CHEAP Apple Airpods Alternatives - Do they suck??
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,669 words · ~8 min read
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the launch of the airpods Apple's Bluetooth headphones created a hole that
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most consumers didn't know they needed filled and as always spawned a plethora
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of imitators who promised to do the same thing without being
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overpriced but are the airpods
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overpriced or compared to the other products in the market are they better
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enough to justify the Apple tax well
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folks I've got eight pairs of bluetooth headphones with me to help us get to the
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bottom of
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this the new master keys Pro RGB and PR
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s white from Cooler Master are coming soon check out their lineup at the link
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below let's meet our contestants shall we wow that's a lot Pro tip by the way
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way you can watch videos at half speed with the button down there the airpods
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are going to be our Baseline so we'll start with them they've got a striking
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look that For Better or For Worse lets everybody know just how much you love
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Apple they come in a lightweight charging case that feels fantastic in
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the hand and they pair effortlessly with your iPhone or even other devices with a
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couple more steps I would put their sound on the tiny side and the Sound
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Stage is a bit Nar narrow but the articulation is good and there's enough
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base present that most people honestly
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will be happy with them battery life comes in at 5 hours of continuous
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listening plus four to five quick charges from the included dock compare
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all of that to the dash from braggy the
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only earphones in our lineup that are actually more expensive than Apples but
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should they be they're comfortable they're reasonably light and
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subjectively they look a little cooler than the airpods 2o and the sound is
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better as well with big bass and a full sound and they even pack some cool extra
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Tech in like the airpods they can pause when you pull them out but wait there's
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more they have onboard storage and are
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waterproof so you can swim with them while listening to music they have a
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touch interface for taking calls and controlling media playback and they even
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function as a fitness tracker though especially those last two don't work
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particularly well leading us into the cons the big two are range James didn't
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experience it but I've had issues with signal drops while holding my phone in
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my pocket and the high noise floor it
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sounds like a in the background and it's a big issue
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if you listen at relatively low volumes battery life is also kind of me three to
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four hours plus four to five charges from the case sounds okay on paper but
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in practice the bulky and heavy charging case is much less convenient to carry
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around than Apples J Bird's Freedom
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sound quality beats most of the competitors in this review pretty
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soundly bass is strong and you'll hear things you wouldn't if you were
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listening to the same song with the airpods they're lightweight and while
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you might think that having your phones connected bya wire is maybe less premium
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I don't personally mind it with the wire behind your neck it's very unlikely to
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get in the way and you'll get to keep inline controls which can plug into a
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little charging clip to extend Freedom's battery life from an advertised 4 hours
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to 8 it's easy to pop in ear out and there's no way to lose one of the
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earphones the only real drawback is that they're pretty pricey as well the axo
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atom gets some style marks for the ability to offer your friends an
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earphone like it's the 1930s and smoking
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is still cool but while it's fully Wireless which is neat it gets some
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significant points against it two and a
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half hours is too often to be recharging
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in my opinion even if you can do it up to 18 times in a row and the case also
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functions as a battery bank which is cool the pairing process is relatively
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complicated and the multi-purpose button
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doesn't work for track skipping play pause and phone calls only with that
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said they are reasonably comfortable as long as the ear tips don't stay stuck in
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your canals and actually sound pretty decent I'm tempted to say they sound
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better than the airpods because of their deeper Bas expanded Sound Stage and
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reduced tinniness but your mileage may vary because the high hats in one of our
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metal test songs sounded absolutely
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abominable I was actually embarrassed to wear the boots by smartomi or as I'll be
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calling them the Shrek ears in public
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they are lightweight and reasonably comfortable but never felt quite right
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due to their size I would rate their sound is maybe comparable to the airpods
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but a little distant sounding and turning the volume loud can actually
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make you winse the Hallmark of bad
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earphones so what do they have going for them then well you can access Siri by
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double tapping the onboard buttons and the battery life is solid there's no
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charging case but they lasted a full 5 and 1/2 hours in my test not too shabby
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but I can't say the same about these they're the worst ones of the bunch the
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Apple Air Twinkies also known as the daycom from
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twws again I did not leave my house with these ondoing testing because they
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actually look like an intentionally comical parody of the real thing and not
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only do they look like Hot Dogs coming out of your ears they pretty much sound
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and feel like it too they have no no punch no bass over pronounced ties they
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have a horrible pairing process the positions in the charge case are
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reversed from when you take them out of your ears and they never really felt
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like they were in your ears so I didn't
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wear them long enough to find out how long the battery lasts because I don't
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care they're awful fortunately the downward price quality spiral ends here
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the $50 axio Dash earphones are my
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favorite budget pair of the bunch I even like them more than the $99 axio atams
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they pair more easily have physical buttons for pausing track skipping and
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even volume control and even have longer battery life at 3 hours meanwhile the
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sound quality is just as good as the atoms but with arguably more Bas and I
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would rather listen to these than the airpods and although I thought they
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would be heavy and look stupid they're not and I don't think they do if you're
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on a tight budget and don't need a charging case the axio dash are worth a
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look and would be my Undisputed budget
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pick if it weren't for the AI EP
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b4s so cheap they don't even seem to appear on ai's website they're light
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they're comfortable and believe it or not they sound comparable to the airpods
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but with strikingly bigger base the poor build quality can make the volume rocker
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and other buttons a little difficult to use but hey the functionality is there
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my only gripe is the elante
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pasta noodle connecting the two phones that makes you look and feel a bit like
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a dad on a safari but Aesthetics aside
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these things punch way above their weight class their low price and 5-hour
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battery life makes them a perfect pick to throw in the gym bag or ski jacket so
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trophy time if you want great sounding wireless earphones that you can listen
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to all day it's hard to go wrong with something from jbird the freedoms we
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covered here or their blue buds line which we've covered in more detail
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before if you want a ball on a budget then go for the axio dash or the AI EPB
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Force but if you want a polished
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experience and Imo fantastic industrial
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design with seamless switching between your Apple devices the airpods are there
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for you considering what else is out there they're not that bad Just For the
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Love of All that is good don't don't get the air
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Twinkies look at these things can you think of a cool product
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or online service that would make sense to advertise on linest Tech tips in a
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spot like this one well apparently our ad sales team couldn't and this spot is
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empty today so I'm using this opportunity to reach out to you guys and
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ask you to give us some inspiration
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tweet Colton Potter we're going to put
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that up on the screen tweet at Colton Potter and give him some ideas because
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apparently he is just Plum out of them
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all right let's do it D look it he's not
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not even he's going to be stuck in that hole nope let's go here we go Colt first
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R let us know what do you guys want to see advertised online as Tech tips so
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thanks for watching guys if you liked like if you dislike dislike if you really liked get subscribed or maybe
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consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured in the video
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description also down there is our community forum and a place where you can buy cool merch and shirts and stuff
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like this and I think that's pretty much it so check out our latest video over on
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Channel Super Fun here and I will see you guys on the flip side what is a flip
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side this is what happens when I try and sound cool