A serial number is a unique combination of numbers and letters that characterizes any Apple device, be it a Mac, iPhone, iPod, iPad, as well as all accessories produced by Apple: cables, cases, adapters, etc. Although the serial number looks like a random combination of random characters, it is not. The serial number encrypts information about the place of manufacture of the device, the year and week of its production, as well as the model of the manufactured gadget.

Previously, using the serial number, the easiest way to find out the release date of a device was to just look at the third, fourth and fifth digits, which were always numbers. The third showed the last digit of the year of manufacture (for example, 8 = 2008, 9 = 2009), and the fourth and fifth together gave the number of the week in which the device was released (from 01 to 52). But such a system operated only during the first decade of the 21st century. Since 2010, Apple began to switch to a new serial number format; instead of 11-digit serial numbers, 12-digit serial numbers are now used.

An example of such a new serial number is shown above. There are no more usual numbers in it. But does this mean that the year and week number can no longer be found out? Not at all. True, using a 12-digit serial number is much more difficult to do.

The structure of Apple's 12-digit serial numbers is as follows:

• the first three characters are the code of the factory where the device was produced. Unfortunately, no one except Apple employees knows the complete list of these codes.
• fourth character - half year code in which the device was released
• fifth sign - release week code within this half year
• sixth, seventh and eighth digits – unique code for each device
• the last four characters are the model code indicating the generation, memory size, color, characteristics, etc.

We are interested in the year and week of release - but without additional decoding it will not be possible to find out. You need to look at the fourth and fifth digits of the serial number. As we have already said, the fourth character encodes the half-year, and according to a very strange system - the counting of half-years begins in 2010, and the numbering is alphabetic, starting with the letter C. The letters E, I, O and U are excluded from the numbering. There are 20 letters in total, i.e. Apple will use 12-digit serial numbers for exactly ten years, and in 2020 it will switch to a new format (possibly 13-digit numbers). The correspondence between letters and years is as follows:

The fifth character of the serial code encodes the release week number within the half-year, both using numbers and letters. First come the numbers 1 to 9, then the letters of the Latin alphabet (with the exception of A, B, E, I, O, S, U, Z) - a total of 27 possible values. The fifth character cannot be deciphered without the fourth: first you must find out whether the device was released in the first or second half of the year.

Difficult? Let's look at a practical example from the beginning of the article:

DMPJL8QEF18G

The fourth character is J, which means this is the second half of 2012. The fifth character is L, taking into account the second half of the year, this is the 43rd week of 2012.

Look at the documents. So, you are holding a phone in your hands and you just need to find out how old it is. The easiest and most convenient way to find out is through documents. Of course, this does not apply to all phone models, but if you are lucky, you will easily and without problems find out the information you need.

Look at the phone case. If you do not have documents for the phone, or they do not say when the phone was manufactured, then you should proceed as follows. Remove the battery access cover and remove the battery. Do you see stickers with inscriptions there? They will help answer the question of how to determine the release date of a phone. They contain your phone's serial number, model and make, and may also have the release date written on it. If this method did not help you, then move on to the next step.

Entering commands into the phone. So, the documents and the phone itself do not contain information to detect when it was “born”. There are several ways left. One of which is the introduction of special commands in order to find out when the OS (Operating System or as the firmware is also called) was installed on the phone. This method will only help if the phone has not been flashed. If it has been reflashed, then the next paragraph of this article will help you.

So, before entering the command and answering the question of how to check the release date of a phone, decide for yourself which phone manufacturer you have. Since different manufacturers have different codes. Codes for Nokia *#92772689# or *#0000# By entering one of these codes, you will see a window that will contain information about the OS number, the date of its installation and the phone model. For Samsung phones, you can use the code *#8999*8378# or the code *#0206*8378#. After entering which, a selection window will appear in front of you, in which, by clicking on the “manufactured” item, you will find out the production date of the phone.

For Sony-Ericsson phone models, click the code #8377466# to get detailed information about the phone, its firmware and production date. For smartphone owners, we can say that, having studied the phone well, you will find the “phone information” item there, which reflects the release date of the phone model. Regarding discontinued phone models, entering commands is your last opportunity to find out their release date, code for a Motorola phone *#300# @ complete information about the phone's OS, *#403# code for displaying the serial number on the phone panel. For Siemens phones the code is *#06#.

Contact support. If none of the above methods help you, then the phone manufacturer's support service can help you. As you remember, when you opened the battery compartment, you saw the serial number of the phone there. So, by using the Internet, or finding out the manufacturer’s number, you can contact him directly with a request to disclose the production date of this phone. Of course, the support service will not be very happy with your curiosity, but within two or three days they will provide the information you need. Sometimes they can report immediately, depending on the database that the support service uses.

As a rule, when we open the cover of the mobile phone and take out the battery, we will see the most popular inscription on the entire planet “Made in China”. This is not evidence that the smartphone, like the battery, came from China. The fact is that the Heavenly Office has factories and production facilities. The latest iPhone's battery also bears the "Made in China" label. Find out on our website if your smartphone is original.

The inscription in the instructions that the phone was made in the exact country indicated by the inscription should also not be trusted. If the pirates managed to counterfeit the phone, then they also have no problems with typography.

So, the surest way to find out which country your mobile phone came from is the IMEI address. The same 15-digit code. It is he who will help determine the country of origin.

The procedure is as follows:

2. You will receive a 15-digit set of numbers.

3. The seventh and eighth digits are the so-called FAC (Final Assembly Code)

4. These two numbers will indicate the country of origin

But there is a small caveat. Manufacturers of mobile gadgets try not to disclose their codes for various reasons. Therefore, there may be various contradictions here.

Here are some of them:

01 or 10 or 70 - these codes correspond to Finland, which means that phones with such numbering are of good quality;

02 or 20 is the code of the United Arab Emirates. Although this country is full of the richest sheikhs, poor people from other countries work on telephones. Accordingly, the phone will be of poor quality;

07, 08 or 78 – Germany. There is no need to find fault with the high-quality assembly of the Germans;

03 or 80 – China. Controversial quality. The guys work hard, but sometimes they do well;

30 – Korea;

19 or 40 – UK;

60 – Singapore;

05 – India;

04 – Hungary;

00 is a special situation. It means that the phone was produced back in 2003-2004, when FAC was abolished.

Passport service, which can be used to check the originality of a mobile device, as well as virtually certify the status of a mobile phone or tablet. We hope you save the IMEI of your mobile devices.

What methods do you use?

Our tips:

1.You can find out the release date of a particular phone using a secret code. This code may be different and depends on the manufacturer. For Nokia devices, press the key combination *#0000#, this will allow you to find out not only the manufacturing date, but also the software version and the code name of the phone model. To access the same information, try using the code *#92772689#(*#WARRANTY#).

2.For some Samsung phone models, you can view the release date using the key combinations *#8999*8378# or *#0206*8378#. After you press these keys, a menu will appear in front of you, where you select “Produced” from the proposed list and see the release date of the device.

3.Look at the release date of the phone under the battery, there is a combination of letters and numbers, the sixth and seventh characters from the end will be the month and, accordingly, the year of release of your phone.

4.For Sony Ericsson phones, look for information about the release date on the sticker located under the battery. Among the letters and numbers, find an inscription that will look something like this: 08W45, which means the year 08, the 45th week of production, now look at the calendar and find the 45th week of 2008, that’s the release date of your phone. Of course, without knowing how to decipher this kind of information, it will not be easy to guess.

5. Responsible manufacturers indicate the production date in the accompanying documents to the device; as a rule, a factory typesetting stamp is affixed in the format YY.MM.DD; the date is rarely put by hand. But you should not blindly trust this information about the product; sellers, wanting to extend the life of the device, change the dates to more recent ones, or even completely remove the coupon from the phone box. In this case, study the warranty card; in a correctly executed document, the issue date must be placed on the front side of the card.

6.Go to the official website of the manufacturer of your mobile phone. Find your model in the required section and view information regarding the year of its manufacture. Official website of Samsung - http://www.samsung.com/ru/, Nokia - http://www.nokia.com/ru-ru/, Sony Ericsson - http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/home ?cc=ru&lc=ru, Siemens - http://www.siemens.com/entry/ru/ru, LG - http://www.lg.com/ru/. You can also get information about your phone model on special thematic sites and forums.

7.Enter the service code *#0000# in the standby mode of your phone and wait until the information you are interested in is displayed on the screen. Please note that sometimes there is completely different information written there regarding the software and in no way related to the release date of the phone; here everything depends on the manufacturer.

8.Enter the combination into your phone to receive a fifteen-digit IMEI identification code - *#06#. Open the following web page in your browser: http://www.numberingplans.com/?page=analysis&sub=imeinr. Enter the code displayed on the screen into the appropriate input form on the website, get results regarding your phone and view the year of manufacture. Other information that you may find useful is also available here, for example, the country in which your mobile device was assembled, the full name of the model, and so on. If your phone ID was not found, most likely your phone is fake.

9.Connect your phone to your computer and install the software that comes with it. It is possible that the utility menu also includes information about the year of manufacture of your mobile device.

If you buy a used mobile phone, then you can determine the year of manufacture of the phone and how long it was used using the service code. You need to type it on your phone keypad.
For Nokia this is an asterisk, a hash of the numbers 92 70 26 89 and then a hash again.
Phone service codes Nokia.
These codes work with most Nokia phones.
*#0000# combination displays information about the firmware. The first line is the firmware version, the 2nd line is the date of its release, the 3rd type of phone.
*#92702689# general information about the phone (1- serial number, 2- production date, 3- date of first use, 4- date of repair, if any) Attention! After entering this code, you can exit the service menu only by rebooting.
*#7780# Reset the phone to its original settings (all user data remains).
*#7370# full reset with clearing all memory (contacts, calendar and downloads will be deleted).
*#7370925538# deleting all data from the wallet.

Phone service codes Samsung.
*#9999# firmware version.
*#0523# allows you to change display parameters.
*#9998*228# shows the battery status.
*#9998*289# code changes the ringing frequency.
*#9998*523# change the display contrast.
*#9998*636# Displays the amount of free and used memory.
*#9998*842# vibration motor test.
*#9998*523# allows you to change the brightness of the display (only for version G60RL01W).
* # 9998 * JAVA # access to WAP and GPRS settings.
* # 9998 * VERNAME # the most complete information about the firmware, hardware used and other technical parameters.
*#8999*8378# allows you to enter the system menu.
*2767*2878# full reset with clearing all memory.
*#8999*377# shows error log entries.
*#8999*3825523# in clamshells allows you to configure the external display settings.

Phone service codes Siemens.
*#0606# and the left soft key code will allow you to turn on the device without a SIM card.
*#9999#@ reset all settings and return to original settings.

Phone service codes Sony-Ericsson.
*>*<<*<* (где < отклонение джойстика влево, >right) combination allows you to find out the firmware version.
*#3262255*8378# service menu.
#8377466# detailed information about the phone.

Phone service codes Motorola
Motorola C650.
*#0000# @ return to original settings.
*#300# @ information about the firmware.
*#301# @ testing the performance of all parts of the phone (display, keyboard, speaker, vibration motor)
*#302# @ sound menu
*#305# @message menu
*#307# @- service menu
*#403# OK manufacturer's serial number.

Motorola E398, C350, C650 and E1.
The following code increases the capacity of the incoming and outgoing call log from 10 to 60, but does not work on all phone models.
1) Press the menu key then dial 048263* the phone will display the Opcode tab.
2) Next, substitute the following values:
Opcode 47 -OK
Field 1 80 OK
Field 2 1 OK
Field 3 143 OK
Field 4 1 OK Field 5 (D) 060 OK
F1: 0 reboot phone
You will receive 60 incoming journal entries.
3) Press menu again, then 048263*
Opcode 47 OK
Field 1 80 OK
Field 2 1 OK
Field 3 147 OK
Field 4 1 OK
Field 5 (D) 060 OK
F1: 0 reboot phone
Add another 60 outgoing calls.

Motorola E365.
#02# information about the firmware and hardware components of the phone.
#09# device test.
#08# expert menu.
#03# signal level from the base station.
#04# battery parameters.
**0101# SIM card test.
102# full reset with clearing all memory.

Phone service codes LG.
2 9 4 5 # * # engineering menu.
SW VERSION Firmware version inside this menu.
FACTORY RESET returns to factory settings and resets all settings.