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AirPods talk time is.. well.. really, really bad.

W

WilliamG

macrumors G4
Original poster
Mar 29, 2008
10,011
3,894
Seattle
I suppose some of this I can blame myself for, and some of it I can blame Apple for (I still can't find talk-time numbers on their site), but..

At around 60% volume, I drained 20% battery on both EarPods in 20 minutes. So you're looking at around 1 hour and 40 minutes talk time from full battery.

Holy.
Hell.

I just (wrongly) assumed the 5 hours was for listening OR talking.

How wrong I was...
 
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WilliamG said:
I suppose some of this I can blame myself for, and some of it I can blame Apple for (I still can't find talk-time numbers on their site), but..

At around 60% volume, I drained 20% battery on both EarPods in 20 minutes. So you're looking at around 1 hour and 40 minutes talk time from full battery.

Holy.
Hell.

I just (wrongly) assumed the 5 hours was for listening OR talking.

How wrong I was...
Click to expand...
I think Apple expects you to use one bud at a time for long phone calls to switch off charging in the case. Lol
 
In case you happened to order them from Apple's website (http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEF2AM/A/airpods), they say this for the battery time:
Power and Battery
AirPods with Charging Case: More than 24 hours listening time, up to 11 hours talk time
AirPods (single charge): Up to 5 hours listening time, Up to 2 hours talk time
15 minutes in the case equals 3 hours listening time or over an hour of talk time
Click to expand...

I agree that they should mention that in the main product page for AirPods. They just keep saying that you can "listen for 5 hours" without any mention of talk time. Also with small print they say that the 5 hours is with 50% volume.


But when ever you are planning to buy anything that has a battery, keep in mind that giving any kind of real world battery time estimation is extremely challenging because everyone uses their devices differently. For example in case of computers/phones/tablets, there's huge difference between browsing the web, watching movies or playing games. But yet manufactures are expected to say something like "battery lasts 10hours with full charge".
 
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Nykwil said:
I think Apple expects you to use one bud at a time for long phone calls to switch off charging in the case. Lol
Click to expand...

This is exactly right. It's only using one bud while on a call anyway so you pop the other one in the charger and you can talk for a long time switching them periodically.
 
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edlex said:
This is exactly right. It's only using one bud while on a call anyway so you pop the other one in the charger and you can talk for a long time switching them periodically.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you mean by "using one bud only". When listening to someone with the right and left in my ears, I hear the voice in the middle, so both buds are being used. Am I missing something here?
 
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Larry The L said:
I'm not sure what you mean by "using one bud only". When listening to someone with the right and left in my ears, I hear the voice in the middle, so both buds are being used. Am I missing something here?
Click to expand...

I believe you only use one microphone though.
 
teidon said:
In case you happened to order them from Apple's website (http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEF2AM/A/airpods)
Click to expand...

You're asking a lot for people to READ what they're buying. I think 2 hours of talk time is completely reasonable. When it's bluetooth audio it's 1 way communication from the computer to the earbuds, so you get 4-5 hours. So when you double that to 2 way communication, why would one be surprised the time is halved?
 
I used my airpods for the first time for a long phone call. After 1 hour 44 minutes I got a low battery signal. The airpods were fully charged at the start of the call. I suppose if I'd continued with the remaining 10 % I would have pretty much got the 2 hours Apple state.
 
I have about 2 hours on the case with about 10 minutes talk and rest HD movies. 72% left. I will let it run down and see what the total is.
 
WilliamG said:
I suppose some of this I can blame myself for, and some of it I can blame Apple for (I still can't find talk-time numbers on their site), but..

At around 60% volume, I drained 20% battery on both EarPods in 20 minutes. So you're looking at around 1 hour and 40 minutes talk time from full battery.

Holy.
Hell.

I just (wrongly) assumed the 5 hours was for listening OR talking.

How wrong I was...
Click to expand...

Do what I do, talk with only 1 ear piece while the other charges and then swap. I was on a 3 hour conference call without downtime. The ear pieces charge quickly.
 
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Armen said:
Do what I do, talk with only 1 ear piece while the other charges and then swap. I was on a 3 hour conference call without downtime. The ear pieces charge quickly.
Click to expand...

Can you use them in either ear interchangeably? If I'm doing phone calls I like to use my left ear so wouldn't want to be forced to use my right
 
Armen said:
Do what I do, talk with only 1 ear piece while the other charges and then swap. I was on a 3 hour conference call without downtime. The ear pieces charge quickly.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I do. The only time I use both earbuds is when I'm listening to music or watching a movie.

mrklaw said:
Can you use them in either ear interchangeably? If I'm doing phone calls I like to use my left ear so wouldn't want to be forced to use my right
Click to expand...

No. You have to use the right one in the right ear and the left one in the left ear.
 
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