When I first heard about the Apple AirPods and looked them up, I was immediately turned off by the price. Why in the world would I pay $160 for a pair of earbuds? So I continued to use my old school wired earbuds and even got a Bluetooth pair that had a wire between them. I had some connectivity issues with the off-brand Bluetooth pair, so I threw them into a drawer and wrote them off. Back to the old school ones that are a constant tangled mess no matter how neatly I put them into my electronics accessory pouch. Since then I’ve heard several guys within my circle of influence that have said their AirPods were a game changer. With all that said I decided it was time to make the jump and try them out.
First off to justify the price, you need to try and understand the technology under the hood that drives these and then you’ll have a better appreciation of the investment. Read below where the details are highlighted to get a better idea of what I’m talking about. Plus in a day and age when you have multiple off-brand options, you’re getting what you pay for. Me personally, I’d rather pay more up front knowing the quality I’m getting.
Out of the box, the AirPods take literally less than 3 minutes to have paired to your iPhone and operational. It doesn’t really get any easier or quicker than that.
The case the AirPods are contained in also charges the AirPods. The case itself uses the standard Apple iPhone connector for charging. This is a great design feature which eliminates you having to carry around an extra cord.
You have the option of wearing either one or both AirPods whether listening to music or talking on the phone. If you’re only using a single AirPod, the technology under the hood senses that and routes both the sending and receiving voice traffic through the single AirPod. Don’t ask me to explain how that works, but it’s pretty damn cool.
Details (courtesy of Apple):
Driven by the custom Apple W1 chip, AirPods use optical sensors and a motion accelerometer to detect when they’re in your ears. Whether you’re using both AirPods or just one, the W1 chip automatically routes the audio and engages the microphone. And when you’re on a call or talking to Siri, an additional accelerometer works with beamforming microphones to filter out background noise and focus on the sound of your voice. Because the ultralow-power W1 chip manages battery life so well, AirPods deliver an incredible 5 hours of listening time on one charge. And they’re made to keep up with you, thanks to a charging case that holds multiple additional charges for more than 24 hours of listening time. Need a quick charge? Just 15 minutes in the case gives you 3 hours of listening time.
