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(box slams) - People who have AirPods love them,

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and everyone else doesn't get it, but even after using a pair of AirPods Pro

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for the past 10 months, I'm still a little skeptical about these,

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Apple's $180 third-generation AirPods.

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(plastic clicking) There's a long laundry list of Bluetooth

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headphone competitors that feature silicone tips and active noise cancellation for much, much less money.

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So, why should I bother spending my time covering these?

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They're just going to, oh, oh, oh.

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Wait, what? These sound great, sound great, sound great!

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Ugh, it's the AirPods way. You know what they represent.

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You know how hard they are to maintain. (upbeat music)

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And yet, they worm their way into your ears.

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(upbeat music) (birds chirping)

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I'm afraid that anyone who buys these third-generation AirPods will be quite pleased with them.

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They've got a new design, a new speaker driver, new MagSafe support, and they have a few features

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from previous, more expensive AirPods Pro and Max models,

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but these are still AirPods, so there are no silicone tips or active noise cancellation,

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but what we do get is a brand new hard-shell design.

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The stems are shorter and feature four sensor buttons for media control and Siri.

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The bud itself is a lot bigger and less funnel-ly than the originals.

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The case looks more landscape than portrait. Now, based on past experience,

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I'm still a little bit concerned about these. The mesh is just as close to the tip as before.

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It looks like it's gonna trap ear wax even despite the mesh's convex shape.

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However, these do sit in your ears differently than before.

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(upbeat music) They don't go in deep at all.

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Instead, they sit on the ear's concha without going deep into the canal.

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This means they do feel a little insecure in the ear at first though they haven't

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fallen out on me yet. You know, you do this to get water out of your ears,

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but I can't get the AirPod out of my ear.

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Actually, I think ear wax might not be this big of an issue this generation.

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I've been wearing these, and I've rarely seen any accumulate in the ridge here,

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so there might be hope, but there's only one way to find out,

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and that's giving these to Sarah long-term. Do your worst.

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I'll report back in social media in a bunch of months.

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(aircraft engine rumbling)

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(upbeat music)

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Another thing I was not expecting was that these would sound this good.

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The OG AirPods get the music across, but these really liven things up.

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(upbeat music)

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Even the more expensive AirPods Pro sound flatter by comparison. (upbeat music)

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Apple touts a new custom-designed driver that definitely brings more bass,

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and I swear that I can sense the adaptive EQ modifying the sound to conform to the shape of my ear.

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Like, I can hear it improve.

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There's a very clear opinionated sound to these

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with punchy trebles and base. Ed, our production manager,

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thinks they sound borderline sibilant, but says they're more entertaining than AirPods Pro.

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And yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it.

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That entertaining aspect is also enhanced with the addition of spatial audio, which I'll get into,

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but first, let's take a moment to thank this video's sponsor, Pulseway.

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low disk space, high CPU usage, and restarting services.

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Try it for free today at pulseway.com or through our link below.

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Now, what were we watching?

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Ah yes, a piece of audio-visual content.

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When you're watching a piece of audio-visual content, the feature does a great job of simulating

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the exact soundscape of sitting in a movie theater.

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(people chatting) (cars whooshing) but with music, it's hit or miss.

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(upbeat music)

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And that's just with listening to my stereo files. It's good with classical or music

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where instruments occupy a wider stage, but with my electronic tracks, I turn it off and enjoy

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the less processed stream of getting music piped straight into my ears.

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Now, if you set your spatial audio to head tracking, you will constantly think that the audio

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is coming from your device's speakers (upbeat music)

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which for me sets off panic because in LMG's writer's block,

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using speakers there will get you a proper scolding.

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Seriously, it's worse than a 19th century library in here.

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Oh, another neat addition is that they've added MagSafe to the charging case of this and AirPods Pro

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so you can stick it to any MagSafe accessory. No 15-watt fast charging though.

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Battery life is better giving you up to six hours from the buds,

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and I have to say in my usage at the office, I never ran them down below 50% in a day.

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Oh, and when I leave the desk, I don't really put them back in their case

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because I'm a bad boy. Hey! - Hey Jonathan!

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Do you know where all the iPhones are? (upbeat music) - Oh yeah, I'm reviewing them.

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Where'd I put my AirPods? Ah, this is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate

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the enhanced Find-My feature. There's no ultra wide band like AirTags,

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but if you lose your AirPods, your iPhone can try and get you closer to them

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as long as they can connect to each other with Bluetooth, which isn't always a guarantee nor will you hear much

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should you make them play sound. I've got a connection! Okay, so low signal, keep moving.

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Oh, signal increasing. Okay, I'm gonna make it play a sound.

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(AirPods beeping) There they are.

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This is a nice to have, but it will be frustrating if you're used to looking for AirTags.

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Oh, and by the way, this also works on AirPods Pro.

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I was also hoping to report that these have had no Bluetooth problems with my M1 iMac

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like other AirPods I've used, but now that I've used them for a few weeks,

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uh, they're just as bad. (upbeat music)

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There's a lot of AirPods magic in here, and they've surprised me,

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but $180 is still a lot of money,

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and it's worth putting that price into context. Last year, the old AirPods were $20 less

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unless you opted for a wireless charging case. Then, they cost 200.

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So, 180 should seem pretty great.

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Oh, and second-gen are now 130, by the way,

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though I can't really recommend them for you know the reason.

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I wore a lot of earbuds to see how these stack up.

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Most all of them had silicone tips and a form of noise cancellation.

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The best alternative to my taste would be the OnePlus Buds Pro.

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They sound pretty great and give you AirPods' magic-like features if you use a OnePlus phone,

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but you're watching "Mac Address," so you probably don't have a OnePlus phone,

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and if you do, welcome. Might I suggest an iPhone?

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Nevertheless, you might think that spending less money

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than these and going with one of the alternatives is a better option.

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Well, if you fly a lot, then yes, perhaps,

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but I did a quick survey of people here at the office and found that there's a good number of us

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who don't like noise-canceling silicone tips ear buds.

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I can tell you from personal experience that they do tend to pop out of my ear.

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Now, if you take silicone tips out of the equation, the options get slim.

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This is a collection of what we had at the office,

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and it's a lot of AirPods wannabes.

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They're cheap, and they sound really bad.

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(railroad crossing bell ringing) (upbeat music)

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Yes, without silicone tips, you don't get sound isolation.

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The world around you is completely audible with crystal clarity.

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I like this, but then again, I'm the person who wears their AirPods pro

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in transparency mode all the time anyway, and I know I'm not alone.

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I'm quite surprised with these AirPods. They sound a lot better than I was expecting.

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They fit better in my ear than I was expecting. They accumulate earwax way less than I was expecting.

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And if I were to go out and buy a pair of Bluetooth headphones right now,

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it'd probably be these. Thanks for budding into this "Mac Address."

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Now, if you're a big AirPods fan, give this video a like, and if you wish you had a set, why not subscribe?

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Now, I'm curious what you think are a viable alternative to these AirPods third-generation.

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Very hard to find good ones without silicone tips.