So I had the Apple AirPods for two months now.
I keep getting the questions from friends and family.
For $159 (₹12,900) is it worth it?
Well, it was probably the best thing to buy. It’s because I use it all the time. For the first two weeks, I would have them in all the time. I would wake up and I would get ready and throw them in the ears and listen to music all day. I would use them whether I’m working out of the gym or doing any other stuff.
Having them in all the time, these are just super convenient wireless earbuds. Anywhere I go it’d be the first thing I pack. I throw in my pocket I throw my backpack and throw it in my luggage case and I just go.
So let’s talk about build quality and packaging. So it comes with a carrying case and obviously, it comes with a left and a right earbud. And aside from the fact that the stems are super long and make you look like you’re in a sci-fi movie, it is probably one of Apple’s best-designed products.
So it’s still the very seamless design that you see in the Apple EarPods, the wired ones that come with every iPhone. But these are just so much better. They’re built with the same sturdy plastic material and they’ve survived drops. I was actually really scared of this when I first got it. But I’ve dropped it a few times and it survives drops just like your regular wired EarPods would.
These stay surprisingly really well in your ears. I’ve had different stories from some people saying that it falls out. But they also have the same issue with the old EarPods that they would fall out. So I would say if you don’t own AirPods grab one from a friend and pop in the ear and just shake your head vigorously. If they don’t fall out for you, then they should be good. There’s only one size. So if it fits your ear, that’s perfect. If it’s too small for your ear, then you might be out of luck on that one.
The bottom of the stems are magnetic. When you put them into the carrying case they just snap right in, which is perfect. These last surprisingly long so on a full charge day last me about 3 to 4 hours of continuous use. The charging case can fully charge up to about 24 hours of usage which is insane.
They’ve never died on me midday. As a matter of fact, I think for like a week or two I only charge them once every other day or every 3 days and they never really died on me. But those days I was using it sparingly. But for the most part on a full charge, it’ll last you a full day.
Charging the Apple AirPods is the carrying case. It has a lightning port at the bottom and you plug that in that charges. The case charges the earbuds and you’re good to go.
Inside the AirPods, they have Apple’s new Wi-Fi chip the W1 chip. My favorite part about the AirPods is the Apple integrations. All you have to do to pair it to your phone is literally open the charging case while it’s near your phone and it will pair.
This ends up working about the same on your iPhone on your iPad. However, on your laptop’s like your MacBook Pros or MacBook Air even on your desktops like the iMac you’re gonna have to go up into the tray at the top right, click on the Bluetooth hit connect and then click on the air pods. But I mean like that’s still pretty seamless because that’s just how you pair any other device. On your mobile devices like your phones and tablets, it just goes by so much smoother.
So the next concern is sound quality.
How well do they sound?
Well if you compare it to the EarPods they sound about the same. I mean, this isn’t gonna be mind-blowing this isn’t like your Audiophile grade headphones. You’re not gonna the super deep lows, the super high clarity. Well, sound fidelity is subjective. If you enjoy listening to music and listening to whatever your audiobooks and your podcasts on the EarPods then these will sound just as good and slightly better because they’ve improved the design since the EarPods.
So few unique things.
The Apple AirPods don’t have inline controls obviously because it doesn’t have a wire. So how do you control play, pause and change volume? You kind of can’t and you kind of can. So they have touch gestures. You can map it to your settings and you can assign a one to each earbud. So you activate it with a double-tap and by default, both of them are set to ask Siri. So if you double-tap Siri will come up and then you can be like hey Siri play the next song.
It’s kind of awkward if you’re in public. I wouldn’t really want to be you know walking through the streets or on the subway station being like volume up or play in my audiobook. But in private it’s actually really useful. I’ve had to take short walks and while I’m walking the dog I just go like hey Siri read me my recent text and it does it’ll read off my recent text which is pretty cool.
You do have the option of remapping it to DoubleTap to pause and start, DoubleTap it to go back to the previous song and DoubleTap it to go forward. Currently, I have my left one map to Siri and my right one mapped to go to the next song.
The other quality about it which is in theory. It’s really good design. When you take one earbud out, the music stops and then when you put it back in the music automatically starts again which is really nice. It’s very useful when you’re at the gym and somebody is talking to you or a situation similar to that. You can take out one earbud your music will stop and you can chat.
The annoying thing is for someone who’s constantly listened to music like I am while I work, I take out my AirPods all the time because I want to hear what’s going on around me and then that pauses my music. If I hit the play it’ll play out both earbuds including the one that’s just out. So that’s not necessarily intuitive if. But you can’t solve this. If you leave one earbud in the charging case and you just have one in that’ll work fine, that’ll work just as normal.
You take that one out it will also pause the music and you put it back in it will keep playing but that’s how you can get around. If you’re the one earbud in kind of person, then there is a workaround to suit your needs.
It’s just annoying sometimes because I’m in the library and I take one out because someone’s talking to me and then like they’re having a conversation. So I want to listen but I also want my music to play then I’ve to go get on the case and throw it in.
When you switch from wired to wireless you start realizing that WOW that wire was really annoying. I love the convenience of having a truly wireless device to listen to music on the go while I’m going to the gym or while working.
It’s very unique and of all the other pairs on the market currently, that are truly wireless like the AirPods just don’t stand up to scrutiny. There are a few cheap pairs and they’re just they’re truly cheap and there are a few expensive pairs that lack a lot of functionality.
So here’s my conclusion
The audio quality is good but not great. The build quality is good like everything apples put out. My favorite part about it is the Apple integration into the ecosystem of their devices. It’s very seamless and it’s a pleasure. My favorite part is its form factor inconvenience.
I can literally throw it in my pocket whenever I want. I can take it with me everywhere even when I don’t have a backpack on. It’s tiny, it’s smaller than your phone and smaller than your wallet. Just throw it in your pocket and that is why it’s probably the best piece of tech I’ve used.
