The Apple AirPods 2 are some of the most popular earbuds on the market and they aren’t cheap. You are looking at about $150 if you get the ones without wireless charging or close to $200 for the ones that support wireless charging.
With that popularity we also get a lot of fake ones and many people buy the fakes ones to resell them as originals. It is unfortunate but reality.
In this article I will show you how to spot the fake ones and hopefully save you some money this way.
If you would like to see this in video format, you can check out the video at the bottom of this page.
It’s always recommended to get your Apple products from an authorized reseller.
Find the original Apple AirPods 2 on Amazon: https://geni.us/OOvNe
First thing, you should do is take a close look at the box and the plastic wrapping.
The plastic wrap on the original Apple AirPods 2 is almost perfect, no bubbles, no holes, no creases, where the plastic wrapping on the fake ones doesn’t always look too professional as you can see in the picture below.
Inside the box you should first check the user manual; I found that the printing quality on the manual from the fake AirPods 2 doesn’t look that great. The colour on the manual from the original Apple AirPods 2 looks way more professional.
Once you take out the user manual you will be able to see the charging case for the AirPods, and if you look careful enough you will notice that the wrapping plastic is a bit different on the fake AirPods and it doesn’t have a pull-out tab.
The original Apple AirPods 2 charging case has a pull out tab that makes it easier to get the case out of the box. You can see that pull out plastic tab in the picture below.
Since the fake Apple AirPods 2 are pretty cheap; most of the time under $40 they always have to cut some corners and this way we can spot them easier.
Fake Apple AirPods 2 are usually sold on websites like Aliexpress: https://geni.us/WRoBG
Under the charging case there is a little plastic that can be taken out of the box and if you take it out you should find the charging cable.
The charging cable and the fake box look a bit cheap once again so this should be another easy way to tell if you are looking at the fake ones or the original ones.
That’s all that you will be able to find different for the box, user manual and charging cable.
The stickers on the box are a bit different as well but the stickers will always be different depending on the country where you bought the AirPods from.
This is a picture so you can look as notice some of the differences on the box.
We are moving to the charging cases; well both the fake ones and the original ones support wireless charging, and the cases are pretty similar with a couple of exceptions.
On the front of the charging case there is a little led, on the original ones the little LED almost looks black when it’s not on and there is also plastic covering the hole where the LED is located as you can see in the picture below:
On the fake case, there is a little LED as well but if you look careful you will notice that it looks almost white and there is also a little hole in the charging case.
This should be a good indication that you may be looking at some fake Apple AirPods 2.
The other thing that looks a bit different for the charging case is the hinge that you see when you open the case.
On the original charging case the the hinge looks like it’s made out of two equal parts, where on the fake ones one part looks bigger that the other one.
You can see what I am referring to in the picture below.
Next you should look at the earbuds themselves and here you will be able to spot quite a few things.
First if you look at the earcup, the part that goes in your ear you will notice that the little silver mesh allows you to see two holes on the original airpods, where on the fake ones you can’t exactly see the two holes. You can see the difference in the picture below.
The next thing you should look for is the serial number that’s written on the airpods. On the fake ones there is some text but not the serial number.
On the original ones you should have the serial number on each earpod as you can see in this picture:
If you turn the AirPods aeound and you look at the bottom you should also be able to spot some differences.
First of all the silver mesh looks brighter and the chrome circle at the bottom is much shinier on the original ones than it is on the fake ones.
And lastly if you check the back of the AirPods 2 you will also notice that the little hole that’s there it’s placed higher on the original ones and lower on the fake ones.
So definitely a lot of small things that are noticeable if you take your time and look carefully.
The fake Airpods even have a similar pairing process to the original ones. All you have to do is open the charging case and a little pop-up will show up on your iPhone to se them up.
I recomand checking out the video version of this article so you can see exactly what differences there are between the fake ones and the original ones when pairing them to your phone.
Always remember that the safest place to buy the Apple AirPods 2 if directly from an Apple Store or an authorized retailer like Amazon.
Check out the original Apple AirPods 2 on Amazon: https://geni.us/OOvNe
This is the article in video format if you want to learn more:
This post includes affiliate links for which I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you should you make a purchase. Please read my disclosure for more info.