Works Like Magic
With seamless pairing and powerful sound, AirPods put to rest the scepticism around their functioning.
At first glance, the AirPods look funny. These Bluetooth earphones look similar to the EarPods, but are wireless. I was impressed at how comfortably they snuggled into my ears, and remained so even while walking or moving my head from side to side.
AirPods come neatly placed in a magnetic case which not only carries them, but also keeps them charged. The case can slip into your jeans pocket (however skinny). Each AirPod weighs 4 gms and the charging case weighs 38 gms. The connectivity of the Apple AirPods is far superior to other Bluetooth headphones. As soon as I took them out of the charging case, the AirPods detected my iPhone 7 Plus for pairing (iPhone’s Bluetooth was turned on). A pop-up appears on the phone and on hitting connect, the AirPods get paired with your iPhone, and also get linked to your iCloud account. This enables hassle-free pairing with all Apple devices on the same ac- count, including Apple Watch on WatchOS 3 and iPad on iOS 10. The experience is incredibly seamless and simple within the Apple ecosystem. There is a circular button at the rear of the charging case that comes handy while pairing the AirPods with Android devices, and Apple devices not running on the latest OS (iOS 10).
There is a beep every time you snap the AirPods on. Each has a microphone, and can be used for answering calls and listening to music. There are no controls on the buds for changing tracks or controlling music, but double tapping the bud brings Siri into action. Double-tap can be used to answer and disconnect calls, too.
Powered by the W1 chip, each AirPod has dual beam-forming microphones, dual optical sensors, motion-detecting accelerometer and speech-detecting accelerometer. The superior hardware can detect when the AirPods are in the ears. As soon as the AirPods are taken out, the music pauses. One need not wear both the buds to answer a call or listen to music. Be prepared for a surround sound experience with good bass, and an even better sound quality than the EarPods. Each AirPod offers almost five hours of music playback or up to two hours of talk time. The charging case stores power for a couple of charges. As soon as I inserted the AirPods back into the case, the charging would start. A fifteen-minute charge juiced up the AirPods to last a couple of hours. The case can be charged using the lightning connector used to charge an iPhone or iPad.