Fake 10000mAh Xiaomi?

At $12.59 it seems too cheap to be true. Comments? Seller has a poor record. I’ll pass.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10000mAh-Xiaomi-Mi-Power-Bank-Fast-Charger-External-Battery-For-Android-IOS-a/322525821663?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=511505315238&\_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
Jerry

Well, in the description below, it says:

Brand: Unbranded/Generic

So it clearly just capitalizes on the Xiaomi brand in the title but gets away by actually saying “unbranded/generic”

i’ve seen it quite often on ebay, listings have multiple search key words, not always describing the item.

With that seller’s ratings he is not honest enough for me.

WTF that is sneaky, good tht you point that out. Most of the time I just glance over the description except when it’s a high value object. Oh man that is so ……(insert curse). But if you make a paypal claim you would get a refund no?

While it does say unbranded, the photos show that it has “Mi” on the product.
It could be a fake that still says Mi on it, in which case proving you got a fake product would be more difficult.

I notice the 5th feedback says “Did not receive a Xiaomi Mi Power Bank as it is advertized”

Here we go:

….and have seen that fake one for sale myself like this in the link above:

Printing at the Bottom

Genuine – Has a printing in grey-ish ink which is lighter and clear. It is also well textured which can be felt by moving the fingers over it.

Fake – Usually darker and blurry in black ink and sometimes unclear printing.

I would have thought that the darker one would be the genuine, but I know it isn’t.
Thanks tatasal,
Jerry

:beer:

I have recently bought 2 of the 20000 Xiaomi Gen2 banks from this seller, via their Ebay.com.au store - the one that arrived was fake. I have a genuine Gen1 to compare to.

One was lost by Australia Post. On the unit that did arrive, there were a few major giveaways of the unit being less than genuine. The power indicator lights flashing, shining through the side of the case, not pulsing slowly like a genuine, the label on the bottom was wrong, button feedback was very clicky…

I decided to open it. 6x unlabelled blue 18650s, but only 5 of them were actually soldered in - the 6th was simply sitting in the case, at 0v. The circuit board inside was also only capable of 5v in/out, instead of the 5/9/12v that a Gen2 should be capable of.

At only AUD $20 each, I haven’t lost too much.

Edit: Uploaded some pics. Fake Xiaomi 20000 bank - Album on Imgur

Just a comment on price for genuine Mi powerbanks — they’re actually inexpensive when bought in China (eg. via official Mi online website, or Mi stores).
(For the record, I’m based in Southeast Asia, so China isn’t too far away…)

Earlier this year, I got the Mi 2 20000mAh powerbank (PLM05ZM) for RMB (CNY) 149 (around US$22.14 using Google exchange rate) — a friend of a friend bought one for me via online in China.

Later, when I had a trip to China a few weeks ago, I also dropped by an Official Mi Store and bought the Mi gen2 10000mAh power bank (not the Pro version with USB-C port which is still very expensve), which is RMB/CNY 79 (US$ 11.74). A bit strange is that the Mi Store requires me to register my China mobile # to buy the power bank. I explained that I didn’t have a China mobile # since I was just a traveller there, good thing the store employee just said, ok he’ll just register it using his mobile #…

(I didn’t get the chance to test the Mi gen2 10000mAh since I bought it for a friend whose generic power bank (with bogus high mAh) got confiscated while we’re transitting in the domestic airport in China — the airport security is quite strict and any unlabeled or damaged labels that show exceed 20000mAh are confiscated)