10 Signs Your AirPods Are Fake - AirPods Pro 2nd Generation (Late 2022 Model)

Quick list of 10 ways to check if your 2nd generation Apple Airpods Pro are fake. These are the ones released in 2022:
Comprehensive 19 minute video with unboxing of fake Airpods: • How To Tell If 2nd Gen...
Summary:
1. Check if the lanyard loop on the right side of the case is metal or plastic (metal is real)
2. The indicator light is brighter on the real case
3. Try controlling the volume by swiping up and down the stem (the real ones can control volume and will vibrate when you swipe)
4. The real case will play sounds when you start charging, or if you use Find My Devices it can play a sound to help find it
5. Using Find My Devices, you should be able to use the nearby search feature that has a big green screen with an arrow to point the direction its in when nearby
6. Check the font on the box (watch the video to see what the real looks like)
7. Check the packaging mold inside the box to make sure its a hard cardboard
8. Make sure the extra buds can be stuck to the paper packaging
9. Make sure the extra buds can be swapped easily onto the actual Airpods earbuds
10. For US customers, some thoughts on the where you bought it from and what the realistic prices are
Note the real ones are on sale for Black Friday 2022 for just $200 (or $199.99), which is the lowest its been at retailers since they were release a couple months ago! Link to the Amazon sale below (note I may receive a small incentive if you buy from the link):
amzn.to/3Egtkvm

[@g1sbi]

Important detail that was skipped (I got scammed twice in a week): the cable of the real Airpods has the classic cardboard with snap mechanism common to all Apple products. Both the fakes I bought had just some cheap glued cardboard to hold the cable.

[@Dragonblaster1]

Another way to tell is that the distance between the bottom of the hinge and the top of the writing is the same as that between the opening seam and the bottom of the hinge.

[@nathanmikewinchesterchevri370]

U did a great job showing the difference. Congrats 🎉🎉🎉. I looked at your videos and now I am looking at airpods pros like I am pro, checking every details. Thx

[@claudiacornejo8983]

Your videos keep saving me

[@consumr]

Thanks for being my #1 subscriber!

[@arisjefferson4323]

I just bought a pair and they now have gotten to the point where not only do they connect exactly like the original, the apple care thing comes up and when itv expires, and the serial numbers read 🍟. Packaging was a lil different and the ear bud things r really hard to take off. It took me almost an hour to finally figure out they were fake but sounded really good surprisingly. Also they don’t make the noise when ur trying to find them and the extra earbuds were held in but the screen was white

[@micknightmare3]

mines wirelessly chare but the gray loop thing is plastic? and i can control the volume. i don't own an i phone or plan on it so i cant test them further, but I've always thought they were fake given the fact my friend gave am Italian guy on a tesla 500 bucks for 6 of these with a receipt from the apple store in LA at the grove lol he has a story of needing the money to go back home on plane but his cards were all getting declined.

[@ideostudios7176]

In my country, the easiest way to spot fakes is the price

[@calebmanders6696]

I am so confused I’m pretty sure my air pods are fake but they have a working cereal number and it says it has a limited warranty

[@memory_loss_video]

How about the model number? In apple support site there are only A2931, A2699, A2698 numbers for AirPods Pro (2nd generation) and A2700 for MagSafe Charging Case introduced in 2022 year. Interesting which model is indicated on your iphone for case and headphones:) It would be the same with documentation or not:)

[@IntenseRampage]

Ah wow that’s a great deal for Black Friday

[@jordanc1910]

I have a pair of fake AirPods 2 pro… I paid $100 for them… insanely close to the originals. They do have noise cancellation. They do work on find my. They will connect to Siri by the right or left piece. They do have serial number AND purchase date and Warranty date that all registers with apple. The only distinguished differences are this. The case is a little loose. There was the plastic piece in the boxing. The charging cables were glued instead of pull tabs……. However they sound incredible and ALL features work as they should each headphone has its own serial number… inFACT they sound twice as good as my genuine AirPod Gen 2 non pros. I guess I’m ok with it being $100….. little disappointed that I got scammed but scary thing is… these suckers passed every performance test including noise cancellation. And find my and serial number only difference was some minor flaws in packaging

[@khalif304]

can you pls tell specifically where the plastic pieces in the boxing are? is it on the airpods or in the box?

[@consumr]

He’s talking about the plastic “mold” that holds the AirPods inside the box. It’s like the flat piece of cardboard with a little hole for the AirPods to sit in. The real pair uses cardboard and the fake pairs use plastic

[@phukvirak]

i just bought an airpod pro 2 but i didn’t get the find my case feature

[@vpham92688]

Some re-seller from offerup had multiple avail for sale --- the odd thing was all had same SN

[@consumr]

Yeah, those are fake. The factories just take 1 real serial number and produce the same sticker many times, because it's too hard for them to find multiple real serial numbers. So if that reseller bought 1 batch of 100 fakes they might all have the same serial number.

[@brucechan9421]

right now they have these super copy versions, everything works like the real one except spatial audio doesn't work

[@Tricion]

depends on which fakes you get, the newer more epxensive ones don't have the flaws you pointed out. real flaw I noticed are the smaller batteries obviously

[@julianmendez4691]

Bro now adays u get bigger batteries in the fake ones lol

[@Tricion]

@@julianmendez4691 didn't check his battery sizes, that's funny tho

[@gziria4523]

@@julianmendez4691 there’s 4.9 tb and 5.1, which 1 is better

[@driftlover437]

Whats the site name

[@lyricsking754]

I just saw a video of the fake Airpods Pro 2nd Gen with the volume slider working like a charm. Its gonna be difficult to find out now which is real or fake moving forward.

[@macuse2008]

I know! Mine sound fantastic and work perfect BUT the cable had the glued securing straps. Geez

[@sterlingsisemore2272]

Yeah it’s my birthday and I got some pro 2 but turns out I got scammed, of course in going to get some real ones but honestly they sound great, the noise cancelling and transparency mode work fine, even the sound controls work. Crazy how good these fakes are getting, if I didn’t pay 250 for them I honestly wouldn’t even be mad 😂

[@mohamedtaboli5766]

haha its so easy to spot i spot fakes at first glace get me highest quality fakes ill spot it

[@velxcity07]

@@mohamedtaboli5766 can I have them

[@ionwannaknow5990]

Link?

[@rumcoke9123]

My son just bought a fake on Facebook market for 120 cad...Its a lesson for him. too good to be true!

[@anthonyreyes5011]

as long as they work just like the original he just got the same thing for 50% off 🤷‍♂️

[@normanmbezi4418]

Can the case say assembled in California and still be fake?

[@stephanefotso]

in few months, you won't be able to know what is real or not!!! the newest version of fake airpods pro 2 is improved.

[@bosstay55]

Well the just launched the red dragon version of the fake Airpod pros 2 n u really can’t tell now

[@sebastianmarquez1215]

Does anyone have their box where the airpods icons are they have a weird type of texture like a sticker?

[@martonbor9492]

Im gonna probably buy a boxed pair tomorrow(if i investigate and they are the real deal) and idk if its a scam because its really really cheap, from facebook marketplace, your video helped a lot, thx!!

[@alexsafayan7684]

Was it a scam?

[@martonbor9492]

@@alexsafayan7684 yeah:(

[@luffy_captain_23]

My AirPods Pro’s has the features as yours but when I want to play the sound on find my they don’t make a sound fast it’s just shows connecting

[@luffy_captain_23]

They also come with a strong plastic so I’m very confused I hope these don’t immediately make them fake 😰😰

[@Cali_Oasis_Garden]

Does it show you the arrow to find the AirPods in find my app?

[@luffy_captain_23]

@@Cali_Oasis_Garden nope it doesn’t even connect to the find app 🫠

[@DrewskiBop]

Question for if they’re real or not, if they’re fake will they pop up on the official Apple Support page? Cause mine did and it had the same serial number as another. So are they real?

[@consumr]

Yeah the fake pairs will just copy the serial number of a real pair, so it may show up as a legitimate serial number on the Apple website. so that’s not a good way to check if they’re fake or real

[@DrewskiBop]

@@consumr ok because I was worried about that so I called apple. There’s 2 and mine is “inactive” and I bought it wrapped. So that probably means they’re fake right?

[@consumr]

I would check the video for the other ways to tell to be 100% sure, I’m not sure if you can tell from serial number alone

[@DrewskiBop]

@@consumr Well my dad already got them for me for my birthday and I didn’t want him to know he probably got the knock-offs. It’s shocking how they’re almost 90% close to the original. Surprised how that’s legal. But as long as they work, I’ll use them. Thanks for the video. I’ll make sure to come back if I get something else that could be a fake copy.

[@DrewskiBop]

@@consumr But also the Airpods are stuck on 53A77 (I think that’s it) so I can maybe try to update, or otherwise I got a pair that was made when that update came out so it’s a knock off stuck on that version

[@moretrash0979]

Mine plays the sound but not the case the AirPods plays the sounds what does that mean?

[@mirceaflorinprecup]

Fake.

[@HandsomeBaconBoi]

I'm going to leave this comment here so I can come back to it and tell you guys if my airpods pro second gen from mercari are real or not, they are still in delivery. I was pretty darn sure these were real because the seller was really nice about giving more photos and showed a picture of the flap where you change the airpod tip and they had those circle things at the top that you can see in 5:01 of the video, unlike the fakes that didnt have those circle things on the top. And what made me even more sure that they were real, is that I contacted a person that bought it, since maybe all those 5 star reviews could be bots, I asked them if the pair they got from the person was real or not. And they said that they used some sort of apple website and plugged in their airpods with the charging cable into their computer and it told them that they are real. Even though I'm pretty darn confident these are real, they could still come back as fakes, wish me luck yall(Currently the airpods are still in shipping) also sorry for a whole essay...

[@GaryChen]

im sure i got a fake one because the apple papers are square, the wrapping didn't have the apple tab to pull on, and the typical apple snap holders for the wire wasn't there. BUT, it has identical sound quality, connectivity speed, all features like sound cancellation work, and even mic quality is exactly the same as a real pair.

[@anthonyreyes5011]

as long as you spent less then what the real ones are worth, it’s a good buy, it’s the exact same thing just not from apple

[@kendalljohnson69]

Sounds like a deal to me 😂

[@icisz]

This is a moronic comment. It’s not the exact same thing as Apple. Did you not watch the video? Even if they make marginal improvements, it’s still not the exact same thing. This mentality is flawed beyond belief. It’s like saying Jordan replicas are made in the same factory and are just as good as the originals. No they aren’t. If what you were saying had any merit at all, nobody would bother buying the real ones. Beyond that, people are getting ripped off, cheated and duped. There is no way to sugar coat that. SMH.

[@icisz]

Really? It sure sounds like a scammer who sells the fake ones to me… 😳🙄

[@icisz]

I think you’re exaggerating the term “exact same quality.” The ones I saw had limited functionality, Spatial Audio didn’t work, and according to the owner, a close friend, they lasted about a month before they were destined for the landfill. These were also the latest ones in Jan 2024.

[@moretrash0979]

How about serial code what if it approves?

[@noakareem9140]

Fake one do have real serial numbers these days

[@WinnipegSavage]

I bought fake AirPods and they come with the noise to locate, they have fine my AirPods feature, the ear buds have the cutouts and everything. Only thing that threw me off is that the features didn’t work. Noise cancellation, transparency etc

[@DWBJosh]

What’s crazy is I’m pretty sure I got sold a fake pair and no joke literally everything works… noise cancellation, transparency, the volume buttons, the battery is freaking great.. hell I only paid $80 bucks for them and honestly I could care less if they are real or not cause they work perfect and sound great lmao

[@macuse2008]

I just got a pair just like you described. Let’s just hope you got a smoking price I paid 80 for mine and happy with them

[@macuse2008]

Maybe they are BETTER!

[@macuse2008]

I bought AirPods Pro and STILL can’t tell if they are legit

[@user-hr8dy5pj7i]

Same

[@akash2211]

Only way to know that your Airpods is fake or not is by version info. The latest update for the Airpods is 5E135. So if your Airpods version is 5E135, its an original one. I checked my Airpods by this way. When i bought it was in an older version and within few minutes it got updated automatically to the newer version which was 5E135. So yea do check it out. The clones will not get software updates from apple.

[@munazzahashraf1916]

Saaaaame😂

[@andykwak3622]

@@akash2211me seeing this and seeing my airpods are 5B58 😢

[@Stotz360]

I just bought some and they did everything the ones I bought from Apple did. The only issues I could find was the case lid was a little loose. They even showed 3 serial numbers on my iPhone. The warranty showed 1 year and everything.

[@moonlightfitz]

🤔

[@pnojazz]

Add eBay to your list!

[@MoonchildTerabite]

#3 is obsolete bro - new fake versions already have that feature too. Good video though :)

[@consumr]

Wow no way! I just got these a few weeks ago. But good to know, thanks

[@MoonchildTerabite]

@@consumr yeah I was shocked when my buddy ordered the fakes on AliExpress, I tested them, and they are really close to originals in terms of sound quality and ANC. Gotta open your eyes closely and be careful.

[@peterpeterson9467]

can those fake airpods pro 2 play a sound via Find my app?

[@MoonchildTerabite]

@@peterpeterson9467 as far as I've tested no, they didn't implement this feature yet, but who knows how far will they go...

[@peterpeterson9467]

@@MoonchildTerabite okay, thx for the info

[@sleepingsounds333]

wish I saw this video before i got what i thought was original

[@garmzpel4548]

I just bought a fake from a trusted site im trying to get my money bacck another EASY indicator to tell if its fake is to flashlight the top of the lid and if u dont see any hardware then it means its fake

[@zulficarali921]

Not everyone is dumb to buy the originals for 250$ when the super copy with woeking noise cancellation only costs 20$

[@danieltsankov]

I ordered a pair from FaceBook from an old lady, probably a fake account. They cost 80$, they’re most likely fake, but I don’t know if I should pay for them if they aren’t original.

[@mathew00]

My son bought some from eBay recently. They look brand new but they didn't come with a box. After this video I'm pretty sure they're fake.

[@mrow9x]

w mans

[@frozengamer3030]

I think I bought fake AirPods Pro because I can’t control the volume on the stem. I tried so many times I could only play, pause and skip

[@samuelaranzazu2716]

You have to do it very softly

[@frozengamer3030]

@@samuelaranzazu2716 Nah they are fake. I sent them back and bought real ones and I am able to adjust the volume

[@xtins]

I just lost a $100 on a “sale” of “AirPods Pro 2nd Gen” 💀 thank you for the video

[@calebmanders6696]

I just lost $120 lol

[@haleyclick131]

Fingernail clippers?

[@consumr]

noted! will take that feedback into my next video

[@haleyclick131]

@@consumr Thanks!

[@Gigi24.24]

Damn… I didn’t get scammed but my bro did and one major thing I found is the new Gen 2s will charge on your Apple Watch charger as well… fake will not even sit on it! Tsk tsk… why people whyyyyy…

[@abanmanandhar1531]

my fakes can do all that

[@icisz]

In calgary Ab we have had a huge influx of fake 2nd gen pros. Another tell tale sign is the plastic wrap on the box, Apple no longer shrink wraps their boxes. For the idiots who think these are the same tech or components as the real ones, sorry, no they aren’t. They won’t have the same proprietary chip for pairing, and they will be missing head tracking, and other features that make the APP’s 2 great. Beyond unlikely that they would support lossless or Apple Vision Pro… quality control issues will mean you get what you get and nobody will be there for you when they stop working. Also, you won’t benefit from apples updates and new functionality with firmware updates that can be a big deal for obvious reasons. Point being, fakes are fakes. Even a penny can mean a compromise in the Chinese manufacturing sector. Dont think for a second you’re getting some kind of steal that benefits you from not paying apples premium. You get what you pay for always. If you’re happy paying less for something so clearly inferior, all the power to you.

[@mohamedtaboli5766]

both fake!

[@rui-9-cs315]

[@StephenBoyd21]

Damn, those fakes are so real that unless you knew, you would think they were genuine.