Greetings! Today there will be a short note on iPhone certification for various markets. Why short? Because the topic itself has already been chewed and chewed on the Internet, and I’m unlikely to tell you anything completely new here (but I’ll try :)). You may ask: “Then why write the same thing over and over again?” Questions just keep coming in in the comments to the articles:
Should I take Eurotest or Rostest? What happens if you take a European's iPhone? What is the difference? Well, everything like that...
Repeating the same thing over and over again is difficult, and not answering at all is wrong. That’s why this article was born, telling us what iPhone certification you might encounter when buying it in Russia and what exactly is the difference between them? Let's go!
So, the most common iPhones on our market are:
- Rostest.
- European.
- American.
- Don't understand which ones.
We will not consider American ones and “I don’t understand which ones” in detail. About American ones, everything is clear - they were produced for sale in America, they can be blocked for a certain operator, they are contract, until recently they were not covered by a guarantee in the Russian Federation (some models are still not subject to free repairs in Russia), etc.
And by incomprehensible iPhones, I mean approximately the following devices - you can read it here.
iPhone PCT: pros and cons
First of all, let’s decide which iPhones have the Rostest icon. Everything is simple here - only those devices that are officially imported to Russia by suppliers of the manufacturing company fall into this category. They undergo all existing customs clearance and certification procedures and have an officially confirmed 1-year warranty. It’s also worth dispelling the myth about the RosTest iPhones about the two-year warranty; it really is there if you purchase an Apple phone only on the manufacturer’s website. In other cases, the warranty will be 1 year. By the way, the box of such an iPhone does not have to have the “PCT” sign on it. A sign of a “white” smartphone is the phrase “EAC” - a marking of Eurasian compliance with quality standards. If you decide to buy an official iPhone, then in addition to the above-mentioned “goodies” in the form of a warranty and support for the Apple service, you will not have to worry about support for Russian communication frequencies, SIM card compatibility, etc. At the same time, there is one minus. Due to the fact that all necessary taxes and fees were paid upon import, the price of the iPhone PCT is slightly higher than devices that are imported into the country without certification.
The difference between RosTest and EuroTest
The prefix “euro” instead of “ros” is used to certify iPhones that have not passed the examination at the Center. In fact, the EuroTest mark does not exist. The word was invented to distinguish a “white” iPhone from a “gray” one. In general, all Apple products sold outside the law are called “gray”. Sellers from Europe who resell gadgets save on taxes and payment of funds intended for processing mandatory documents. It is clear that the cost of such smartphones is much lower - about 3-7 thousand rubles - than that of legal ones. This should primarily confuse the consumer.
If the “PCT” icon on the box somehow does not satisfy the inquisitive buyer, he looks at the model code in the device itself and compares it with what is written on the packaging. To do this, go to “Settings”, then “General” and “About this device”:
Another interesting article for you: How to clean and bleach headphones (EarPods)
We see RU, this makes it clear that the phone ended up in Russia, having “reached” the country legally.
What can happen to a “gray” iPhone?
When purchasing a “gray” iPhone, a user can either be lucky until the model frankly becomes outdated, or end up incurring additional expenses. What does this mean? As already mentioned, “foreigners” can:
- have different volume settings;
- do not support the FaceTime application (video calls);
- do not have a camera shutter sound switch;
- do not support networks (or only LTE) of regional cellular operators.
In principle, if the first inconveniences may not be noticed, then the last point will clearly not satisfy the needs of most users. Setting up an “illegal” to the LTE signal of the Big Four operators (MTS, MegaFon, Beeline or Tele2) costs an average of 6,000 rubles. To be fair, sometimes such modifications can still be more profitable than buying from official retailers.
Most often, “foreigners” do not find the networks of local operators
Be careful!
Within the framework of this article, I would like to mention one more important factor that you should know. These are regular cases of fraud in online stores and manipulation of the PCT emblem. There is no need to think long about what kind of violations these are: everything is banal and simple. Very often, sellers, wanting to increase the price of their product, imitate a mark indicating that the device has passed certification. Thus, they deceive the buyer and mislead him.
It is quite easy to check whether your smartphone was officially imported into the country, or whether it is “gray” and imported illegally. Just visit the Apple website where there is a section to check the IMEI code. By entering the address of your device into the field, it is easy to understand what history your gadget has.
Examples: Rostest models from different iPhone series, “gray” analogue models and their features
| Rostest models | “Gray” models and their main features for the user | |
| iPhone 7, 7 Plus | A1778, A1784 | A1779 and A1785 from Japan - the shutter sound does not turn off in the standard camera application; they may not work correctly with Russian payment terminals. A1660 and A1661 are faster LTE modules, the difference in speed can reach 30%. |
| iPhone 6s, 6s Plus | A1688, A1687 | A1633, A1700 A1634, A1699 from the USA and Asian countries - slight differences in supported frequencies, there is no difference in mobile Internet speed, they support work with Russian telecom operators. |
| iPhone SE | A1723, A1724 | A1662 from the USA - LTE will work selectively only with some operators and not in all regions of the Russian Federation. |
| iPhone 6, 6 Plus | A1586, A1524 | A1549, A1589, A1522, A1593 - do not support operation in LTE Band 38; MTS and Megafon operators operate on this frequency. They can only access the network via 3G or when changing operators. |
| iPhone 5s | A1457 | A1533 is a CDMA device - unlike modern GSM phones, CDMA technology is considered obsolete. A1530 is a universal model, supports LTE for all Russian operators, works with 4G networks not only in Russia, but also in almost all countries of the world. A1528 from China is a simplified GSM device module, so the iPhone does not work with 4G LTE. A1518 – Asian model – problems with LTE for some operators. A1453 - problems with high-speed connection in most regions and most Russian operators. |
