(box slams) - People who have AirPods love them,
and everyone else doesn't get it, but even after using a pair of AirPods Pro
for the past 10 months, I'm still a little skeptical about these,
Apple's $180 third-generation AirPods.
(plastic clicking) There's a long laundry list of Bluetooth
headphone competitors that feature silicone tips and active noise cancellation for much, much less money.
So, why should I bother spending my time covering these?
They're just going to, oh, oh, oh.
Wait, what? These sound great, sound great, sound great!
Ugh, it's the AirPods way. You know what they represent.
You know how hard they are to maintain. (upbeat music)
And yet, they worm their way into your ears.
(upbeat music) (birds chirping)
I'm afraid that anyone who buys these third-generation AirPods will be quite pleased with them.
They've got a new design, a new speaker driver, new MagSafe support, and they have a few features
from previous, more expensive AirPods Pro and Max models,
but these are still AirPods, so there are no silicone tips or active noise cancellation,
but what we do get is a brand new hard-shell design.
The stems are shorter and feature four sensor buttons for media control and Siri.
The bud itself is a lot bigger and less funnel-ly than the originals.
The case looks more landscape than portrait. Now, based on past experience,
I'm still a little bit concerned about these. The mesh is just as close to the tip as before.
It looks like it's gonna trap ear wax even despite the mesh's convex shape.
However, these do sit in your ears differently than before.
(upbeat music) They don't go in deep at all.
Instead, they sit on the ear's concha without going deep into the canal.
This means they do feel a little insecure in the ear at first though they haven't
fallen out on me yet. You know, you do this to get water out of your ears,
but I can't get the AirPod out of my ear.
Actually, I think ear wax might not be this big of an issue this generation.
I've been wearing these, and I've rarely seen any accumulate in the ridge here,
so there might be hope, but there's only one way to find out,
and that's giving these to Sarah long-term. Do your worst.
I'll report back in social media in a bunch of months.
(aircraft engine rumbling)
(upbeat music)
Another thing I was not expecting was that these would sound this good.
The OG AirPods get the music across, but these really liven things up.
(upbeat music)
Even the more expensive AirPods Pro sound flatter by comparison. (upbeat music)
Apple touts a new custom-designed driver that definitely brings more bass,
and I swear that I can sense the adaptive EQ modifying the sound to conform to the shape of my ear.
Like, I can hear it improve.
There's a very clear opinionated sound to these
with punchy trebles and base. Ed, our production manager,
thinks they sound borderline sibilant, but says they're more entertaining than AirPods Pro.
And yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it.
That entertaining aspect is also enhanced with the addition of spatial audio, which I'll get into,
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Now, what were we watching?
Ah yes, a piece of audio-visual content.
When you're watching a piece of audio-visual content, the feature does a great job of simulating
the exact soundscape of sitting in a movie theater.
(people chatting) (cars whooshing) but with music, it's hit or miss.
(upbeat music)
And that's just with listening to my stereo files. It's good with classical or music
where instruments occupy a wider stage, but with my electronic tracks, I turn it off and enjoy
the less processed stream of getting music piped straight into my ears.
Now, if you set your spatial audio to head tracking, you will constantly think that the audio
is coming from your device's speakers (upbeat music)
which for me sets off panic because in LMG's writer's block,
using speakers there will get you a proper scolding.
Seriously, it's worse than a 19th century library in here.
Oh, another neat addition is that they've added MagSafe to the charging case of this and AirPods Pro
so you can stick it to any MagSafe accessory. No 15-watt fast charging though.
Battery life is better giving you up to six hours from the buds,
and I have to say in my usage at the office, I never ran them down below 50% in a day.
Oh, and when I leave the desk, I don't really put them back in their case
because I'm a bad boy. Hey! - Hey Jonathan!
Do you know where all the iPhones are? (upbeat music) - Oh yeah, I'm reviewing them.
Where'd I put my AirPods? Ah, this is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate
the enhanced Find-My feature. There's no ultra wide band like AirTags,
but if you lose your AirPods, your iPhone can try and get you closer to them
as long as they can connect to each other with Bluetooth, which isn't always a guarantee nor will you hear much
should you make them play sound. I've got a connection! Okay, so low signal, keep moving.
Oh, signal increasing. Okay, I'm gonna make it play a sound.
(AirPods beeping) There they are.
This is a nice to have, but it will be frustrating if you're used to looking for AirTags.
Oh, and by the way, this also works on AirPods Pro.
I was also hoping to report that these have had no Bluetooth problems with my M1 iMac
like other AirPods I've used, but now that I've used them for a few weeks,
uh, they're just as bad. (upbeat music)
There's a lot of AirPods magic in here, and they've surprised me,
but $180 is still a lot of money,
and it's worth putting that price into context. Last year, the old AirPods were $20 less
unless you opted for a wireless charging case. Then, they cost 200.
So, 180 should seem pretty great.
Oh, and second-gen are now 130, by the way,
though I can't really recommend them for you know the reason.
I wore a lot of earbuds to see how these stack up.
Most all of them had silicone tips and a form of noise cancellation.
The best alternative to my taste would be the OnePlus Buds Pro.
They sound pretty great and give you AirPods' magic-like features if you use a OnePlus phone,
but you're watching "Mac Address," so you probably don't have a OnePlus phone,
and if you do, welcome. Might I suggest an iPhone?
Nevertheless, you might think that spending less money
than these and going with one of the alternatives is a better option.
Well, if you fly a lot, then yes, perhaps,
but I did a quick survey of people here at the office and found that there's a good number of us
who don't like noise-canceling silicone tips ear buds.
I can tell you from personal experience that they do tend to pop out of my ear.
Now, if you take silicone tips out of the equation, the options get slim.
This is a collection of what we had at the office,
and it's a lot of AirPods wannabes.
They're cheap, and they sound really bad.
(railroad crossing bell ringing) (upbeat music)
Yes, without silicone tips, you don't get sound isolation.
The world around you is completely audible with crystal clarity.
I like this, but then again, I'm the person who wears their AirPods pro
in transparency mode all the time anyway, and I know I'm not alone.
I'm quite surprised with these AirPods. They sound a lot better than I was expecting.
They fit better in my ear than I was expecting. They accumulate earwax way less than I was expecting.
And if I were to go out and buy a pair of Bluetooth headphones right now,
it'd probably be these. Thanks for budding into this "Mac Address."
Now, if you're a big AirPods fan, give this video a like, and if you wish you had a set, why not subscribe?
Now, I'm curious what you think are a viable alternative to these AirPods third-generation.
Very hard to find good ones without silicone tips.