Apple AirPods 2 review: even more wireless
They look, well, exactly the same as the old AirPods.
The design, fit, and sound quality,
almost everything is the same as before,
which means that, if you were waiting for Apple
to improve the fit or the way that AirPods sound
on the subway, or even just looking for a new color,
you're probably going to be disappointed.
But you're not here to learn about the old AirPods,
so let's dive into what's actually new and different.
(light music)
The new features can be simplified into four bullet points:
wireless charging, faster switching between your devices,
better battery life for talk time,
and the ability to call up Siri
without having to tap on the side.
Wireless charging is probably the biggest upgrade
in terms of your daily use.
You can get the new AirPods with a wireless charging case
for $199, or you can get the same wireless charging case
for your existing AirPods for $79
and it will work the exact same way.
If you don't care about wireless charging,
you can buy the new AirPods with the standard case
for the same $159 price as before.
Now, the wireless charging uses the Qi standard.
It's the same as the iPhone
and countless Android phones on the market.
So you can use the same wireless charging pad as your phone
to charge your AirPods.
Now just put it on the charger
and the little charging light
on the front of the case will turn orange
and you're charging away.
Now one weird thing here is
the charging light will actually turn off
after a few seconds, but the case will still be charging.
Now charging like this is pretty slow.
Apple tells me that the case charges at five watts,
which is slower than the iPhone charges at
and can take up to three and a half hours
to fully take up the case wirelessly.
Also, if you're using a stand style charger for your phone,
that probably won't work for this
because the coils just won't line up.
You really want to be using a flat pad charger
for the AirPods.
I tested them on the few pads that we have here
and I had no problem charging with any of them.
If you're the kind of person that puts your AirPods case
inside of another case, wireless charging should still work,
but you probably won't be able to see
that little indicator light.
Finally, if you have a Galaxy S10,
you can use your Android phone
to wirelessly charge your AirPods,
which is never not hilarious.
(jazzy music)
Now Apple says the new AirPods
can switch between your devices
up to two times faster than before.
So if you use an iPhone and an iPad or a Mac,
you can quickly switch between them.
Maybe it's technically faster,
but it never feels faster to me
because switching devices still requires
going into the settings menu
on the device you wanna switch to
and then selecting the AirPods
and then still waiting a few beats
for them to actually make a connection.
I have to say it.
I love how easy Apple makes it to pair AirPods
to your iCloud account and have them set up on
every device that you use.
But I also just wish they could be connected
to more than one device at a time,
like a lot of other Bluetooth headphones,
like the Bose QC35s or the noise-canceling
Sennheisers I have.
But pro tip for Mac users,
the Tooth Fairy app makes this a one-click process
and it's totally worth the $3 for it.
The reason that the AirPods can connect faster now
is thanks to Apple's new H1 chip inside them,
which also provides up to three hours of talk time
on a charge, so you can use them for the entirety
of that never-ending conference call.
The battery life for music or just audio listening
is still five hours between charges,
but that's still at the top of the range
for what you get with wireless earbuds,
and frankly, I'm pretty happy with it.
Now Apple claims that the new chip
improves voice quality on calls too,
which is nice because I think that the AirPods
are already the best headset for taking calls on
and this should make them even better.
But if I'm being honest, I haven't really noticed
much of a difference in my testing.
That H1 chip is also what lets you say hey Siri
whenever you want to call up Siri,
and just like you can do on a new iPhone
or the newer Macs, you don't have to double tap
one of the AirPods to do it anymore.
That's convenient and it definitely works as advertised.
And it also lets me set the double-tap action
to another thing like skip track or play/pause.
But I don't think I'll be talking to Siri
much more than I was before because, well,
Siri is still Siri.
Even with the new chip and the hands-free ability,
there's still a significant delay
from when I say hey Siri and get a response
and there's no bell or ding to indicate
that the AirPods have actually heard my command.
And Siri is still the only way
to adjust the volume on the AirPods themselves,
which is, frankly, kind of annoying.
Now Apple also says that the H1 chip
will cut down on latency when you're wearing the AirPods
and playing games, but since I never experienced any lag
or delay issues with the first gen
while watching video or playing games on my phone,
I really didn't notice much of a difference
with the new ones.
(electronic music)
So aside from those things,
the new AirPods are still AirPods,
which means that they're really great wireless earbuds,
if they fit in your ears.
Now they work for me and, clearly, a lot of other people
based on how many people I see wearing them
every single day.
But they don't fit everyone, and the new iteration
just doesn't do anything to change that.
They also aren't great in noisy environments
like when you're on a plane or riding in a subway car
or just on a busy street because they don't seal
and don't have noise cancellation.
So should you buy them?
Well if you have the first gen AirPods
and those are still working great,
then no, you're not really gaining anything here.
If you must have wireless charging,
you can buy the case separately
without having to drop $200 on a full new set.
But if your first gen AirPods
aren't holding a charge anymore
because you've been using them for almost three years,
then yeah, it's probably time to upgrade
since it's basically impossible to fix these
or replace the batteries in them.
You'll be getting the same basic experience
with a couple of new conveniences on top.
And if you don't own AirPods at all,
well, if they do fit in your ears,
then they're still basically
the best truly wireless headphones on the market,
with great battery life, solid connectivity,
great ease of use, and pretty good sound quality
if you're not in a loud environment.
They even work great for Android users
just like the first generation did.
The new wireless charging does come
at an increased price, but for most people,
the AirPods are still hard to beat.
Hey, thanks for watching.
If you want to know more about other wireless headphones,
be sure to check out my colleague Becca's video
on the GalaxyBuds which went up yesterday.
She's got a really great rundown on how they work
and how they compare to the AirPods.
And for everything else, be sure to like and subscribe
at youtube.com/theverge.
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