Has fraud become a "breakthrough for domestic screens"? Both Apple and TCL CSOT have been implicated.

If you're a seasoned iPhone user, you may have heard of the "Huaxing Screen" recently.

What is the "Huaxing Screen"? First of all, it's important to clarify that it's just a name coined by some merchants and doesn't necessarily mean the screen panel comes from TCL Huaxing. In fact, the "Huaxing Screen" doesn't refer to the screens produced by TCL Huaxing. Instead, it's a general term for a type of third - party (non - original) screen replacement parts for iPhone repairs currently on the market.

Originally, this isn't a big deal. From the consumers' perspective, there are indeed some people who don't want to or can't repair their iPhones through official channels after the screen is damaged. In this case, a third - party screen replacement that is at least "usable" can be seen as an objective market demand.

However, if a third - party screen of unknown origin is forced to "pretend" to be an official accessory, and even after being exposed, some people come out to defend it, saying that the ability to "substitute" means the counterfeiters have high - enough technology and it's a sign of "the progress of domestic technology", it's really shameless and absurd.

The reason why we at 3eLife are writing this article today is that we've seen a lot of relevant materials. After fully collecting the opinions from all parties, we can now reveal the sordid details of the counterfeiting of third - party iPhone screens.

Huaxing Screen? No, it should actually be called the "No - Approval Screen"

First, let's talk about what the so - called "Huaxing Screen" is all about.

From the publicly available information on the Internet, the "Huaxing Screen" is essentially a non - regular replacement screen for iPhones, which is cut and produced by third - party accessory factories. The reason it's called the "Huaxing Screen" is that relevant merchants claim to use panels from TCL Huaxing.

Regarding this, we at 3eLife obtained the following two key pieces of information from relevant personnel at TCL Huaxing.

Firstly, they have no knowledge of the "Huaxing Screen" and can't find any relevant shipping information.

Secondly, relevant personnel pointed out that it's actually difficult to verify the claim of third - party screen factories that they "use TCL Huaxing panels".

I believe that after seeing these two statements, you can more or less guess what's going on. According to what we heard from relevant users, the reason third - party accessory factories call this screen the "Huaxing Screen" is mainly to indicate that this screen uses real OLED panels, which are better than the past inferior screens that simply used LCDs to pretend to be OLEDs. That's why they came up with this name.

In other words, the "Huaxing" in the "Huaxing Screen" is just like "Zero - Additive (brand) Soy Sauce" or "Northeast (brand) Rice", just a product label.

The third - party screen is not inherently bad, but it's being maliciously misused

Of course, if the "Huaxing Screen" is just a third - party accessory factory giving their assembled screen a name that may cause misunderstandings, it might indeed be a trivial matter.

The real reason that caught our attention and made us decide to dig deeper is that this screen is now being misused by some people with ulterior motives, and it may even involve criminal activities such as the dark web and fraud.

According to the information we have, when third - party accessory manufacturers produce these assembled screens, they use non - Apple original screen driver ICs for matching.

These third - party driver ICs can work normally in iOS, and the display and touch functions are also completely normal. However, since they are not original chips, they will be recognized as "third - party screens". When users query in the iOS system, they will see relevant warning messages informing them that the current phone is using a non - original screen.

Note that relevant users have reported to us at 3eLife that Apple only "informs" that these screens are not from the original factory but doesn't impose any restrictions on their functions. That is to say, if someone accidentally breaks the iPhone screen and, with full knowledge, chooses to use a third - party assembled screen for replacement and repair, this "warning message" shouldn't make them unhappy.

The problem is that some unscrupulous merchants have realized that if they remove the identification IC from the original screen and install it on these third - party screens, they may "deceive" the iOS system and prevent it from popping up the warning message.

Of course, in the past, third - party screens were very different from the original screens in terms of display effect, so it was easy to expose the fraud even if they did this. However, since the so - called "Huaxing Screen" has a much better display effect than the previous assembled screens, it has become the favorite of counterfeiters.

Counterfeiting is boasted as a "breakthrough", ignorance or audacity?

Some friends may say that these people using third - party assembled screens for counterfeiting can at most deceive some customers who need repairs by selling assembled screens as original ones. How large can the sales volume be?

However, according to some current information, what these screens can do is far from that simple. Some people even buy iPhones directly, replace them with this type of assembled screen (with the original IC disguised), and then re - package them for "no - reason returns".

In this way, they can exchange a high - priced original screen for a cheap assembled screen, and the returned iPhones may be resold to unsuspecting consumers.

Facing this situation, Apple can't remain indifferent. It's reported that after the latest iOS system version update, Apple has imposed punitive blocking measures on "assembled screens with original ICs installed". Now these screens not only trigger warning messages but also cause the full - screen touch to malfunction. It should be noted that if it's still an assembled screen using a third - party IC, there will only be a warning and no loss of function. That is to say, Apple still allows users to use third - party screens for repairs, but it has blocked the way of "moving the IC" to pass off inferior products as high - quality ones.

Facing this situation, what are these people's reactions? According to the latest information, they have not only further improved their counterfeiting technology but also promoted it as a "technological breakthrough".

Come on, can you have a bit of shame? Moreover, being so high - profile, aren't you really afraid of getting punished?

This article is from the WeChat official account "3eLife" (ID: IT - 3eLife) . Author: 3eLife Editor. Republished by 36Kr with permission.