Buying a brand new iPhone is one of the more exciting tech purchases you can make, but a mysterious blue mark on the Apple device's box might leave you wondering if you've been landed with a dodgy device.
Unless you're buying direct from Apple or from an official retailer, there's always a level of risk picking up a new piece of tech, even if the typically lower price makes it feel worth it.
Something as simple as a phone charging cable can be counterfeit, and being landed with a fake iPhone can lose you hundreds of dollars, even if the operating system is hilarious once you turn it on.
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While there are clever ways that you can use to tell if an Apple device you've bought has been fitted with unofficial parts, one Reddit user expressed worries over the authenticity of their new iPhone despite going through all of the necessary checks to confirm its validity.
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Posting on the r/iphone subreddit, u/Latter-Hospital9318 details: "I got an iPhone 16 Pro Max from Apple flagship store from Shopee (an online shopping app). The phone is legit, verified its model and it is an international model (has sim tray), its model number is M*****P/A'. Also got a free 3-month Apple TV, so its authenticity and it being a retail and a new phone is established. It is not refurbished."
So far so good for this new phone, yet there's one mystery detail that's making them question all the checks that they've painstakingly gone through to confirm its authenticity.
"Anyone know what this clue circle on its box indicates? I searched around but got no answer. My curiosity just won't let this one go. Wondering if anyone got the same packaging."
Something as simple and innocuous as a blue dot shouldn't really raise alarm, but it's not something you'd expect to see on an official Apple package and therefore can make your intuition feel like something is up.
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Thankfully it does have an answer - although it's one that still leaves the original poster baffled and confused.
Underneath the post the top comment explains that dots are "usually color coded for carriers. If you were in the US that would be the AT&T variant. Not sure what it means in your country."
If you bought a phone that was locked to a specific carrier, this color dot is for the manufacturing side to ensure that the right device is sent to you, and is absolutely nothing you should be worrying about unless your sim card for some reason doesn't work.
However, that still doesn't solve the mystery. Replying to that comment, the original posting reveals that "in our country, our phones don't automatically [have] a specific carrier. You can use any network you prefer a
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nd our sim card services are usually pre-paid."
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The answer might instead be to do with convenience on the store's end though, as another comment reveals: "More than likely it's just the way the store you bought it from identified that color/storage type. I used to work for a major electronics retailer in the US and we had small stickers that would go on the iPhone boxes to denote the storage size because it made them easier to find in a cabinet full of iPhone boxes that all look the same."
Regardless of the actual meaning behind the dot - which there appears to be many that could differ from store to store - it's thankfully not something you really need to worry about in the grand scheme of things, and you can rest assured that your iPhone is genuine as long as you've followed the other checks.