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 aRussian (!)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?

 

 

ModelPowerbank Xiaomi NDY-02-AL16,000 mAh

	Original	Fake
Nominal capacity:	16,000 mAh	4750 mAh – charging time 7 hours 32 minutes
Actual recoil capacity:	10,200 mAh 5.1 V (TYP 1A) – can be charged 3.5 times, for example, a Samsung smartphone with a battery capacity of 3000 mAh</td >	1910 mAh – you can charge only 65% of a Samsung smartphone with a battery capacity of 3000 mAh
Voltage:	5/5.1 V (input/output)	5/4.15 V and 4.98 V depending on the load
Current:	2/2.1 A (input/output)	1 A (1.7 A at 4.15 V, 0.95 at 4.98 V)

 

ModelPowerbank Xiaomi NDY-02-AD10,400 mAh

	Original	Fake
Nominal capacity:	10,400 mAh	4050 mAh – charging time 7 hours 42 minutes
Actual recoil capacity:	6630 mAh 5.1 V (TYP 1A) – can be charged 2.2 times, for example, a Samsung smartphone with a battery capacity of 3000 mAh	1630 mAh – can only charge 55% of a Samsung smartphone with a battery capacity of 3000 mAh
Voltage:	5/5.1 V (input/output)	5/4.85 V
Current:	2/2.1 A (input/output)	1 A – 0.5 A/0.9 A (2 A does not hold the load at all and turns off)

 

Model Powerbank Xiaomi NDY-02-AD 20800 mAh

	Original	Fake
Nominal capacity:	20,800 mAh	5530 mAh – charging time 10 hours 23 minutes
Actual recoil capacity:	13,260 mAh 5.1 V (TYP 1A) – can be charged 4.4 times, for example, a Samsung smartphone with a battery capacity of 3000 mAh</td >	2225 mAh – can only be charged to 75% Samsung with a battery capacity of 3000 mAh
Voltage:	5/5.1 V (input/output)	5/4.95 V
Current:	2/2.1 A (input/output)	0.7 A – 0.3 A/0.94 A (2 A load does not hold at all and turns off)

 

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 – asmall 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.