The other day I ordered two MacBook power adapters from China. My last 60W MagSafe power adapter for MacBook Pro had died a sudden death. Since it was the T-tip that was broken I considered it beyond repair. Here’s a quick report how I’d rate those MacBook power adapters from China.

I ended up ordering a 45W model and two 60W models from Aliexpress, each of them for around $15. They were marketed as “100% genuine original”. Considering that a power adapter in a local Apple store costs $70-80 I was nearly certain that I’d get a fake instead. The below before/after images show you nicely that the seller has since dropped that claim.

I within 30s after I unpacked them that I was right with my expectations. The proof that the adapters are fake:

• it’s substantially lighter than the original Apple power adapter (152g vs 175g for the 60W adapter, 112g vs 142g for the 45w adapter)
• if you knock it against a surface it sounds slightly hollow while the original sounds solid
• the the two power winder wings don’t snap nicely to the adapter body but are fairly loose
• the color of the product info sticker is off, it’s rather brownish grey instead of regular gray (see photo)
• the cable socket has a seam on two sides but the Apple original doesn’t (see photo)
• the serial number has 13 digits instead of 17 digits (see photo)
• it has a processing defect that would never let it pass Apple QA I guess (see photo)

I know I could also have just ordered the MagSafe tip with the cord (w/o the power adapter) for less than $6. However, I didn’t feel like cracking open the existing adapters. Who knows what I might have broken in the process.

Conclusion? The most important thing is of course that they work well and haven’t blown up yet. I have no problem ordering a non-genuine replacement item if I’m told that it’s not genuine.