Don’t be fooled! There are Fake Samsung 980 Pro SSDs on sale

Counterfeit products are always there trying to trick people and eat a portion of the original product. If there is a huge demand for a specific item, that has a big brand value, it’s just a matter of time until fake ones appear in a bid to trick users and grab a slice of the sales. It happens with clothing, electronics, nowadays even with Chrome Extensions! Basically everything. In electronics, the situation is quite problematic when we look at storage devices. There are millions of fake pen drives and micro SD cards tricking users across online stores. Now, things are getting serious as we can even see fake premium SSDs being sold. As per a new report, the popular Samsung 980 Pro SSD has a fake version being sold across multiple online stores.

Samsung 980 Pro is the latest victim of counterfeiting

Those familiar with the segment know that the Samsung 980 Pro is among the best SSDs in the market. Due to its reliability and high-speed capabilities, it also costs more than conventional less-known SSDs. A counterfeit version of this SSD has cheaper components, cheaper manufacturing, and testing, but sells for about the same price. Counterfeiters can earn millions of dollars while spending just a little to produce these fake products.

Right now, the Samsung 990 Pro is already available. However, given the years of popularity and price, the Samsung 980 Pro still stands as one of the best-selling SSDs. That explains why it’s soo easier for counterfeiters to sell these ones. A Chinese user from Baidu Tieba forums has found an imitation of the SSD. The knockoff had basically everything to suggest it was legit. It has the Samsung 980 Pro 2TB sticker and firmware, which turned out to be fake. In terms of “forgery”, it was a good one. After all, the product managed to fool Samsung Magician software. Once you get out the sticker, it’s possible to spot it’s a fake.

The fake SSD makes use of the Maxio MAP1602A PCIe 4.0 SSD controller. The same one inside from Acer Predator GM7. The SSD has TSMC’s 12 process nodes and features a DRAM-less design. Thanks to that we know it’s not a Samsung product. The Korean firm uses its SSD controllers and NAND chips in SSDs. When it comes to the Samsung 980 Pro, uses an 8nm Elpis controller with DRAM. Moreover, these SSDs are larger than the competition. Samsung’s 980 Pro sports a 128-layer TCL 3D V-NAND.

It looks like the original but does not perform like one

I don’t need to tell you that this SSD will not perform like an original. It probably does the job, but in a slower form, and of course, it’s way less reliable in the long term. As per user benchmarks, the fake SSD deliver read and write speeds of 4.8 Gbps and 4.5 Gbps, respectively. An original Samsung 980 Pro can deliver up to 7 Gbps and 5 Gbps, respectively.

One merchant sold fake Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSDs on Xianyu, Taobao’s second-hand market. The device sells for about $127.88. The counterfeiting is so good that the product includes an official Samsung package. Those familiar with the clone-wars era of smartphones, know about fake boxes. It sells for less than the Samsung SSD. For experience people, the price alone can tell the truth. But those will look at it as an opportunity to grab the original product for a lower price. Honestly, there is an old saying that tells “you get what you pay for”. In this case, you’ll get less speed, but the worse fact is less reliability. If you have a problem there is no warranty. And we have to agree that just for about $50 more, you can get the original product in the US ($169.99).

According to the user, he could test the product immediately. So ten days have passed between the acquisition and the actual benchmarks ran on a PC. Anyway, his report serves as an alert for those looking for Samsung SSDs. Fakes product can appear everywhere from Amazon to Walmart, but there is a higher risk in Chinese online stores. There are a lot of original products on AliExpress, but at the same time, you will find dozens of fake ones. So you’ll need to be aware of these fake SSDs before proceeding with a purchase. If you don’t want to pay the actual price of a Samsung SSD 980 Pro, there are some alternatives. On AliExpress, for example, there are good SSDs from Chinese brands like NETAC. The thing is, try to avoid deals that look too good to be true.