Apple released the AirPods 3 a couple of months ago and soon after that we started seeing many fake AirPods 3 everywhere.
They look the same, they are packed the same, and they look super convincing. Many people end up buying these fake ones from places like the Facebook Marketplace thinking they are getting a good deal, but in reality they end up paying quite a lot of money on a pair of fake AirPods 3 that were probably imported from China for a few bucks.
The best way to make sure you are buying the real Apple AirPods 3 is to buy them directly from Apple or an authorized reseller like Amazon: https://geni.us/ccvWyqE.
The fake Apple AirPods 3 are typically found on many Chinese websites like Aliexpress: https://geni.us/bcNAZ for $20-40. These websites do their best to remove listings like these but for each one they remove there seem to be 5 more that show up.
If you absolutely have to buy a pair of these from a non Apple reseller you always have to be careful and check them out really well.
I’ve made a detailed video showing everything that you have to look out for when looking to purchase a pair of AirPods 3.
For those of you that don’t have the time or patience to watch a video I will also list a few thing that you should look for and show you a few pictures.
The boxes on the real and fake ones look pretty similar, there are some differences on the stickers placed on the side of the boxes but those stickers are always different depending on the market where you buy them.
Your best bet at spotting a fake box is to look at the seals on the back of the box. The original box has those made out of some type of laminated paper… And when you pull them off they don’t break and you get a very clean opening.
You can see how the back of the fake box looks a bit messy after pulling those seals.
Inside the box if you look at the plastic wrap on the charging case you will notice that the original product has a very professional looking wrap, where the fake ones look a bit messy. This is another clue that you may be looking at a fake product.
As you can see in the picture above there is a bit of a difference for that plastic wrap.
Moving on to serial numbers; well you will find a serial number on the box, one inside the charging case, and one on each airpod.
On the original Apple AirPods 3 the serial number on the box matches the serial number inside the charging case, and each airpod has a different serial number. These are pretty small and a bit difficult to see.
If you look at the fake AirPods 3 the serial number is the same on the box, charging case and both airpods. I showed in detail those serial numbers in the video that I made and posted above.
The Airpods themselves are also a bit different; first of all the original Airpods 3 are a bit heavier, and if you look close enough at the fake ones you will notive that some of those plastic meshes on them are fake…they are just a piece of plastic that imitates a real mesh. There is a quick example in the picture below.
Another thing that you can look out for is the pairing message that shows up on your iPhone when you first open up the charging case.
On the fake Apple AirPods 3 you will get this message saying “not your AirPods”, where on the real Airpods 3 you will get just a “AirPods” message. You can see how that looks in the picture below.
I’ve also noticed that when you first open the charging case the LED on the fron of the case will flash white on the original ones and green on the fake ones.
These are some of the things that you should look out for when buying a pair of Apple AirPods 3 from a non-authorized Apple reseller.
If you do have any questions leave a comment under the YouTube video and I’ll do my best to answer.