A Breath of Fresh AirPods

From the point they were rumored, I thought I would like the AirPods.

I was wrong.

I love the AirPods.

In my mind, without question, they are the best new product Apple has done in years. Are they perfect? No. But they’re so good at their core purpose: wireless earbuds, that it’s honestly hard to complain about a single thing.

I’ve had them for near two weeks now (thanks Chikai!) and have used them every single day since. That includes while traveling and on four different flights. They’re so good that I’ve already stopped carrying around my wired EarPods, which I carried around daily for almost a decade now (dating back to the original iPhone). I use them with my iPhone, my iPad, and my MacBook. They’re so seamless to use it’s honestly frustrating to think about using anything else.

Before getting them, my one major concern would have been battery life. But because of the ingenious carrying case that doubles as a charger, I’ve never once come close to running out of juice. And that’s with a lot of usage. It’s just not an issue.

Pairing, thanks to the W1 chip, could not be easier.¹ It makes pairing any other non-W1 Bluetooth device seem like a farce. And believe me, I’ve paired a lot of Bluetooth devices over the years. That it took this many years to perfect such a task, only for Apple to come along and do it seemingly overnight, seems like a joke. A really bad joke. Everyone else who has played in the Bluetooth game for a long time should be ashamed.

I realize this review sounds like a love letter. That’s because it is a love letter. This is exactly the product I’ve wanted for years. Apple nailed it.

Nits? I have a few. But then again, too few to mention.

Fine. The double-tap gesture to “wake” Siri (or Pause/Play audio) is pretty poorly done, in my opinion. In fact, it works so infrequently, that I’m not entirely sure I’m not doing it wrong (cue the “you’re holding it wrong” jokes). When I do get it to work, Siri is far too loud.

I also wish there was a way to control volume on the AirPods themselves without having to invoke Siri, which just takes too long (when it works). I know I’m not alone here. A kingdom for a new software-enabled gesture (triple tap? slide up/down?) to control the volume, Apple. More likely, we’ll have to wait for AirPods 2. But this is a no-brainer.

The audio quality, to my ears, is solid. At least as solid as the EarPods. I’m sure audiophiles will sound off here. But I’m not an audiophile. I’m just a guy who listens to a ton of content, be it articles, podcasts, or music. The AirPods are more than adequate for each use case in my book.

Do they look dorky? Maybe a little. But in the past two weeks, I honestly haven’t gotten a lot of double takes. Perhaps my face is just better suited to them (read: bigger) than Steve Kovach’s. Hard to say. Regardless, I think they’ll quickly start to blend in even more as they become more ubiquitous.

I guess this is a problem?

But not really.

At $159, the AirPods are sort of expensive, I suppose. But not more so than comparable Bluetooth earbuds. They’re well worth it.

What else? Removing an AirPod to pause audio works flawlessly. I know they won’t fit everyone’s ears perfectly, but they fit mine well and have never once fallen out in various activities. Wearing them for hours is comfortable enough in my ears. I love the optionality of using one at a time (effectively doubling battery life) if I don’t need stereo sound. I love that the case charges via the iPhone’s Lightning cable. I love that these silence the folks who complained about not being able to charge and listen to your iPhone at the same time. Good riddance, headphone jack.

Thus ends my love letter. If you’re at all debating getting the AirPods, do it. Unless they absolutely don’t fit your ears (or your budget), it’s hard to find faults here. So, so, so, so good. A great example that Apple can still nail some products right off the bat.

¹ Same is true with the Beats W1 devices, of course.