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Are Used Airpods Pro Being Shipped As New by Apple? (not likely, but it's complicated just a li'l bit))

G

GaryPDX

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 8, 2008
80
29
Portland, OR USA
Just ordered and received a "new" pair of Airpods Pro directly from Apple, delivered in a fancy little Apple bag and everything. Connected to my Mac, they show a manufacture date od January 16, 2018 and some 59 charge cycles. These are in seeming perfect condition but clearly used. The packaging was utterly pristine. Serial number on box matched that on the charger. However, I have not been able to decipher the number. Anyway, back they go, as I paid the new price.

I'd suggest connecting any new pair of Airpods to a Mac and having a look at the information about them in the Menu Bar. It's all in a dropdown when you see their icon in the Menu Bar. Hover over "Condition" in the dropdown and a side window shows manufacturing date and charge info. I am unable to figure out how you'd ever discover this info on an iPhone (I have an iPhone 8). And I came across it on the Mac almost accidentally as I was fiddling with them.
 
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Shame, return them yes, did they arrived in a sealed Apple box, where you removed the sealing to open them?
 
GaryPDX said:
Just ordered and received a "new" pair of Airpods Pro directly from Apple, delivered in a fancy little Apple bag and everything. Connected to my Mac, they show a manufacture date od January 16, 2018 and some 59 charge cycles.
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Given that AirPods Pro weren't released until October 2019, I suspect that whatever tool you're using to collect that data is not in any way reliable. I don't see any information about battery cycles or manufacturing date in the standard Apple bluetooth menu on Big Sur, unless I'm missing something.
 
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LongWayHome said:
Since when does Apple put products in an Apple bag inside the box?
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News to me too, all hardware I’ve ordered from Apple has come in a plain brown shipping cardboard box - I say plain, even the Apple shipping boxes are well thought out. Unless I’ve picked it up from the store of course.
 
TrueBlou said:
News to me too, all hardware I’ve ordered from Apple has come in a plain brown shipping cardboard box - I say plain, even the Apple shipping boxes are well thought out. Unless I’ve picked it up from the store of course.
Click to expand...

Yeah that just seemed wierd. Not saying it didn't happen but I can't really see Apple putting a box of airpods inside a bag inside a box.
 
LongWayHome said:
Yeah that just seemed wierd. Not saying it didn't happen but I can't really see Apple putting a box of airpods inside a bag inside a box.
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I wouldn't complain if they did, I'm quite partial to the Apple bags, they're pretty good quality. I often use mine as temporary storage for junk in the office :D
 
TrueBlou said:
I wouldn't complain if they did, I'm quite partial to the Apple bags, they're pretty good quality. I often use mine as temporary storage for junk in the office :D
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I honestly wouldn't either, but as conscience as Apple is about packaging waste I can't really see them doing that.
 
Here's a followup to my original post. I bought a set from Amazon, figuring they would come out of a different pool. Turns out that the new pair also showed a January 16, 2018 build date and 59 charge cycles when brand new, along with being 3% used up. So Now I'm gonna guess this is an artifact of some sort. Or maybe they need to test a lot of batteries to get ones that are good or, ah I'm just gonna keep them.
 
LongWayHome said:
Since when does Apple put products in an Apple bag inside the box?
Click to expand...
The AirPods Pro were delivered in a nice Apple bag. Nothing else. It was just as though the driver brought them from an local Apple Store. Because he almost certainly did. No box needed. There was a "courier charge" to get them the same day.
 
abley22 said:
Shame, return them yes, did they arrived in a sealed Apple box, where you removed the sealing to open them?
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Sealed perfectly. See my subsequent post. I don't know what we're dealing with. Surprised I'm the first to see it. However none of this info seems to come up on iOS devices and it's in a modal slideout from the Menubar on the Mac.
 
GaryPDX said:
Here's a followup to my original post. I bought a set from Amazon, figuring they would come out of a different pool. Turns out that the new pair also showed a January 16, 2018 build date and 59 charge cycles when brand new
Click to expand...
How, exactly, are you finding this information? It's obviously incorrect.
 
GaryPDX said:
The AirPods Pro were delivered in a nice Apple bag. Nothing else. It was just as though the driver brought them from an local Apple Store. Because he almost certainly did. No box needed. There was a "courier charge" to get them the same day.
Click to expand...
Yes, same day Apple deliveries come direct from a local store.
 
GaryPDX said:
Here's a followup to my original post. I bought a set from Amazon, figuring they would come out of a different pool. Turns out that the new pair also showed a January 16, 2018 build date and 59 charge cycles when brand new, along with being 3% used up. So Now I'm gonna guess this is an artifact of some sort. Or maybe they need to test a lot of batteries to get ones that are good or, ah I'm just gonna keep them.
Click to expand...
You still haven't told us what app/how you are finding this information. Also AirPods Pro came out in October 2019. It's extremely unlikely that Apple started mass production 22 months before announcing them. They would still be in the various prototyping phases, not mass production Even then, it's also very unlikely that they have any first production runs from late 2019 left at this point. They sell millions of these. The chances of them finding a pair manufactured in mid-late 2019 are slim to none
 
GaryPDX said:
The AirPods Pro were delivered in a nice Apple bag. Nothing else. It was just as though the driver brought them from an local Apple Store. Because he almost certainly did. No box needed. There was a "courier charge" to get them the same day.
Click to expand...

Oh that's my bad. I didn't know they were a delivery direct from a store. Sorry about that.
 
GaryPDX said:
Here's a followup to my original post. I bought a set from Amazon, figuring they would come out of a different pool. Turns out that the new pair also showed a January 16, 2018 build date and 59 charge cycles when brand new, along with being 3% used up. So Now I'm gonna guess this is an artifact of some sort. Or maybe they need to test a lot of batteries to get ones that are good or, ah I'm just gonna keep them.
Click to expand...
The website you are getting that info from is incorrect
 
chrfr said:
Given that AirPods Pro weren't released until October 2019, I suspect that whatever tool you're using to collect that data is not in any way reliable. I don't see any information about battery cycles or manufacturing date in the standard Apple bluetooth menu on Big Sur, unless I'm missing something.
Click to expand...
I daresay you are. Visit the Menubar Item shaped like a pair of Airpods Pro. Click on it. Hover over the module marked "Health Cycles Condition." When you do this, another men will fly out fro the side. Read it. BTW, I just updated to Big Sur and now the date says "Decbmer 31, 1969." Go figure.
 
GaryPDX said:
I daresay you are. Visit the Menubar Item shaped like a pair of Airpods Pro. Click on it. Hover over the module marked "Health Cycles Condition." When you do this, another men will fly out fro the side. Read it. BTW, I just updated to Big Sur and now the date says "Decbmer 31, 1969." Go figure.
Click to expand...
I am on Big Sur (currently the 11.2 release candidate) and see no mention of battery health or cycles in the AirPods Pro menu extra. Perhaps you could share a screen capture of this menu.
 
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