WEBVTT 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:07.279 apple airpods max stylish trendy 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:08.800 fashionable the ultimate status 00:00:07.279 --> 00:00:14.559 except they're fake these knock off a pull not to be 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:20.480 confused with apple air max cost less than 200 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:24.160 all while promising to deliver a one-to-one 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:27.760 authentic experience whatever that means 00:00:25.599 --> 00:00:32.719 let's see if they live up to the manufacturer's lofty claims 00:00:30.880 --> 00:00:37.280 like i live up to telling you about our sponsor antlion audio the modmic 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:41.200 wireless microphone delivers best in class audio quality 12 plus hours of 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:44.559 battery life and can magnetically mount to almost any headphones 00:00:43.120 --> 00:00:51.719 even these get 15 off the modmic wireless and other 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:51.719 modmic products at the link down below 00:00:58.239 --> 00:01:03.760 it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that the market for knockoff apple 00:01:01.440 --> 00:01:08.479 products is absolutely huge if you roll over to your favorite 00:01:06.320 --> 00:01:12.880 unscrupulous ecommerce site be it aliexpress dhgate or wish you will find 00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:18.479 an absolute mountain of fake apple products 00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:21.200 apple watch for 18 sounds good to me 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:26.799 well sort of these kinds of super budget rip-offs are 00:01:24.080 --> 00:01:31.360 usually nothing like the original product aside from bearing a passing 00:01:28.880 --> 00:01:35.119 resemblance to it the performance and build quality will be terrible the 00:01:32.880 --> 00:01:39.680 battery life is typically non-existent and the feature set won't even be in the 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:44.880 same universe let alone ballpark but in certain categories if you step up 00:01:42.479 --> 00:01:49.520 your budget a bit there's this weird middle ground of 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:53.119 premium knockoff devices that can actually come pretty close to the real 00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:57.360 thing and that is what i suspect we have here today 00:01:55.600 --> 00:02:01.439 these specific headphones were sent over by a company that calls themselves 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:06.840 pro max very clever name by the way and they 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:12.080 included a little note hi Linus 00:02:09.440 --> 00:02:16.319 we here at promax are excited for you to review our newest headphones 00:02:14.480 --> 00:02:21.599 when we designed these headphones we wanted to make something similar to the 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:24.239 airpods max and have an emphasis on 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:28.319 price to quality ratio active noise cancellation different colors sound 00:02:25.760 --> 00:02:33.760 quality we guarantee this will be the best headphones available under the 200 00:02:30.640 --> 00:02:36.959 mark and the closest it will ever get to 00:02:33.760 --> 00:02:40.400 the original airpods max wow same 00:02:36.959 --> 00:02:43.040 material same sound same style just much 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:47.360 more affordable enjoy promax team available at www.atpromax.com 00:02:46.239 --> 00:02:52.879 um sad story by the way that website appears to be gone honestly speaking 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:57.280 this note raises more questions than it answers i mean when we designed these 00:02:55.760 --> 00:03:02.239 headphones what does that even mean does it count 00:02:59.200 --> 00:03:04.879 as design if you just scan someone 00:03:02.239 --> 00:03:08.560 else's product and carbon copied it or maybe even somehow gained access to 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:13.200 their tooling i don't want to be a snob but best headphones available under 200 00:03:11.200 --> 00:03:16.560 and closest it will get to the original airpods max 00:03:14.720 --> 00:03:21.360 you gotta pick one bra because their headphones under 200 that sound a lot 00:03:18.640 --> 00:03:24.239 better than even the real airpods max they're 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:28.959 they're okay same material same sound same style just much more affordable i 00:03:26.720 --> 00:03:35.040 will be the judge of that because i have both a pair of real airpods max 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:37.840 and oh right the pro max oh my god i see i got confused i was like wait a minute 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:43.519 i thought it's airpods max not earpods pro max yes it is airpods max i have 00:03:41.040 --> 00:03:50.400 both a pair of real airpods max and the promax promaxes 00:03:47.760 --> 00:03:54.720 and i am going to be comparing them starting with trying to figure out which 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:58.319 one of these is the real one and which one is fake because 00:03:56.799 --> 00:04:02.480 not gonna lie i cannot tell based on the packaging 00:04:00.720 --> 00:04:07.040 wait yes i can this has to be the fake 00:04:04.239 --> 00:04:11.280 apple's um apple's paper quality is higher no i'm serious that's a thing 00:04:09.519 --> 00:04:15.280 somehow it looks like they actually got their hands on apple's original assets 00:04:13.519 --> 00:04:19.919 rather than it just being a high quality scan no no no no hold on 00:04:18.320 --> 00:04:24.160 i think there's less contrast in the print it's really interesting to me that 00:04:21.840 --> 00:04:27.759 they didn't have the guts to put air pods like on the name of the product 00:04:26.320 --> 00:04:34.080 because i guess they were worried that would attract apple's lawyers but then 00:04:31.520 --> 00:04:40.240 they so they again they don't put apple here but they put their address as one 00:04:36.960 --> 00:04:42.240 apple parkway cupertino california 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:45.440 where i don't understand these lines you're drawing 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:49.680 i think this is actually for like customs reasons so if you're importing 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:53.600 like knockoff products it's not as illegal if they're not 00:04:52.080 --> 00:04:59.120 called the same thing right but here's the problem it says 00:04:56.400 --> 00:05:03.600 right here airpo oh my god this is hilarious 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:05.600 airpods max silver with white headband 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:09.440 designed by apple in california 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:14.000 apple you don't have a california design 00:05:12.400 --> 00:05:19.600 studio oh my god compatible with iOS and ipad 00:05:16.400 --> 00:05:21.199 os devices apple watch or mac with the 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:25.120 latest software so i better not try and pair it with an apple watch i better 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:28.960 make sure i have an apple watch you gotta get immersed in the ecosystem all 00:05:27.280 --> 00:05:32.960 right i haven't actually looked at the airpods max since we did our review 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:36.639 because why would i so i'm gonna start with the fake ones and i'm gonna see if 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:42.000 without comparing to the originals i would be able to tell the difference 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:48.000 to be clear apple's box quality is better but this is 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:49.680 good so here i've got my smart case 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:54.320 mesh seems pretty meshy i have our pants made out 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:58.960 of that honestly the materials feel great like 00:05:56.080 --> 00:06:03.120 this is super soft and the whole thing's pretty like pliable 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:07.520 like it feels wait a second 00:06:04.840 --> 00:06:12.240 whoa there was a thing it popped the thing popped up did it manage to 00:06:09.520 --> 00:06:15.600 actually pick up just like airpods max when you open them up did you put the 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:18.800 wrong are these the real ones just double check i i like triple 00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:22.800 checked before but i just want to make sure oh my god these are the real ones 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:29.280 all right let's try this again oh god 00:06:29.280 --> 00:06:35.120 well for starters the smart case is 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:41.360 not built to the same standard of quality still got magnets okay like 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:41.360 functionally it's exactly the same 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:52.160 somehow they managed to reverse engineer apple's pairing process so it works like 00:06:48.960 --> 00:06:54.479 magic just like normal airpods would 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:59.520 whoa look at that everything in here 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:04.080 actually looks legit 00:07:01.039 --> 00:07:05.919 connect press and hold the noise control 00:07:04.080 --> 00:07:09.520 button okay 00:07:07.280 --> 00:07:09.520 wait 00:07:10.520 --> 00:07:14.840 wait a second 00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:21.599 these are plastic did promax lie to me 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:25.919 same material no i need the real air pods hold on a second where'd they go 00:07:23.840 --> 00:07:33.199 fetch me a scale let's start with the pro max pro max's 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:34.319 400 grams okay official airpods max 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:38.880 wait what what the hell okay hold on a second 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:42.319 are they plastic okay now i'm doubting these are so much colder to the touch no 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:46.080 this has to be how do they weigh more than the than the 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:51.680 real ones okay just don't don't answer don't answer that i want to figure it i 00:07:47.680 --> 00:07:53.520 want to figure it out on my own okay 385 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:56.840 oh i'm opening these i want to find out if there's weights 00:07:54.960 --> 00:08:01.440 inside okay this is how we'll tell which ones are 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:01.440 real 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:08.000 this feels this feels metal though okay has the resize mechanism they feel the 00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:12.240 same but this one sounds cheaper 00:08:10.479 --> 00:08:17.919 here hold on no no i'm going to quantify this okay david listen listen listen 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:17.919 hold on here's real airpods max 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:25.800 you got that okay fake 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:31.280 for knockoffs though not bad for knockoffs not bad at all also i take 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:36.560 back what i said about the mesh both of them this mesh is a bad design that's the 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:39.360 thing about copying an apple product is you're copying everything for better or 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:43.760 for work wow now 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:49.040 that's impressive i was just standing here talking while 00:08:45.680 --> 00:08:51.680 the noise cancellation kicked in 00:08:49.040 --> 00:08:54.640 it really works even the sound of my own voice the sound of our hvac here it's 00:08:53.680 --> 00:08:59.839 like no okay you make that face but i have 00:08:56.959 --> 00:09:05.360 yet to encounter a knock-off product that manages noise cancellation that 00:09:02.880 --> 00:09:10.000 works like this try transparency mode okay now hold on a 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:12.880 second that did not sound very good you're quieter 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:17.360 but it also sounds like you're coming from over there 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:23.920 it's really creepy there's jakes all around me in terms of just ambient noise though 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:27.440 kicks it to the curb it's not bad okay i'm in transparency mode now i'm 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:33.680 expecting this to be not as good hi how's it going 00:09:30.560 --> 00:09:35.279 it's muffled but it's more transparent 00:09:33.680 --> 00:09:41.279 yeah they're definitely not using the same grade of microphones on these if 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:43.839 the goal was for these to pass as real 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:48.640 then as long as your friends don't ever call you on it and like grab them i 00:09:46.640 --> 00:09:52.000 think you'd get away with it they did a really good job of the finish 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:55.600 on the plastic like let's take a moment to appreciate that for what it is it is 00:09:54.640 --> 00:10:01.440 really really hard to nail down like uh an 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:05.680 anodized or like a blasted aluminum finish on plastic and these look really 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:10.320 close like really close oh 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:14.440 interesting they just totally got the clamping 00:10:12.160 --> 00:10:19.640 pressure wrong because they have a mechanism that 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:19.640 allows them 00:10:23.920 --> 00:10:31.519 yeah they have it they have it it's just it's just crappier and here on the 00:10:28.880 --> 00:10:35.040 original airpods max it's just it's a smoother mechanism and it doesn't 00:10:33.040 --> 00:10:38.880 require as much force so it means that when they sit on your ears wow this 00:10:36.800 --> 00:10:42.399 transparency mode is so much better when they sit on your ears they sit at the 00:10:40.959 --> 00:10:46.560 right angle whereas these the clamping pressure is 00:10:44.399 --> 00:10:49.279 too much and they don't really sit at the right angle so it puts a bunch of 00:10:47.680 --> 00:10:54.240 pressure at the top yeah this transparency mode is absolute horse poo 00:10:51.920 --> 00:10:58.240 compared to the apple one it's impressive that they have it though 00:10:56.480 --> 00:11:01.680 the fact that they have it at all you're right but here let's just turn it off 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:06.320 entirely okay talk to me hi how's it going okay 00:11:04.560 --> 00:11:10.000 okay keep talking things and stuff and stuff and things how's it going telling 00:11:08.079 --> 00:11:14.880 you about my day i had a fantastic morning i drank some coffee oh it is it 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:14.880 is markedly better than just having 00:11:21.040 --> 00:11:26.240 very natural sounding for conversation 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:31.440 now this is where things might get interesting because if they did manage 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:33.680 to get their hands on the exact driver 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:37.440 they probably still sound relatively poo poo because they're not going to be 00:11:34.880 --> 00:11:43.440 tuned properly for this plastic housing the drivers do look identical 00:11:40.800 --> 00:11:45.920 even down to the really fine mesh in front of them 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:57.839 it's very loud you know if i was into a 00:11:56.560 --> 00:12:02.079 kind of bass heavy kind of muddy mainstream 00:12:00.560 --> 00:12:04.880 sound signature they're not bad 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:10.800 i am very surprised 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:14.160 uh okay let's see if they turn off when i 00:12:11.760 --> 00:12:18.320 put them here it works so what i noticed 00:12:16.800 --> 00:12:21.680 the sensors detect that you're taking them all like you take put them on the desk yeah 00:12:20.800 --> 00:12:25.680 but like it has done the beat to tell you that they've taken them off yeah when 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:31.680 you put them back on you hear the beep that tells them that they're on again yeah but sometimes it doesn't pause the 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:31.680 music depending on the app 00:12:33.920 --> 00:12:40.560 they're still going and they're off okay bit of a delay wait they're back 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:44.000 it's my chin 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:51.360 see okay hold on hold on hold on 00:12:49.279 --> 00:12:55.360 i figured it out okay you put them face down on the table 00:12:52.880 --> 00:12:59.839 and they play yeah so the sensors are just not tuned 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:04.160 correctly LTT's airpods max 00:13:02.560 --> 00:13:09.519 more balanced definitely better sounding 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:11.680 and transparency mode is a universe 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:15.600 better so much better i still can't hear you just because 00:13:12.959 --> 00:13:20.320 these are pretty loud right now way more balanced sound that's something 00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:23.920 that apple has managed to maintain in spite of their beats acquisition yeah 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:28.800 they're better they're also 550 like 00:13:27.040 --> 00:13:32.959 a song like this really reveals that even though these are much 00:13:30.639 --> 00:13:37.519 more detailed than the fake ones they are really not great headphones it's 00:13:34.959 --> 00:13:40.240 just there's just too much it just can't can't handle it there's not enough 00:13:38.880 --> 00:13:43.680 resolution here anyway that's not the point the point is 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:47.920 we're gonna see what we can do to eq the fake ones to at least hit this level 00:13:46.160 --> 00:13:51.920 i see you have what appears to be a suggested eq curve here so i'm going to 00:13:50.160 --> 00:13:56.000 try yours first i i see you've uh really neutered the 00:13:54.079 --> 00:13:58.160 bass just 00:13:59.040 --> 00:14:04.720 goodbye bass with enough tinkering 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:08.639 you could reach the point of satisfying sounding i'll say that i don't know if 00:14:06.560 --> 00:14:12.639 you could get quite to the level of the regular airpods max 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:17.279 now the thing i want to know next 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:20.079 is what have they done bluetooth wise 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:23.920 to make these identify as a genuine apple product now you did some sniffing 00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:28.160 around in in what's going on there right so i did some sleeping on an Android 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:33.120 phone because that's all you can really do apple phones don't really give you that much data 00:14:30.959 --> 00:14:37.760 interestingly enough they use the same exact same codec exact same bitrate 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:42.720 exact same sample as the real one yeah it's all the same 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:48.240 i wasn't able to determine how they salute it because they don't 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:51.680 even show apple as the manufacturer 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:53.839 well there are non-apple headphones 00:14:51.680 --> 00:14:57.199 that do operate like apple headphones like beats for example well they'll work 00:14:55.760 --> 00:15:02.079 in exactly the same way you flip open your case and it prompts you to pair the last magical thing they managed to clone 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:06.320 is synchronization between your apple devices so if you have an iphone and a 00:15:04.160 --> 00:15:10.079 macbook for example if you pair these to one of your devices it will pair to both 00:15:08.160 --> 00:15:13.360 of them but what doesn't work is switching so you're sitting there with 00:15:11.680 --> 00:15:17.680 your iphone on the desk and you're using your macbook and you want to just like 00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:20.560 use icloud to switch between them that that will not work you'll have to just 00:15:19.199 --> 00:15:25.040 disconnect them from one and connecting to the other okay 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:29.519 well that was a very straightforward disassembly process 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:34.560 these bear no internal resemblance 00:15:31.839 --> 00:15:37.440 to real ones i 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:41.600 don't know what else to tell you about that other than that 00:15:39.839 --> 00:15:45.519 so i used them for like eight hours like a whole day yeah and they had like 25 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:48.399 battery life at the end of the day really so they last a whole day so they 00:15:47.040 --> 00:15:52.079 last a whole day that's not bad it sounds like they have about half 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:59.839 of the real airpods back which makes sense the real airpods max are around 20 00:15:54.800 --> 00:16:02.199 to 22 23 hours uh here we go so sun woda 00:15:59.839 --> 00:16:06.880 two cells in parallel total capacity of 664 milliamp hours 00:16:04.560 --> 00:16:10.959 and this is 470 milliamp hours in a single cell okay then 00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:15.680 okay so that kind of checks out yeah that that tracks 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:17.759 now what would be surprising but 00:16:15.680 --> 00:16:20.880 who knows is if we opened up the other side 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:24.639 and found that there's another cell in there i really doubt it though 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:27.279 yeah yeah it's just got the one cell in there 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:31.040 no weights or anything there's no there's no weights 00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:34.480 wait yes there are 00:16:33.040 --> 00:16:40.000 i thought this was a little shelf in the mold for the cell that's missing to sit 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:41.839 on but it's not it's a weight oh yeah 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:47.279 yeah that's probably like actually lead less expensive it's probably steel 00:16:44.160 --> 00:16:51.320 oh yeah uh i don't know alex it looks 00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:51.320 really really malleable 00:16:51.680 --> 00:16:57.759 we have the super strong magnet bit from the LTT Store screwdriver 00:16:56.880 --> 00:17:03.040 ah maybe it is lead i'm not going to put these back together but we did test this 00:17:01.040 --> 00:17:06.559 already latency is worse on the knockoffs compared to regular airpods 00:17:05.120 --> 00:17:11.120 max though it should be noted that neither of them are great and the 00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:16.400 pausing when you take them off your ears as well as battery life monitoring work 00:17:13.439 --> 00:17:21.280 on Android so even though the uh what what is it max pro pro max even though 00:17:19.280 --> 00:17:25.839 pro max has disappeared it looks like you can still get your hands on these so 00:17:22.959 --> 00:17:30.160 the question then is should you well if you don't want to support the 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:33.919 bootleg product industry then the answer is no no you shouldn't but if you don't 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:37.760 care about that and you just want to know if they're good value if your goal 00:17:35.840 --> 00:17:42.080 is to kind of pose as an apple airpods max owner then yes i'd say they're a 00:17:40.080 --> 00:17:48.000 great value they sound good enough it's not like they're 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:51.679 complete unlistenable but are these a 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:54.160 great value at 200 the answer is no 00:17:51.679 --> 00:17:56.960 but you were shopping for airpods max so you probably didn't care about that 00:17:55.360 --> 00:18:02.160 anyway but you might care about our sponsor jackery makes solar ready portable power 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:06.880 stations that are designed to improve outdoor life by providing power outdoors 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:10.880 whenever and wherever you need it their explorer 1500 portable power station has 00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:17.760 enough juice to keep all your devices powered and connected it's huge 1500 00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:19.840 watt hour capacity and 1800 watt output 00:18:17.760 --> 00:18:24.160 rate allow you to use up to seven devices plugged in simultaneously it 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:28.160 takes only four hours to recharge from zero to eighty percent and you can check 00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:33.600 out the explorer 1500 at the link below and get 10 off with code Linus tech tips 00:18:31.840 --> 00:18:37.039 if you guys enjoyed this video maybe check out our original review of the 00:18:35.600 --> 00:18:40.559 airpods max they're fine i guess