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BigAl01
Volunteer Moderator

How do you determine if you just bought the authentic device and not a copy?

This is interesting.  We all have worried some time or another about buying electronics online and not knowing for sure if we were getting a great deal or not.  Sometimes there are copy or 'knock-off' items that look very similar and might even function properly - for a while at least.  Well, the solution is to have your handy CT industrial scanner ready to scan the new thing you bought and see what it's made of.  Check out this article.  There is a cool video in the article too, so don't miss that.

A real Apple Airpod is on the left and copies are on the right.A real Apple Airpod is on the left and copies are on the right.

 

As Albert Einstein said, "I could have done so much more with a Big Al's Computer!".
4 Replies
johnnyenglish
Grandmaster

I'm very cautious about my purchases but at the same time.. I also like to buy used/refurbished if I get the chance.

However, a headset/phones is something that I would't buy used or cheap out at weird stores.

On that example, I only had 3 headsets in my life.

A very old and reliable Sony ones for music bought at Sony. A RoG Strix 2.4 on ASUS Amazon store and a plantronics from ATEA. All reputable places. All sealed.

I don't think I've been conned on this with cheap copies.

And thats my line of defense, getting them at the "source"

The Englishman

My wife Sandra recently got an iPhone 15 Pro Max, with the USB-C connection.  No more Lighting connector for her, so we had to scramble in terms of headphones.  She likes the standard ones that used to come with the iPhones, but they no longer do.  All you get now is the phone and a cord (USB-C to USB-C).  So I ordered some adapters and new cords on Amazon (not Apple products in general) and she also ordered a new set of the Apple headphones with the USB-C connection - which she is using.  I tried to convince her to get the AirPods, but she likes the corded ones.  If she's happy, then I'm happy.

As Albert Einstein said, "I could have done so much more with a Big Al's Computer!".

Air pods are so expensive. I would like to buy some, but most all the ones I found off Amazon were close to $200.

Asus ZenBook UX407IQ, Ryzen 5 4500u with Radeon graphics, Nvidia mx350, 8gb LPDDR4X ram, Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500gb SSD, Win11 home
mengelag
Volunteer Moderator


@BigAl01 wrote:

This is interesting.  We all have worried some time or another about buying electronics online and not knowing for sure if we were getting a great deal or not.  Sometimes there are copy or 'knock-off' items that look very similar and might even function properly - for a while at least.  Well, the solution is to have your handy CT industrial scanner ready to scan the new thing you bought and see what it's made of.  Check out this article.  There is a cool video in the article too, so don't miss that.

A real Apple Airpod is on the left and copies are on the right.A real Apple Airpod is on the left and copies are on the right.

It's all I worry about in SE Asia, counterfeit stuff in abundance here. Hard to distinguish. For PC parts and electronics, I'll have my family get it from the store in Canada and ship it to me 

Ryzen 7800X3D - RTX 4090 FE - ROG Strix B650E iGaming - 64gb 6000mhz G-Skill Neo - Noctua NH D15 - ROG Loki Platinum 1000w SFXL - 4TB Samsung Gen. 5 NVMe - Fractal Torrent Case - ROG PG48UQ OLED