AirPods may be a bit ahead of their time
APPLE is trying to push consumers to a wireless future by eliminating the headphone jack. And the tip of this particular spear for Apple are the AirPods, its new set of wireless Bluetooth earbuds.
Apple provided me with a pair to use while I reviewed the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The AirPods look like Apple’s normal earbuds, but without the wires. They pair to Apple devices particularly well, thanks to a special chip that lets you easily sync to Apple devices and switch between them. You can also pair them as normal Bluetooth headphones with nonApple devices, though you lose both of those features when you do.
Apple promises five hours of battery life for the AirPods themselves, which fit with my experience. They also come with a carrying case that doubles as a portable battery, which gives you more juice if you drop the EarPods into it when you’re not using them. With the carrying case, you can get up to 24 hours of listening time.
In terms of comfort, they were about the same as Apple’s normal earbuds, which stay fairly well in my ears. The AirPods stayed in about as well. I slept with them in my ears overnight, falling asleep to podcasts, and one was still in my ear in the morning. (That’s more than I can say of my normal corded headphones, which can tangle around me in my sleep.) Losing one AirPod in the night, however, did mean that the headphones had automatically paused what I was listening to overnight.
The automatic pausing feature was perhaps the most impressive part of these earbuds. When paired with an iPhone, the AirPods can sense when they’re in your ear. Apple’s designed them to pause when you take out one side to have a conversation or listen to an announcement. (Yes, you can still share earphones with a friend – in fact it’s easier with one Pod per person.)
It is slightly awkward to hold the earbud rather than letting it swing from a cable, but with a price tag of US$159 (RM636), I was not about to let myself drop one in the airport.
That said, the AirPods can be a little difficult to hang on to, being slick and made of glossy plastic.
I started to think of putting them in as I do my contact lenses - one at a time and hovering over something that can catch them if they fall. But that may change over time as I get more comfortable using them. — WPBloomberg