AirPods Impressions: ‘Better Than Expected’ Bluetooth, Sound, and Battery Impress Early Users

[deivydas]

Christ. After people saw that a Smart Phone was more than just a phone, you'd think they'd have learned.
But now, we get the same narrow-minded "a smart watch is just a watch" analysis of the Apple Watch.
And now the same "a hearable is just earphones" analysis of Earbuds.

You people have lived through constant tech upsets since at least 1975, and yet you're still UTTERLY INCAPABLE of understanding that devices change and acquire new functionality? Seriously?
Why are you even reading this blog? Wouldn't you be happier reading something else about a world that DOESN'T change every year?

I have wireless headphones But because i love music - i bought Bang&Olufsen H7 Sure, they still far from being perfect (bluetooth as technology still sucks, at least for sound quality), but i'm pretty happy with my purchase

 

[ericwn]

Third-party solutions to making sure the Air Pods don't fall out and get lost in 3-2-1...

I suspect most will just be something like a string between the two Air Pods, like the chains for eyeglasses.

I think we're most likely not going to see many of these solutions as it would make it inconvenient to put the earbuds back into their case. Do you want to remove a chord every time you need to charge / store them away? That's sort of against the idea of wireless audio in the first place, isn't it?

 

[Applebot1]

I think these have gotten a lot of hate. Personally, I think they're pretty expensive. I would definitely consider them once the price has dropped.

Issue being price stays the same or increases. Its all about the profit margins.

 

[havnap]

Impressed with the sound and fit; if you like the corded ones then you'll like these. See how the battery life goes.

 

[iDento]

The tech is really impressive, I just hope Apple release them in black, white is very floss-like!

 

[name99]

I have wireless headphones But because i love music - i bought Bang&Olufsen H7 Sure, they still far from being perfect (bluetooth as technology still sucks, at least for sound quality), but i'm pretty happy with my purchase

Way to miss my point. You insist that the point of a hearable is NOTHING but to listen to audio. I am trying to point out to you that it is a PLATFORM --- and that this is obvious to anyone with their eyes open (so in other .1% of the population).

What sort of platform? Siri is obvious but that's not very interesting; much more interesting is sensors.
One example might be UV sensors. You can put UV sensors on the wrist (like the band did) but obviously those are covered by cuffs. Having them both on the wrist and in the ear gives you somewhat larger coverage; and I hope Apple does this --- cumulative UV exposure is something that most countries (except Australia and NZ) don't yet take seriously enough.
Even more ear specific is cumulative volume level exposure. Earpods can obviously track both the noise level they are blasting into your ear and the ambient noise levels. Like most health data, a single data point is not especially valuable, but after seeing a week or a month of your cumulative exposure and some projections as to how this might affect you in thirty years, many of us may be inspired to better try to protect our ears.

Eventually of course, we're also going to move on to things like automatic in-ear translation by these devices - babelfish come true. Not this year. Not next year. But in ten years?

 

[Hedwigg]

Have we really gone from "it just works" to "better than expected"?

It is a key to happiness, I guess: If your life isn't meeting your expectations, lower your expectations.

But... it does "just work". RTFA.

 

[name99]

The tech is really impressive, I just hope Apple release them in black, white is very floss-like!

The obvious business opportunity is Earpod Skins --- little silicone booties that you can roll over the Earpod stalks to give them a different color and some texture, pattern, or bling. I expect to see those on Amazon within a month or two.
Hell the first half of this solution already exists:
https://www.amazon.com/EarSkinz-EarPod-Covers-ES2-iPhone/dp/B00OBSKO6C

Until then, there's always black nail polish...

 

[thatanonymoususer]

150 for earpod quality sound?? No thanks! Quite happy with my Bose Soundsport wireless that was able to get at 80 and have way better quality. I prefer to deal with that single wire joining the earbuds than to deal with Earpod sound quality thank you very much.

I wish the SoundSport Wireless used AAC or AptX. Right now it's limited to just SBC which tends to sound a bit flat when being sent from an already lossy source. Compared to the standard SoundSports, they can be anything from totally flat to sounding pretty good depending on the source and equalizers being used.

 

[iDento]

LOL! Yeah, i expect it. I just can't get behind apple anymore on anything they do. Removing the headphone jack was stupid just so they could sell overpriced wireless earbuds which im sure quality sound-wise is equivalent to the wired versions.
Also, if apple wanted to be really innovative and cared about sound quality they would have used wifi-direct instead of bluetooth. Bluetooth is awful for music.

Call me a hater all you want. A stupid wire is no reason for me to blow $150 on a piece of tech that I can live without.
Honestly, can anyone on this forum tell me you CAN'T LIVE without wireless headphones. Your lying to yourself if you think its true.

For some people, 150$ is nothing. This is not for everyone, the first thing you need before purchasing one is a good paying job.

 

[andy.ringwood]

The tech is really impressive, I just hope Apple release them in black, white is very floss-like!

I can see AirPods 2.0 being in black. They might even release a black version in a few months or so. Who knows?

 

[iDento]

The obvious business opportunity is Earpod Skins --- little silicone booties that you can roll over the Earpod stalks to give them a different color and some texture, pattern, or bling. I expect to see those on Amazon within a month or two.
Hell the first half of this solution already exists:
https://www.amazon.com/EarSkinz-EarPod-Covers-ES2-iPhone/dp/B00OBSKO6C

Until then, there's always black nail polish...

Cool, someone should really make these AirPod Skins.

 

[blacktape242]

You guys complaining about price really know fsckall about costs do you?
The Samsung equivalent to these (the Gear IconX) costs $199.00 and is in most ways a substantially inferior product (much shorter batter life, shorter BT range, doesn't have the easy Apple set up).

What you guys don't seem to understand is that most companies have hit their competence wall at making modern phones. Even a phone like the Nexus 5 has some serious design flaws in it (which I'm afraid I can't discuss because I heard in confidence); not "it does not work" flaws, but issue around heat flow that mean it has to run at below ideal performance. A PHONE already has to get the electronics, the thermals, and the radio issues all lined up correctly, and that is getting harder and harder.

Move on to watches. Most of the initial watch companies have given up. The only three serious contenders left are Apple, Samsung and Garmin. (And how long do you think Garmin is remaining with us...). Google has dreams of a Pixel Watch but I don't know who they think will make it for them. Everyone else in this space is making much simple fitness bands, and there's no evidence that Withings or Fitbit or whatever can make the quantum leap to the complexity of an Apple Watch class smart watch.

OK, now move from wearables to hearables. The volume is even smaller. The wireless is even tougher. The health constraints are even harder (no-one wants a device that can somehow hurt or infect your ear or fall apart inside it). There have been a number of kickstarter projects in the hearables space (around 20 or so). Pretty much all have failed, most (alll?) of the those that didn't (Earin and Bragi are the only ones I can think of) have been delayed. Even APPLE had to delay. These are HARD HARD HARD things to design and manufacture. Let's be a little realistic about price!

If you don't want to pay $159 (or Samsung's $199, or Bragi's $245 or Earin's $189) then buy over the ear BT headphones. There is a REASON those are so much cheaper and have so many more brands...

hey thanks for your huge ramble i didn't read much of. Honestly, don't care one bit. If I think 159 is a lot then i won't pay for it. I could care less how much you think it costs to manufacture. If its too much for my pocket book, I won't open it.

 

[MacsRuleOthersDrool]

I'm talking about wireless earbuds. They are not the first. How is the w1 chip a big advancement? My jaybird freedoms get the same range are waterproof and I can control everything with the headset

ORLY?

You can get the 50+ foot range that others on this Forum THAT HAVE ACTUALLY GOTTEN THEIR AIRPODS AND TRIED THEM out of your precious Jaybird-Droppings?

Then be happy with your Jaybird-Droppings.

 

[ericwn]

Do they stay in your ears during workout ? Run jog, weights, cross fit etc? Are these sports headphones or for some
Overpaid oil exec riding his jumbo plane

Look at the pictures in the articles your are commenting on, would be a start. These buyers are obviously all oil execs.

 

[Keerock]

hey thanks for your huge ramble i didn't read much of. Honestly, don't care one bit. If I think 159 is a lot then i won't pay for it. I could care less how much you think it costs to manufacture. If its too much for my pocket book, I won't open it.

Try reading, he said nothing about manufacturing costs. He was discussing costs of competitors. You are entitled not to want these. But they are clearly desired by the general Apple populace.
[doublepost=1482182403][/doublepost]
[doublepost=1482182460][/doublepost]I have mine in hand, ready for delivery to my wife on Christmas. And she is going to LOVE them. Why? Because she is a fine artist who wears earbuds all day to listen to music and talk on her phone. She constantly is accidentally pulling them out. These will allow here to keep one in and one charging and use them all day without and issue. Also, she seems to have issues pairing Bluetooth devices. She switched between her iPad and her iPhone and this is going to make her life much easier.
[doublepost=1482182766][/doublepost]

Cool, someone should really make these AirPod Skins.

Agreed!

 

[alphaod]

My first impression is holy crap, that was the easiest wireless earphone pairing I've ever done.

Literally open container, popup dialog, connect, paired.


Second impression is holy crap, that was the easiest wireless earphone to switch to another device.

I always have to re-pair to switch between my Apple Watch, on my Mac, or iPad. Not anymore!

 

[Xenious]

Has anyone tried them with a non mac bluetooth device? I want to use them for my iPhone and my work laptop for audio conferences.

 

[alphaod]

Has anyone tried them with a non mac bluetooth device? I want to use them for my iPhone and my work laptop for audio conferences.

It says in the manual you can just press the pair button to connect to other non-Apple devices, but I don't know if it'll seemlessly switch back.

 

[visionar007]

Waiting for etymotics with W1 chip

 

[carletonguy]

That's odd, I workout 5 days a week and never had any issues. Even high intensity workouts.

I'm getting some beats solo3 as well but I found it annoying having sweat on those type of headphones. Makes it uncomfortable

Yeah, I've never had a pair survive. In fact, none of my friends have, either. Maybe we have really sweaty ears! Apple was only interested in the pair that shocked me after shorting out (understandably so).

The solo's are horrid for workouts. The PowerBeats 3 are great if they fit you well, and they have the W1 chip which actually does make life so much better since I switch between my Apple Watch and my iPhone depending on the type of workout I'm doing. I've never, however, found any of the iterations of PowerBeats to be very good at maintaining a tight seal after a HIT workout. As such, they don't provide good quality sound when compared to some other wireless earbuds. You have to really fidget with the positioning of the ear loops (tight, tilted in, etc) to get them to stay secure. I hate the design, but I've never had a pair short out on me. I know the JayBirds short out after a while and they are marked as sweat resistant (I think someone in this threat also commented the same), so the PowerBeats seem to be the best long term solution for sweaty workouts.

 

[BigHam]

I had issues with connectivity during peak hour transit. It was fine on the train. But walking through the crowds there was clear connection drops, perhaps 3-4 of about 1.5 seconds each. Hopefully this is just a coincidence, not a continuous issue.

 

[nick42983]

Great.

Now we will get a ton of people who don't own them and never will tell us how crappy they are, expensive, will fall out, will get lost...etc.

Yes, at this point we can safely ignore EVERYONE with an opinion on AirPods who doesn't own them. Looking forward to getting mine soon.

 

[kstotlani]

One question: how many charge-recharge cycles should be reasonably expected before seeing a major degrade in batteries life?

Typically 500 cycles. The only thing to be seen long term is he effect of trickle charge while the EarPods are in box. Firmwares are good these days to stop from overcharging but let's see how the constant trickle charge impacts the battery.

 

[macduke]

Two reasons: (1) It's the signature color that everyone now identifies with Apple, thanks to when everyone had an iPod and everywhere you looked people had those white earbuds. Thus, the white is a form of advertising. You don't even have to stop someone and ask "where did you get those?" White ear buds? Apple! If they were other colors, you might not know. (2) This is a new product and that means "testing the waters." You may not love the white, but it's not offensive as a color. And you can certainly see it easily (as compared to black which, if the case got lost somewhere in your backpack or the floor, you might find harder to see). Now, if these AirPods prove popular, then Apple will probably make them in other colors with the next generation (likely black and red). But there's no point in putting the money into multi-colored pods in this first generation of the product. Not until Apple sees if they're going to sell well.

This is correct. However, I would say that the design of the AirPods is certainly different and may become iconic, thus the shape with the stem hanging down will also become a form of advertising in the years to come. Then, like you say, they can add different colors similar to Beats. I wasn't a fan of the stem at first, but it sets them apart and has a functional reason for existing with the better external antenna and microphone. I just hope they don't look silly on my face shape like they did with that one tech writer (can't remember who).