The product page on AliExpress has an impressive render of the phone with “S22 Ultra 5G” printed in bold on the display. Your eye spies the “100% original” label at the top right corner of the render, before moving down to the price listed in bold just below the image. Your eyes dilate quite a bit when you see “US $75.33 – 98.83”. That is an incredible bargain for what appears to be a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
But if you are a smartphone initiate, like I am, you can already tell from the image that this is not the original Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. But that is no problem to the makers and sellers of this phone. They are banking on a few thousand out of the millions of people around the world who do not know any better. They are counting on ignorance to help sell this fake Samsung S22 Ultra and other knock-offs.
To be sure, the marketing avoids the mention of the name, Samsung. But the objective is clear. It is a clever trick. The description of the fake Samsung S22 Ultra says it is a “6.8 HD Screen 4G 5G Dual SIM Cell Phone Original Android 12 Unlocked Mobile Phones 64MP 6800mAh Celulares”. That is quite a mouthful. The objective is to impress by confusing. Impressive words all through, none of which will amount to much under scrutiny.
There are three configurations available – 8 GB RAM with 256 GB storage, 12 GB RAM with 512 GB storage, and 16 GB RAM with 1 TB storage. It is when the device gets to you after spending $75 for the lowest variant, or anything between that and $98 for either of the other two, and you power on the phone and find out that none of those specs are valid. You will more likely find resources in the range of 2 GB RAM and 32 GB storage in them. I am also betting that this dud does not run Android 12.
Did I mention that the detailed description says that this fake Samsung S22 Ultra is powered by a Snapdragon 888+ chipset? If you believe that, I have landed property on Mars to sell to you for $5,000. I stake two decades of experience to assure you that a low-end MediaTek processor is waiting to be discovered in this clone. And that chipset is definitely not 5G-compliant. You will be lucky to find 4G support in this cell phone.
I assure you that you will not find OneUI on the inside, and that the cheap stylus that ships with this fake Samsung S22 Ultra might not work with it at all. Digging further into the detailed description, I see that it mentions “Samsung” as a “compatible brand”. What does that even mean – that this knock-off will wag its tail if it means the real McCoy?
Anyway, do not let the nicely done marketing images and big sounding specs fool you. The phone does not look anywhere as good as the renders. Thankfully, a few buyers were good enough to share photos of the device on AliExpress. This is what our S22 Ultra 5G looks like. Cheap, plasticky, uninspiring. I told you. It is nothing but a cheap pretender to the name.
As I have alluded to already, the user experience will frustrate you. And if you have used a real Samsung cell phone before, getting your hands on this fake Samsung S22 Ultra will only bring you pain and tears. Unlimited sorrow. By all the gods of humanity, real and imagined, I beseech you to not plug in its charger to your mains, to avoid burning down your house or office. May the Force be with you.
$75 to $98 for a fake Samsung S22 Ultra is a good bargain, if we are being honest, though. You get what you pay for. So, if you are feeling adventurous and would like to get your hands on this poor attempt of a copy job, make my day. Knock yourself out. Head over to AliExpress to order your copy. May the gods of your ancestors be with you.
you forgot to mention it is not android 12 it is android 6