Canadian man CT scans real AirPods vs $10 Temu homage to see what’s really inside

A YouTuber has broken down the seemingly huge difference between a pair of real Apple AirPods and a similar pair from Temu in a way that was both creative and effective.

Rather than simply comparing features, perceived quality, price, and so on, he decided to scan both products to see what was inside.

On the face of it, both products look similar, bar a familiar fruit-based logo.

But the scan revealed a vast difference between the Temu earbuds and their branded inspiration.

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This is a well-known issue nobody can fix

It’s quite difficult to trick people into buying a fake iPhone or a fake iPad, but the market is flooded with imitation AirPods that are nearly impossible to identify as fake until you start using them.

This is a well-known problem – especially in the world of pre-owned.

Unless you’re buying from a renowned seller with tens of thousands of verified reviews or directly from Apple, Amazon, Amazon Refurbished, or equivalents, most used AirPods on the market are ‘fake’.

They’re sophisticated copies, which is why it’s hard to spot them.

Some people think it’s enough to cross-check things like warranty or serial numbers, but that doesn’t work either because those numbers are easy to clone.

Some fakes are so good that they can also mimic (to an extent) Apple features.

There are fake AirPods that can automatically detect devices in your iCloud (for example, a MacBook and an iPhone) and seamlessly connect to both.

But it all falls apart quite quickly when you actually use them because the quality just isn’t there.

This YouTuber tried breaking that difference down by scanning real AirPods and imitation ones, and the result is shocking.

This is why AirPods and fakes are not even in the same league

A YouTuber who goes by Inside Everything took a closer look at Apple AirPods versus Temu ‘AirPods’, and the result was interesting.

And when we say a ‘closer look’, we mean the closest look you can take since he scanned both products with a CT scanner to see what was inside.

Both earbuds share a similar basic structure, in the same way that a Bugatti Tourbillon and a Zastava Yugo are both cars with four wheels and a steering wheel.

The ‘knockoffs’ lack a long list of features, including the feedback microphone you need for active noise cancellation.

They’re also significantly simpler in terms of the material used.

They use cheap plastic wherever Apple uses metal, and while Apple either custom-manufactures or customizes nearly every component, the Temu ones use off-the-shelf components bought cheaply, which makes sense.

Not to mention, Temu AirPods are obviously not compatible with other Apple products and CarPlay.

We’re sure that Apple applies a ‘healthy’ (and hefty) markup on every product it sells, but you can still clearly see where that money is being spent.