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.
There's a long laundry list of Bluetooth headphone competitors that feature silicon
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! They sound great!
Ugh, it's the AirPods way.
You know what they represent? You know how hard they are to maintain.
And yet they worm their way into your ears.
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 force sensor buttons for media control and Siri.
The bud itself is a lot bigger and less funnily 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 going to trap earwax, even despite the mesh's convex shape.
However, these do sit in your ears differently than before.
They don't go in deep at all. Instead, they sit on the ears concave, 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 earpud out
of my ear. Actually, I think earwax 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 on social media in a bunch of months.
Another thing I was not expecting was that these would sound this good.
The OG earpods get the music across, but these really liven things up.
Even the Marks brand's of AirPods Pro sound flatter by comparison.
Apple touts a new custom design 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 bass.
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.
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.
But with music, it's hit or miss.
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 headtracking, you will constantly think that the audio is
coming from your device's speakers.
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, 15W fast charging though.
Battery life is better, giving you up to 6 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! Do you know where all the iPhones are?
Oh yeah, I'm reviewing them.
Where are 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 a sound.
I've got a connection. Okay, so low signal, keep me, oh, signal increasing.
Okay, I'm going to make it play a sound.
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. Now that I've used them for a few weeks, they're just as bad.
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.
So 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 as well 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 earbuds.
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.
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?
I'm curious what you think are a viable alternative to these AirPods 3rd generation.
It's very hard to find good ones without silicone tips.