chinese N900s on ebay?
 

whats up with the $200 new n900s on ebay from hong kong

legit or knockoff?

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

maybe legit. In Ebay Spain, I founded brand new n900 for 180 € (arround 200-210 USD maybe)
Hope this helps

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

Recently some hard-to-distinguish (before You have it in your hand, actually) fake N900's appeared. Of course, they're not powered by Maemo, and resemble real N900 only visually.

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

People have told me about good stories and negative ones, though the good ones were always in reference to the HongKong models priced more than $300. I think generally when you purchase from HongKong you are getting refurbished models.

I got my first N900 a little over a month ago. Unfortunately, half of that time it has had a broken LCD. I have ordered two more new (hopefully) N900s since. Tracking these things down is really quite a chore.

Needless to say, if this is your first N900 and you are affiliated with IT you will really enjoy it.

Good luck,

Abe

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

I took a gamble and ordered a "new" N900 for $220 from a Chinese seller. I'll be happy to report how it turns out here. The feedback for the seller was extremely positive, so here's hoping!

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

i am sure you did a good research in the forum before:confused:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...highlight=ebay

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

I just bought the RIM BB PlayBook for $200 (in Sydney it holds same price, never got fire sale).

You guys think I should hold on to it?

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

At the very least you should ask to see a screenshot before ordering, to see if it's really Maemo or some knock-off.

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

I havent seen any magic on the Playbook so you will have to judge if a web browser for $200 is worth it.

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

Yep. At the price I'm more or less prepared to be happy with a refurb in good condition. Also went through the seller's history with the N900 in particular.

And most importantly, more than ready to contest if it's an outright scam. :)

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

Well for one thing it has the best browser out of any ARM tablet or phone. Its also got a great MultiTasker (in some ways better than the N900). The specs are nice (decent screen, soc, battery, ports) though the design is bad and quite heavy.

But then again $200 is relatively cheap. Just compare this to any Chinese craplet, its much better by a longshot. Its easily rootable, and there are Jailbreak Apps available (nothing spectacular besides weak emulators). I think I will hold unto it until 17th Feb and test out the QNX v2 (aka BB X ??).

Otherwise its a tablet filling a niche part of my use (the NOTE is my Super smartphone, the Toshiba Ultrabook is my Super small personal computer).

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

No electronics are worth 'holding' for their value... you should keep them only if you plan to use them.
Their value goes down on a daily basis...

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

I was thinking about buying from the same seller mentioned in the thread as they had rave reviews. Like neowolf, I went through the seller's history looking for comments from n900 sales. I noted most comments I read were positive though there was a 1 star that mentioned that they got a used n900 but also followed up with that they were refunded their money. Of course there was wasted time and shipping fees involved. Of the positive comments, it looked like they were made about a full month after their purchases, so I'm assuming they received their n900s already. I didn't see any comments about missing or low quality accessories. It looks like that linked thread was pretty old, so maybe things have changed? I'll be looking forward to neowolf's findings...

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

I also was wanting to purchase a N900 on ebay but most of the listings are from Chinese sellers. I have contacted one of them who swears it is all genuine, at least as far as the phone goes, some of the originally included accessories that normally would have came with the phone if purchased in the US or Europe from official sources for some reason are not included, I couldn't really get a straight answer out of him regarding that. I am still hesitant to buy one from a Chinese seller, they are pretty sneaky on ebay. One of the sellers is obvious that he has 2 or 3 different accounts with identical feedback but different User ID's so you have to be careful with who you buy from on there.

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

All good points. WebOS is a great OS to use but if you have a genuine use for a tablet (i dont) then it becomes a web browsing device.

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

I have never owned a Touchpad but have used one pretty extensively as well as having owned a Pre 3 not long ago which is running pretty much the same version of webOS (visually speaking). I also own a Android tablet which I am in the middle of selling as well as an iPad 2 which I am still struggling to have a decent use for aside from the occasional game and Netflix.

Current tablet's and I can speak for all tablets out there regardless of OS's (excluding Windows 7 tablets which there are only a handful of) are purely consumer devices with smartphone OS's loaded on them and that's why I am selling my Android tablet, I cant really use it as I would a netbook or low end laptop (I have the keyboard dock with it), performance is just too sluggish to use in that way without daily frustrations.

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

The market that finds them suitable are

- Those who only browse the web (no uploading/download)
- Those who do not need to perform any processor hunger tasks (e.g. photo/video editing)
- Those who need a big screen to check emails whilst traveling
- Those who need to play games/ read books on public transport on a unsuitable device

my sony Z series serves all my mobile needs. Super light and a heavy weight in power nothing comes close. Of course individual needs dictate the device.

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

I've recently bought an N900 from ebay seller cellphoneforever. The phone is marked as "new", box as "unopened", etc. Cellphone is refurbished, box is not new, tv cable was missing, 2 screws are missing, usb cable doesn't work, and it says that it was made in Finland... Yeah, right, according to IMEI, it was made in Korea. I bought it for 200 USD.

So, I suggest: do not buy "new" chinese phones.

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

FWIW, my N900's IMEI says it was made in Korea. It was sent directly to me by Nokia. I think that all N900s say they were designed in Finland.

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

Yes, I know that, but on this model it says literally "made in Finland" under the battery...

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

Same here. All parts were fake except for phone bowels. However, I had more luck. Headphone socket had bent contacts, but the rest was functional. The phone was not re-flashed, it even had ovi account from the previous owner.
Also beware that phone cases from hk are not true. They are hard to distinguish at first glance, but my lens cover separated due to bad glue. I've decided to buy a spare n900 and easily found lightly used one locally for about the same price.

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

The one I got seems to be refurbished, not in the original packaging. However refurbished in mint consition and with most of the original accesories. The only thing that seems to be missing is the TV out cord.

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

$200 for a new/refurbed N900 is a pretty good deal, all said. It's not outrageous or surprising, given the age, original price, current demand, and level of stock.

My big question would be: Can one flash this with the global firmware vs the regional firmware it was made for? I know some had issues reflashing European devices with India/China firmware when it was first out. Though at the same time, several people reflashed UK/Vendor firmware to the Nokia global version with success early on too, so. Anyone try this yet? I'd love to get one, if it will take the US-base release firmware. (Because I like having an FM transmitter with the proper ranges...)

Sigh...
<RANT>
They all say that. My N900 was shipped in the first batch from Nokia (through NokiaUSA) and has that exact wording on it, and it's IMEI indicates the point of origin is Korea. They were all designed in Finland, and the cellular components were made in Korea.

There are lots of things that do this. The requirements for "Made in <country>" vary by country. In the US, you can take 50 truck parts, all made in various other countries, assemble 90% of it in Mexico, ship it to the US, finish up the assembly and put new tires on it and still call it "Made in America".

The IMEI tells you that the cellular module was made by a Korean assembly plant. That's all. Other parts were all made in different places, assembled God knows where, and wound up in a crate that may have passed through Finland at some point, probably to get the latest software loaded onto it, if you're lucky.

Can we please stop with the crap conspiracies that just because of something that's found on 100% of the devices ever made by Nokia exists on a product pictured in e-bay that guarantees it's a forgery? These sellers are simply reading the box/device, which has "Made in Finland" stamped all over it.

Yes, there are knock-offs. They're easy to spot, and now sell for sub-$50. Yes, some less reputable vendors are selling refurbs as "new". Yes, some are taking Nokia components (battery/cords/chargers/etc) and replacing them with knock-offs. But you can't tell that by a description or by pictures posted on e-bay! The only way to know for sure is to contact someone who bought from them already and make sure it's the real deal, then hope they're still dealing with good merchandise when you place your order.
</RANT>

Re: chinese N900s on ebay?
 

The FTC would disagree with you:

http://www.ftc.gov/os/1997/12/epsmadeusa.htm