After the delays, after the rumors, and even after the general disappointment, the apple AirPods are finally here. Now this isn't going to be your usual AirPods review where everyone bashes the design and says the same joke by comparing the AirPods case to dental floss… NO! I’m better than that and i come up with my own material. So was the wait worth it? Was me chasing down the UPS man for my AirPods justified? Or are the AirPods Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice levels of disappointment?
Ok first lets get the unboxing out of the way. Packaging here is standard Apple, white box, product picture on the front. Open the box and youll find some documentation. Under that front and center is the AirPods carrying slash charging case. Under that theres a lighting cable but no wall wart. Kind of wish it came with a wall wart…
Now this is where other people would drop the dental floss joke, but to be honest I'm kind of a fan of the case. The lid is securely sealed and its satisfying when you open it. It also doesn't create a large bulge or anything when its in your pocket. The AirPod case design and satisfaction when i open it reminds me of when it was cool to always have a zippo lighter on you at all times. matter a fact i wouldn't mind a stainless steel AirPods case… oooooh or better yet what if dbrand made a skin for that! Dbrand give me call!
Inside the case is where the AirPods themselves live and charge back up. they're magnetically kept in place so you don't have to worry about them popping out when you open the case. this is a flaw the Samsung Gear Icon X suffer from. The AirPods themselves have a slightly thicker and longer stem than your wired EarPods, but hey you have to cram all of the courage somewhere. If youre like me and you never had an issue with EarPods staying in your ears than the AirPods will fit you just fine. But if EarPods never stayed in place for you then youre going tohave the same issue with the AirPods.
So do the AirPods fall out when you do vigorous exercise? Im sorry to say but yes. if youre looking for wireless earphones to workout with these aren't for you. they're not even water or dust resistant. if youre here looking for wireless earbuds for the gym then checkout the jaybird X3 or PowerBeats 3, links to their reviews are in the description.
The AirPods have Apple’s new W1 chip which can also be found in the Beats Solo 3, Powerbeats 3, and soon to be released (fingers crossed) BeatsX. The W1 chip allows for easy pairing with any iPhone running iOS 10. All you have to do is open the case, wait till the card pops up, and click connect. And right there your earphones are now connected to all of your apple products associated with the same iCloud account.
This means you can listen to music with your AirPods with your iPhone and then seamlessly start listening to music from your iPad or MacBook. just change the source on your device and thats it. The W1 chip also allows for a very strong wireless connection with your devices that can go through multiple walls. as wells as longer battery life.
If you want to pair them to non apple devices then you can connect them via bluetooth by pressing and holding the button on the back of the carrying case.
So how do they sound? well the Apple AirPods sound slightly better than the EarPods. which is a little ironic because i would have thought having a wireless connection instead of a wired one would reduce audio fidelity. The bass is punchy but the highs are a little distorted. but over all the dynamic range in the AirPods is slightly better than the EarPods.
Concerning battery life, each AirPods has an internal battery that should last 5 hours. if they run out of juice the charging case can charge up the earphones back for a total of 24 hours of use time. even if you place the AirPods in their case for just 15 minutes you get a total of 3 hours of play back time. which is kind of like the Powerbeats 3 which gets you 1 hour of playback from 5 minutes of charging. And in order to charge up the case itself you just have to plug in the lighting cable into the port on the bottom. theres also an indicator light inside the case which tells you when the AirPods are charging.
fun fact, if you open your AirPods case while its connected to the charger, your iPhone will tell you the airpods and case battery status. its a nice touch.
when the AirPods are both placed in your ears they play stereo sound. If you only have one AirPods in your ear it'll play mono sound instead. And if you take out an AirPods from your ear it'll automatically pause your music. By tapping on either AirPods twice you can either activate siri or pause your music depending on your settings. the tap recognition is very accurate and much better than Samsung’s gear iconx . since there is no inline remote to control your music playback, all of that has to go through siri now. which can be a little annoying since it makes what were once simple tasks like play, pausing, skipping or going back a track more tedious.
Heres and idea, how about when you have both AirPods in your ears double tapping the left Airpod activates siri. Single tapping the right AirPods plays or pauses your music, double tapping the right AirPods skips a track and triple tapping the right AirPods goes back a track. you know, cause the EarPods has its inline controller on the right side. Hey just an idea, Timmy Cook give me a call ill help you fix Apple.
So are the AirPods an all-around capable and versatile pair of wireless ear phones… no. I believe Apple has a certain consumer in mind each of its wireless earphone model which i will go into detail in a later video. The AirPods are a great option for any young professional that works in an office setting who wants to listen to music while they work. I found that having truly wireless earphones is a great luxury especially if you wear multiple layers like i do since I'm a New Yorker. Not having your earbuds snag on your coat or scarf is sort of liberating, i know… first world problems. So should you run out and get them? Nah, but if youre interested in them and have the money to spend then pick them up if youre going to use them while you work or chill at home.
