Counterfeit (Fake) Headsets - How to recognize and avoid them; what are the differences?

According to research done by Strategy Analytics, the wholesale revenues of US$2 billion are expected in 2007, making Bluetooth headsets the largest market for mobile devices. Motorola, Jabra and Plantronics were the three largest manufacturers, with combined share of 57% of all BT headsets in 2005. Motorola respectively is the world’s largest supplier with about 28% market share, followed by Jabra with 16% and Plantronics with 12%. The total Bluetooth sales in 2005 were about 33 million units.

Nokia BH-800 Box

The genuine and counterfeit headsets come in different boxes: although they are of the same size, the fake one is in black and misses the animated details the original has. The texts written on them are different, as well as the font type and size are not the same. The counterfeit one also misses the small rectangular sticker, with information including Serial Number, Item Number, etc, which is a must for every unit.
The plastic used for the interior of the box is much different than the original: it is lighter in color, and deforms easily. The neck strap of the fake accessory is made of black colored fibers, while the original is metal.

But what really matters is the headset itself: when we directly compare the two, the difference is noticeable, but if you have only a fake one, we really doubt one would guess its true origin. The easiest way to spot the spurious one is by looking at the earpiece – its rubber is hard and doesn’t really fit in its place, and is uncomfortable to wear at the same time.

The Nokia logo on the front side is in dull grey, while the genuine headset has silver reflecting “Nokia”. Around the volume scrolls of the both headsets there are + and – signs that reflect the light, but what you will notice is that the scroll key of your counterfeit accessory cannot be pushed inwards, which is required for muting the microphone.

You will see another difference when you power it on – the moment the headset is put to be charged, it can be easily noticed that the LED light is radically different on the two devices. The authentic one has directed light only from a small quadrangle, while the fake one flickers with a lot larger round diameter.

Different are the pairing notifications as well as the genuine headset flashes in green when in pairing mode and in blue when connected, while the fake one does it vice versa – blue for pairing and green for standby mode when connected.

When paired with a phone, the fake one is discovered as BH800, while the real one as Nokia BH800.

The BH-800 is not the only Nokia headset faked. We noticed that models such BH-700, BH-600, BH-802, HS-54W and BH-300 also appear to be counterfeited and sold on Ebay.

Nokia BH-800 Genuine VS Fake performance