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AirPods review
Sep. 14th, 2017 10:53 amI bought a pair of Apple's AirPods a while back, and I've been using them for a couple months now. I love them.
I don't think I can recommend them to most of my friends, today. They're a hundred and sixty damn bucks, and the compromises are pretty severe: there's noticeable audio/video lag (bc it's still Bluetooth), they're super droppable/losable, they need charging, the sound is only a shred better than $30 EarPods quality, and adjusting the volume with Siri is bullshit. So in a lot of ways, they're inferior to wired headphones.
But for me, they're great! There's an important slot in my lifestyle for tiny headphones that sound fine, don't make my ears hot in the summer, fit comfortably, and don't block out environmental noise, and I'd been using the wired EarPods with few complaints. But wireless is so much nicer! For walking, running, biking... I didn't even realize how much I hated that cord. And they stay in my ears just fine! The only real drop risk is when I'm taking my helmet off, or I'm taking the AirPods out to put in their case.
Also, the pairing experience is honestly super impressive. Dealing with de-pairing and re-pairing Bluetooth stuff is such an astounding pain in the ass most of the time, and they managed to basically fix it, which is incredible. Effectively, it's like they're paired with all of your Apple devices at once, and you can easily transfer control from any of them. So I can just click "connect" in my Mac's Bluetooth menu, and they'll switch over and my phone's music will auto-pause. I figure other vendors will get stuff working like this eventually, but with all the necessary protocol standardization and stuff, it's gonna take them like five years. Say what you will about Apple's closed ecosystem, but using these is real nice and no one else could have done that this year.
So anyway, they're not a must-buy. They're not honestly even "good headphones" (unquote). What they are is middlin' headphones from the future: they work by magic, they're incredibly nice for running and biking and walking around, and they're exactly what I wanted.
I don't think I can recommend them to most of my friends, today. They're a hundred and sixty damn bucks, and the compromises are pretty severe: there's noticeable audio/video lag (bc it's still Bluetooth), they're super droppable/losable, they need charging, the sound is only a shred better than $30 EarPods quality, and adjusting the volume with Siri is bullshit. So in a lot of ways, they're inferior to wired headphones.
But for me, they're great! There's an important slot in my lifestyle for tiny headphones that sound fine, don't make my ears hot in the summer, fit comfortably, and don't block out environmental noise, and I'd been using the wired EarPods with few complaints. But wireless is so much nicer! For walking, running, biking... I didn't even realize how much I hated that cord. And they stay in my ears just fine! The only real drop risk is when I'm taking my helmet off, or I'm taking the AirPods out to put in their case.
Also, the pairing experience is honestly super impressive. Dealing with de-pairing and re-pairing Bluetooth stuff is such an astounding pain in the ass most of the time, and they managed to basically fix it, which is incredible. Effectively, it's like they're paired with all of your Apple devices at once, and you can easily transfer control from any of them. So I can just click "connect" in my Mac's Bluetooth menu, and they'll switch over and my phone's music will auto-pause. I figure other vendors will get stuff working like this eventually, but with all the necessary protocol standardization and stuff, it's gonna take them like five years. Say what you will about Apple's closed ecosystem, but using these is real nice and no one else could have done that this year.
So anyway, they're not a must-buy. They're not honestly even "good headphones" (unquote). What they are is middlin' headphones from the future: they work by magic, they're incredibly nice for running and biking and walking around, and they're exactly what I wanted.