I've tried many different wireless headphones over the ears. I even tried completely wireless headphones in the past. They are not as great as my time as my Airpods. They are the greatest headphones I have tried. Are they the loudest? They are up there but not quite (the jaybird bluebuds series are much louder). Do they sound the best? Nope (again, bluebuds reigns supreme there). Do they have even half decent bass? Absolutely not (powerbeats has some of the best bass on headphones outside of tuning the EQ on bluebuds). But this is why I said the Airpods are the GREATEST headphones I have tried, and not the best. Its one thing to be the best, but it’s a totally different conversation to say they are the greatest. They are great for many reasons.
Let's start with the ease of use. Airpods pair like normal Bluetooth headphones, they disconnect like Bluetooth headphones. The greatness of their ease of use is when you pair with other devices. When you initially pair the Airpods (and the powerbeats), they automatically associate with your Apple ID. What does this mean? If you have an iPad, the Airpods can be quickly connected. Have a new phone? Your Airpods are setup already as soon as you sign in.
another testament to the ease of use is the flexibility. I originally wrote this sentence to say that the Airpods do not have the most options, but when I sat down and dug through the Airpod settings, I realized that they are very versatile. You can either play/pause, next/previous track or use Siri by double tapping an Airpod. In addition, each ear can be set individually to do its own unique command. I personally use my right Airpod for play/pause and my left for Siri.
Speaking of Siri, I think it’s the killer app of Airpods. I have never found Siri useful on any other Apple device. Its never been useful on my iPhone, it's beyond useless on a watch, and even with the "hey Siri" functionality, I find it much quicker to just do the command I want Siri to do manually. But the Airpods have completely changed my habits. Having Siri literally in your head in a double taps notice makes it effortless to do all the things that Siri does well. Some examples include
1. listening to my podcast on my way home on the train ("play the first take podcast")
2. finding out the time without taking out my phone in cold New York weather ("Hey Siri, what time is it?")
3. Phone/facetime calls ("facetime mom")
And much more. This is probably the best application of Siri thus far.
One of my biggest issues with the amps air (another pair of true wireless earphones) was the fact that if you did not follow the pairing procedure the correct way, you ended up playing tag pairing each headphone to each other, then to the phone. I cannot explain it, but the Airpods just works. It's beautiful. If I want to use one headphone, it just works AND the microphone will switch to whichever ear its in. If I am listening to something on the speakers (like a facetime call) and decide to pop an Airpod or 2 in, it just works seamlessly. If I want to take out an Airpod to listen to someone speak (and not hit the side of my head to do so), it pauses the music immediately until you place the Airpod back in your ear and the Airpod picks back up seamlessly. The best part for me is being able to listen to things with another person AND IT JUST WORKS. This cannot be downplayed cause apple really hit it out of the park with making each headphone connect to each other and your iDevice with no issues. I have owned Airpods since may of last year, and I have yet to have a single issue concerning pairing.
The Airpods may not have the best battery life of wireless headphones, but the charging case literally makes it a non-issue. They charge the Airpods so damn fast, that I can pop completely dead Airpods in the case, wait 5 minutes, and have 30-40% battery on both ears, wait about 10 minutes, and they are charged. If you do the math, they last about 3-4 hours at about 50% volume. Seeing that unless you are on a long trip (like say, a bus ride to Boston from New York), you won't be running out. And even if you do, all it takes is 10 minutes and you're back in business. To combat this issue on the go, I've started to carry around my wired headphones for these occasions. The headphone case itself takes a bit longer to charge from 0, but it recharges the Airpods about 4 times.
I made a 2 predictions prior to the release of the Airpods: One was that the Airpods will become incredibly popular. I also predicted that Airpods would become more of an icon of an iDevice user than the wired headphones have been for the past 17 years. Due to the price of the Airpods ($165), they are out of reach of most users (which is a weird statement seeing that the Beats Solo Wireless headphones cost more and they are ubiquitous amongst New Yorkers). They are, however, starting to gain popularity in my anecdotal opinion. I went from seeing one Airpod user during my travels on the New York City Subway during the first 3 months of release, to now there is not a day that I don’t see at least one person using Airpods on the train. As much as people made jokes and memes talking about the ridiculousness of how they look in the ear, a lot of people are accepting them. Again, the Airpods are not the best truly wireless headphones, but they will make it more acceptable for other brands to make their own headphones and outclass the Airpods on the Android side of things (I say android because the ease of use that the Airpods provides can also be found on the powerbeats and beats x headphones, meaning there is no real room for competition in the Apple ecosystem). Apple is never the first to innovate on things anymore, but they sure know how to perfect them for their users.