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Check Out These Cheap $50 AirPods Knockoffs

fourthtunz said:
Right on! and something that people don't take into account is safety. With a radio that close to your brain I'd rather buy the apple product that is probably safer.
[doublepost=1551887379][/doublepost]
Or with a cheap unshielded radio that close to your brain? Nope
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You should be fine considering

a) there is no scientific evidence proving adverse effects of frequencies in this range, and
b) there is no known biomechanical process by which adverse effects could be caused by frequencies in this range
 
You ought to be fine considering

a) there is no logical proof demonstrating unfavorable impacts of frequencies in this range, and

b) there is no known biomechanical process by which antagonistic impacts could be brought about by frequencies in this range
 
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Zeke D said:
So I got a pair of these based on Dan’s review. I disagree with everything that Dan said. Major problems:

1. Connectivity. While listening to music, the right bud would repeatedly lose connection. The phone was in my left pants pocket, and moving it to the right made no difference.

2. Volume. When they did work in stereo listening to music, the volume was fine, but when it came time to make a phone call, I had it maxed out, and had to strain to hear the person on the other end.

3. Phone. When the iPhone screen would turn off, the call would drop. Had this happen multiple times, and my iPhone had full LTE signal strength.

4. No single bud use. Both buds have to be out of the charger for either of them to work.

5. Interoperability. I have my iPhone synced to my car, and tried to place a call, selecting the car as the audio on the iPhone audio selector. At some point, the fake AirPods “stole” the call, and since the buds were in the cup holder, I had to just end the call.

6. Sound quality. Not even remotely like my AirPods. The AirPods are rich sounding. These sound like the very first generation of Apple ear buds.
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I contacted Knockies to return the i10 TWS, and they offered to send me the i12TWS and a return label for the i10s at no additional charge. Here is my updated thoughts on the i12TWS:

1. Connectivity. hella better. they might even perform better than my Airpods. The range from the iPhone seems better than my airpods too.

2. Volume. Slightly better on phone calls, but still much quieter than listening to music.

3. Phone. Probably better? I'll need more time testing to verify, but it seems better.

4. Single bud use. You can leave the right bud in the case, and just use the left, which is an improvement over the i10s, but I like to use the right bud, especially when I'm using it for hand-free calling in the car.

5. Haven't tested yet.

6. Sound Quality. About the same. The Airpods just sound so much better.
 
Zeke D said:
4. Single bud use. You can leave the right bud in the case, and just use the left, which is an improvement over the i10s, but I like to use the right bud, especially when I'm using it for hand-free calling in the car.
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So you can't use just the right one? Even with the improvements, it still seems like a significant step down from AirPods. I'll just hang in there and try to wait for the AirPods 2.
 
So I bought the i10 TWS from Geek Buying with promo code mentioned here for only $20.62. They came in a little over a week.

However, I noticed something: they are not stereo. They are both L and you can verify with the stereo settings and slide to R and no sound, but to center and L there’s sound. I tried my Beats wireless and confirmed they work normally.

I wonder if the i12 gives this or if same. Both descriptions state true stereo sound but in the i10’s case it can’t be true.

ALSO: mine came with lightening charging not USB-C.
 
1984 Mac Guru said:
I wonder if the i12 gives this or if same. Both descriptions state true stereo sound but in the i10’s case it can’t be true.
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I've received i12 TWS from AliExpress and their stereo works fine (using this to test).

EDIT: Removed endorsement of i12 TWS "Double V5.0", since they later died after 3 weeks of use.
 
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I ordered i10 TWS and i12 TWS from AliExpress.

The i12 TWS arrived yesterday. Here are all of the problems I've had with it so far in a single day of use:
  • Initial pairing was problematic. At first, only left earbud paired. I had to try several times to get the right earbud to pair.
  • The left earbud consistently plays right channel.
  • The right earbud consistently plays the left channel.
  • The left earbud has "right earbud" controls (double-tap skips forward instead of backward).
  • The right earbud has "left earbud" controls (double-tap skips backward instead of forward).
  • Siri frequently engages when I'm just trying to insert, remove, or otherwise handle the earbuds in almost any way.
  • Left channel (in the right earbud) frequently drops out for a couple of seconds. Sometimes this happens every 10 seconds or so. Longest I've gone without problem is about 10 minutes.
  • They fail to connect about 1/3 of the time in which case have to retry about 2-4 times.
  • The advertised volume controls don't work at all.
  • When playing a TV episode (Stargate SG-1) from Amazon Prime app, all of the sound was as if it were heard through a cardboard tube. I played a whole episode this way. I also haven't been able to duplicate this problem.
  • The red/blue LEDs inside the earbuds just seem to illuminate randomly, inconsistently, and only the left or the right, never both at the same time.
  • The lid came off of the charger from normal handling.
  • Even though the headset is fully charged (overnight in the charger, hooked up to power), when connected to the iPhone, the headset battery indicator in iOS shows 50% charge remaining.
There is no ear insertion detection. To be fair, this was expected and normal, so I didn't put it in the list. I only mention it because it causes other usability problems that I hadn't thought about. For example when I remove the earbuds from the charger, they announce some sort of status. But it's so fast I don't know what it's saying because I haven't got it in my ears yet.

Also expected is that audio is not as good. I know this is meaningless and subjective, but on a scale of 1 (gas station bargain bin headphones) to 10 (Airpods), I'd rate it about 6.

Summary: I did not expect these to be as good as my Airpods, but my particular set is complete and utter garbage. I now have to file a dispute on Aliexpress--I guess we'll see how that goes.

UPDATE: The Aliexpress dispute form requires that I attach a photo or video as "evidence" of the problem. This is even though I've selected "sound problems" as the issue. :mad: Not sure how to proceed.
 
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ActionableMango said:
Here are all of the problems I've had with it so far in a single day of use
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Bummer about the dodgy product and hope you get a refund. There seem to be at least 3 distinct products all being sold as i12, which can be differentiated by their box design (particularly the "stripe") and the name they show as during Bluetooth pairing.

EDIT: Removed endorsement of i12 TWS "Double V5.0", since they later died after 3 weeks of use.

IMG_0159.jpeg
 
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My i12 TWS box looks almost exactly the same except it is a blue stripe. The pairing name is the same "i12".

Looking back at the photos on AliExpress, some of the photos are genuine Apple Airpods. I can tell because the charging end on the Airpods has the Apple ring-charging surfaces whereas the actual i12 TWS earbuds have a "twin hole" setup on them.

The manual however says "i10 Manual".

Everything about this stinks to high heaven.

My i10 TWS hasn't arrived yet, but I now have very little expectation for them.
 
New problem with my i12 TWS. The iPhone connected to them even though they were in their closed case. So being in the closed case didn't turn them "off" this one time. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't hear audio until I noticed the headphone logo at the top of iOS.

The i10 TWS still hasn't arrived. I never even got shipping notice.

I have basically wasted $50 that I could have used toward a new pair of "overpriced" Airpods.

I'm going to file a complaint on Aliexpress on both of these orders, but my expectations are very low now.
 
ActionableMango said:
[...] problem with my i12 TWS.
Click to expand...
Well I've joined you in the i12 TWS doldrums. The set I had performed well, however after 3 weeks of use, the left bud has bricked itself and refuses to charge. Since the left bud acts as the "master" (L/R are not capable of being independent in all regards like the genuine ones), the right bud is now useless too.

frou said:
They will probably have some annoying flaw, but at 15% the cost of normal AirPods, worth a punt for fun!
Click to expand...

^^^ Guess my prediction came true (for a severe manifestation of "flaw"). Was an interesting experiment.
 
So having more free time yesterday I went back to the order page to dispute both of them. I apparently missed the dispute window on the i12, so I'm stuck with that as a total loss.

The i10 (which never arrived) is still disputable, and so I've at least disputed that one. The vendor has yet to respond to the dispute.

I ordered them both together in the same cart, so I don't know why one is disputable and the other is not due to expiration.

Nothing about this experience is positive.

frou said:
Well I've joined you in the i12 TWS doldrums.
Click to expand...

Is your i12 order "disputable"? Might as well try.
 
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