Be Aware: Fake Apple AirPods Are Getting Increasingly Sophisticated

In 2016, Apple announced its first true wireless AirPods along with the iPhone 7 for a price of $159 (around Rs. 11,000). With the immense popularity of the AirPods, there have been many attempts to fake it at a much affordable price. Not too long after that, fake AirPods started to come out in the market with only one-tenth of the price of Apple’s AirPods.

However, you get what you pay for as these fake models were very poorly designed along with unstable connection, low battery life, and horrendous audio quality. Over time, Chinese manufacturers are constantly releasing new versions of fake AirPods, and they get more and more complete than the previous versions.

However, there is one thing that previously fake AirPods could not copy is the ability to connect easily. Due to the built-in W1 chip manufactured by Apple itself, the real AirPods can connect to the iPhone just by opening the case and pressing the "Connect" button. Meanwhile, with fake versions, because of its nature as a Bluetooth headset, users will be forced to go to Setting, manually pair the phone with the earbuds which are complicated and time-consuming.

However, it seems that Chinese manufacturers have taken further steps to successfully copy the most valuable feature of the AirPods. According to Youtuber Nikolay Tanev (who is famous for building an iPhone X from parts sold at the Chinese electronics market), fake AirPods with the ability to easily connect to iPhone like real one have now appeared on the market.

Specifically, Nikolay bought a fake AirPods with the name LK-TE9 for $25 (around Rs. 1,700). The LK-TE9 is advertised as being able to connect to the iPhone just by opening the lid and bringing it close, similar to the real model. And indeed, through Nikolay's test, this feature works as advertised.

However, this feature does not work perfectly yet. In the battery life notice, the fake charging box will always report the battery life to be at 31% even if it is fully charged. In addition, this feature of the fake AirPods may stop working when Apple updates iOS.

In addition, this LK-TE9 also has a number of differences compared to the real AirPods, including the micro-USB charging port, LED light, push-button ... However, Nikolay said that there are other replicas of the AirPods in the market, but the price is higher ($40, approx Rs. 2,700), and the sound quality is worse as well.

With the fake AirPods being increasingly sophisticated, users need to be alert when buying these wireless earbuds, especially when they are for sale by unreliable sources with low prices. Currently, genuine AirPods are being sold in India for around Rs. 11,000 to Rs. 12,000. You can keep up with all the news about Apple Airpods at Mobygeek!