AirPods Review

I’ve been on the search for a good set of wireless headphones for a few years now, and I believe I’ve finally found the (almost) perfect set, the Apple AirPods.

In this article I compare the AirPods to the 3 other types of Bluetooth headphones I’ve bought over the years.

This is arguably the most important thing with headphones. If they’re not comfortable, they’re not worth having.

The AirPods fit in your ear almost perfectly. When I first put one in my ear I realised that these are the best headphones I’ve ever used. You barely notice they’re there, and they form a good seal for the sound (but not being a painful sort of air-tight seal).  The fit of them lets you hear sound from outside the headphones too (which is both a good and a bad thing). They don’t fall out either (I can’t shake my head enough to get them to come out, I have to actually pull them out with my fingers).

Also, as there is no cable connecting the two sides of the AirPods together, there’s no cable to get caught on.

The Bluedio M3 headphones were the second most comfortable, they had a little rubber bit that fit to my ear and didn’t actually go in the ear canal.

The Plantronics ones hurt my ears. I gave them a good 6 months before I ended up giving up on them due to it just hurting and falling out.

The Jaybird X2’s fit better than the Plantronics, they locked into my ear reasonably well and the inserts that go into your ear actually felt nice.

With the 3 non-AirPods headphones, they all had a cable linking the two sides together, this would always catch on my collar or shirt and pull the headphones out of my ear. Very very frustrating.

The AirPods have pretty decent bass and good mids and highs. They actually sound slightly better than the normal corded Apple EarPods. For something this size, it’s amazing.

The Bluedio M3 headphones sounded absolutely terrible. If it wasn’t for this, I’d actually be happy using them. Almost no bass, terrible mids and highs. Urgh.

The Plantronics sound was okay, however the poor fit meant that I was losing bass due to a poor seal with my ear.

The Jaybird X2’s sound was pretty decent, not quite as good as the AirPods (again, I believe this is possibly due to the fit).

All the headphones have pretty reasonable battery life for my use. The AirPods last around 5 hours, Bluedio about 3-4 hours, Plantronics 4.5 hours and Jaybird at around 6-7 hours.  For me, the big thing with battery life was how easy to charge they are.

The AirPods just slip back into the case (they’re gripped in magnetically) and it charges it from the case. Using them for about 3-5 hours a day, the case was at about 50% after a week.

The Bluedio M3 and Jaybird X2’s, you need to plug into a microUSB cable, and you can’t use it while they’re charging.

The Plantronics headphones came with a case that has a little battery in it that you can plug in to charge, it’s a little fiddly to get it back into the case while charging at the same time though.

They all use bluetooth to communicate, the only difference with the AirPods is they tie into the Apple Products brilliantly. With an iPhone, you open the case next to the iPhone, click the prompt that comes up asking you to connect and you’re done. Once you’ve done that, it also connects it to your other Apple Devices that are on the same AppleID (so, it connected straight to my Mac).

Interesting side note about the Mac and Bluetooth however: I’m using a 2013 MacBook Pro that has an older Bluetooth chip in it. If it engages the microphone, the sound quality will drop SIGNIFICANTLY to the point that it’s really tinny and just bad sounding.

I also had a few issues with my Mac disconnecting from the AirPods, to get it to work I’d either need to disconnect and reconnect, or do something to engage the microphone (which seems to reestablish the connection).  Little annoying but only happened maybe once a week. Another interesting issue is that the audio with the AirPods is delayed about 0.2sec or so, this puts lip sync out on videos.

Apparently this issue is so that both the headphones can be in sync. The other bluetooth headphones didn’t have this problem.

The connection range with the AirPods is also significantly better than the others. I can walk from one side of my house to the other with the AirPods connected to my laptop and only start to get stutters/drop outs right at the edge (about 10-15 meters and through multiple walls).

With the Bluedio M3, blocking the signal with my body would be enough to cause it to drop out.

The Plantronics and Jaybird were about the same signal wise, I could move maybe 5meters away from my laptop, or put a wall between before it started to drop out.

Controls wise the AirPods use a double tap system on the headphone to adjust things, your only options however are Play/Pause, or Siri.  It’s sometimes a little difficult to actually tap it in the way it wants (taking a few goes to get it to work). The Siri takes a second or two to kick in too.

Putting the AirPods in your ear will automatically turn them on and connect (connecting takes maybe 1-2seconds)

They also have a feature where if you take one ear out, it will pause your music. When you put the ear back in, it resumes playing. It’s good for when someone’s trying to talk to you, so you pull an ear out to talk to someone.

The other 3 headsets have a little controller stick on the cord to control it. To turn it on/off you need to hold down the on/off button, however they all have volume controls.

The AirPods have a case that’s magnetic, it’s super easy to put the headphones in since it sort of sucks them in, I found that sometimes getting them back out can be a tad fiddly (if your fingers are oily).  Also the AirPods case is made out of white plastic, leading me to get a case for my case to avoid it getting scratched when I throw it in my bag.

The case that comes with the Plantronics headphones has a built in battery which is nice, but you need to plug the headphones into the case and then sort of stuff them into the case.

The case that comes with the Jaybird X2’s is a weird stiff rubber thing, you need to curl the headphones up, put them in the case then sort of squish the lid into place.

The AirPods are amazing. They’re my favourite headphones by far.  The connection issues I had were pretty minor (and could possibly be fixed by software updates).

The Bluedio M3’s felt nice but the appalling audio and connection issues made them junk.

The Plantronics just didn’t fit well. I tried all the different tips, but nothing felt right.

The Jaybird X2’s were almost what I wanted, the cable catching on my shirt and pulling it out was one of the biggest issues for me.