I really don't understand. Why would someone pay $120 for a product they can buy online from a off brand retailer for half the price? I must be missing something. How are airpods better than say Cambridge Audio Melomania's which are almost half the cost?
They’re ridiculously low friction. Stick them in your ears and they’re on and paired and ready. Take them out and they’re off. Store them and they’re charging. Trivial to swap them between Apple devices, easy to pair the first time.
And they sound great considering their size.
They’re little magic gizmos that make me (and millions of others) happy because they work so well.
I once was looking for my airpods for 15 minutes until I realized that I was wearing them. Never had that with any earbuds before. Admittedly I was wearing a beanie (cold outside), ready to leave home and it was in the morning (so still sleepy)
Come on, they sound terrible compared to other true-wireless earbuds in the same price range. And to be turned on/off automatically is absolutely standard even for cheaper earbuds. The only thing that is true specifically for AirPods is swapping between Apple devices.
> Apple may launch an operating system for AirPods in 2020, and apps like TTYL and Yac are already creating buzz as audio-first applications.
Apple being Apple, this integration will likely only work with airpods. But I'm with you. I'd rather have great sounding music. I have an android phone and $60 earbuds, both of which support the LDAC 990kbps standard. This sounds much better than when I pair the same earbuds with my Macbook using AAC.
Check out [1] - also the Melomanias are the closest I've found to wired quality headphones (and absurdly good battery life) that also are close enough to 'just working' but they were $99 last I looked.
