Have you ever been to China? I’m on my eighth visit to the biggest country in the world, at least by population size, and a country that’s integral to all of the technology we use today.
A boom in manufacturing and technological advancements over the past 40 years has positioned Shenzhen, located next to Hong Kong and previously a fishing village, as arguably the most important city in technology. Most major tech companies have a significant presence in this city, and alongside that, many of the factories that produce our favorite consumer electronics are also based here.
I’ve spent almost two weeks in China, and yesterday I paid a visit to Huaqiangbei, the world’s biggest and craziest electronics fair. This is where you can find the best internal components — ideal if you’re building a tech product of your own — as well as finished products that are often indistinguishable from the real thing.
You can also buy the best products at insanely affordable prices, as I found with these AirPods Pro.
Yes, the AirPods Pro 2 cost me just $9
In Huaqiangbei, you’ll find a series of markets selling a variety of products that you’re familiar with. They also offer a range of phones and accessories that aren’t commonly seen, but most stalls also promote their wares through Apple Watches, Apple cables, and Apple AirPods. I bought all three of these while in Huaqiangbei, and the most interesting is the AirPods Pro 2.
It’s easy to mistake this as a pair of fake AirPods Pro — something that you have to be wary of, regardless of where you buy them from, unless it’s directly from an authorized retailer — but it turns out, they have all the signs they’re real and somehow made their way to Shenzhen.
They come in a case that reads ‘Designed by Apple in California’ and ‘Made in China’. The case features USB-C charging. They fit exactly like the AirPods Pro 2 do. While they didn’t have a case with magnetic charging (and I checked several stores), they very much appear to be a genuine pair of AirPods Pro that I bought at a fraction of the price.
This pair cost me just 70 RMB, which converts to $9.59 at the time of writing. For context, the AirPods Pro 2 costs between $179 (on sale) and $249 (MSRP), so to pay less than 5% of the price is incredible. However, does it work properly?
Do $9 AirPods Pro 2 work properly?
This was my biggest concern when buying them, but in reality, even a $9 pair of AirPods Pro 2 that just played audio would have been a worthwhile investment. It turns out that this may be the best $9 I’ve ever spent.
When you buy a pair of AirPods Pro from Apple, they appear on your iPhone screen, making it easy to connect. When you buy these, they don’t, but once connected, the same window appears on-screen when you open or close the case. Yet, when connected, all the regular features, such as spatial audio, head tracking, and noise cancellation, work just as well as my original pair of AirPods Pro 2.
What about other Apple features? This is where things get murky. On my Mac, they sync and appear within my Bluetooth menu as AirPods Pro #8, which is automatically set as the name, as I’ve had seven other pairs. Yet, they won’t connect automatically unless you disconnect them from the iPhone.
There are a couple of issues that I’ve noticed. First, the left earbud sometimes disconnects, whereas the right earbud works perfectly. Secondly, the spatial tracking doesn’t work as well as my original pair, but these are small gripes.
What about AppleCare? This is where things get interesting.
Are these real AirPods Pro 2?
According to Apple’s coverage checker, it comes with AppleCare until July 2026. It has a purchase date of July 2024, which essentially means I’ve got someone’s old pair that has almost certainly been refurbished and repaired. It’s not just AppleCare, but AppleCare+, which includes coverage for damage.
This answers the question about whether these are real; the answer is that they very much seem to be. However, the question of how they got here – and why they’re so cheap – is still a mystery.
There are hundreds of stalls selling these, so it’s unclear whether I just got lucky or if all of them are of this quality. The timing is fortuitous… The pair I bought from Apple last year is currently on a Qatar flight somewhere, waiting to be found. I had also lost the right earbud, and instead of paying $89 to replace it, or $249 to replace the entire set, I’ve sourced a replacement for just $9.
