Why did Pablo Escobar's brother clone the Galaxy 399galaxy Fold (update: It's a scam)

Why did Pablo Escobar's brother clone the Galaxy 399galaxy Fold (update: It's a scam)

3 p.m. ET update: Added information about a user who claims he never received the phone he ordered. See this website and this Reddit thread about what happened to a man in the Czech Republic.

Pablo Escobar's brother is a folding devotee, and his latest phone is a clone of the Galaxy Fold, except that the back is gold. However, according to some reports, this may not necessarily be all that shiny gold.

At least, the press release announcing this new phone is pure gold from the very first paragraph: "Roberto de Jesús Escobar Gaviria, Pablo Escobar's own brother, has started producing a fully foldable smartphone.

Obviously, the phone is a near-perfect clone of Samsung's Galaxy Fold, but that doesn't stop Escobar's brother from claiming that it was "designed in America." The press release also states that it is "assembled in Hong Kong" and that "some parts are sourced from Shenzhen, China."

See if you can spot the following differences:

Without the wallpaper, it would be hard to see the difference when you open the phone.

But the back is completely different, with a flashy gold finish and a huge PE (meaning Pablo Escobar) logo:

Otherwise, it would look just like the Samsung foldable.

The phone will initially be produced in a limited run of "first" 200,000 units, but claims impressive specs for the price.

It runs Android 10 and is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 (which is actually faster than the Galaxy Fold). According to the press release, it has a total of five cameras (16MP/12MP/12MP on the back and 10MP/8MP megapixels on the front) and a 7.3-inch AMOLED panel with a resolution of 2152 x 1536. At least according to photos and a promotional video, the phone also has an external display, but details about its size and resolution are not available. Overall, the phone is powered by a 4,380mAh battery.

Pricing is: $399 for the model with 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage, and $549 for the model with 12GB of memory and 512GB of storage.

Can they offer all this for $399? No one knows that for sure. According to Escobar, his goal is "to be the electronics inventory king by the end of this year. These factories simply have extra technology, and nobody is buying anything from the secondary factories in China. We will lower our prices and offer discounts directly to our customers under the Escobal brand umbrella." We will have to take him at his word.

We know that Escobal's first cell phone was merely a rebranding of the Flexpai, the world's first foldable phone manufactured by the Chinese company Royole. But we don't know how many units it sold or how good it was; PCMag reports that users who bought that first foldable phone claim they did not receive a new phone. Instead, some users claim to have received only books and brochures.

Escobar says that the Escobar Fold 2 is "currently available" on their site (which is not secure for work).

Clearly, Escobar knows who its target market is, given its promotional materials filled with buxom women in lingerie. The Escobar Fold 2's only design failing is that the back is gold instead of mirror-finished (due to the optional Colombian blowbag). Other than that, for the specs and price, it looks like a bargain to me.

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