Hello, Im hoping that i can start to show people how to spot Chinese copies of fake phones, ipods and other technologies. This first guide i will show you the differences in the nokia N96 made in Finland, and the one that is made in China. I will give you things to notice and stear clear of in order to get the real deal, and not the fake one which is practically worthless.

Visual Differences

Just by looking you should be able to notice some differences, albeit minor, they can tell you alot. Most notably you should be able to see the word N96 on the top left corner, the real one is much smaller, almost half the size of a fake one. Another logo is the NOKIA logo itself right in the center at the bottom of the screen. This too is larger on the fake. 3rd major sign is the square, silver "D" pad center of the bottom of the phone. This is the up, down, left, right, and touch sensative wheel of the phone for navigation. The real one is much thinner on the silver lineing, if you were too look at two side by side you would notice that silver boxy "D" pad on a fake one is a bit thicker, mostly noticable with the center of black area being smaller than on the real one. Lastly there are minor differences on the keys themselves around the D pad that also look different. If the mere appearance of the phone was all that was the matter, than i wouldnt be writing you this guide. And the problem is also that very few people actually post pictures of "THIER" actual device, they will use the photos of the REAL device.

Specs Differences

Since that is very missleading, how else do you know its a fake? Thats the most simple why actually. Aside from visually seeing the devise, the devil is in the details, litterally. They are as follows

• Camera's

REAL
Dual Camera 5.0 Mp, with Carl Zeiss lens and a second 3.0 Mp on the front for televideo calls

FAKE
Dual 1.3 Mp "High Resolution" camera's

• WiFi

REAL
802.11 g/b with HSDPA and 3G for 3.6 gbps connectivity, also can be reversed to serve as a hotspot for you and your friends laptops to connect via your phone.

FAKE
None what so ever, and dont let them tell you its broken, or it has to be installed... its standard and if its broke, dont buy it.

• GPS

REAL
Actually has A-GPS, which is Assisted Global Positioning Satilites, basically its GPS 2.0 The result being that your almost instantly connected to the Sats, and are tracked faster and more accuratly. No more waiting for 10 minutes while your device connects to the Sats, its more like 10 seconds. Also included, for free, is Nokia Maps 2.0 for many countries all around the world.

FAKE
None what so ever. Again, dont let them tell you its broken or needs to be installed or activated, this is a free service that doesnt require subscriptions, the only thing to pay for is the voice nav software which is only an optional upgrade to the original FREE software that comes standard with the phone.

• Memory

REAL
16gig's built in, and expandable with an additional 32gig's and growing as technology gets better.

FAKE
Sometimes none built in (128-256mb), it will say anything from 1gig, 2gig all the way up to 16gig, but often times they are actually using your expantion slot, and placing a Micro-SD card in there so they can say it has this much memory. Then they try to act like your getting the Micro SD card for free as an added bonus.

• Display

REAL
2.8 inch QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) LCD TFT display with up to 16 million colors possible.

FAKE
3.0 inch, 262,000 Color LCM "Touch Panel"(not a touch phone) QVGA, bigger screen might actually be falsely rounded up to 3 inch from 2.8. Also the lack of colors makes a huge difference when wanting to watch videos or TV, which brings me to the next topic.

• DVB-H (live TV)

REAL
Broadcast Television (DVB-H) capable 
DVB-H based mobile TV with internal antenna 
DVB-H Class C, 470-750 MHz
Program Guide (OMA BCAST ESG), with automatic updates and channel discovery
Instant Replay of TV program (up to 30 seconds)
Recording of TV programs for later viewing
Reminder setting via Program Guide

FAKE
None... some might claim to have it, or if it does its not the same as the Nokia OEM hardware.

• FM Radio

REAL
Stereo FM radio (87.5-108MHz, 76-90MHz) with support for RDS, Visual Radio™ and use of FM radio in offline mode which allows you to record songs you like on the radio and listen to them later. and Internet Radio for live streaming on the internet.

FAKE
Some do have FM radios, but thier simpler counterparts, not the advanced one listed above.

• Network

REAL

1. N96-1 (RM-247, Global) WCDMA2100/900 (HSDPA) / EGSM900, GSM850/1800/1900 MHz (EGPRS)
   
2. N96-3 (RM-472, Americas) – WCDMA1900/850 (HSDPA) / EGSM900, GSM850/1800/1900 MHz (EGPRS)
   
3. N96 (RM-297, PR China) - EGSM900, GSM850/1800/1900 MHz (EGPRS)

Automatic switching between bands and modes

FAKE

1. GSM850/1800/1900MHz

Video Codecs and Formats

REAL

1. MPEG-4 Part 2 (H.263/SP), up to VGA 30 fps, hardware-accelerated codec, scaled to max QVGA on device screen, or max SDTV on TV-out
2. MPEG-4 Part 10 (H.264/AVC), up to VGA 30 fps, hardware-accelerated codec, scaled to max QVGA on device screen, or SDTV on TV-out
3. Windows Media Video (WMV9), up to CIF/QVGA 30 fps, hardware-accelerated codec, scaled to max QVGA on device screen, or SDTV on TV-out
4. RealVideo QCIF at 30 fps
5. Flash video support in browser
6. DRM support: OMA DRM 1, OMA DRM 2, WM DRM

FAKE

1. MPEG4: Support still image and video capture

Basically remember this simple 1,2,3, rule. (1) No A-GPS (2) No WiFi and (3) no 5mp Camera. So if it is missing ANY of these then it is either fake, or they forgot ot mention it. Also you can simply ask them if it has that, or if it is the real one made in Finland, but that can be a lie. If they say yes it does have it, and then you buy it and it doesnt have it, you should keep that corrispondance so that you can prove that they lied and then you can get your money back that way. Otherwise they have plausable deniability. Save corrispondance, and never buy from China, or somone who wants money orders and you will be good to go.