The #1 question I get asked most about my
Airpods: https://sot.show/airpods
Lew from Unbox Therapy: I’ve got a confession to make. I was starting to feel a bit guilty here. I’m being honest. I’m being transparent. In front of me, I mean, you know this product. This product became such a meme. It’s crazy how it picked up steam after the
Jerad: Okay, so I don’t watch every single Unbox Therapy video, but sometimes, I am just drawn in. When Lew started talking about the AirPods, it made me think because I know he appreciates good quality audio, and his confession was most likely going to be that these have become his go-to headphones, so I wanted to hear what he had to say. It resonated with me for a couple of different reasons.
Now, I tend to use these headphones all the time. It’s not just because lately I’ve been on the iPhone predominately. I have been on the iPhone a lot more predominately, of course, now that I have the S10 Plus here, I’ve been using this device, and I’ve also been playing with the Galaxy Buds as well and listening to those, but having spent some time with these Galaxy Buds, and I’m going to do a full review and actually a whole comparison between these because I think it’s interesting. For those of you wondering why and I’m wearing two different smart watches, that’s another video that I’m working on is a comparison between the Galaxy Watch Active and the Fitbit Versa. I just have them both on because I needed to get them both connected to the same phone.
Anyways, back to the main point of this video. The AirPods are just super convenient. Now, we know that they’re not the best quality headphones out there. They were surprising to me in the fact that they do have good quality audio in comparison to a lot of the other Bluetooth earbuds that are on the market, but now a lot of the other manufacturers are catching up. It’s one of the main reasons that I want to do a comparison video between the Galaxy Buds and these because the Galaxy Buds are Bluetooth. I mean, obviously, they’re going to work better with your Samsung phone the same way that these are going to work better with your iPhone, but they’re also cross-platform. Bluetooth headphones are Bluetooth headphones. I’ve used these AirPods with an Android phone before when I was, I guess, right after I got the Pixel 3 XL. I paired them to it just to see if it would work. Of course, there’s some functionality that doesn’t work, but as far as headphones go, they work.
Why are these just so darn convenient that it prompted Lew to make a video about them and it’s prompting me to talk about them a little bit further? Now, one of the things that I have noticed, and I don’t want to talk too much about a comparison between others, but I have a lot of headphones. I have a lot of over-ear headphones. I’ve made some videos on those. I have a lot of earbuds. I have a lot of wired headphones. I still prefer sometimes wired headphones just because they tend to sound a little bit better. You can get bassier earbuds, and when I wear them at the gym, even though I do like to be cord-free, sometimes, I just want really good quality and loud, and I need that; otherwise, I’m going to hear everybody else’s noise going on all around me.
Why are these super convenient? Well, I think it’s because of their design. Even though, yes, they do look like a pack of dental floss and people have made fun of the design, Lew went into that in his video, they open up super easy, and you get can get them out and put them in your ear super easy, and they just pop right in. Then they’re in your ears. They work really well whether you’re using one or both, and there isn’t any latency issues or any problems with them. They just work. That’s the main point that I think I’m going to try and make here.
But another thing that I noticed is that when I’m using other headphones and I need to respond with somebody, perhaps maybe I’m sitting in a coffee shop or I’m at the gym or something wearing my AirPods, it’s, boom, really easy to pull them out. It’s right out of my ear. My music stops, and I can have a conversation because there’s a handle. There’s something to hold on to here.
There’s a lot that you can make fun of with these design because the design, it’s like they tried to make it look exactly like their headphones that have already been in existence, and I’m sure that probably played a little bit into it too. You know this is an Apple product. That’s another thing that Apple has been very well-known for is trying to make their products very noticeable. You know I’m not wearing an Apple watch right now, but you know without this screen even really coming that this is an Apple watch just by its design; however, these have a different design, something that’s unique to Apple, and even though some people have tried to copy it, some manufacturers, it’s still very iconically Apple.
Now, what I do like about these is the simple fact that they do just pop right in and out of your ears. You don’t have a great seal. I’ve been at the gym, and I’ve been jumping around had one of these pop out of my ear, which normal headphones wouldn’t do that, normal earbuds that have a little bit of a seal wouldn’t do that, but the fact of the matter is, is you do trade off some things for practicality, I guess, and you’re getting a practical product that pops in and out of your ear really fast, and it’s super convenient.
In my opinion, if you’re looking for really great audio quality and you don’t mind having a little bit of a frustration if you need to be interrupted by someone, these probably aren’t the best headphones to go with. There are a lot better headphones, and I’ll talk about them in future videos. I’ve reviewed some of them in the past. There are better headphones to use for consuming good quality music if you want the best overall experience.
These aren’t necessarily going to give you that. They’re not going to block out as much ambient noise as you would hope, especially if you have experienced wearing other headphones that have better noise-canceling functionality, these aren’t going to be that, but they can’t be that because they’re trading off a little bit of practicality for some of those features being better. You can’t have these be exactly perfect if you want them to pop in and out of your ears really well. If you ever had earbuds that actually do seat in your ear really well, if you’ve popped one of those out really quick, it doesn’t normally feel that great. It feels like you just popped your eardrum, and so you can’t have a total seal in your ear, and then grab and pop a little earbud out really quickly. You need something that sits in there nicely that does feel secure but has a little bit of space to pop out. It’s not a vacuum seal, essentially.
Another thing that I’ve found that’s been really convenient about these is just their responsiveness with the iPhone. They’re always connecting to my phone, or if I actually have the screen on on my iPad, they connect to the iPad. If I have both of my devices’ screens off, but I want to jump over and listen on my Mac, they connect really easily. That’s a huge feature of being able to jump around between all of those devices. Keep in mind, you didn’t have to pair them to all of those devices. You just had to pair them to your iPhone, and automatically, they become available on your iPad and also on your MacBook Pro, which is absolutely fantastic.
I don’t want turn this into a review, even though I guess it kind of is. They charge with the same port that your phone charges with, the lightening port, which makes it pretty easy. The second version that’s supposed to be coming out of these relatively soon, hopefully we’ll have some sort of wireless charting. I’ve noticed that with other wireless charging products that I have, it’s nice to just be able to set it down on a charging pad and have it charge up. I don’t have to plug anything in. I don’t have to put it in some sort of a special dock or whatnot, just dropping it on that wireless charging pad, and then boom, however much longer later, depending on how dead the batteries were, it’s good to go, or topped off just a little bit.
Another feature that I think is unique and just definitely noticeable about this design is that it’s easy to get in and out of in comparison to other ones. I’ve tried fiddling around trying to get one out with one hand, which you definitely can. You don’t have to use two hands, so there’s a one-handed approach, which isn’t, that isn’t the most graceful approach, but it’s very easy to get in and out of these, pinch it between.
A lot of times, I’m trying to take an earbud out. I’m getting home from the gym. I’m walking into a house where my kids and my wife and dog are all there, and they need my attention, and so I have other things in my hands. These have just been really convenient. I’ve never dropped these. I’ve never had a hard time getting my earbuds in and out of their case. A lot of other earbud manufacturers don’t really take that into account. They may have a little bit more aesthetically-pleasing case, maybe they even look better in the case, but Apple really made something that’s useful and functional. My only gripe is how gross this gets. I don’t know if you can see how gross it gets in here just because they’re in my pocket all the time and they’re picking up little bits of lint or whatever as it moves around in my pocket.
But I’ve had these since they launched. I picked up a pair of these I think it was about a week after they launched because they went out of stock immediately, and then I was able to get my hands on a pair. These have just been absolutely great since then. I’ve had no complaints about them.
Yes, the price tag is a little high considering the audio quality. I think that when you’re trying to decide what earbuds to buy, you have to take a few things into consideration. Number one is how you’re going to use them. If you’re going to use them in more of a busy lifestyle where they’re going to be in and out of your ears, maybe you have some disruptions coming from time to time, you just need something that produces pretty decent audio quality but also is super practical, these are going to be exactly what you’re looking for. They’re not the only ones out there that do these things. There’s the TicPods that came out. I want to do a video on those eventually. I just haven’t had the time. The TicPods are essentially similar to these. They come in a different style case. They have the same look. They connect the same way. They have some of the similar functionality, and they are significantly cheaper.
I’ll link to those down below for you to check out because these aren’t the only game that’s out there, but if you’re looking for something that’s better audio quality, you don’t mind a little bit longer getting it out of your ear because maybe it’s an earbud and you gotta kind of pick it out of your ear, which means you have to do that for both, or maybe an over-the-ear headset because you really want good audio quality but don’t mind the distractiveness of just wearing big headphones, and sometimes it’s appropriate or whatever to wear big headphones, other times you want to be more discrete, there are a lot of other options out there.
I just wanted to talk a little bit more in depth of my opinion of the earbuds. I know that they are a lot of different things that come into play when we make decision on little devices like these, especially for audio consumption. I think from a practical standpoint, these have been probably the headphones that I’ve used the most. There are times in the past, corded headphones, before Bluetooth, headphones really were that good that I just wouldn’t use headphones at all. I just play the sound and have to listen to it. Usually, I do that at home. I wouldn’t be obnoxious out in public, but otherwise, I’d have to consider do I pull out wired headphones and untangle those? A lot of times, I just wouldn’t, so Apple really found a good fit for the AirPods I think.
With people who aren’t so into audio, or audio snobs or audiophiles or whatever you want to call them, you’re not so into audio that it’s going to make that big of a difference to them, but they want the practicality. That’s what you’re going to get with these. For $160, you can definitely get a lot better audio quality out there, but you’re going to lack the functionality and the practicality that you get out of the AirPods.
I’ve linked to some stuff down below. As I mention, you can check that out. I want to hear your thoughts. I mean, people have strong opinions about these still, even though they’ve been out for quite a while now, and the next version are hopefully right around the corner. Let me know what you think about them down in the comment section below. Are you for them? Are you against them? What’s most important to you in an earbud like this? Is it practical, functionality such as how easy it is to get these in and out of your ear, the connectivity to the iPhone, or is it audio quality, and you’re willing to sacrifice some of the practical aspects of them? Let me know what you think down in the comment section below.
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