[lusid1]

These aren't bad for a freshmen engineering effort. They aren't great, but they aren't really bad either.

Music streaming is actually quite good. They are closer to wired quality than any of my other wireless headphones. The initial pairing was seamless. Thats the extent of the wins in the good column.

The lack of controls is more annoying than I thought it would be. Asking siri to adjust my volume might make for a good commercial but its completely impractical for normal use.

I was shocked by the terrible battery life. It is at best 2 hours unless you only use them for listening to music. On my first day of real use they died before my second hour of calls ended, dumping me out to speakerphone. I thought they were defective. I had bought into the PR around the 5hour battery life without noticing the footnote. Apparently 2 hours best case is all they are actually designed to do.

Call quality was OK while they lasted. No complaints in the almost 2 hours I got out of them. I did some offline recording tests, so I know they are heavily compressed and tend to artifact around hard consonants, words with s, and sound low bitrate, but so far people have been able to figure out what I'm saying. If I keep them I'll eventually get to try them under less ideal conditions.

The battery life though, wow, thats bad. No wonder they hid it in a footnote.

[TripleOne]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the AirPods!

I sure hope Apple improves the battery life for the next gen AirPods.

[mogelijk]

These aren't bad for a freshmen engineering effort. They aren't great, but they aren't really bad either.

Music streaming is actually quite good. They are closer to wired quality than any of my other wireless headphones. The initial pairing was seamless. Thats the extent of the wins in the good column.

The lack of controls is more annoying than I thought it would be. Asking siri to adjust my volume might make for a good commercial but its completely impractical for normal use.

I was shocked by the terrible battery life. It is at best 2 hours unless you only use them for listening to music. On my first day of real use they died before my second hour of calls ended, dumping me out to speakerphone. I thought they were defective. I had bought into the PR around the 5hour battery life without noticing the footnote. Apparently 2 hours best case is all they are actually designed to do.

Call quality was OK while they lasted. No complaints in the almost 2 hours I got out of them. I did some offline recording tests, so I know they are heavily compressed and tend to artifact around hard consonants, words with s, and sound low bitrate, but so far people have been able to figure out what I'm saying. If I keep them I'll eventually get to try them under less ideal conditions.

The battery life though, wow, thats bad. No wonder they hid it in a footnote.

If all you are doing is phone calls, remember after about 100 minutes you can take one out and continue your call on a single AirPod. Just stick it in the case for about 5 minutes and it should recharge, then put the other one in for five minutes. Personally, I love them for phone calls; they are clear sounding, they don't pick up most background noise, etc.

Unfortunately, the battery is likely one thing that won't improve greatly -- the "weird look" is largely because of the battery it has. It does seem like they could do something better with controls in the future. I mentioned in one of these threads, iOS 11 will bring more controls, as well as the ability to assign a different command to each (both L and R) AirPod -- it will no longer be just a choice between Siri and Pause Play. My recollection is that the choices are Siri, Pause/Play, Next Track, and Previous Track -- no volume option. I also wish they'd include a double tap option.

[bluej3]

I'm sure apple will improve things in the future.

[ksassy]

For a first gen product I think they're pretty good but certainly not the best on the market which is subjective. There's definitely room for more improvement. I appreciate your balanced review

[Spencerdl]

I'm not sure if its me, but I seem to get more battery life when I use one at a time. There is definitely room for improvement, but not to bad for first wave. Thanks for the review...ENJOY

[Just_Me_D]

I'm not sure if its me, but I seem to get more battery life when I use one at a time. There is definitely room for improvement, but not to bad for first wave. Thanks for the review...ENJOY

Being that I’ve only worn them as a pair no more than 5 times or so, I can’t say if better battery life is achieved wearing just one or both AirPods. Having said that, I can have the one pod in my ear for an entire 8-hour shift with a some calls here and there without running out of battery. I’ve done that numerous times when I was working in North Carolina. Wearing them at work here in Orlando is impractical for me right now because if I’m not in a meeting, I’m on a conference call, and if I’m not on a conference call, I’m trying to hurry up and get some tasks accomplished, reply to some emails and Slack PMs before the next round of meetings....

[TripleOne]

I'm not sure if its me, but I seem to get more battery life when I use one at a time. There is definitely room for improvement, but not to bad for first wave. Thanks for the review...ENJOY

Agreed.
The AirPods are pretty good for a first gen product. There's always room for improvement. As of now, I'm very happy and will definitely be getting the next gen when it is out.

[thedonp]

I'm not sure if its me, but I seem to get more battery life when I use one at a time. There is definitely room for improvement, but not to bad for first wave. Thanks for the review...ENJOY

I’m with you. I usually only use one or other and the battery life is great. Even when I use them for music

[TripleOne]

I’m with you. I usually only use one or other and the battery life is great. Even when I use them for music

I do too, I rarely wear both at the same time

[thedonp]

I do too, I rarely wear both at the same time

And to be honest when I see others wearing them, I only ever see one ear piece on.

[Spencerdl]

And to be honest when I see others wearing them, I only ever see one ear piece on.

Same here. One at a time seems to be the norm.

[thedonp]

Same here. One at a time seems to be the norm.

Yep. It almost seems too much with both on sound wise

[ksassy]

I'm not sure if its me, but I seem to get more battery life when I use one at a time.

Yes I use one at a time for most things unless I'm doing my daily running workout then I use both of them.

[thedonp]

Yes I use one at a time for most things unless I'm doing my daily running workout then I use both of them.

I only exercise to the kitchen

[ksassy]

I only exercise to the kitchen

Bahahahaha that's me when I'm not running...doing the cooking workout

[thedonp]

Bahahahaha that's me when I'm not running...doing the cooking workout

*high five*

[Spencerdl]

I only exercise to the kitchen

LOL...We might have to change that. Walking would be nice to have both of them in ...LOL

[thedonp]

LOL...We might have to change that. Walking would be nice to have both of them in ...LOL

Haha then I can’t hear the food talking asking me to eat it lol

[lusid1]

Another oddity than I forgot to mention is the multi-device support, or complete lack thereof. Syncing the Bluetooth pairing status across all my devices is a cool idea, but actually switching between devices is uncharacteristically inelegant for Apple.

If I wrap up a webex on my macbook, and then get a call on my phone, the call gets off to an awkward start while I fumble with the settings on the phone to reconnect the headphones. That's not particularly magical for either of us. The same happens if I'm watching a video on the iPad and a call comes in. At first I thought I was just doing something wrong, but now I know its not me. Apple is doing it wrong.

[TripleOne]

Another oddity than I forgot to mention is the multi-device support, or complete lack thereof. Syncing the Bluetooth pairing status across all my devices is a cool idea, but actually switching between devices is uncharacteristically inelegant for Apple.

If I wrap up a webex on my macbook, and then get a call on my phone, the call gets off to an awkward start while I fumble with the settings on the phone to reconnect the headphones. That's not particularly magical for either of us. The same happens if I'm watching a video on the iPad and a call comes in. At first I thought I was just doing something wrong, but now I know its not me. Apple is doing it wrong.

It needs to be smoothen out more for sure and I do hope that Apple will actually release a second gen of the AirPods.

[mogelijk]

It needs to be smoothen out more for sure and I do hope that Apple will actually release a second gen of the AirPods.

I'll be interested to see what changes there are in iOS 11; while I have it on my iPad, I don't currently have it on a phone. I do know they have separate controls, based on if you tap the left of right AirPod, in iOS 11 -- hopefully there are other changes that help as you move between devices.

[OldAndBusted]

I only exercise to the kitchen

Doing those 12 ounce curls?

[Tinkernaught]

The iOS 11 ability to set a second function is handy. Now when listening to podcasts or audiobooks I can double-tap one of them to go back 15 or 20 seconds if I missed something as well as having pause/play on the other.

Switching devices hasn’t improved at all—I still have to do so manually (what’s the point of the W1 chip?). And my new Windows 10 laptop can’t detect them at all even though it quickly connects to cheapie BT earphones.

All that said, I still use them a lot on my iPhone and iPad.

[TripleOne]

The iOS 11 ability to set a second function is handy. Now when listening to podcasts or audiobooks I can double-tap one of them to go back 15 or 20 seconds if I missed something as well as having pause/play on the other.

Switching devices hasn’t improved at all—I still have to do so manually (what’s the point of the W1 chip?). And my new Windows 10 laptop can’t detect them at all even though it quickly connects to cheapie BT earphones.

All that said, I still use them a lot on my iPhone and iPad.

Yeah, I have problems when it comes to my AirPods, it doesn’t connect as “magically” as it’s supposed to.