1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,440 People who have AirPods love them, and everyone else doesn't get it. 2 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:10,140 But even after using a pair of AirPods Pro for the past 10 months, I'm still a little 3 00:00:10,140 --> 00:00:16,920 skeptical about these, Apple's $180 third generation AirPods. 4 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:21,120 There's a long laundry list of Bluetooth headphone competitors that feature silicon 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:25,560 tips and active noise cancellation for much, much less money. 6 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:29,800 So why should I bother spending my time covering these? 7 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:36,600 They're just going to- Oh, oh, oh, wait, what? 8 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:41,080 These sound great! They sound great! 9 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:45,840 Ugh, it's the AirPods way. 10 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:53,160 You know what they represent? You know how hard they are to maintain. 11 00:00:53,160 --> 00:01:02,720 And yet they worm their way into your ears. 12 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:07,480 I'm afraid that anyone who buys these third generation AirPods will be quite pleased with 13 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:13,560 them. They've got a new design, a new speaker driver, new MagSafe support, and they have a few features 14 00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:18,200 from previous more expensive AirPods Pro and Max models. 15 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:24,200 But these are still AirPods, so there are no silicone tips or active noise cancellation. 16 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:28,160 But what we do get is a brand new hard shell design. 17 00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:33,040 The stems are shorter and feature force sensor buttons for media control and Siri. 18 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:37,520 The bud itself is a lot bigger and less funnily than the originals. 19 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:44,720 The case looks more landscape than portrait. Now based on past experience, I'm still a little bit concerned about these. 20 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:48,040 The mesh is just as close to the tip as before. 21 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:53,120 It looks like it's going to trap earwax, even despite the mesh's convex shape. 22 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:59,920 However, these do sit in your ears differently than before. 23 00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:06,560 They don't go in deep at all. Instead, they sit on the ears concave, without going deep into the canal. 24 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:11,080 This means they do feel a little insecure in the ear at first, though they haven't fallen 25 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:15,840 out on me yet. You know, you do this to get water out of your ears, but I can't get the earpud out 26 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:23,200 of my ear. Actually, I think earwax might not be this big of an issue this generation. 27 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:27,600 I've been wearing these and I've rarely seen any accumulate in the ridge here, so there 28 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:33,120 might be hope. But there's only one way to find out, and that's giving these to Sarah long term. 29 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:37,240 Do your worst. I'll report back on social media in a bunch of months. 30 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:50,080 Another thing I was not expecting was that these would sound this good. 31 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:54,080 The OG earpods get the music across, but these really liven things up. 32 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,080 Even the Marks brand's of AirPods Pro sound flatter by comparison. 33 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:13,000 Apple touts a new custom design driver that definitely brings more bass, and I swear that 34 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:17,080 I can sense the adaptive EQ modifying the sound to conform to the shape of my ear. 35 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:20,400 Like, I can hear it improve. 36 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:25,640 There's a very clear opinionated sound to these, with punchy trebles and bass. 37 00:03:25,640 --> 00:03:29,920 Ed, our production manager, thinks they sound borderline sibilant, but says they're more 38 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:35,160 entertaining than AirPods Pro. And yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it. 39 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:41,120 That entertaining aspect is also enhanced with the addition of spatial audio. 40 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:45,120 When you're watching a piece of audio-visual content, the feature does a great job of simulating 41 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:50,600 the exact soundscape of sitting in a movie theater. 42 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:57,000 But with music, it's hit or miss. 43 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:04,640 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 44 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:09,200 my electronic tracks, I turn it off and enjoy the less processed stream of getting music 45 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:16,240 piped straight into my ears. Now, if you set your spatial audio to headtracking, you will constantly think that the audio is 46 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:22,880 coming from your device's speakers. 47 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:28,920 Which for me sets off panic, because in LMG's writer's block, using speakers there will 48 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:35,440 get you a proper scolding. Seriously, it's worse than a 19th century library in here. 49 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:39,960 Oh! Another neat addition is that they've added MagSafe to the charging case of this and AirPods 50 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:44,800 Pro, so you can stick it to any MagSafe accessory. No, 15W fast charging though. 51 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:48,680 Battery life is better, giving you up to 6 hours from the buds, and I have to say, in 52 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:53,600 my usage at the office, I never ran them down below 50% in a day. 53 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:58,040 Oh, and when I leave the desk, I don't really put them back in their case, because I'm 54 00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:02,040 a bad boy. Hey! Do you know where all the iPhones are? 55 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:05,040 Oh yeah, I'm reviewing them. 56 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:08,040 Where are my AirPods? 57 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:14,040 Ah, this is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the enhanced Find My feature. 58 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:18,400 There's no ultra-wide band like AirTags, but if you lose your AirPods, your iPhone can 59 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:22,320 try and get you closer to them, as long as they can connect to each other with Bluetooth, 60 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:26,760 which isn't always a guarantee, nor will you hear much should you make them play a sound. 61 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:31,280 I've got a connection. Okay, so low signal, keep me, oh, signal increasing. 62 00:05:31,280 --> 00:05:37,280 Okay, I'm going to make it play a sound. 63 00:05:37,280 --> 00:05:43,240 There they are. This is a nice to have, but it will be frustrating if you're used to looking for AirTags. 64 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:47,280 Oh, and by the way, this also works on AirPods Pro. 65 00:05:47,280 --> 00:05:52,640 I was also hoping to report that these have had no Bluetooth problems with my M1 iMac, 66 00:05:52,640 --> 00:06:00,160 like other AirPods I've used. Now that I've used them for a few weeks, they're just as bad. 67 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:05,760 There's a lot of AirPods magic in here, and they've surprised me, but $180 is still a 68 00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:09,440 lot of money, and it's worth putting that price into context. 69 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:13,720 Last year, the old AirPods were $20 less, unless you opted for a wireless charging case, 70 00:06:13,720 --> 00:06:19,480 then they cost $200. So $180 should seem pretty great. 71 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:22,760 Oh, and second gen are now $130, by the way. 72 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:27,960 So I can't really recommend them for, you know, the reason. 73 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:31,520 I wore a lot of earbuds to see how these stack up. 74 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:35,680 Most all of them had silicone tips and a form of noise cancellation. 75 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:39,200 The best alternative to my taste would be the OnePlus Buds Pro. 76 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:44,760 They sound pretty great, and give you AirPods magic-like features if you use a OnePlus phone. 77 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:48,440 But you're watching Mac Address, so you probably don't have a OnePlus phone. 78 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:51,640 And if you do, welcome. Might as well suggest an iPhone. 79 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:56,040 Nevertheless, you might think that spending less money than these and going with one of 80 00:06:56,040 --> 00:07:02,080 the alternatives is a better option. Well, if you fly a lot, then yes, perhaps. 81 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:05,880 But I did a quick survey of people here at the office and found that there's a good 82 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:10,280 number of us who don't like noise-canceling silicone tips earbuds. 83 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:13,960 I can tell you from personal experience that they do tend to pop out of my ear. 84 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:18,280 Now, if you take silicone tips out of the equation, the options get slim. 85 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:21,840 This is a collection of what we had at the office. 86 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:25,040 And it's a lot of AirPods wannabes. 87 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:28,120 They're cheap, and they sound really bad. 88 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,840 Yes, without silicone tips, you don't get sound isolation. 89 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:42,160 The world around you is completely audible with crystal clarity. 90 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:46,480 I like this, but then again, I'm the person who wears their AirPods Pro in transparency 91 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:50,920 mode all the time anyway. And I know I'm not alone. 92 00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:55,840 I'm quite surprised with these AirPods. They sound a lot better than I was expecting. 93 00:07:55,840 --> 00:08:01,440 They fit better in my ear than I was expecting. They accumulate earwax way less than I was expecting. 94 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:05,560 And if I were to go out and buy a pair of Bluetooth headphones right now, it'd probably 95 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:09,520 be these. Thanks for budding into this Mac Address. 96 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:14,520 Now, if you're a big AirPods fan, give this video a like. And if you wish you had a set, why not subscribe? 97 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:20,120 I'm curious what you think are a viable alternative to these AirPods 3rd generation. 98 00:08:20,120 --> 00:08:22,960 It's very hard to find good ones without silicone tips.