When choosing a new phone, you probably noticed a significant difference in price for the same models. Many people wonder: “Why is it so much cheaper here?” "Maybe a fake?" etc.
When you start to delve into and understand, you come across a bunch of "smart" words, such as "ROSTEST", "EUROTEST".
What is ROSTEST? And is it really needed? And most importantly, is it worth it to overpay?
Read the short text below and make the right decision!
First, let's put aside the word "EUROTEST" right away. There is no "EUROTEST". This beautiful word (specially similar to "ROSTEST") was invented in order to more beautifully sell goods without the "ROSTEST" mark. There are goods with the RST (ROSTEST) mark, and there are without it. And that's it!
What is the difference between them?
Imagine that you are flying to Germany or America on a business trip (and you were just thinking about buying a new smartphone)... Will the lack of a PCT icon on the phone you like stop you?
Haha! Of course not!
So, these are just the phones that are sold in Russia without the ROSTEST mark. They just get to Russia, bypassing the official supply channels. How? This is a supplier problem. The main thing is that they bypass a huge number of fees, one of which is just the ROSTEST certification.
It can be assumed that during certification, each phone goes through many checks for performance, security, and so on. Unfortunately, it is not. The certificate is issued for a batch of products. The presence of a PCT certificate does not mean that each phone from the entire batch has been subjected to thorough checks and testing. Paid and received.
And here are the five main differences between ROSTEST and non-ROSTEST:
1. Price Perhaps, for many, this is the most important point. And this is exactly why you started reading this text: the surcharge for ROSTEST is about 30% of the cost of the goods;
2. Modern technology is very reliable and almost does not fail when used correctly. But we all have long been accustomed to the fact that the manufacturer gives a guarantee.
The important point is that the official guarantee is valid in the country of sale of the goods (in the country where the device was brought from), and the guarantee in Russia is given by the store that sold the device. Therefore, if you buy a phone without the ROSTEST mark, then it is very important to choose the right store where to buy a new gadget.
ROSTEST devices have an official manufacturer's warranty. The manufacturer accepts equipment for repair if it fails during the warranty period (usually 1 year). But at the same time, it is worth considering that the manufacturer is not obliged to make repairs quickly. Therefore, as a rule, the manufacturer carries out warranty repairs for a long time: according to the law, 45 days are allotted for this.
3. Channels of import to the Russian Federation- this is what affects the final price of the goods in the first place. The ROSTEST certificate is issued only for goods for which all taxes and customs fees have been paid. You also need to pay for the ROSTEST certificate. In fact, this is where almost the entire difference in price comes from. The rest of the equipment was imported into Russia, bypassing the official supply channels.
That is, this is equipment produced on the same assembly line, by the same workers, but arrived in Russia a little differently.
4. Russification was really very important while the phones were with buttons. Now that the vast majority of phones have a touch screen, this is not the case. In any smartphone, the Russian language can be selected in the menu, at the very beginning of working with it, elementary.
5. Instruction in Russian is always included in the set of ROSTEST devices. In other cases, everything is at the discretion of the seller. In any case, the instructions in Russian can always be downloaded from the official website of the manufacturer. Instructions in English are always available for everyone.
The choice is yours. The main thing to remember: the goods are the same!
Greetings! Today there will be a short note on iPhone certification for various markets. Why short? Because the topic itself is already chewed-chewed on the Internet, and I'm unlikely to tell you something completely new here (but I'll try :)).
And why then write the same thing at all? It's just that in the comments to the articles questions continue to come:
- What to take Eurotest or Rostest?
- What happens if you take the iPhone of a European?
- What is the difference?
Well and all in such spirit. Repeating the same thing is hard, and not answering at all is wrong. Therefore, such an article was born, telling about what kind of iPhone certification you can encounter when buying it in Russia and what is actually the difference between them? Let's go!
So, most often in our market there are iPhones:
American and "do not understand which" we will not consider in detail. Everything about the American ones is already clear - they are made for sale in America, they can be blocked for a certain operator, contracted, 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 iPhone, I mean approximately such devices - you can read it here.
With Rostest (PCT), everything is clear in principle - these are iPhones officially imported into Russia, with all the ensuing consequences: a guarantee, certification, taxes and fees provided for by Russian legislation, a recommended market price :)
Sometimes they are also called "whites". Of course, not because of the color of the body - it is understood that they have passed all the necessary paper procedures, imported in compliance with the law and completely "white" before the law.
Important! Recently, instead of the PCT letters on the iPhone box, you can find other symbols - EAC. This is a sign of Eurasian conformity and certification of the customs union (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan). From the consumer's point of view, Rostest and EAC are absolutely similar certifications, so there is no need to worry about this. If there is an EAC marking, then the iPhone is official and “white”.
Such gadgets are sold from official dealers. When buying them, you can be sure that they will definitely support all the necessary frequencies, work with all Russian SIM cards, and so on.
For sellers in our stores, in most cases it is customary to call an iPhone with Eurotest certification any smartphone from Apple that is not Rostest. Everything that was brought bypassing official deliveries is the iPhone with Eurotest (“gray” devices). Sometimes American gadgets are also “threaded” here, but it is probably wrong to do this.
They are brought for resale from European countries, which saves on taxes, duties, certification, etc. As a result, all this has a positive effect on the final price of the device.
It is clear that Rostest seems to be a priori better, you buy a “white” and certified device - you feel calm and confident. So why do some people prefer the Eurotest iPhone, why is it better or worse?
To begin with, the most important thing is to decide on this - these are absolutely the same iPhones as those sold in Russia. There is practically no difference! But in some cases, there are still differences and they are in the firmware - for some countries in the iPhone:
- There is a limit on the maximum volume of music in headphones.
- FaceTime will not work.
- The camera shutter sound cannot be turned off.
All these restrictions depend on the legislation of the country for sale in which it is intended. In fact, there is nothing to worry about, but if you buy a European-certified iPhone, you may encounter this.
It is also necessary to remember that in some countries the iPhone may be sold locked for a specific telecom operator - the gadget will only work with its SIM card. When buying in a store, you are unlikely to encounter this, but if you take it from an ad, then everything can be. By the way, the Rostest iPhone has none of the above.
In addition, there are four more important differences between Rostest iPhone and Eurotest:
As they say, the choice is yours. Save money and lose something (in my opinion, the biggest omission is the warranty period). Or buy Rostest, but more expensive.
P.S. What do you think? What's better? Write in the comments!
P.S.S. It's good that we have a choice, right? "Like" for it! :)
Updated! Dear readers, please don't ask me to recommend any store to buy Eurotest iPhone. It's not that I'm so bad and I'm sorry. No. It’s just that I can’t be completely sure about any store - even those where I have already bought it myself. Don't misunderstand me - I don't want the purchase on my advice to be unsuccessful and bring disappointment instead of joy. Thank you.
Updated 2! In the comments, the question is often asked: “Where to buy Eurotest and save money”? I answer. There are actually a lot of shops. As I already wrote, it is not in my power to recommend any one of them. But I can suggest something else:
- To save and return part of the money from the purchase (there should be enough for a protective glass or case), go to this site and register.
- After registration, we look at stores and compare prices. We take it where it is cheaper and get part of the money spent back.
As a result: we bought an iPhone (there are really a lot of stores - you can find Rostest and Eurotest phones) and saved. The beauty!
It is unbelievable how many myths there are around the products of Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia and other famous manufacturers illegally imported into the territory of the Russian Federation. Interestingly, everyone is trying to manipulate the situation and information. Let's try to figure out who is right, who is wrong and where is the truth.
So, when buying an iPad in Russia, every future owner and buyer of the device will immediately come across three concepts, even if they have never heard of them: Rostest (PCT), Eurotest, Gray (gray device). In order to tell our readers what it is, we decided to ask the owner of a large online store in RuNet, which is located in Moscow and sells Apple and HTC products throughout Russia.
Of course, before the interview, we promised to leave our interlocutor anonymous, so all answers from the store manager will be published under the fictitious name "Dmitry", he agreed with such a pseudonym, but we, in general, do not care.
DeviceAdvice: Dmitry, please tell us first what Rostest, Eurotest and Gray Device are. Let's start with Rostest (hereinafter referred to as "PCT"), what is it all about ?.
Dmitry: Rostest is a product certification center, in fact, all electronics that are sold on the market today should have the right to sell from Rostest.
DeviceAdvice: That is, I understand correctly that any equipment that has the “PCT” badge on its body receives this badge from Rostest and can be legally sold on the territory of Russia?
Dmitry: No. It's just standards compliance. Compliance with standards does not mean that the product can be sold anywhere, it is simply compliance with a certain technical regulation. Such a thing is drawn on any product that is supplied by the manufacturer to Russia.
DeviceAdvice: If the picture means nothing, then why does anyone who wants to buy a “white” phone look for it?
Dmitry: Yes, God knows! It's bureaucracy! How can a consumer even know what all these things mean? In fact, he is forced to deal with all this because of the large number of counterfeit goods. When everything around is gray, you involuntarily begin to learn to distinguish, or at least try ... In short, this does not mean anything.
DeviceAdvice: Strange, I always thought that the PCT just means the very go-ahead from the state, which allows you to trade the device.
Dmitry: You, like everyone else, are a victim of rumors. The PCT on the device is drawn by the manufacturer himself, not a single growth test will open the boxes and put some kind of brand of his own! It's just some bullshit...
DeviceAdvice: Well, everything is clear with the autopsy, yet it is not clear where it comes from, this inscription ...
Dmitry: The inscription draws under the battery of the device, well, in any case, most often, the manufacturer himself. That is, by doing this, he simply confirms that a batch of devices is intended for a specific country, back and forth, to specific standards. That's all.
DeviceAdvice: Hm... interesting... Let's say we figured out the PCT, but what is "Eurotest"? I am sure our readers will be interested to learn another new term.
Dmitry: Oh yes, this is total bullshit! (laughs) What other "Eurotest"? - This was invented to make it easier to sell gray phones to people. There is no "Eurotest" and never was. Another euphemism of our time...
DeviceAdvice: Wait a minute, but now in almost every Runet online store, the operator immediately answers, something like "No, the phone is Eurotest." The phenomenon is quite ubiquitous, it turns out everyone is deceiving?
Dmitry: Well, how else? What do you think the operator will tell you “No, we brought the phone smuggled, it is gray and there is no guarantee for it”? Do you yourself believe in it? Well, crap.
DeviceAdvice: Then it probably makes sense to ask you for our readers, what is it - a gray phone?
Dmitry: Yes, just illegally brought, illegally sold phone. No one pays taxes for him, pays nothing at all, just like heroin is brought in - that's also the phones.
DeviceAdvice: And what is the danger of buying such a phone? We just ordered an iPad in your store, as you said Eurotest, that is, it also turns out, according to you, gray, what's the catch?
Dmitry: Yes, there is no catch, the catch is that the seller did not receive any permissions and increased the margin from one device. That's the whole trick. No, well, sometimes strange manufacturers refuse to accept devices in service centers, but this is not Nokia, not Apple and not the main market leaders, although Nokia used to suffer from this.
DeviceAdvice: That is, if I take my iPad to the SC (service center - approx.), Will they accept it without any problems? Is he from America, even from Singapore?
Dmitry: Of course! Apple products! (laughs) How could it be otherwise? How can a manufacturer abandon their own device?
DeviceAdvice: Well, here is our iPad 2 from Germany, will it be accepted here?
Dmitry: Yes, they will. And they'll fix everything. In any case, we must. The main thing is that the 1 year warranty does not expire and you do not break your iPad yourself.
DeviceAdvice: But by the way, we have a PCT icon here, though in the iPad menu, we, of course, did not disassemble it. What does it mean?
Dmitry: Well, that means that the device meets all standards. Here is a whole list of countries, a whole list of these standards or something ... The device is the same, all sorts of PCTs are just bureaucracy, nothing changes there for any country. Well, except in rare cases, Russia has nothing to do with it: its standards are weaker than in the same Europe or the USA, but kickbacks are the best.
DeviceAdvice: Well, well, as it were, summing up, it’s worth drawing a sort of line or something ... So gray devices, or as they are also called Eurotest, are the same devices that operators and large networks of retailers legally import. These devices also have a warranty, or at least most of them, and technically they are no different?
Dmitry: Technically no. Price - very much. Therefore, those who have understood this for a long time are trying to buy gray phones and do not bother their heads with all sorts of PCT and other state bureaucracy.
DeviceAdvice: Well, thank you very much for the answers, we hope you answer us not for the first time and we will probably see each other again, say, on the topic of prices and quality of accessories or something like that?
Dmitry: Yes, for God's sake, I will say more - it seems to me that I have not voiced anything fundamentally new today.
DeviceAdvice: Dmitry, it's okay, you will definitely get a chance.
Dmitry: I hope so. (laughs)
Well, dear readers, you will have to draw the conclusions from the interview yourself. We, like many in Russia, came across a gray device, but so far this has not caused any problems. The life of our iPad will always be covered in the pages of the magazine. Until the next interview.
In order to deal with PCT models once and for all, we have collected the differences for all current iPhones in one place.
PCT devices are products officially imported into Russia that have Rostest certificatesThis means that all the declared functions of the device will work on the territory of the country, and the official manufacturer's warranty will apply to the device.
The so-called "gray" devices, which are brought from Europe or the USA, can either fully work or be unsuitable for some services. There may be problems with the warranty of such devices.
Before buying an iPhone from your hands, in an online store and a specialized place for the sale of equipment, you should always check the model of the device.
How to find out the model and country of origin of iPhone
The model number is printed on the back cover of the device and on the box. Of course, the codes must match. Sellers usually do not hide this information.
To find out where a particular device model comes from, you should look at the box or find the data in the device itself along the way. "Settings - General - about this device". Country information is carried by the last two Latin letters in your model code.
The country will be more difficult. Usually, this information is not advertised during the sale. You can most often view the region of the iPhone directly upon receipt of the device.
Below is a list of codes for all regions for which iPhones are produced:
A– Canada
AB– Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt
AE– Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar,
B– UK and Ireland
BG– Bulgaria
BR– Brazil
BT- Great Britain
BZ– Brazil
FROM– Canada
CH– PRC
CI– Paraguay
CM– Hungary, Croatia
CR– Croatia
CS– Slovakia, Czech Republic
CN– Slovakia
СZ- Czech
D, DM– Germany
DN– Austria, Germany, the Netherlands
E– Mexico
EE– Estonia
EL– Estonia, Latvia
ER– Ireland
ET– Estonia
F– France
Facebook– France, Luxembourg
FD– Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland
FN– Indonesia
FS– Finland
GB– Greece
GH– Hungary
GP– Portugal
GR– Greece
HB– Israel
HC– Hungary, Bulgaria
HN– India
IP– Italy
J, JP– Japan
IP– Portugal, Italy
ID– Indonesia
K– Sweden
KH– South Korea, China
KN– Denmark and Norway
KS– Finland and Sweden
LA– Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, El Salvador, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Panama, Puerto Rico
LE– Argentina
LL– USA
LP– Poland
LT– Lithuania
LV– Latvia
LZ– Paraguay, Chile and Uruguay
MG– Hungary
MM– Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia
MY– Malaysia
ND– Netherlands
NF– Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Portugal
PA– Indonesia
PK– Poland, Finland
PL, PM– Poland
PO– Portugal
PP– Philippines
PY– Spain
QN– Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway
QL– Spain, Italy, Portugal
RO– Romania
RR– Russia, Moldova
RP, RS, RU- Russia
RM– Russia, Kazakhstan
RK- Kazakhstan
SE– Serbia
SL– Slovakia
SO– South Africa
SU- Ukraine
T– Italy
TA– Taiwan
TH– Thailand
TU– Turkey
TY– Italy
VN– Vietnam
X– Australia, New Zealand
Y– Spain
ZA– Singapore
ZD– Luxembourg, Austria, Belgium, Monaco, Germany, France, Netherlands, Switzerland
ZG– Denmark
ZO- Great Britain
ZP– Hong Kong and Macau
ZQ– Jamaica
When you have decided on the origin of the model, you can understand the distinctive features of the device.
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus
In addition to these models, you can find models from Japan (A1779 and A1785). They do not turn off the shutter sound in the standard Camera application, there is a FeliCa module for payments and transfers via Apple Pay. Such models may not work correctly with domestic payment terminals.
There are other minor differences for models from certain countries or regions, more on that.
Models A1660 and A1661 have a faster LTE module. Under ideal conditions, the difference in speed can be up to 30%.
Models A1778 and A1784 officially serviced in Russia. There will definitely be no problems with them when contacting a service center.
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus
Models certified for sale in the Russian Federation have codes: A1688 and A1687. Other models A1633, A1700 A1634, A1699 are for sale in the US and Asia.
There are some differences in the supported frequencies, however, they are not so critical. There is no real difference in the speed of mobile Internet, all models will work with domestic operators.
The only difference is in the official guarantee on the territory of the Russian Federation. Models A1688 and A1687 will be serviced under warranty at any authorized service center, but they may refuse to repair or replace other models.
iPhone SE
When buying this model, you need maximum attention. It's all about the supported LTE bands. Almost all domestic and many European operators operate on frequencies that are not supported by the American model.
For iPhone SE A1662 LTE will only work with some operators and not in all regions of the country. To avoid problems with LTE in Russia, choose models A1723 and A1724.
The situation with warranty service has not been canceled.
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus
PCT models have codes: A1586 and A1524. On sale you can find such devices: A1549, A1589, A1522, A1593.
The situation is similar with the iPhone SE. Models A1549 and A1522 do not support operation in LTE Band 38, MTS and Megafon operators work at this frequency. Such devices will be able to access the network only via 3G or will have to change the operator.
iPhone 5s
Here is the largest variety of models. PCT devices have a code A1457, there are still these: A1453, A1518, A1528, A1530, A1533.
iPhone 5s A1533 is a CDMA device. If you don’t know what it is for, avoid such an iPhone.
A1530- universal model with support for all possible frequencies. It will support LTE for all Russian operators, it will work with 4G networks almost anywhere in the world.
A1528- a device intended for sale in China. The GSM device has a simplified module and does not work with 4G LTE at all.
A1518- another Asian model. Of the frequencies we need, there is only Band 38. Some operators will have problems with LTE.
A1453 of the LTE frequencies we are interested in, only Band 20 is supported, which means that almost all operators may have problems with high-speed connection in most regions.
Just in case, More about the warranty:
1. PCT models purchased in Russia from
In every country, with the exception of third world countries (probably), smart people develop and adopt special documents at the legislative level, with the help of which various products are certified:- food products;
- electronics;
- transport;
- services, etc..
In the case of mobile equipment, these certificates define a clear requirement for the functioning of cellular communications in Russia, determine the SAR standards ( coefficient that shows the maximum amount of electromagnetic radiation of mobile phones) and so on. A product that satisfies all the points specified in the certificate of conformity of the quality of the Russian Federation receives a mark on its box EAC, he is the PCT or in simple language “rostest”. In other countries, exactly the same picture occurs, except that they put a mark CЄ this sign is known all over the world, the main locations of application are the European Union and the USA.
The second frontier: the issue of warranty and service
Most manufacturers ( about 90%) in the field of mobile devices, create a clear link between the certificate and the warranty area in their (official) service centers. In life, this means the following: I bought a phone, for example, in England - be kind there and be serviced. But it was not there! With the release of the iPhone 6s, Apple has erased these boundaries, new smartphones have a worldwide warranty, bought in the States - you can be serviced in Russia! Exceptions are contract phones and smartphones released exclusively for the domestic market.List of iPhone models that have a worldwide warranty:
The third frontier: the difference in trim levels and prices
Having run through the text above, you can make an uncomplicated investigation and understand that phones with different certificates are made at the same factory, perhaps even by the same person or robot, they have identical hardware and software stuffing.But there is still a difference, and it lies in the configuration! Depending on the country of sale, there may be different types of charging blocks in the box ( which by itself will not affect the charge speed of your phone) and most importantly - paper documentation will be in English! And this is probably unforgivable, if not for one but! And this is Cost. The prices for such devices are much lower, and this is due to the fact that phones in the States are a priori cheaper than, for example, in Russia, plus you don’t have to spend extra money on certification, which also affects the final cost.
conclusions
If the cost of the purchased device is not important to you, then of course you should take the Apple iPhone “rostest”, but if you want to save a little, then your choice is “Eurotest”. You will not feel any difference in phone quality or service! But you have to put up with a charging plug that is not standard for our country, in Techno Store for this case they give out an adapter for free.All "rostest" Apple iPhones that are sold in our store have a prefix in the nameEN and a stickerEAC "