A few weeks ago, the Engadget team was swapping war stories about covering tech in the face of an ever-growing glut of white label devices. Tech, pumped out by a single factory, then sold on to others who put their name on it to sell. They're often attached to a Zombie Brand, as it's an easy way to sell mediocre tech to an unsuspecting public. That's not to say white label tech is bad per se, but it helps to know what you're buying before you hand your money over. So I've sketched out this brief spotter's guide to make sure you're not going to get duped.

Device manufacturing is the province of a small cluster of Asian factories. Very few companies actually make their own hardware. Even those with a long history of designing and building products outsource the actual work this way. White label manufacturing is a legitimate practice, and even big names will add their brand to gear made by their ostensible rivals. Take Sony, which put its name on Samsung and LG-made panels years before it sold its TV business to TCL.

But there are also plenty of generic, sometimes copycat devices, stamped out by an Original Device Manufacturer (ODM). In one example, Engadget's camera guru Steve Dent found the exact same gimbal camera available under three different names. Ordro's UHD-M5, AgfaPhoto Realimove MC3X and Minolta Showtime MN5KG100 even have identical pictures on their Amazon listings. And it's not just camera gear that is rife with products like this.

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