Spot that fake Apple charger

You might think it doesn’t matter what kind of charger you use with your phone, but a counterfeit charger can be much lower in quality not to mention unsafe. Here’s how to tell the difference.

Elect ronics blogger Ken Shirriff recently did a very interesting teardown comparing a genuine and counterfeit iPad charger, discussing the technical differences and why you should stay away from the fakes.

From the outside, the real charger and counterfeit charger are almost identical. If you look very closely, you can spot are a few differences in the text: The counterfeit removed, ‘Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China’ and the manufacturer ‘Foxlink’, probably for legal reasons. (But strangely, the counterfeit still says, ‘TM and © 2010 Apple Inc’).

The counterfeit charger displays a bunch of certifications (such as UL) that it doesn’t actually have. There is no way it could pass safety testing.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to necessarily buy Apple’s overpriced chargers. Third-party chargers from reputable brands like Monoprice are okay to buy; it’s the cheap fakes on places like Amazon that you’ll want to avoid. And if you find that you already have a fake, remember that Apple will replace it for you for only $10.