it's been over two years since the
original air pods were released and
they've quickly become the most popular
pair of wireless headphones in the world
so many people myself included have been
waiting patiently for a refresh and
that's exactly what Apple gave us on
March 20th although the product didn't
receive as dramatic a change as some
expected that's why many reviewers are
calling these the air pods 1.5 because
supposedly next year Apple will release
new air pods again except with major
changes like a design overhaul a black
option a matte finish and maybe even
touch controls but for now let's unbox
these new air pods and see what they can
do and compare them to the original this
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calm now these new generation of air
pods are the first to offer buying
options you can get them with a wireless
charging case for $200 a standard
charging case for $160 or you can buy
the wireless charging case by itself for
$80 and use it with your previous
generation air pods but one thing you
cannot do is put a first and second
generation air pod in the same case I
bought the $200 model with a wireless
charging case from my local Apple store
the day they went on sale and I didn't
run into any issues with limited stock
like I did back in 2016 with the
original air pods so let's start with a
packaging they'll probably notice not
much has changed with the air pods -
except that if you purchase the model
with the wireless charging case it'll
have that listed right at the top also
the lightning cable that was featured on
the back of the original air Potts box
has been removed likely to suggest to
customers that you don't need a cable to
charge this model although it does still
feature a lightning connector and cable
in case there isn't a wireless charging
pad nearby now after we lift the lid
we're greeted by the familiar sleeve of
Apple literature which by the way
features text in a darker shade of grade
in the previous generation and even has
a touch of color inside the manual but
unfortunately these air pods still don't
come with any Apple stickers underneath
that is where you'll find the main event
the ear pods them
selves tucked away inside their charging
case which is beautifully cradled in a
cardboard insert and lastly we have the
lightning cable which like I said before
is still included despite this model
featuring wireless charging a voice
should mention none of the air pods
being sold today include a wall adapter
now let's move on and explore these new
air pods in more detail its design is
virtually unchanged except for a few
small tweaks first the LED indicator has
been moved from the inside of the case
to the outside that way you can quickly
peek at the air pots charging level
without having to open the case it still
uses the same color indicators if the
air pods are inside orange means the
earbuds are charging while green means
they're fully charged once the air pods
are removed the LED indicates the
battery level of the charging case green
means it has enough battery for at least
one full charge of your ear pods while
orange means it doesn't have enough
battery for even one charge and when the
charging case battery is at a hundred
percent it'll deliver four full
recharges to your air pods which means
you can use the earbuds on and off for
about 24 hours without having to connect
the charging case to power and it takes
just 15 minutes of charging to provide 3
hours of audio playback to the air pots
now there are a few other minor design
changes that you might find interesting
if you owned the original air pods you
might remember the lid making a clicking
noise when you moved it side to side
as you can see here and this wasn't a
flaw affecting just a small percentage
of users it was normal behavior for
every unit now obviously this wasn't a
big issue since it didn't affect the
products functionality in any way but it
sure was annoying for many people well
I'm glad to announce that the new air
pods 2 charging case no longer clicks
another small design change has to do
with the magnets
you see pulling the original air pods
out of our case was a point of
frustration for many users especially
those with larger fingers mainly because
the ear buds were slippery and hard to
grip and also because the magnets that
held them in were pretty strong and
required a good yank to remove but these
new air pods have magnets that are a bit
weaker so removing them is
much easier than before lastly the thumb
scoop on the charging case has been made
steeper so it's easier to catch your
thumb on the lid
rather than missing and sliding off so
those are all the external changes made
to these new air pods now let's talk
about the internal changes Apple has
equipped these earbuds with a new h1
chip which replaces the w1 chip featured
in the original air pods now what do
these chips even do well actually quite
a bit
the original w1 chip allowed for easy
pairing with Apple devices maintained
the connection between both earbuds to
ensure audio state and sync established
a strong bluetooth connection with its
paired device and worked with built-in
sensors like the accelerometer an
optical sensor to know when they were
inserted or removed from your ears and
the new h1 chip does all those things
and more and does them faster for
example the new air pause will switch
between your devices twice as fast as
you can see here
[Music]
they'll also pair with your Apple
devices twice as fast and they'll have
30% lower latency while playing games
the h1 ship is also more power efficient
so you'll enjoy three hours of talktime
instead of the previous two
but these air pods that deliver the same
5 hours of audio playback since Apple
decided to introduce a new feature
called hey Siri which eats up that extra
power efficiency you can activate the
voice assistant hands-free which used to
require a couple taps on an earbud but
there is one catch with this feature
that I want to mention and that is if
you tend to use hey Siri with an iPhone
iPad Apple watcher home pod then you may
find the feature quite a bit slower on
the new air Potts now that doesn't mean
hey Siri is useless on the air pods
I love being able to make voice commands
when my hands are full but the delay is
something I had to get used to and if
you're someone who just doesn't use hey
Siri on any of your devices and you
still don't use it after buying these
new air pods then I'd recommend
disabling the feature altogether in the
settings of your device that way your
air pods will get a couple hours of
extra battery life just like the
previous generation you can still
activate functions like Siri play pause
next track or previous track by double
tapping on the designated earbud now
when it comes to audio quality there has
been some confusion since Apple put this
on their website so whether you're
playing games listening to music or
enjoying podcasts you'll experience
higher quality sound
now many people took that to mean the
new air pods had better sound quality
than the previous generation but marques
Brownlee actually reached out to Apple
and received clarification that there
was no changes to the air pods sound
quality now let's discuss one of the
features I'm most excited about and that
is wireless charging all it takes is a
wireless charging pad to set the case on
and the orange LED lights up indicating
that it's charging and while I was
disappointed that Apple canceled their
air power wireless charging mat which
would have gone so well with these air
pods
there are still nice alternatives like
the Nomad base station which allows you
to charge your ear pods iPhone and Apple
watch simultaneously now setting up
these new air pods can be
done even faster than before if you have
an Apple device simply turn it on and
open the charging case a window will
appear then all you have to do is tap
connect in your done and thanks to
iCloud your air pods will automatically
appear on every Apple product you own
but if you want to use them with a non
apple product you'll have to hold down
the pairing button on the back of the
charging case and locate the air pods in
your device's Bluetooth settings now
there is one last point I want to make
that applies to all wireless earbuds the
batteries they run on are very small
each air pod contains a 93 milliwatt
hour battery in its stem and the benefit
of this is quick charging time but the
drawback is that their capacity begins
to degrade noticeably after a year or
two of heavy use today my old air pods
that I purchased in December 2016 only
deliver about 2 hours of audio playback
before losing battery which is a
significant amount of lost capacity in
just 2 years but the nice thing about
these new air pods are that they are
more power efficient so I plan on
turning off hey Siri after a year so
once the batteries start to degrade in
order to try and offset the lost
capacity so considering everything we've
covered in this video what are my final
thoughts about Apple's 2nd generation
air pods well if you never owned them
before now would be a great time to buy
and if you already have a wireless
charging setup for your smartphone I
think it's worth purchasing the wireless
charging air pods just for the extra
convenience if not the $160 model would
probably suit you best and what if you
already owned a previous generation air
pods well if you recently purchased them
I would recommend waiting to upgrade
until next year since that's when
Apple's rumored to be delivering an
update with some pretty dramatic
improvements but if you were an early
adopter of air pods and you're
experiencing major battery degradation
it might be worth upgrading to this new
generation in order to enjoy a full 5
hours of battery life again now if you
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explain calm thanks for watching and
I'll see you next time
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