As a few of you may remember, earlier this year I had a fairly poor experience with headphones. Specifically, I had a pretty bad experience with the new Bose SoundSport Free headphones. Those headphones were $250 and didn’t quite work as well as I’d hoped. Luckily, after reaching out to Bose, the manufacturer agreed to issue a full refund. While I didn’t love the headphones I had a great experience with Bose customer service and will continue buying Bose headphones going forward.
However, all of that aside, I still didn’t have a pair of completely wireless headphones for daily use. I continued to search for headphones and watch reviews to try to figure out which were best. Nearly every review pointed toward Apple AirPods, which is great, but Apple headphones fall out of my ears. I didn’t see a point in buying a pair of headphones I ‘knew’ wouldn’t work.
After a few weeks of continued searching I finally decided to give AirPods a try. I figured I’d buy a pair, test them for two weeks, and return them. After all, the headphones continue to get glowing reviews.
Purchasing Apple AirPods
Apple AirPods have been out for more than a year, yet they are still hard to come by. Apparently, even a year later, AirPods are flying of Apple shelves around the world. I tried to order the headphones online, but was informed of a two week delay in shipment.
Thankfully, I live in Chicago and the new flagship Apple Store on Michigan Avenue had AirPods available for same-day pickup. Ahh, the perks of living in a big city!
Rather than trying to test fate by walking into the Apple Store, I instead decided to order online before arriving at the store. Since I was ordering online I first visited the American Airlines AAdvantage shopping portal. By clicking through to Apple’s webpage from the portal I earned 1 AAdvantage mile per $1 spent with Apple. Keep in mind that’s in addition to the 5X Chase Ultimate Rewards points I earned by paying with Apple Pay. In total, I received essentially 6% back on my $159 purchase.
Unboxing Apple AirPods
What would a review of an Apple product be without a proper unboxing. As with all Apple products, the AirPods come in a neat little white box wrapped in cellophane.
On the side of the box, the AirPods name appears in silver lettering.
On the bottom of the box, the AirPods case, AirPods, and charging cable were visible to depict the contents of the box.
Inside the box I found the AirPods (in the charging case), a lighting cable, and a brief user guide. As with most Apple products the user guide isn’t required to figure out how to use AirPods.
Pairing AirPods To My iPhone
Apple AirPods feature a clever chipset which make them very easy to pair with new Apple products. To pair, all you have to do is hold the case near your device and open the lid. Once you open the lid, the following pop-up appears on the screen of the device.
After hitting the “connect” button the AirPods automatically connected to my iPhone.
Once connected the battery life of both the charging case and AirPods were clearly displayed. Out of the box the unit came with nearly a full charge.
At this point, I popped the little AirPods into my ears and waited patiently for them to fall out so that I could return them.
Apple AirPod Fit
Sadly (for my wallet), the AirPods didn’t fall out. Somehow, they sat in my ears just fine. So, I decided to move around a bit, surely they’d fall out. Nope. Then I got up and jumped around like an idiot. They stayed in. Only after some pretty extreme movement did one AirPod fall out. That movement was well beyond anything I hope to experience while wearing AirPods.
Honestly, I don’t really understand how these stay in my ears. For years I’ve had trouble with Apple headphones. I can put in a pair of wired headphones and they’ll fall out while just sitting at my desk. I figured AirPods would be the same (after all, they’re the same shape), yet somehow they don’t. I’ve heard people say this before, that with the lack of the wire they stay put, but I never imagined it be true.
So far, I’ve had the AirPods for two days and they haven’t fallen out during my commute or while walking around my neighborhood. Sometimes they feel a bit loose, but that’s just how they sit in the ear. I’m extremely impressed by how well AirPods stay in my ears.
Apple AirPods Sound Quality
Well, as you’d guess, Apple AirPods sound identical to traditional Apple ear buds. The sound is fine, but you lose a lot of the more subtle sounds in music you’d otherwise hear with higher quality headphones. That being said, AirPods are perfect for listening to music in quiet areas, talking on the phone, or listening to podcasts.
Really the only places I feel as though I’m missing out on sound quality is in public spaces with a lot of noise. Even then I can hear the music just fine, I just know that there are parts to the song that I’m not hearing.
Obviously these headphones aren’t ideal for air travel. In a noisy plane it will be hard to hear these clearly. However, I’ll definitely wear these up to the moment I take a seat on the plane.
Final Thoughts
For the past several months I’ve started seeing more and more people with AirPods. Each time I saw someone wearing them, I couldn’t help but think they made a bad purchase. Now, I completely understand why these headphones are so popular.
They are incredibly simple, this video really explains that. If you are in the Apple ecosystem you can’t go wrong with AirPods. Sure there are better headphones, but I’m not sure that there are better truly wireless headphones on the market today.
All of that being said, I picked these up with the intention of returning them, and for now, I’ll be keeping them. Over the coming weeks I’ll test these out and hopefully have a more detailed review soon.
Ps. I’ve since changed my NickName in my phone, Thank You!
