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Fake AirPods Pro

T

ThatiPhoneKid

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 15, 2017
984
665
I just bought some fake AirPods Pro from a Chinese website, they should be here in a couple of weeks. The Images of them are exactly the same as the original AirPods Pro, and they have the H1 chip.

They cost just £50 so obviously I’m not expecting anything similar to the official AirPods Pro audio quality. But I’m curious if any of you guys know what I can expect from fake AirPods
 
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The H1 chip is proprietary. It's not likely these Chinese knockoffs have the real thing if it even has anything comparable. I expect you'll receive a pair of sub-par earbuds that are worth about what you paid for them.
 
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JBGoode said:
The H1 chip is proprietary. It's not likely these Chinese knockoffs have the real thing if it even has anything comparable. I expect you'll receive a pair of sub-par earbuds that are worth about what you paid for them.
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Yeah, not expecting much, bought them mainly because they look exactly the same as the real ones and I can brag to my friends lol
 
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JBGoode said:
The H1 chip is proprietary. It's not likely these Chinese knockoffs have the real thing if it even has anything comparable. I expect you'll receive a pair of sub-par earbuds that are worth about what you paid for them.
Click to expand...
whether they have H1 or not they do functionally heck many youtube videos testing the features show they match and in some cases out perform the legit ones.
albeit the audio quality on the high end fakes is still slightly worse but honestly on mine i can only tell when i do a direct A-B comparison with my real ones.

as for how they have the H1 chip, who knows.
they could be using cast off or legit H1s they've skillfully acquired, they might have reverse engineered it or maybe the H1 like a lot of what Apple does is Marketing lies.
the fact is no one here is a chip engineer with inside knowledge of what that chip's code is or what it does/doesn't do all we know is it exists and can be identified in a teardown and we know what apple has publicly said about it.



all i know is if my real AirPods 2 died i will buy clones, you can even get them with apple markings if you care, otherwise there are other colours and frankly outside of the almost imperceptible audio differences the high end clones are identical at about 1/3rd the cost.

I bought legit pro's because even the best knockoffs don't yet have ANC, but i can only imagine thats not long away, and when it is i know what my replacement will be
 
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CarlJ said:
You support theft?
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In general definitely not.

CarlJ said:
Buying knockoffs is dubious, buying counterfeits, with Apple markings, on them is pretty unethical.
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I think a lot of what Apple does is unethical.
from having CBP seize legitimate refurbished spare parts at the border claiming their counterfeits when they're not, to using countries with questionable labor practices, to utilizing tax laws to avoid paying what the average person cannot avoid, to fighting right to repair legislation.

even on an actual personal level the few times they've refused to do a legitimate repair/exchange etc. while I was within warranty and/or under AppleCare.

but I'm not delusional and I realize that they would say something like :
"they are following all applicable laws, their actions are within the fine print of their terms and conditions and they are using any means at their disposal to create competitive advantages for themselves."

which is fair enough

so I guess when it comes down to whether or not I will buy a counterfeit and/or knock off sometimes my answer would be the same.

I am following all applicable laws and using any advantages I have at my disposal.

if Apple doesn't like it, they can feel free to contact me to negotiate.
 
I think your 50 pounds could have gone towards a solid pair of bluetooth buds from a reputable manufacturer.
 
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JBGoode said:
The H1 chip is proprietary. It's not likely these Chinese knockoffs have the real thing if it even has anything comparable. I expect you'll receive a pair of sub-par earbuds that are worth about what you paid for them.
Click to expand...
Airoha 1526P" bluetooth 5.0 processor that tricks iPhone into thinking it's H1. Acts the same as far as pairing and on screen setup. Not sure about other aspect-range, etc.
 
I bought a pair of TWS i12 AirPods for $15 a few months ago just for poops and giggles to compare them to my authentic AirPod 2s. Honestly the sound isn't that far from the originals. The only difference is the 'AirPods' are a bit larger and feel cheaper. There are also some tacky LED lights on them that light up. The "H1 chip" works just like the authentic ones too. My 8 year old likes them and for $15 it was money well spent.
 
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Costino1 said:
I bought a pair of TWS i12 AirPods for $15 a few months ago just for poops and giggles to compare them to my authentic AirPod 2s. Honestly the sound isn't that far from the originals. The only difference is the 'AirPods' are a bit larger and feel cheaper. There are also some tacky LED lights on them that light up. The "H1 chip" works just like the authentic ones too. My 8 year old likes them and for $15 it was money well spent.
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Have you tried testing the range?
 
ThatiPhoneKid said:
Yeah, not expecting much, bought them mainly because they look exactly the same as the real ones and I can brag to my friends lol
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For me, it's exactly the opposite. I'm so sick of my friends and coworkers always making comments about how I 'always have the newest' Apple stuff - when I got the iPhone 11 Pro Max people commented about it (despite the fact that I upgraded from an iPhone X - not even last year's phone!) and the same with the AirPods Pro. It gets old.
 
How about this one? https://www.expresspodz.com/
According to this youtuber, it sounded the same.

I even checked the serial number of both boxes, both can be verified in Apple's website!!!
How can I check that I'm buying the original one if I'm not buying it from Apple....
 
Thanks for spending the money and planning to share your findings with us :) Looking forward to the review!
 
yudilks said:
How about this one? https://www.expresspodz.com/
According to this youtuber, it sounded the same.

I even checked the serial number of both boxes, both can be verified in Apple's website!!!
How can I check that I'm buying the original one if I'm not buying it from Apple....
Click to expand...

There's comments about it on the video already, but they probably sent him real AirPods Pro's. Everything matches with the boxes like the bar code, the fake ones has a valid purchase date...

But if you look at the AirPods 2 and fake AirPods 2 boxes, the bar code is different and there's more text on the fake box. Also, if you check the serial number of the fake ones, it's a 1st gen AirPods serial and out of warranty.
 
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