese in Russia. Each of them transports iPhones back and forth on their own, through several shuttle traders.
Where do the spare parts for the "artisanal" iPhone come from?
Typical Chinese "ref" iPhone 7 with left components. Note the curved stickers - an unmistakable junk marker.
The first stage of assembling an iPhone is buying a used device or a board from it. This is usually not bought in China. The volumes of purchases at this level are calculated not by 2-3 devices, but by tens, hundreds at once. Having bought a hundred or two iPhones, the Chinese redirect them to the workshops. The task is to get the maximum of original spare parts from the gadgets.
The second stage is to disassemble the device to the last screw.
Most of all the Chinese are interested in displays. They strip the original from the used iPhone, then sell the parts separately. It is more profitable.
Then "analogs" are put instead. More precisely, spare parts made in China from other factories that do not cooperate with Apple.
In addition to displays, when rebuilding the iPhone, the Chinese replace the batteries. Most often, batteries are either used (up to 1500 charge cycles), or of the lowest quality. Let me remind you that the long-term performance of the ref is not important for Chinese factories. It should turn on and work visually. Everything.
Loops are also replaced. They cost a penny, they are consumables.
Similarly, they remove the original cases, put the Chinese ones. In addition to small visual differences (for example, the "apple" can be a little dented or, conversely, protrude), sometimes some of them do not pass the NFC signal. Which means Apple Pay doesn't work.
Such a smartphone can work for 5 minutes, then turn off forever. Or work a day, a month, six months. But what's the difference? They will then be sold on the ruins with a two-week guarantee, without real checks and legal obligations.
I will summarize
After getting to the Chinese factory of "refs", nothing original remains of the iPhone, except for the motherboard. Often they even re-solder it - three microcircuits have already been changed and reprogrammed several times.
This fee on the Chinese site was guaranteed to be removed from the "corpse", restored on trifles (possibly, soldering).
Or they put their motherboards from other devices that have gone through handicraft repairs and soldering (these are two-thirds of the boards in refs). After all, a board without soldering can be sold for much more expensive than a tortured, but still working one.
The business model of Chinese factories is as follows:
What happens to the iPhone after reassembly and sale
Rotation! It is huge. Ref iPhones can go through countless "rebuild" cycles until the motherboard dies altogether.
Often the chain is like this: they bought an iPhone from China, broke it, sold it. He gets pissed off, or gets passed around at online flea markets. What is left comes into the hands of a representative of a Chinese factory, then flies there or (less often) goes for a full reassembly cycle right in Russia.
How the Chinese supply basement iPhone refs to Russia
Delivery set of such a device to Russia: smartphone + IMEI. Boxes travel separately, telephones separately. Delivery of a phone and a box costs different money, requires different customs declarations and carries different risks.
Moreover, different logistics companies are engaged in the supply of iPhones and boxes for them - so that in the case of a "mask show" it would be difficult to put the picture together.
Ref iPhones are purchased in the Russian Federation in hundreds and thousands. They combine the device and the box already in Russia.
How a Chinese ref gets a box:
• IMEI is glued to the back of the box from China
• The upper sticker with the description of the device is glued
• Non-original accessories are added - headphones, charger, cable, paper clip
• Added "pieces of paper" (instruction)
• The container (cardboard holder for the smartphone) holds an iPhone
• All this is closed, sealed with foil and hot air gun.
Done, wait in tomorrow at Gorbushka, in a kiosk, with hands on Avito or an underpass near the house.
A little more about accessories
Some sellers try to create the look of original components and put headphones more or less similar to the original. They are of terrible quality, they work for a week or two, then everything.
Charging is much more dangerous. Okay, they are "leftists". But they are burning ! 99% of them. Even the Chinese themselves do not use such in production, they have originals. The risk of fire is too high.
How to distinguish such a Chinese "ref" from a normal iPhone
Marriage rate
70% do not live up to 6 months. The Chinese themselves do not take any guarantee obligations, selling batches of refs to Russia and other countries. And few people will send them back, most often it is unprofitable. It's easier to fix it in the Russian Federation and put it on sale again.
Where can you buy such an iPhone ref
Almost all unofficial sellers in large cities of the CIS sell such iPhones. Under no circumstances will they admit that the smartphone has been restored. Alas, this business is often covered by the authorities.
Such sellers are not afraid of the Russian justice, you yourself know for what reasons - the marginality is frenzied, so there is enough to bribe everyone who needs to be bribed.
It is almost impossible to get your money back after purchasing such a device. You can't even threaten the court: it's an unofficial business, there are no checks and legal proofs left.
In order not to fall into the hands of scammers, the easiest way is not to believe in fairy tales in which iPhones are sold for 20 thousand rubles. cheaper.
How the iPhone is "restored" and who does it
On the left is a typical nook of a mini-factory iPhone refs. On the right is a real and normal Chinese factory that Apple would work with.
Unofficially refurbished iPhones began production a long time ago, in the days of the iPhone 4. By about 2014, this process was built on a giant scale in China.
There are practically no artisanal refurbished iPhones Xs , XR and Xs Max now . But the iPhone X has already appeared among them. There is nothing to say about older models - there are tens of millions of them, this is no exaggeration.
There are a huge number of mini factories in China clandestinely producing their own iPhones.
It is almost impossible to find a completely original iPhone of this model in Russia now, the market is so oversaturated with such "Chinese".
IPhones are produced by factories in fabulous volumes: these are not 100-200 phones per month or even thousands. Hundreds of thousands of handcrafted iPhones per month!
There are about 100 factories themselves. If you walk around the Shenzhen market, you will come across four dozen shops selling similar iPhones. It is from there that all this self-collection goes to the territory of Russia. Naturally counterfeit.
On average, one Chinese person sells in bulk about 300-400 phones a day. There are more than a hundred representatives of these Chinese in Russia. Each of them transports iPhones back and forth on their own, through several shuttle traders.
Where do the spare parts for the "artisanal" iPhone come from?
Typical Chinese "ref" iPhone 7 with left components. Note the curved stickers - an unmistakable junk marker.
The first stage of assembling an iPhone is buying a used device or a board from it. This is usually not bought in China. The volumes of purchases at this level are calculated not by 2-3 devices, but by tens, hundreds at once. Having bought a hundred or two iPhones, the Chinese redirect them to the workshops. The task is to get the maximum of original spare parts from the gadgets.
The second stage is to disassemble the device to the last screw.
Most of all the Chinese are interested in displays. They strip the original from the used iPhone, then sell the parts separately. It is more profitable.
Then "analogs" are put instead. More precisely, spare parts made in China from other factories that do not cooperate with Apple.
In addition to displays, when rebuilding the iPhone, the Chinese replace the batteries. Most often, batteries are either used (up to 1500 charge cycles), or of the lowest quality. Let me remind you that the long-term performance of the ref is not important for Chinese factories. It should turn on and work visually. Everything.
Loops are also replaced. They cost a penny, they are consumables.
Similarly, they remove the original cases, put the Chinese ones. In addition to small visual differences (for example, the "apple" can be a little dented or, conversely, protrude), sometimes some of them do not pass the NFC signal. Which means Apple Pay doesn't work.
Such a smartphone can work for 5 minutes, then turn off forever. Or work a day, a month, six months. But what's the difference? They will then be sold on the ruins with a two-week guarantee, without real checks and legal obligations.
I will summarize
After getting to the Chinese factory of "refs", nothing original remains of the iPhone, except for the motherboard. Often they even re-solder it - three microcircuits have already been changed and reprogrammed several times.
This fee on the Chinese site was guaranteed to be removed from the "corpse", restored on trifles (possibly, soldering).
Or they put their motherboards from other devices that have gone through handicraft repairs and soldering (these are two-thirds of the boards in refs). After all, a board without soldering can be sold for much more expensive than a tortured, but still working one.
The business model of Chinese factories is as follows:
- Get as many original parts out of the iPhone as possible.
- Sell original iPhone parts as expensive as possible.
- Build on the basis of the iPhone motherboard from the cheapest Chinese spare parts
- Get such an iPhone to turn on - and send it for sale in China, Russia, India and the CIS.
What happens to the iPhone after reassembly and sale
Rotation! It is huge. Ref iPhones can go through countless "rebuild" cycles until the motherboard dies altogether.
Often the chain is like this: they bought an iPhone from China, broke it, sold it. He gets pissed off, or gets passed around at online flea markets. What is left comes into the hands of a representative of a Chinese factory, then flies there or (less often) goes for a full reassembly cycle right in Russia.
How the Chinese supply basement iPhone refs to Russia
Delivery set of such a device to Russia: smartphone + IMEI. Boxes travel separately, telephones separately. Delivery of a phone and a box costs different money, requires different customs declarations and carries different risks.
Moreover, different logistics companies are engaged in the supply of iPhones and boxes for them - so that in the case of a "mask show" it would be difficult to put the picture together.
Ref iPhones are purchased in the Russian Federation in hundreds and thousands. They combine the device and the box already in Russia.
How a Chinese ref gets a box:
• IMEI is glued to the back of the box from China
• The upper sticker with the description of the device is glued
• Non-original accessories are added - headphones, charger, cable, paper clip
• Added "pieces of paper" (instruction)
• The container (cardboard holder for the smartphone) holds an iPhone
• All this is closed, sealed with foil and hot air gun.
Done, wait in tomorrow at Gorbushka, in a kiosk, with hands on Avito or an underpass near the house.
A little more about accessories
Some sellers try to create the look of original components and put headphones more or less similar to the original. They are of terrible quality, they work for a week or two, then everything.
Charging is much more dangerous. Okay, they are "leftists". But they are burning ! 99% of them. Even the Chinese themselves do not use such in production, they have originals. The risk of fire is too high.
How to distinguish such a Chinese "ref" from a normal iPhone
- Without opening the box, you can enter the IMEI from it to the Apple website. Activated, no Apple warranty (expired)? Recovered 99.99%. Remember: there are no iPhones that would be activated, but neatly in the box, packed, ready for sale. Any explanation in such cases is a lie.
- Look at the box and the bottom sticker on it. The Chinese ones often do not have the original font, the result depends on which Windows is installed on the computer. And they are printed on the simplest label printers.
- If in doubt, unpack on site. The tab on which the iPhone is placed is uneven and roughly cut in the Chinese ref. The inner liner with recesses for accessories is soft, not strong, it can be pulled out or crumpled by hand without any problems.
- Examine the iPhone itself. The display is dim, the colors are too blue or yellow. Glue at the junction of the display and the case. Different response when pressing volume buttons. The camera shoots "dull".
- The price is also important. Is the iPhone sold packaged much lower than in official stores? The difference of 15-20 thousand rubles already suggests that you are dealing with a "ref" from China.
Marriage rate
70% do not live up to 6 months. The Chinese themselves do not take any guarantee obligations, selling batches of refs to Russia and other countries. And few people will send them back, most often it is unprofitable. It's easier to fix it in the Russian Federation and put it on sale again.
Where can you buy such an iPhone ref
Almost all unofficial sellers in large cities of the CIS sell such iPhones. Under no circumstances will they admit that the smartphone has been restored. Alas, this business is often covered by the authorities.
Such sellers are not afraid of the Russian justice, you yourself know for what reasons - the marginality is frenzied, so there is enough to bribe everyone who needs to be bribed.
It is almost impossible to get your money back after purchasing such a device. You can't even threaten the court: it's an unofficial business, there are no checks and legal proofs left.
In order not to fall into the hands of scammers, the easiest way is not to believe in fairy tales in which iPhones are sold for 20 thousand rubles. cheaper.
