In case there was any doubt, the Pablo Escobar-branded foldable smartphone is just a Samsung Galaxy Fold with a sticker on it.
If you missed out on all the Escobar phone nonsense, here’s the story. Infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s brother, Roberto De Jesus Escobar Gaviria, launched a website dubbed ‘Escobar Inc.’ where last year, it began selling the ‘Escobar Fold 1’ foldable smartphone for the unreasonably low price of $350 USD.
Of course, the phone was clearly a scam — the images of it were obvious rebrands of the Royole FlexPai phone. Unsurprisingly, no one who ordered an Escobar Fold 1 received the phone.
In February, Roberto and Escobar Inc. returned with the Escobar Fold 2, a rebranded Samsung Galaxy Fold, this time priced at $400 USD (about $549.92 CAD). It’s a significantly lower price than the $2,600 cost of the Fold in Canada.
Thankfully, YouTubers Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) and ‘Mrwhosetheboss‘ managed to get their hands on Escobar Fold 2 devices and revealed what was actually going on. In MKBHD’s video, he uses a knife to peel off the gold sticker applied to the device, confirming the phone is just a Galaxy Fold.
Further, it’s clear the phone is running Samsung’s OneUI Android skin with the only real difference being the Escobar Fold 2 sports the creepy, infamous Pablo Escobar mugshot as the wallpaper.
Mrwhosetheboss notes in his video that Escobar Inc.’s CEO, Olof Gustafsson, claims the company ordered a bunch of Galaxy Fold devices that didn’t meet Samsung’s quality control standards, as well as returned units and overstock from retailers that ordered more Galaxy Folds than they could sell. Supposedly, Escobar Inc. is rebranding these devices with the gold stickers and then selling them to customers for much cheaper than a proper Galaxy Fold.
Further, that lines up with the press release Escobar Inc. release alongside the Fold 2, which states the company’s goal is to become the “overstock kingpin of electronical [sic] devices.”
Ultimately, both YouTubers came to the conclusion that they likely received their orders from the dubious company because of their sizable followings. As for regular customers, there’s a good chance they will never receive one of these if they place an order. Consequently, we can’t stress enough that you should not order one of these phones.
Unless you’re a big-name YouTuber with a massive following — or a YouTuber seemingly promoting the Escobar Fold 2 — you’re probably never going to get one of these phones.
Update 03/13/2020: The Escobar Fold 2 saga continues. After the Escobar Inc. website went down briefly, it’s online again.
The Latest on the Escobar Fold 2 is there now emailing customers who paid for a first one to buy a second one for a reduced price. This is before even sending out the first one. On another note, their website is back up. pic.twitter.com/IahRW1wbAF
— Matthew Moniz (@mattmoniz) March 13, 2020
Further, the company is emailing customers who paid for an Escobar Fold 2 with an offer to buy a second at a reduced price. Customers have not yet received the first phone, however. The email says the savings come from the “reduced shipping cost” of sending two devices at once.
Obviously, this isn’t legit and you should absolutely not buy one of these.
Source: MKBHD, Mrwhosetheboss Via: Gizmodo
