As Im sure everyone is aware there are replica / fake Apple Watches and replica AirPods out there. They are usually very bad quality. That got me thinking, do people try and replicate MacBooks or are they simply too complex to copy?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Replica Mac's?
- Thread starter JiggyJaggy
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I think technically a knockoff Mac would be easier to create than a knockoff iPhone, since people have been running MacOS on non-Apple hardware for years. The main trick would be to clone the physical design, and although I've never seen one myself I'm sure it must happen occasionally.
Edit: I just noticed that this thread is in the Apple silicon forum. Any hypothetical Mac clones would likely be Intel-based; I'm not aware of anyone getting the Arm version of MacOS running on third-party hardware.
Edit: I just noticed that this thread is in the Apple silicon forum. Any hypothetical Mac clones would likely be Intel-based; I'm not aware of anyone getting the Arm version of MacOS running on third-party hardware.
My wife watches a lot of Chinese dramas and I have seen a few computers that are obviously PC AIOs but that try to be identical to the big curvy aluminum iMacs. They usually pull it off well, until you see them from behind and the IO panel is full of all kinds of non-iMac ports.
There have been laptops that mimic the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro as closely as possible. Huawei attempted this as recently as 2019:
Granted, this was released right after Huawei was basically banned from selling their products in the US, although this was always intended only for the Chinese market.
Rather than other companies trying to make laptops LIKE Apple's I was thinking more from a counterfeit point of view as there seem to be so many Fake Apple watches and AirPods etc floating about.
I imagine if you were serious about it, you could make a SnapDragon-based notebook and set it up with Debian/Gnome and try to gull a mark into believing it is a Mac. I think it is possible to tweak a wm to have an almost Mac-like appearance.
The reason I asked is someone was selling a M2 MBA close to me and the price was really good. He wouldn't give out the serial number so I thought it may have been a fake. Turns out it was legitimate. Looks like the replica's are more on the AW's and AirPods and maybe a few Android iPhones.