What's the difference between a fake iPhone and a real one?

I don't mean spotting out how to spot out a fake. What's the difference between how they both work? Does the fake work exactly like the real or are there issues with it?

There are differences, there's several websites and youtube tutorials that take you through the things to look for

- this is handy, search for the model youre interested in

You can't possibly be this stupid. The hardware is NOT THE SAME and NEITHER IS THE SOFTWARE.

It's China, and I would never buy anything from that garbage country.

If the fake one worked exactly like the real one, nobody would pay the big bucks for the real one.

The fake of course will not run iOS but Android skinned to look like it. That would be the major difference. Of course there would be issues since it is nowhere near the quality of the real deal

What to look for is very subtle. The points I see are that the camera is not flush or recessed, has a chrome ring around it and next to it, the light is a single round (with a square in the center) unit, compared to the twin small rectangles of the lighting LEDs in the fake.

The fake will not be allowed to register with the phone carrier, as the serial number must be verified with Apple to make sure it isn't a stolen unit. It automatically supplies the serial number when it is first connected to its newly issued (or existing if it is an upgrade/replacement) phone number.

Will they work the same, if you can connect to the phone company? (like throwing your existing SIM card into one) No, as the phone company verifies the serial every time you connect. Even if you could get it to connect, the internal ROM is different and it will not operate with the ios properly and won't be allowed to connect to the Apple Store for apps, music, or ios updates.

BTW: If they are the Chinese copy, they are probably not even designed for American cell phone frequencies. The Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia all use different cell phone frequency ranges. A true GSM "quad band" phone like the real iPhone can operate on all frequency ranges.

I must mention that the video is messed up. He actually starts by saying the one on the left is fake and the one on the right is real. Later he swaps them in his hands and starts calling the one he said was fake the real one and then when he returns them to their boxes, he puts the one from the left box in the right box and the reverse!

He brings out some good points like the way the camera sticks out a bit, which is visible in the Apple Store pictures, but the newest model iPhone 6 Apple logo looks more like the one he calls the fake. The one in the video with the black logo looks like an older version of the iPhone 6, as the logo has been changed slightly in the newest 6's produced. The counterfeit looks like it tried to use the newest case design versus the older case design of the real one that he shows.