> New Experian survey explores consumer satisfaction with AirPods and other voice-first hardware
> Conversational user interfaces are now mainstream.
I really like my AirPods, but... this is a strange comment to make about them. The Siri integration / audio controls is the most awkward part of using AirPods. Honestly really hoping they revisit in v2.
Agreed. I love my AirPods (they're amazing for when I want quick headphones and care less about sound quality) but they'd be a significantly better product if I could control the volume and go back/forward in songs without Siri.
I remapped mine from triggering Siri to simply be play/pause. I'm happy with it but I agree I'd like options. It would be nice to be able to trigger Siri once in a while or skip songs or modify volume.
Yeah. Volume doesn't bother me too much, but I'd love a next track thing. I kind of wish I could setup different things for the left and right AirPod. At least then I could have pause on one and Siri on the other (for most other tasks).
Mine are about 100%, but it does seem to require a decent little thunk. You can't just touch it. I've heard people say they don't like it because it feels uncomfortable in your ear when you hit it hard enough. It doesn't bother me but I'm not going to say it feels good.
I don't think it's capacitive, I think it's based on the little chip's gyro sensor.
Just to be sure—you're both doing a double tap, right? It has to be a double tap. Mine responds just fine unless I hit it weird, which has only happened a couple of times.
My AirPods are the pretty much my favorite piece of technology I've bought in at least two years, as far as day to day (or even hour to hour) usefulness.
And yet I still reach for my phone and hold the home button to do any siri-related task...
Audio quality on them is average, not bad, but their strengths balance out those weaknesses. In particular, I find myself using headphones more often now because I always keep these in my pocket. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and podcasts with them.
Apple AirPods are the real deal. Best new Apple product in years.
Agreed. They're basically always with me, no wires to annoy me, and sound a bit better than the standard EarPods. Sure you can get better sound out of other things, but the fact I always have them is a huge deal.
The best camera is the one you have on you right? Same thing.
Totally agree. There's a lot wrong with them[1], but the audio is good enough and overall I find myself using them way more often than the EarPods so there's some proof in the pudding.
[1] - BT just isn't great tech and there's odd interference/cutout, often around cars; open-case-near-phone-for-battery-level is clunky and inefficient; double-tap to play/pause (voice control for audio control is just non-sensical to me) often doesn't work if it's been more than a few minutes, and seems to prefer opening the Apple Music app which I never use
I'm sad that Beats was the one headphone brand that Apple ended up purchasing when they wanted to expand that space. B&O felt like a natural synergy for them too.
I would love to be able to buy better-sounding AirPods under an Apple/B&O label.
Apple didn't buy a headphone maker for expertise at making headphones that sound good. Apple Stores sell headphones from any number of brands—including B&O—so there's nothing to gain by making their own headphones more audiophile-friendly. They still make money off of other companies' audiophile-targeted headphones, without having to actually design and produce any.
Instead, Apple bought the headphone maker whose products make money through a combination of visually-distinct brand-recognition and a high level of "fit and finish"—the same way their own hardware does. Beats slots into Apple's product-design paradigm as naturally as if they had created the brand themselves.
There's a pretty good argument they bought Beats for the music service (and it's people and relationships), which they turned into/merged with Apple music. They seem to have left the headphone business alone (other than giving one kind of Beats have the same chipset that the AirPods have).
> They seem to have left the headphone business alone
Well, why wouldn't they? Going by my argument, it was already being done "the way they would have done it."
It's like moving in with someone who already has the same cleaning habits that you do: you can just leave them alone and trust them to do the right thing, and then be happy with the results.
Apple has never really bought something and left it alone before. While the Beats headphone brand was good, some people wondered if they would change it somehow. "Beats presented by Apple" or something like that. Start putting their logo on the product, etc.
I'm not saying it would be a smart idea. I think Apple did the right thing. But Apple couple years ago may well have made a change like that.
100's of millions of people use Apple's wired earbuds. These sound somewhat better. Not surprising that for most uses of mobile audio, they are better than good enough.
Hundreds of millions of people use the free headphones that come with their devices. The people who spend $200 on headphones usually have some higher requirements for audio quality.
Headphone snobs look down their nose at beats, and for good reason - they are way overpriced for their actual sound quality - but that doesn't mean they aren't good headphones.
The problem is that Beats is charging $300 for a $150 set of headphones, not that beats is charging $300 for a $15 set of headphones. They're way better than anything you're going to get for free with your phone.
> They're way better than anything you're going to get for free with your phone.
I'm not sure I can, in good faith, agree with this. The bass is blown way out of proportion to the rest of the track, the highs powered up to compensate for the bass, and the mids are lost in the power struggle. And this is in Beats' flagship "Solo" line.
That description of the sound? It applies to pretty much every default set of headphones out there.
They're hardly unusable, but I would have a hard time justifying paying $15 for them. Then again, I wear Kirkland jeans and conference swag t-shirts, as a measure of my "fashion" factor.
The ergonomics of the AirPods are definitely worth a lot to many people. When used in conjunction with the Apple Watch, you never have to reach for your iPhone for audio. It works great and the sound is adequate when I'm exercising or doing some other outdoor activity. The AirPods are not audiophile quality but they are not horrible either.
Most of the things that people use their headphones to listen to these days are streamed, which means they're using the lowest bit-rate they can get away with, to save on data. Paying more for better audio would be pure waste for most people.
I actually prefer to use mediocre sounding headphones in public. The cramped frequency response lets me clearly distinguish the sound of the music I'm listening to from the sounds of the environment around me. I bought a pair of high end Sennheiser ear buds a few years ago that I could never get comfortable using in public. They were just too disorienting. I always had that feeling of someone standing behind me calling my name. I have a high end pair of bookshelf speakers at home that causes the same sort of effect on my cats. They get all nervous and freaked out by certain types of music especially if it uses a lot of panning stereo effects. They're totally oblivious to lower quality speakers.
I am too, but most people probably listen to these class of headphones for ages, so they're not even aware/in need of something better. The fact is, the AirPods are like a $25 headphone packed into a $150 wireless case.
Check out the Sennheiser HD 202! they're around 30 bucks last time I checked and great fidelity and durability for the price.
edit: ok ok sorry you're right, $15 > $30 "heck, it's even twice as much!" i guess my point is that there are things that won't break the bank that sound way better than you'd expect, that's all. :)
edit2: Oh, and i _ALSO_ frequently break or lose mine, that's why I don't like spending more than the 30 bucks. ;)
I actually own a pair of Sennheiser HD 280's for when I'm at a desk, but they're not really appropriate for a commute; for that, I just have a cheap pair of JVC earbuds with a microphone/button.
I specifically buy them cheap because my hearing's not awesome anyway, and I don't really need excellent sound quality for listening to a podcast on the train, and I tend to wash a pair with the laundry or dip them into my coffee a few times a year, anyway.
edit: yep, you're right - but there are places where I need quality, and places where I need quantity :P
Always take things with headphone/earphone reviewing with a grain of salt. You may not like the same things the reviewer does. There may be differences in music, biological differences in age, or different circumstances of use.
Also note that headphones/earphones are one item that are particularly resistant to effective A/B testing. It's hard to put on a different set and not know you've put on a particular set.
No joke. The fact neither the the old Apple headphones nor the airpods will stay in my ears while running makes both sets no more than a hardly usable alternative to actual earbuds, at least to me.
I use them primarily for voice chat. I have two sets, since they only last two hours in voice mode - they go from zero to full-charge in 30 minutes, so I can hot-swap if I'm on a long call.
For music quality, I use Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 2. But for VoIP and podcasts, I usually grab the Airpods.
I bought a pair for myself and my girlfriend. I think they sound better than my Grados on certain material, and almost as good as my Portapros. (I suspect my pair of Grados SR60e is below average, because my dad's pair of the same model sounds better.)
Another pair of headphones that punches way above its price point: http://a.co/cRC61XE (Though, be prepared to eventually replace the plug or buy a new pair, but it will be awhile before that happens.)
Do they? People seem to think these are good enough (and I agree, they sound quite nice). Plus they have additional constraints on them because they're using Bluetooth. It wouldn't surprise me if Apple added a proprietary protocol to fix Bluetooth issues in the future version, but for now it's Bluetooth. Wired headphones don't have that same issue.
Either way they're back ordered six weeks. Even if Apple were to improve the sound quality my guess is they couldn't produce them any faster so why bother?
Even if Apple were to improve the sound quality my guess is they couldn't produce them any faster so why bother?
Because cachet is a vital part of Apple's marketing strategy. If they could capture some of that kind of attention for doing something respectable, they would benefit.
Plus they have additional constraints on them because they're using Bluetooth.
That is significant. However, Bluetooth is improving. Other forms of technology are improving as well. We're getting to the point where very linear drivers combined with digital processing are starting to make a difference. Soon, we'll be able to make such devices cheaply, with sensors that are fast enough to make regular consumer devices perform like today's high end headphones.
Apple has traditionally cared about aesthetics enabling technology. Their screens are good, and while not high end with sound, they have sold decent sound hardware in their laptops. They were early with Toslink. Steve Jobs cared about decent sound as well.
I own super fancy headphones, but they're not "everyday carry" for me like the AirPods are. There's something to be said for the portability and convenience of AirPods. For me, the tradeoff in sound quality is more than worth it.
I'm very satisfied could mean "I have the latest apple product and they look good on me".
Source: met a guy at airport who tried to convince me buy a pair. I explained they were not loud enough for the noisy plane environment. Had a long eye-opening discussion about gadgets all the way to the taxi.
I can't get the damn things to stay in my ears if I'm doing any physical activity beyond brisk walking. Working out in them is out of the question, so I'm still using my regular bluetooth headphones, and I looked quite comical running to catch the train with both hands over my ears so they wouldn't fall out. I'm surprised only 1 out of every 50 people who bought Airpods are experiencing similar dissatisfaction.
I noticed my inter-tragic notch [1] is much lower and wider than it appears on my friends' ears. This is where Apple headphones "notch" in. Looking forward to seeing my parents next month so I may examine their auricles.
Mine have never fallen out, even when running or jumping or leaning over. Do apple's wired earbuds fall out of your ears? Seems like this varies by body.
That's a good point, I hadn't researched into this and it seems like there are solutions out there for ear shapes that don't conform well to Apple headphones.
The covers are a cool idea, and I think I'll end up getting the ones that look like Bose tips.
That said, the friction that they add by being too bulky to fit in the case makes any of these half-baked at best. The case is such a core part of what differentiates AirPods. Having to keep track of and put on / take off covers all the time sort of kills the magic.
IMO it's really a problem Apple should solve, or at least accommodate as opposed to leaving up to a hacky third party solution.
I can't fit them in my ears either, I tried once and it hurt :(
The sad thing is, we have the technology to make Real Wireless Earbuds that DONT suck! It's a totally doable engineering project! That don't have horribly lossy encodings and the like. That feature neat things like symmetric pairing, graceful degrading of signal quality with bitrate, and that actually would fit in our ears! But no, fashion too often wins over substance...
I experience this but only in one ear. It doesn't seem to make a difference if I'm sitting at my desk or working out, though I can walk everywhere with them. Anytime I lean to the left side, I get really conscious of the left AirPod falling out, which happens once or twice a day.
Is that because of the fit you get with the wired ones?
The wired ones more or less fit in my ears, but I found that when I was walking or doing any kind of exercise they fall out in less I use the little plastic thing to cinch them up.
I was worried I have the same problem with the AirPods but they work just fine for me. I guess not having that cable tugging on them makes the difference.
But the old ones worked if I was just sitting still. That didn't even work well for my brother and he wasn't able to use AirPods either.
I think I fall in the "doesn't work when sitting still" category like your brother. I can technically have them on when I'm sitting down, but it's more like a centimeter away from my ear canal and on the brink of falling out.
Hoping that the future iterations are more promising.
I'd love to know why they're still being sold at a 6 week delay. Tim Cook is really good at operations stuff, and this isn't like Apple. They certainly know the demand is there by now.
Seems like the only possibilities are some sort of part shortage (maybe it's really hard to get those tiny batteries) or a very high defect rate (there were rumors of that around launch).
To any of they naysayers, I'd say survey the competition for AirPods. They are far beyond anything else available in terms of ergonomics and battery life for wireless earbuds. Audio quality is less of an issue in the first place if you're talking about Bluetooth anyways. Audiophiles should stick with wired.
They're also, at least as of a month or so ago when I last looked, fairly low-priced for their product category.
If you want a "true wireless" headphone (and, from personal experience with these, I find it quite compelling), you're not going to pay much less than Apple's price. I think the cheapest I've seen is $150, and that's lacking the Apple polish.
And suddenly Apple's usual marketing strategy makes a whole lot more sense.
Price it high enough that nobody who has to care about money would buy it, and make it crappy enough that nobody who cares about quality would buy it.
And, apparently, it seems the people who aren't filtered by that will say anything is the second coming of christ as long as it comes in a shiny enough box.
$160 for a decent pair of Bluetooth headphones puts the AirPods pretty much right in line with similar products. And while the audio quality isn't the best on the market, it's certainly not "crappy", especially for wireless headphones, and the microphone is the best in its class by miles. Also, the box it comes in is decidedly not shiny.
Anyway, I know shitting on Apple is the cool thing to do on tech forums, so great job going for the easy upvote with such a cynical comment - I'm sure you'll reap that sweet karma.
But, you're overlooking what makes AirPods such a satisfying product to use: they are incredibly convenient. They're small enough to carry in your watch pocket, and using them is as simple as popping them out of the case and into your ears. Nothing on the market so thoroughly considers the experience of using headphones, and that obviously counts for something.
Your theory relies on nearly 100% of consumers having a priori knowledge about the quality of the product, sufficient to decide if they want to purchase it or not without having actually tried it yet.
Also, if your theory was true, then why does any product anywhere have a less than near-perfect satisfaction rating? If consumers can have magical knowledge about AirPods, why can't they have the same knowledge about all the other products they purchase?
And finally, the sound quality isn't bad. It's better than earbuds. If you're comparing it to a high-end pair of headphones, sure, it's not going to be as good, but if you're comparing it to products in the same category as AirPods then it holds up pretty well.
This is a case where these might actually make sense for me. I hadn't thought about the lack of cord making them more usable underneath hearing protection.
Any experience with my number one reason not for buying them which is the fear of losing them?
I haven't liked active noise cancellation in the past. For office work I tried an old Bose quiet comfort (10 years ago) and decided I much preferred Sennheiser HD 280s for isolation.
I'm curious as to why Airpods have 98% satisfaction rate? I don't have a pair, but it seems like a lot of people I know who have them feel similarly.
Is it because the battery life is good and they connect super easily and stay connected? Or is there some other feature that pushes people over the top?
First, there's that Apple "it just works" whole-package experience. If you're bought into the Apple ecosystem, using macOS and iOS, it's really incredibly seamless and gets rid of all those bluetooth hassles. Plus, as you say, battery life is good enough that I've never personally run up against it.
Second, and the part which surprised me to discover after I got mine, it turns out that headphone wires had been subconsciously bothering me. Experiencing earbuds without them is genuinely better in feel, and I find I use earbuds so much more as a result.
Reading this I might actually buy these. I was pretty set against because of the fear of losing them. I've been annoyed on many occasions at not being able to use my lightning headphones with my Macbook Pro while traveling and I can see this being a superior option to any corded headphone solution. I use video chat a lot and using corded Apple headphones with a laptop is definitely awkward.
I had some worries about losing them, as well. These have proven to be unfounded over the last few months... though I haven't done anything intense while wearing them. In the course of my day to day life walking around, maybe occasional light running through the rain, they've never fallen out.
I did try some experimental jumping around and shaking my head wildly after I got them, and they didn't slip out from that.
I suspect a lot of this comes down to your ear shape. The fit of the wired EarPods are a decent proxy for how the AirPods will fit. The AirPods are less likely than the EarPods to fall out, because the wires aren't there tugging on them as you move your head, which turns out to be a useful difference.
Agree that it's the (1) deep integration into iOS (how much better the experience vs other bluetooth headphones), (2) the battery life (and the whole case design so that they're always charge), and (3) true wireless / no connector cord.
> battery life is good and they connect super easily and stay connected? Or is there some other feature that pushes people over the top?
Yep, that's pretty much it. That and it's so easy to use: Insert into ear, music starts playing on headphones. Remove them, perhaps to talk to someone, and it stops playing. Put back into ear and it starts playing again. No buttons, no bluetooth settings, no setup screen; it just plain works.
I don't think it's about "features." I think they're amazing because they do what they're supposed to, and they do it really, really well. I've owned many, many pairs of Bluetooth headphones, and these are the first that consistently just work and I can easily take with me everywhere. A+++ would buy again.
I've been loving my Beats X wireless in ears. I feel like they've got all the upsides of the AirPods. Including the compactness and "just work" features, but excluding the "might loose them" part. They've been hanging around my neck for months now!
I think it's the case that not many people have them. I want to buy a pair but the lead time is still six weeks, and it's been that way for months. At this point I wouldn't expect them to be available in physical stores until July or August at the earliest.
On Mac it's magic and seamless, just like with the iPhone. They have a special integration with the volume menubar item, to make them particularly easy to switch to.
On Android or Windows... they're bluetooth headphones. Experience is like any other.
I seem to remember those has pretty bad battery life.
I've used my AirPods with a Mac that didn't have the latest software (so they were just treated like any other Bluetooth headphones) and something else and they work just fine. You don't get the double tap control (I think) or the auto pause? (not sure) but they sound just as good. If you want really tiny headphones that are easy to charge they'd be a good candidate.
But the experience on updated Apple products is amazing.
It's hard to say. I have a pair and I really do love them. I've heard a number of people on podcasts I listen to call them their favorite product Apple has released in years. It could be real.
I love mine too. I'm not sure if I'd say favourite product in years but that's because they're so frictionless that I don't have to think about them. I just put them in my ears and rarely ever have to worry about charging them or pairing them.
I recently evaluated AirPods, Beats x and Bose QC 35. The Bose won in the feature depts, esp. NC and multipoint BT. I don't care what brand it is so long as it works well.
Looks like some advanced level trolling to me. The only way I can imagine 98% of a group being satisfied with such a product is some variant of Stockholm syndrome.
Some days it feels like the "Next "Great" Apple product will be ... a place where you can work for free, to benefit Apple. And then we'll hear the usual suspects extolling the benefits of that.
(warning, audio geek, also wireless protocol geek, and also their damned overpriced P.O.S. don't even fit in my ears >.>)
People are satisfied because they need to justify their purchase. If the airpods costed much less, im sure we would have people complaining about audio quality and other minor issues, but when you pay that much you overlook the little things to justify your purchase.
Apple customers (and I am one) are, as a class, some of the most perfectionistic, whiny-if-it-isn't-just-right people I can name.
Consider the new MBP with the touchpad. It cost a lot. People—people who own the thing—routinely call it garbage, just because they lost their Fn keys.
Having owned Jaybirds Bluebuds and Airpods - I can say that without a doubt the number one selling feature is the convenience.
The pairing is seamless. Switching between phone and computer is fast. Most days I forget they're still there until the battery dies and I have to charge them. If it weren't for the price, I would get a second pair.
Airpods are just "well done." The audio quality is not exceptional, but everything else marks the definition of the new standard for bluetooth headphones.
> Conversational user interfaces are now mainstream.
I really like my AirPods, but... this is a strange comment to make about them. The Siri integration / audio controls is the most awkward part of using AirPods. Honestly really hoping they revisit in v2.