Disassembly and differences between original and fake Xiaomi power banks

Today, smuggling of goods is no longer just talked about—manufacturers, distributors, and subject matter experts are shouting about it. For the Association of Information Technology Enterprises of Ukraine (APITU), the fight against illegal imports has become one of the priority tasks, around which the world’s largest manufacturers of IT equipment and consumer electronics operating in Ukraine have already rallied.

State bodies actively declare their readiness to fight with this problem, but, unfortunately, things don’t go beyond promises, which is why our budget is chronically anorexic, and investors are fleeing, and problems for end consumers are increasing every day.

If previously they risked purchasing simply smuggled goods, now Ukraine is being hit by a huge wave of counterfeits. Fake goods, which look very similar to the original ones, are actually of low quality, which means that the buyer, as always, will be left in the cold.

You don’t have to look far for examples: many received advertising e-mail notifications about the Xiaomi Powerbank – powerful and practical external batteries, but few managed to understand that they were not being offered an original product, but an ordinary fake.

The proposal looked like this.

Therefore, APITU experts decided to check what exactly they are offering, hiding behind an incredible discount in 70%. A test purchase was made at the 2016.biz.ua store and a small comparative analysis of the original and the purchased fakes was carried out.

When purchasing counterfeits, we were even provided with receipts, a warranty card and a Russian (!) certificate of conformity.

First, a little information about physics.

The number of amp-hours indicated on the external battery is their number at a voltage of 3.7 V (the voltage of each individual cell). Gadgets that charge from a power bank require 5 V to charge. To calculate the actual capacity of your Powerbank, you need to convert 3.7 V to 5.0 V. This is quite simple to do, using the following formula:(stated capacity ⁄ 3, 7 V) ⁄ 5 V.

In addition, each battery has a coefficient of performance (efficiency): if the power bank is of high quality, then the efficiency is 90–95%.

So, the final formula for calculating the actual capacity of a Powerbank looks like this: (declared capacity ⁄ 3.7 V) ⁄ 5 V × 0.85 (average efficiency value).

A simple example: if the capacity declared by the manufacturer is 16,000 mAh, then the calculated capacity should be equal to:(16,000 mAh × 3.7 V) ⁄ 5 V × 0.85 (efficiency) = 10,064 mA ·h.

What do we have in practice?

The original is in a silver case, and the fake is in black.

ModelPowerbank Xiaomi NDY-02-AL 16000 mAh

ModelPowerbank Xiaomi NDY-02-AD 10400 mAh

Model Powerbank Xiaomi NDY-02-AD 20800 mAh

Internal structure

The gray model with green batteries is the original, the one with blue ones is a fake that has nothing in common with it.

The batteries in the fake are not marked, so it is impossible to understand either their origin or capacity.

Welding and sealing quality

Case Features

In the original, all internal parts are fixed to the body with screws on both sides, while in the fake, everything is held on by a plastic fastener.

We did this study to once again attract the attention of our government officials who are quick to speak and promise and weak to act. But the main thing is that consumers, that is, each of us, understand that attractive discounts often hide almost rubbish.

I am glad that the dealers from the 2016.biz.ua store are already being actively exposed by other vigilant buyers, it is a pity that they have already suffered.

We respect ourselves, our time, nerves and money, which no one will return. And government officials should come to their senses now, since delay means millions of lost budget funds for our already long-suffering country.

To understand the scale of the problem – a small analytical report. The share of equipment illegally imported into Ukraine in some product groups, according to the APITU study, is:

• IT equipment – from 15 to 40% depending on the group;
• flash memory – 30% in 2015 and more than 40% in the first five months of 2016;
• smartphones – 25–30%;
• TVs – 30%, in the premium segment more than 50%;
• batteries – 50%;
• photo paper for printing photos – 75% (FUJI photo paper – 90%).

According to APITU experts, every year the Ukrainian budget loses UAH 3.6 billion in taxes due to smuggling.

Юрій Пероганич
Ukrainian public figure in the field of information and communication technologies

  

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