At the beginning of the year, I shared with you that I bought fake AirPods: I wanted to experiment how the headphones will perform at a distance, whether there will be any difficulties with them and how long they will live. Turns out, copy AirPods not so hopeless: every time I took them to the gym and took care of them as if they were real. True, it’s all in vain. The headphones are broken and there is not a single instruction for their resurrection will help. Today I will tell you about what fake AirPods actually turned out to be and how long they worked in the end.
How to spot fake AirPods
The idea to buy a fake appeared suddenly. One friend showed me Apple headphones, which I twisted and turned for 10 minutes and all this time I thought that in front of me real AirPods 3, which at that time had just appeared on sale. There were no differences at all: everything was done so carefully – even better than the original. Pseudo-AirPods even connected to the iPhone without any problems: personally, I was only embarrassed by the fact that when connected, the name of the headphones was written in capital letters on the plate. I have never seen such a thing.
There were no problems with sound either. fake AirPods 3 sounded clearly better than my AirPods 2, but worse than AirPods Pro. Switching the track and other clicks – everything worked without problems and very quickly. Contrary to the advice of experts who warn about the increased volume level in fake headphones, there was nothing like that – it seems like they were really made by Apple. I have been wearing them since February and even at some point I forgot that I had a fake for 3 thousand rubles with Ali in my ears.
It may seem that since the cheap analogue is so good, then there is no point in buying original AirPods. Many of my friends are tired of the fact that Apple headphones die in a year and a half active use and decided to switch to cheap Chinese ones. At first, this really seems like a great solution, but in fact, AirPods are not so bad.
Battery in AirPods
Usually AirPods batteries last about two years, although my friend’s AirPods Pro work without problems for 2.5 years, my first generation AirPods lasted the same amount, although I used them every day for a stable 3-4 hours. At the moment I have AirPods 2, which will turn 2 years old in early February next year – there are no complaints about them either.
What’s wrong with the cheap AirPods 3 counterpart? And the fact that the battery died after almost six months. First Headphones start to run out quickly, and then they began to sit down literally after 10 minutes, and then they stopped charging at all. The problem is not only in the headphones themselves, but also in the case – everything stopped working at all! That is, a fake can be safely thrown into the trash, but it is better, of course, to be recycled.
I can’t say that I killed them all day, on the contrary, I listened to music 3-4 hours a week, so the headphones were in standby mode most of the time. And this is their only drawback: the Chinese did everything flawlessly, but notably saved on batteries. It’s not about capacity, but about their quality: either rare use killed them, or other factors. Personally, I’m leaning towards the first option.
Against their background, the not-so-durable original AirPods look very reliable, as the batteries last 4 or more times longer. They are also affected by other factors such as frequency of use, number of charges, air temperature. There is a feeling that what use AirPods less oftenthe longer the batteries live in them, but the fake ones begin to die immediately after the first turn on.
Fake AirPods – Should You Buy?
The purpose of the experiment was to test whether the fake headphones can replace the original ones. It turns out that there is no point in this: yes, they also work well, are made very high quality and no one (except for the function in iOS 16) will ever recognize them as a copy. And also by price of original AirPods you can buy 4 pairs and even more cheap analogues. But there are nuances.
- There are no ideal analogues: one copy AirPods may cost 1000 rubles, another – 3000 rubles. But the high price does not mean that they will serve you for a long time. Perhaps even less than those for 1000 rubles.
- A fake may simply not turn on or die the next day. You will simply lose money, albeit small. There is no guarantee.
- The build quality is also different: perfectly assembled ones can get caught or not – the scammers themselves do not seem to know what is in which box.
- There are those who knowingly give away fake AirPods. Forgery is almost impossible to recognize, but the very situation is shame. It is better to buy an analogue from Baseus or Lenovo than the Chinese “under the original”.
Buying 4, 5, 6 pairs of fake headphones is stupid, isn’t it? There is a slight casino effect: you may be lucky that the Pods will work for a long time (a year and a half), but the seller still wins in this situation. It’s like buying several pairs of local consumer goods instead of one normal Nike sneaker. It’s the same with AirPods: Apple headphones are not perfect, but it’s better to buy the original, which has a guarantee and at least some quality control, than a well-assembled but frank marriage.
