Fake Sony WH-1000XM5 appearing on Chinese Online Marketplaces

It was bound to happen, a fake version of Sony’s WH-1000XM5 has appeared online. Thanks to user speteypaaaablo on reddit for finding this. The fakes can be found on Dhgate and Aliexpress.

This guide is strictly educational and designed to help consumers identify authentic products and avoid fraudulent online sellers and products. TheWalkmanBlog does not sell, promote, facilitate the sale of, or provide links to counterfeit, replica, or unauthorized goods. We actively support consumer protection and encourage purchasing exclusively from authorized retailers.

So how does the fake compare to the real thing? Time to examine at the photos. First up, the headphones from Dhgate and their packaging.

Even though the fakes that use the same box, we have some differences. For example this packaging for some odd reason has WH-1000XM5 written twice, above the photo and in the bottom right corner.  The lower right one label looks to be a sticker. Notice that the Sony logo is missing from the packaging, photoshopped out for the photos.

In the next set of photos (above), the grey model still has the Sony logo on the side headband, but it has been photoshopped out from the black model and from above the model name on both. Below is a screenshot from a video in the listing, which clearly shows the Sony logo on the box.

So the logos are there, but just removed for the listing. Perhaps this is not to arouse suspicion from Sony? We can compare these fake boxes to the real thing below.

This official photo from Sony shows that the real design. The packaging has very rounded corners, and there is no shiny plastic wrap. I doubt the material in the fake packaging is even recycled. This design is the major giveaway of these being fake. Hopefully the fakers will not learn and adapt and make the box closer to the real thing. If they ever do, the label might could help in identifying a fake in the future.

Here is another photo from the listing showing the front and back.

The fake attempts to copy the label and while it does a pretty decent job, there are clues that reveal it is fake. I am uploading a photo of my retail box below.

The most obvious difference is the lack of all the text around the UPC code. Next the headset photo is also much lower in the fake versus the real one. Granted my retail packaging is not Chinese which the fake seems to copy (CN logo on the fake label). The model name is also wrong on the black colour, rather than WH-1000XM5/BM, it has SM, which is for the silver version.