The rise and rise in demand for memory cards for smartphones seems to have sparked a huge industry in fake 'brand name' memory cards, mainly originating from the Far East. if you're about to buy a card, it's worth reading my advice about this over on 3-Lib. Feel free to name drop reputable local suppliers in the comments below this item.
Read on in the full article.
Got me as well: http://www.gadgetguy.de/?p=1406
I have linked to a guide on how to recognise false memory sticks in that post.
Bastards.
Frank.
Good article Steve. It doesn't only apply to memory cards though. It's also true for almost all electronic gadgets (MP3/DVD players, Digital camera's, Gameboys etc). Apparently Chinese can "clone" everything.
Since I'm still living in China, I see lots of fake articles. Even this weekend, walking through a normal department store, I was offered a "real" iPod nano for only 200 RMB (about 20 Euro's). It even looked exactly like the original, but of course it's fake and although it works, it will probably not last more than a month after which you'll have lots of trouble finding the original seller again.
Of course this stuff also sells on the internet through Ebay. So I can only agree with Steve, if you find something with a too-good-to-be-true price, it's very likely a fake article and you're better off spending more money in a store you trust.
One additional comment about the memory cards: you mention Kingston as being inferior to for example SanDisk, but I've been using Kingston cards in my Nokia Communicator for years without any problems. In my 9500 I even have a 2Gb Kingston card working happily, whereas the SanDisk 1Gb card couldn't even be recognized by the Communicator.
The Kingston cards are only inferior in terms of speed. Well, for me that's important. You won't notice it on a 9500, but try recording video to a 1GB Kingston and you'll come unstuck.
Looking to the future, things will get worse, speed-wise. The N93 will be recording video at 20MB plus each minute, and that speed's got to be sustainable (i.e. not just a peak speed). I just bought myself one of SanDisk's new Ultra II disks. Now all I need is... errr.... the N93..... 8-)
Steve
Want me to look around here in Beijing? I could probably find a "N93" here for about 100 Euro 😉
I bought a 2GB SanDisk Ultra II CF card from eBay. Performance was slightly slower than my 1GB Kingston Elite Pro card when it should have been a bit faster. The only thing that gave it away as a fake was the lack of serial number and hologram on the box. Everything else about the packaging and label was spot on.
The seller claimed he didn't know it was a fake and gave me a full refund. Probably a total lie, but I guess it only takes a small number of people not contacting him about receiving a fake for him to recoup his money.
i brought 2 x 4gb Sony Pro Duo memory cards from ebuyer.com (�69 in total). Both came, both were fake! Fake packaging, Fake Memory (2.8Gb each one), what a bunch of wa****s!