Apple AirPods: My Verdict

This is long and detailed, but I'm feeling a little love-hate for these AirPods. I mean, I like them and glad I have them, but they're unnecessary too. In all, I give the AirPods a 7/10. Unnecessary luxury, but not terrible.

If you are Mac integrated, the AirPods are worth it just for the ease of being able to use them with any device without having to reconnect your bluetooth headphones. After owning Plantronics BackBeat Fit, the ease of switching between devices is AMAZING! I hated having to reconnect my BackBeat Fit to whatever I wanted to use it with. Due to this lack of ease, I found I didn't use my BackBeat Fit much and mostly kept it to my phone to make it easier. With the AirPods, I have to do 3 motions and they're almost instantly connected to my Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, or iMac. It's truly amazing and basically makes me wear my AirPods all the time when I'm home because I can switch between everything so easily. I even listen to music on my Watch now purely because it's so easy to connect the AirPods to the Watch. Seriously, I can't sing the praises of the ease of connectivity enough!

The extra battery is excellent too. I really like that I can get 24 hours of listening time in and the 15 min charge for 3 hours is also nice. I'm not constantly worrying about battery time and having to charge them every night. A complete plus. Also, the ease of finding out the battery life is nice too. My iPhone pops it up when the case is nearby and open and it's also in the "At a Glance" screen's battery widget (assuming you have it on). If you have one ear pod in the case, it'll give 3 individual charges, which is kind of cool. If the Pods are connected to your phone, my Watch also tells me the charge for them.

The sound quality is good. I am not a sound quality expert (nor do I really care as long as they sound good and that's subjective!), but I have no complaints. I really like how the buds switch from dual to mono sound easily when you remove one bud. The auto-pause is nice too (similar to disconnecting your headphones cable).

They are comfortable! The BackBeat Fit's earbuds were too big for my ears and my ears would ache after using them (the inside, not the outside). It was a slow growing ache that I would notice with prolonged use. I also found the "cable" that connects both ends a little too short for me, but not terrible. I mention the cord because no cord is really nice. It's not something you would appreciate till it's gone because it's a minor thing, but I appreciate not having a cable.

Which brings me to everyone's concern about losing them! Losing one isn't my concern because I take them out and immediately put them into their case. This makes it so you have less chance of losing one. Because the case is so small, there's no excuse not to toss the case into a pocket like you would your earbuds if you weren't wearing them. So, be a little proactive and you shouldn't lose one (unless it falls out of your ear or you drop it). My actual worry is losing the ENTIRE thing. It's small and in that Apple standard sleek case so it's slippery. Thank goodness it's bright white! I wish Apple made them so you can locate them. I imagine that's something they should be able to program into an app to find the bluetooth connection to it. Who knows, though. I'm not a programmer!

The buds fit very snuggley in the case as they're magnetically set in there, which is nice, but sometimes I find it's hard to get them out. I'm not sure if that's because I have long nails or it's them. I honestly have never liked the design of the actual buds and think they look weird when they're in your ear with the long stem...I could be the minority in that. Or not, considering the memes...

My BIGGEST complaint about them is no buttons at all! You don't realize how much you do quick motions to pause/play and volume control until that ease is gone. It's kind of annoying having to ask Siri to do it for you (and it interrupts whatever you're listening to). I know you can modify the double-tap motion to have it play/pause instead of activating Siri, but I didn't do that because I wanted the extra ease to access her for phone calls and such, not to mention volume control ("Hey Siri" always annoyingly doesn't work when I really need her 😂 ). I find I tend to go to my phone to pause/play/volume instead of asking Siri. If I wanted to pause, I guess I could remove one earbud and it'll pause too. Hm. Will think on that, but the volume thing is a pain and it's awkward asking Siri to raise or lower the volume by more than 1 bar.

So...I guess...In terms of integration with Apple, I give the AirPods a 10/10. My biggest complaint (no buttons!) only registers about a 3/10 with 10 being the most annoying, but it is annoying! Some people may find it even more annoying. In terms of price, they're not worth it if you don't really want them or if you're not Apple integrated. I would have made due with my BackBeat Fit perfectly fine if these weren't given to me. I do find, though, because of the ease of use, I use the AirPods 10xs more than I did my BackBeat Fit. Course, I am a person who uses my iPad a LOT for streaming while I cook, clean, etc and if I'm not doing either one of those things, I'm probably on a computer or have my phone nearby or in hand. So, I guess, I'm sort of getting my money's worth since I'm actually using them vs not using my BackBeat Fit as much at half the cost. In all, I'll keep them, thank you very much; however, I wouldn't recommend them to most people. It's like the Apple Watch. When you have one, it's cool and you're glad you have it, but it's not like you're missing anything with not having one too. Though, I'd probably say get a Watch over the AirPods. Maybe.