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Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

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Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#81
post #2

My partner bought fake AirPods off ebay. We kind of had a feeling they'd be fake but felt it was worth the risk. We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly and they told us to keep them. The pods themselves looked exactly the same. The case was the real sign. It was clearly not the same as an original case. They actually worked, but they were essentially just generic bluetooth headphones. We ended up listing them…

>Got the same amount we paid for them. I don't understand this world sometimes. Someone wants ear buds, they want to signal wealth so choose expensive brand, but they want knockoffs because they're actually poor[er]. The main risk with knock-offs is they arrive broken, or just don't arrive, or... basically it's a scam of some sort. So, you took on the risk of buying, assessed the earphones as working, the earphones a…

>signal wealth

>$100 product

It really boggles my mind that this works on anyone. We all see the commercials for financing. We all see teenagers with no jobs having them.

I'm a bit mind boggled that Apple was able to turn <$1000 tech products into 'luxury' products. Maybe it makes more sense if you didn't get screwed by iTunes DRM and were more open minded during iphone Era.

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#82
post #44

> The counterfeit AirPods even resort to using internal weights with no other function than to mimic the heft of the genuine product That's ironic, as being lighter would actually be an advantage (makes them less likely to fall out on sudden movements).

For B2B, a business would never pay for extra weight.

For B2C, monkey likes pink sparkles. Wow! I want.

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Got the same amount we paid for them. I don't understand this world sometimes. Someone wants ear buds, they want to signal wealth so choose expensive brand, but they want knockoffs because they're actually poor[er]. The main risk with knock-offs is they arrive broken, or just don't arrive, or... basically it's a scam of some sort. So, you took on the risk of buying, assessed the earphones as working, the earphones a…

>signal wealth >$100 product It really boggles my mind that this works on anyone. We all see the commercials for financing. We all see teenagers with no jobs having them. I'm a bit mind boggled that Apple was able to turn <$1000 tech products into 'luxury' products. Maybe it makes more sense if you didn't get screwed by iTunes DRM and were more open minded during iphone Era.

When I lived in Vietnam, getting the latest iPhone (or really any product), as soon as someone smuggled it into the country (usually from Australia or Singapore), was a national pastime for people there. That logo is everywhere.

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#85
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do use wired ones when I'm at the PC. I have some Sennheiser HD25's my ex wife bought me over 20 years ago.

Great longevity as they tend to be for club / dj environments but I find they have way too much pressure on the ear to be comfortable as regular headphones for use at a computer.

They do a "lite" version known as the "SP" ones which doesn't clamp your head. I've got those

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#86
post #2

My partner bought fake AirPods off ebay. We kind of had a feeling they'd be fake but felt it was worth the risk. We got a refund from the seller pretty quickly and they told us to keep them. The pods themselves looked exactly the same. The case was the real sign. It was clearly not the same as an original case. They actually worked, but they were essentially just generic bluetooth headphones. We ended up listing them…

Same here. My wife washed the old airpods so she got me some new and "better" AirPod Pros. They looked perfect and since I did not really care about getting other ones I did not much research. In any case they looked genuine and worked for a while until their flakiness got on my nerves and I went to a slightly embarrassing Apple appointment where I was told there were scores of service requests for this particular serial number. She got her money back since at least in our country EBay the company is now the seller and could not run away and as it was bought with PayPal...

What convinced me that they were originals - packaging looked genuine - paired out of the box without much hassle - showed up as air pods with serial number

Lesson learned and bought the new ones and these were the differences:

- print inside the lid was 20% larger in original

- packaging of original was not shrink wrapped

- slight off-colour white of the packaging

- the lightning port of the fake was not feeling right

- the button on the case did not click distinctly

- the button on the case did not enter the special mode after 10 seconds like original

- ANC of original light years ahead. More modes displayed on the menu.

With hindsight the biggest give-away probably were the

- shrink-wrap plastic around the package

- lightning port feel

- much, much lower microphone quality. But since I never checked that out myself as I don't use them much for talking and so complaints from others were not so frequent.

- imperfect find-my performance but since I did not care about this feature much I suspected I mis-clicked somewhere and gave up.

- transitions from case to ear to case with sometimes not registering that it was back in case (contact issues in the case?) not so reliable with impact on battery.

- battery erratic behaviour

I guess if I would have been in the market for them and then bought them I may have found out immediately but so I just started feeling Apple starts slipping on quality with new products more complex but worse. As I got them as a replacement and just wanted to get on with listening during my walks they were able to fool me. They are certainly good enough to fool casual buyers and they are certainly bad enough to hurt Apple's reputation for quality products.

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#87

I got some AirPods Pro 2 knock offs from Temu for £16. Paired exactly like AirPods, was super shocked. Work great with an Apple TV. They don’t have multi connect though. But are actually more comfortable than the real deal. I find the originals hurt after about 45 mins.

how is the sound?

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#88

What is the moral calculus of counterfeiters? Fake power adapters can kill.

It would be cool if they could put a chip inside the chargers and have the charger communicate over USB C whether it's authentic or not. Of course you could still use third party chargers that would lack this chip, but for people who like first party chargers or buying chargers from reputable brands (that would probably license this from Apple) it would be nice.

they did this with PS3 controllers and it just made it an inconvenience to charge your remote that any counterfeiters could bypass anyway

like great so I can't charge from the wall unless I buy a sony-branded charger at a huge markup?

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>signal wealth >$100 product It really boggles my mind that this works on anyone. We all see the commercials for financing. We all see teenagers with no jobs having them. I'm a bit mind boggled that Apple was able to turn <$1000 tech products into 'luxury' products. Maybe it makes more sense if you didn't get screwed by iTunes DRM and were more open minded during iphone Era.

When I lived in Vietnam, getting the latest iPhone (or really any product), as soon as someone smuggled it into the country (usually from Australia or Singapore), was a national pastime for people there. That logo is everywhere.

I concur. My mom sometimes talked about how her friends / coworkers just got the latest iPhone and that made her want to get one herself. I guess part of it is just FOMO but there's also something about the brand that drove people to do "unusual" things (like you said, smuggling phones from other countries just to be the first)

Re: Real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you charged the going rate for pre-used, maybe the buyer is planning to put them in official looking packaging (likely really official packaging picked up elsewhere, perhaps from their own purchase of an official product) and sell them as new for a profit?

Probably more likely: 1. Buy a new pair off Amazon. 2. Return the fake and get a refund from Amazon.

Jokes on them… the Amazon ones will also be fake
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