Counterfeit Samsung Galaxy Tab with Fake Specifications - Alps T950S

This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 11/26/2015 04:03:06

As some of you know, we at ShoppersNet frequently search for cool items to do reviews, and this time is no exception. Our goal was to find the lowest cost high-end Android tablet, and we identified one available at a well-known Asian shopping site. It was from a seller named New Times Technology Co., Ltd. At the time of this writing over 567 orders were made for this tablet according to the shopping site.

Like most shoppers, we did our usual spot checks for scams including reviewing feedback scores and user responses. Nothing seemed amiss with our spot checks before purchase. While we have heard of counterfeit products especially from Asia, we were strongly enticed by the outstanding specs.

Unfortunately, the specifications were falsified. The tablet was advertised as having a 10 inch screen, octa core CPU featuring the MediaTek MT6592 processor, a super high resolution screen of 2560x1600, 4GB RAM, 64GB of storage, and 8MP camera. If the specs were true, this would be an amazing high-end tablet for a very good price price of around $140 (USD).

The tablet appears to be labeled as an Alps T950S and features a fake Samsung Galaxy Tab logo on the back and fake Samsung bootup animation. We have identified the specifications of the tablet as having a 9.5 inch screen, a MediaTek MT6582 (Quad-core) processor running at 1.3GHz with a screen resolution of 1280x800 (one-quarter of the advertised resolution) and a rear camera of 3.6 (~4MP). Please keep in mind that there are some sellers who do list the specs that we identified in their listings so some sellers may be aware of the real specs.

To the untrained individual, identifying the bogus specifications is difficult. Some benchmark programs also read from the Android build.prop file which can be manipulated to show bogus values.
We are posting a series of videos to give more background on this scam.

Part 1 - Unboxing the Alps T950S and reviewing the seller's fake specifications

We have now posted the remaining parts for the Alps T950S review.

Part 2 - Power Up Test
Part 3 - Identifying the Specifications

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 03/08/2016 23:29:23

Hi
There is another supplier of this device with the Samsung logo removed same specs advertised from Asia One Electronics Tech Limited on AliExpress Seller: Sam Lin

advertised specs
Tablet PC 10.1 polegada Octa Nuclei 2560 x 1600 32 GB DDR3 4GB RAM 8.0MP Camera 3G WCDMA + GSM SIM Card android4.4 tablet PCs

MediaTek MT6582 Quad core cpu not the Octa core MediaTek MT6592
has only 1 gb of Ram not 4gb
Has only 16gb storage not 64gb
Display is 1280 x 800 not 2560 x 1600
Tablet said its Android 5.1 installed but its only 4.4.2
Camera is only 2mp front and 4mp rear not 8mp

Same spyware that I removed also.

Its pending AliExpress Dispute

I have sent them copy of your Video along with copy of my table Soc dump showing the MT6582 ext.

we will see how this goes

Robotech

Update
Dispute with Ali finalized with 50% discount so ended up with Quad core tablet $50.
Also fixing a boot loop found a second build.prop file that created a boot loop but seems to have unlocked extra 32gb of storage it when from 322 to 64gb

Robotech

$50 isn't too bad. Our attempts only got us to $100, so that's a much better deal.

There is still at least one more adware app in the stock rom. It appears to listen for browser startup (e.g., Chrome) and tries to load a URL at browser startup.