French Magazine: Fake AirPods Can Be Very Dangerous To Your Ears

Recently, a French magazine called "60 million consumers" decided to try some fake AirPods made by Chinese manufacturers. The final conclusion made by this site is that fake AirPods earbuds have poor sound quality, and that the volume is much higher than the recommended level, threatening to damage the hearing of the listener.

AirPods are clearly a new king in the wireless headphone market. According to Strategy Analytics, Apple sold nearly 60 million units in 2019 alone, accounting for nearly 71% of the overall wireless headset market and accounting for 54. 4% of the market share.

The popularity of the AirPods in particular and Apple products in general has long been an attraction for knock-off manufacturers. Not surprisingly, there were knock-off versions of iPhones that debuted even before Apple launched the new iPhones.

The same goes for AirPods. Apple headphones have hundreds of different "siblings" available on the market. With prices of around Rs. 14,490 for a pair of AirPods and Rs. 24,9000 for the AirPods Pro, not everyone can afford to pay that much for a wireless headset. That is why Chinese manufacturers cannot ignore the massive profit from those who want to experience the feeling of wearing Apple's wireless headset at a more affordable price.

60 million consumers magazine has decided to test low-cost models which are appreciated by many YouTubers. Many of them are sponsored videos, so the ‘reviews’ are not always fairly delivered.

For testing purposes, the "60 million consumers" team ordered 7 different fake versions of AirPods from China. Out of those 7, only 4 arrived at their door while the rest mysteriously disappeared when they were shipped from China to France.

And what's even more interesting is that out of the four that were bought, one was not working. As a result, the team only had three other units to test.

After a period of testing, they found the sound quality of the three clones indeed very bad. Especially, there is a model that is really dangerous to the listener's hearing when its maximum volume exceeds the standard. This is obviously one of the big problems with counterfeit goods because they rarely meet sound and safety standards.

Finally, 60 million consumers magazine does not recommend the use of any fake AirPods to protect listeners' hearing and "wallets". The magazine also advises consumers to be cautious when buying wireless headset products. They should go for wireless headsets from larger brands, even though they could be slightly more expensive.