Luxury Technology has become a thing over the past decade. An iPhone is still viewed as a sign of wealth or having all your things efficiently figured out in some communities upto this day. Wearables have also entered the chat and people now preffer to match their tech and have the same brands for their wearables like fitness trackers and smartwatches etc as their smartphones. We have heard people say they can only use iPhones and all tech associaed to Apple right? This is mainly because luxury tech has become part of people’s identities in the society, Having the latest Samsung flagship phone in many communities is something a lot of people envy. Those that manage to acquire such tech sometimes share it on social media and the amount of likes and congratulations they receive should tell you something.
Because people really like to have these “status symbols” there are savvy business people that want to give luxury to the masses at a fraction of the cost they would pay elsewhere. It is for this reason that we have different kinds of the same thing. A few days ago, i was looking at a Samsung S23 and i had so many questions. everything checked out, the zooming capabilities are wild, the software is indeed Android. However, something was off and i couldnt put my finger on it until i got home. The software on that phone even though i could confirm its Android, it had this pale look to it. It made applications look pale like those filters we use to age pictures, the vintage filter. I also discovered the pictures have that filter to it even though the pictures were high quality. It is only when i started comparing with an S22 that i started questioning the authenticity of that phone. The S22 pictures were sharp, High definition and modern as compared to the S23 Ultra i had just seen. The funny thing is, the S23 Ultra was bought at a reputable outlet and it was boxed.
I then remembered something in 2021, i bought a Samsung M31 and my friend bought the exact same phone but our phones were very different despite us buying them from the same dealer at the same price. I only discovered it last week that the only difference i could tell is the country they were manufactured in. Mine was manufactured in South Africa and hers in India. I dont really know if the phones flooding the Zimbabwe from India are real or imitations but the bulk of what i have seen are different from other phones bearing the same brand and specs made in China or South Africa. The India phones have the, for lack of a better term, vintage filter look to it and the photos even though they are precise and good are different from photos taken with the exact same phone made in South Africa or China.
In concluion, if you have enough cash to buy a flaship phone, be very wary of where it was manufactured. As i have seen that they really look different and you wouldnt want to make the mistake of buying a status symbol of a phone only for it to take mediocre photos.