All new GBA SP consoles are fakes. You'll have to find a used AGS 101 on ebay

 

bring a few games and demand to check if they work before you pay because you've been screwed over before?

no biggie

 

Do you have a Virtual Boy too? Because those are said to be handhelds.

 

you'll know it's a clone if it boots to some weird menu with no game inserted. other giveaways include:

- clones have 320x240 res screens so they stretch to fit. the scaling looks kinda ugly.
- it doesn't play tony hawks 2 properly (none of the clones can cope with this game for some reason).
- flash cart doesn't work (though some of them do)
- link cable doesn't work on clones
- gameboy carts don't work

but you should know all this. being a collector you should also have all of the clones in your collection

 

Check under the cover of your GBA console to see if there's an serial-like numbers and letters. If there's nothing, then it's fake.

 

I got a very good quality fake GBA-SP and it had serial and all other printed text on it.

1) Unit's outer shell was identical to a genuine GBA-SP.
2) Fake GBA-SP has a "clumsy" package. You can easily tell the difference if you ever see the real package. (by package, I mean cartoon box and internal layout.
3) My fake unit's screen ratio was different than the original (it was not wide-screen)
4) Fake is a little bit slower. ~%10-15 slower than genuine device.
5) Fake has ~100 integrated fully functional GBA games. (All different and fully working... working a little bit slower though...)
6) Fake is cheap $40~60 for a brand new unit. (I bought it for $90 without knowing it was fake. and instantly refunt the unit)

at the other hand,
I bought a genuine but used GBA-SP (IQUE) AGS-101
It does have the serial sticker but the right side of the sticker was totally blank !!!

 

Does anyone know if an EZ Flash IV works with clones?