Counterfeit products that look identical to the genuine article on the outside. But what are the specific differences? On November 7 (local time), Jon Bruner of industrial scanner manufacturer Lumafield compared genuine and counterfeit second-generation AirPods Pro by scanning them.
The main differences? ① Battery ② Circuitry ③ Components
The above image results from CT scanning the genuine and counterfeit products. The genuine AirPods are on the left, and the center and right are counterfeit. Looking at the image, you can see that the internal structures of the authentic and counterfeit products are markedly different.
First, the most significant difference is in the battery. The genuine AirPods incorporate a ‘button cell battery.’ It’s a high-power efficiency structure that fits perfectly in the form factor. On the other hand, the counterfeit AirPods are equipped with a ‘pouch-type lithium-ion cell battery.’ The battery has a lot of empty space around it, making it a sloppy form.
The circuitry structure also differs. The genuine AirPods use a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) to use a small space efficiently. The counterfeit AirPods, in contrast, have a complex connection of circuits instead of a well-arranged circuit board. The soldering at the connection points is also sloppy.
Key components are either lacking or absent. For starters, the number of microphones is different. The genuine AirPods have three MEMS microphones installed. They are located outside the AirPods, inside (towards the user’s external ear), and on the stem. The MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) microphones provide high SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) and excellent sound quality with low power consumption. On the other hand, the counterfeit AirPods have only one electret condenser microphone instead of MEMS microphones, which is why the ANC (Active Noise Cancelling) function doesn’t work properly and the call quality is poor.
What about the AirPods case? The fake case cannot be wirelessly charged. This is because no copper wire coil is inside to enable wireless charging. If there is a coil, there is no magnet to attach to the wireless charger. The second-generation AirPods Pro have a magnet inside, charging them using an Apple Watch charger.
The weight is heavier than the genuine case. The weight of the case has been made heavier to hide the fact that the AirPods body is lighter than the actual product. The plastic material also has lower quality than the genuine product.
Consumers have difficulty checking the internal structure… How do we distinguish counterfeits?
Apple specialist media Appleinsider introduced a way for ordinary consumers to distinguish counterfeit AirPods back in April easily.
First, you can look at the packaging box. The genuine product has a sturdy box material that hardly gets crumpled.
- If the box is damaged here and there, you should suspect it’s a counterfeit.
- If the paper of the provided manual is unusually thin or the packaging of the charging cable is sloppy, there’s a high chance it’s a counterfeit.
- If the ear tip silicone is unusually stiff or the ANC function does not work correctly, it is most likely a counterfeit.
Expensive Apple accessories, what’s the difference with cheap products?
There are many products on the market that are cheaper than Apple’s genuine products. They are not counterfeits designed to deceive consumers but have a similar design to Apple’s authentic products. What’s the difference between cheap products and genuine products?
At the end of October, Lumafield scanned the Apple Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) Pro cable and compared it with cables from other companies. They mainly compared cheap cables that can be easily purchased from online shopping malls like Amazon.
The scan revealed that the genuine Apple cable is much more sophisticated and durable. The cable interior contains metal shielding, a robust strain relief, and a PCBA that uses all 24 pins. It also features a design that uses three different wires according to data transmission or charging function.
Lumafield described the Apple Thunderbolt Pro cable as showing ‘the art of precision engineering.’ The price is expensive, around $170, but it is praised for its performance worth the price.
Cheap cables in the $10 range have a simple structure. For instance, the Amazon Basics USB-C cable has metal shielding and a simple form of strain relief. The NiceTQ cable lacks the pins and wires to support 10Gbps data transfer speeds. The cheapest Atyfuer cable was a USB 2.0 data transfer product, not a charging cable.
By. Kim Ha Young
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