This case happened with a Delhi-based resident, Bhavye Sharma who claims to have received a fake iPhone 11 Pro from Flipkart that he bought during their Big Billion Days Sale festival. He wrote, ”I got this Knock-Off iPhone 11 pro that runs Android and has replicated almost all of the iOS app as well as its UI. It is almost impossible to tell the difference but this video will hopefully help.” In a video posted on YouTube, Bhavye shares the unboxing of the iPhone 11 Pro and gives reasons and explanations as to why he thinks it is a clone device.
As one can see in the video, Bhavye starts off saying that the Midnight Green color of the iPhone is more greener than it originally should be. He then highlights the metal ring surrounding the rear camera module, which is actually not found in real iPhone 11 Pro since it smoothly blends with the phone’s back. Further, Bhavye points out how inside of the EarPods (which is blue in color), incorrect USB cable (USB-A given instead of USB-C), air-bubbles and dust particles beneath the display protector, apps on the phone, all raise suspicion that it is a fake product. Moving on, he points out that even without inserting SIM card in the phone, he was able to see some value (probably 3G/4G) hidden by the notch. Next, he goes on to scroll through the app store on the phone, which opened without asking for login details. When Bhavye opens the camera app, he highlights how the zoom barely enlarges the image (i.e. 0.5x and 1x) on the phone. Also, the Mail app have websites that are normally not found on an original iPhone. Another big red flag is when he opens the Maps app, it opens Google Maps instead of Apple Maps. Bhavye contacted Flipkart regarding the fake product asking for replacement; however, his request for replacement was rejected by Flipkart return technician who refused to collect his phone after inspection. The technician claimed that the phone passed all their “quality checkpoints” and is not valid for return/replacement. This is not the first time that Flipkart has been pulled up for selling a fake phone to its customer. Last year, a Bengaluru-based engineer who had ordered an iPhone 11 Pro on Flipkart received a fake device with a sticker of iPhone 11 Pro triple camera setup pasted on the phone’s back.
