- Yo, guys, Jonathan here, and today,
we are talkin' AirPods.
They're hard to find, easy to hate, but at the very least,
they have stirred up some mixed emotions.
The initial reaction when you see AirPods
for the first time is, "Holy (beeps).
"They cut the cables off, slapped 'em in a floss container,
"and they're chargin' 160 bucks for these?"
But still, there's somethin' about AirPods,
where even though there's that voice inside your head
tellin' you you probably shouldn't buy these,
you still kinda want to.
Now by no means are AirPods cheap,
but on the other end of the spectrum,
if we're to stack 'em up against
other truly wireless earbuds, it's not that crazy.
Samsung's Gear IconX are 169.
Bragi, The Dash, are 249,
and even somethin' like the Rowkin Bit Charge are 129.
So when you break it down like that,
the price becomes somethin' you may potentially
be able to justify, but the one thing I haven't been able
to get past yet are the looks.
This is how you think you look while wearin' AirPods,
and this is how you actually look.
Are they the ugliest piece of tech out there right now?
Definitely not, but I'm not sure we could have
a serious conversation with these in my ear right now.
Conversely, since you are obviously not paying for looks,
what you are paying for is the tech inside these,
which is some of the best out there right now.
For starters, the set-up process, even for the first time,
is one of the simplest and easiest things you'll ever do
when it comes to tech.
No joke, from the second you unbox these,
you place into your phone, you pop open the cap,
press connect, and that is literally it.
I don't care if you love Apple or you hate them,
this is how pairing should be, whether it's AirPods,
other Bluetooth headphones, gaming headsets, controllers.
If everything paired this way,
the tech world would be a better place.
What's also nice is you only have
to pair the AirPods one time,
and you're not gonna have to screw around with pairing
each earbud individually.
On top of that for me, hands down,
the coolest feature with AirPods
is the ability to play and pause a song
simply by takin' an AirPod outta your ear.
So say you're listenin' to music,
some guy walks up to you and says,
"Excuse me, sir, are those toothbrushes in your ear?"
And you go, "Huh, what?"
That's gonna automatically pause the song,
and once you tell him, "No, sir, these are AirPods,"
and pop it back in your ear,
it will automatically resume where you left off.
Now what kinda surprised me with this
is the fact that it's not limited to just Apple music.
It's also gonna work with Spotify and even YouTube as well.
So because of that, I think the most compelling thing
about AirPods is convenience.
You're not thinkin' about turnin' them on,
or conversely, when you're done listenin' to music,
you're not asking yourself,
"Did I turn them off?"
You just pop 'em back in the case,
and you kinda forget about it.
Now on the flip side of that,
if you forget to put these back in your case,
because there are absolutely no wires,
there is a very serious chance
you're gonna lose one a these.
Now speakin' of the case, that is actually how you
charge the AirPods, and I'm not gonna lie.
Apple in the past has made some pretty questionable decision
as far as charting things goes,
but this actually works really well.
As far as the AirPods themselves,
those should last around four to five hours,
but if you do run out of juice, pop 'em in the case,
and 15 minutes will get you three more hours
of listening time.
So I think it's safe to say I am genuinely a fan of the tech
inside AirPods but by no means are these perfect.
For starters, by themselves without using your phone,
Siri is actually the only way to control volume.
That's all good and well when you're at home
and no one is there to judge you,
but if you're out in public,
especially when they can't see the AirPods in your ears,
and you say, "Volume up,"
that's a little weird.
So by default, you can access Siri
by double-tappin' on the AirPods, and jokes aside,
it can be really useful havin' quick access like that
for questions or navigation.
But how awesome could it have been
if there were some touch-sensitive controls in the AirPods
where you swiped up or down to control the volume?
On top of that, for 160 bucks,
and how much Apple brags about the iPhone 7
bein' water resistant, I kinda woulda liked to see
AirPods be water-resistant as well.
I have actually tested these not only in the gym
but the sauna as well, which is both wet and extremely hot,
and so far, they have yet to die.
So that in itself is a good thing,
but it would have been reassuring to know
they were geared to be water-resistant,
because that way if somethin' did happen to them,
they would probably fix them.
In this case, if I walked into the Apple store,
Mr. Apple genius is gonna say,
"Sorry, bro, you brought these in the sauna."
Now playing devil's advocate for a second,
it is not secret that Apple products work well
with other Apple products,
whether it's iMessage on an iPhone to a MacBook,
or in this case, the secret to the ultimate
AirPods experience is the Apple Watch.
With this, you alleviate the problem of A,
needing to have your phone out, and B,
soundin' like a crazy person in public.
Through the watch, you have control over both
next and previous songs, but more importantly,
it potentially may be even more satisfying
is controlling volume with a Digital Crown.
And let me be clear: by no means am I justifing
the lack of controls on AirPods
or am I saying that you should go run out
and buy an Apple Watch just to control your earbud,
but if you do have one already,
I'm not gonna lie.
It is really cool.
Now beyond all the tech, and even before sound quality,
the one thing you gotta ask yourself
before you think about buying these is,
"Do they even fit in my ears?"
The good news is, is because they are exactly the same
as EarPods, if those fit, you're in luck,
but the bad news is if those didn't fit,
it is not getting any better here.
To me personally, AirPods have always fit really well
in my ears, so with AirPods, it was no different.
They just hop right in and don't seem to fall off
no matter what I do.
(upbeat guitar music)
But on the flip side, there are people I know
where EarPods or AirPods won't stay in to save their lives.
(upbeat guitar music)
So once you get past the question of whether or not
they actually fit in your ears,
the other question is how do they sound,
which is in turn evolve to,
do they sound any better than EarPods?
The short answer, unfortunately, is no, they don't,
and believe me, part of you really wants them to,
or at the very least, maybe just a little bit louder.
But the fact of the matter is,
they sound exactly the same as EarPods.
So with that, you kinda gotta take that
with a grain a salt.
If you liked, or maybe even didn't mind EarPods,
you're gonna like AirPods,
but on the flip side, if you hated those,
you are not gonna like these.
So at the end of the day, if you own an Android device,
don't buy these.
If you see yourself as an AudioFile, don't buy these.
If EarPods did not fit in your ears, don't buy these.
But on the flip side, if you're in the Apple ecosystem,
and the tech outways everything else,
I would pick these up.