Possibly a prototype/fake MacBook Air? Update! It has a Core i3!

There is no way this is a fake. Fake MBAs aren't this detailed. Likely a late prototype.

Btw a likely scenario for this is that this was a prototype from early 2012. Intel's Panther Point was released in April while Ivy Bridge was delayed till June. It is likely that Apple got Panther Point engineering samples earlier but did not have the Ivy Bridge chips on hand to build an exact 2012 prototype. So a 2011 MBA was hacked together with Panther Point for testing.

Another possibility was a contingency plan in case Ivy Bridge was further delayed and Apple wanted a slightly updated 2012 MBA with Sandy Bridge but newer chipset.

Any new discoveries? Very interestingnthread

nebrot said:

I have been living 5 years in China - Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hohhot, Dalian all big cities, seen and had hands on all kind of copy stuff - electronics, cars, clothes, watches. Nothing came really close to the originals and were just rubbish. I found this Air unlikely to be a copy considering its build quality. As mentioned by someone before, it would cost a fortune to make it - copy design engineering, material sourcing, supply chain set-up, machining equipment and so on. "Normal" copy looks just so so from outside, but under the hood even worse. I really do not believe this to be fake - but OP please keep us posted, very interesting thread.

Click to expand...

hackerwayne said:

Till today i still don't think im having a fake MBA. Ive been using it like a normal one and it perform just like a normal 2011 MBA

Click to expand...

I am ten years into China, and I agree the "knock off" stuff is in general very cheaply put together internally. I have seen some good copies of Mac`s over the years, all of them running Windows don't get me wrong there are some extremely skilful people here who could easily put something like this together, equally why? Here in Shenzhen we have literally dozens of high-rise`s that specialise in all IT product, countless thousands of outlets. All the Mac`s that I have seen recently are to all intents and purpose legitimate; they look right, they feel right, they all run OS X and priced as per Apple. There are some very obvious design copies, however these are not "clones" and running Windows.

It`s not impossible that the machine is some sort of fake, however I would expect to see a lot more of them popping up if this was the case...

I bought the EXACT same one last year before buying my proper MBA... it's fake. Like... mine was identical in every single way, although I never switched in another SSD, I had Windows 7 running on it. People saying they aren't this detailed are incorrect; it's just a good fake. I've had my fair share of good and bad fakes over the last year or two.

joewillmott said:

I had Windows 7 running on it.

Click to expand...

The thing about this one is that it's running OS X natively through EFI. A knockoff shouldn't be able to do this. Was your device capable of running OS X?

As an aside, for those wondering about "fakes", as I was, I discovered a fake being sold locally by somebody who got duped into buying one.

Not really similar at all, but just an example.

Note the Apple logo on the lid in one of the pictures:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121099592426

MacTech68 said:

As an aside, for those wondering about "fakes", as I was, I discovered a fake being sold locally by somebody who got duped into buying one.

Not really similar at all, but just an example.

Note the Apple logo on the lid in one of the pictures:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121099592426

Click to expand...

Haha. Some people are too clueless for their own good.

hackerwayne said:

This guy runs EFI and has OSX Mountain Lion on it. Its 100% works like a normal MBA except it has a i3 in it.

Click to expand...

But when I bought my fake knock-off, they did offer the option of having OSX running on it for an extra £20. I didn't choose it because; a) I am a penny pinching bugger, and b) I needed to use UDK which is Windows-only.

joewillmott said:

But when I bought my fake knock-off, they did offer the option of having OSX running on it for an extra £20. I didn't choose it because; a) I am a penny pinching bugger, and b) I needed to use UDK which is Windows-only.

Click to expand...

Being able to run OS X is one thing; having a native EFI that will boot a basically vanilla OS X is another thing entirely.

joewillmott said:

I bought the EXACT same one last year before buying my proper MBA... it's fake. Like... mine was identical in every single way, although I never switched in another SSD, I had Windows 7 running on it. People saying they aren't this detailed are incorrect; it's just a good fake. I've had my fair share of good and bad fakes over the last year or two.

Click to expand...

At first I like to introduce myself: My Name is Morten Luebbert and i am new to this forum.

I have to ask you a question Mr. Willmott, i would like to know where do you bought this Macbook knock-off? I'm really interested in, because I'm planning to buy a Macbook, but the Problem is that I'm a student and don't have that much money to buy a Macbook for about 1500€, so I started to search for alternatives and i read this thread really interested into it, and thought about buying such a knock-off mac, that works and feels like a Mac. So, it would be nice, if you could tell me where to buy one of these "Macbooks" .

And I'm sorry for such a bad english but I'm from Germany and not that good in english as well