AirPods Review

When the rumours started flying about the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack in the new iPhone, I was as upset as anybody. Nonetheless, Apple promises a wireless revolution.

While we are still waiting on wireless charging so we can truly be wireless with our iPhones, Apple did release the AirPods. Wireless charging is rumoured for this year’s iPhone release.

The AirPods are bluetooth headphones. One might protest that we’ve had bluetooth headphones before. However, Apple uses a custom chip so both the right and left earpiece are wireless and independent. In addition Apple marketed the ease at which the AirPods would pair with an iPhone.

And Apple is right. They pair extremely well, just open the small charging case near your iPhone and your iPhone is asking if you want to pair with your new AirPods.

For phone calls, they work great and the directional microphone allows callers, or Siri, or hear you loud and clear. They are independent, so you can choose to use just one.

Speaking of Siri, she is the one negative. You have to use her to change the volume or track or get out your device. No more inbuilt controls.

How is battery life? Just great. They are advertised for 5 hours of use but then just place them back in the case for up to 24 additional hours of use. My worry was needing to constantly charge and I wasn’t more wrong. You charge the case and the case constantly charges the AirPods. I used them and put them back in the case and left them their for over a week and still had over 50% charge in the case and my AirPods were at 100% charge.

So are these AirPods the answer to the 3.5mm plug? Well they won’t allow you to use all the great 3.5mm capable accessories out there but they are a step towards the wireless future and the fact that they work with your MacBook, iPad, and Apple Watch allow them to be versatile. iCloud will sync their availability to all devices you are signed in to. In addition they sound better than the old wired Apple EarPods.