Editors’ Note: There is a new version of the AirPods available. Check out our review of the Apple AirPods (3rd Generation)Apple AirPods (3rd Generation). The second-generation AirPods are still being sold, for a lower price of $129. Our most recent review from March 29, 2019 is below.
Apple didn’t invent the true wireless earphone category, but look around on public transportation or at paparrazi photos of celebrities walking their dogs, and you’ll quickly see the company’s easily identifiable AirPods have come to define it. In the two-plus years since the original model was released, many of the initial issues with the category as a whole—from poor battery life to ineffective on-ear controls—have been addressed to varying degrees, making the AirPods ripe for a makeover.
The new, second-generation AirPods ($199 as tested) feature better battery life, hands-free Siri access, and an optional wireless charging case. From an audio standpoint, they deliver similar performance to the previous iteration, which is to say good, but not stellar. Other areas remain neglected however, from a troublesome in-ear fit to limited on-ear controls. Compared with the best of the $100 to $200 true wireless models we’ve tested recently, the AirPods feel behind the times.
Earpieces
There are two versions of the second-generation AirPods to choose from: the $199 model with a Qi-enabled wireless charging case, reviewed here, or a $159 model with a standard, wired charging case. Both models utilize the same earphones, and thus both have the new Apple H1 chip. You can also buy the wireless charging case on its own for $79, which is compatible with the first- and second-gen earpieces.
Available only in signature Apple white, the AirPods consist of two earpieces and a charging case. Unlike most other true wireless pairs, the AirPods have a long stem on each earpiece—a stylistic flourish that also makes them easier than some competing models to properly place inside their charging case. It also makes them much easier to spot in the wild.
The in-ear design remains unchanged from the original model. The white plastic eartips stay in your ears, but they don’t create an in-canal seal. This creates a host of audio issues compared with in-ears that use silicone or foam eartips that insert into the ear canal. The nozzle of each earpiece can point at slightly varying angles in the ear, even while still feeling secure, which can lead to wildly different ear-to-ear listening experiences and throw off both left/right balance and bass response.
Beyond the audio issues, you might enjoy the barely there feeling of wearing AirPods—you can hear your surroundings after all—but I would be hesitant to exercise with them in. There are no included ear tips or ear fins to keep the earpieces in place during vigorous activity. To help combat this issue, check out our explainer on how to keep AirPods from slipping out of your ears.
I also wouldn’t recommend using the AirPods for exercise as they have no official water-resistance rating. Many wire-free earphones with gym-focused designs carry IP ratings in the IPX5 to IPX7 range, which means you can wear them during sweaty workouts and rinse them off. While we did get the AirPods wet without breaking them, the complete lack of an IP rating means we can’t guarantee how they’ll hold up with prolonged sweaty exercise, or even outdoors in the rain. It’s a shame this isn’t more of an area of focus, given Apple’s health-oriented interests apparent in the Apple Watch.
The on-ear controls have changed, but they’re not vastly improved. All you have in terms of controls is one gesture: a double tap. In the Bluetooth settings menu of your phone, you can assign this function to summon Siri (which it does by default), or to play/pause, skip a track forward, skip a track backward, or disable it completely. When there’s an incoming call, or you’re on a call already, the double tap answers or ends the call.
One ear can be assigned to one function and the other ear to another function—the left ear can play/pause, for instance, while the right ear skips forward a track. But why allow each earpiece only one task? Ideally you’d be able to use a number of different taps to control various functions, similar to what you can do on other pairs.
Of course, you can now summon Siri using the mic (simply say, “Hey Siri”), and then ask it to do everything for you. Siri had a bit of trouble hearing me at times, but for the most part, the ability to summon it via voice is an improvement over the original model. Just remember that enabling this feature means always having the mic on your phone listening for the wake words. Many of us are already used to this concept with smart speakers, but it’s a relatively new one for earphones.
Taking the AirPods in or out your ears will auto-pause and auto-play audio—Apple refers to this feature as ear detection. If you like this feature, it works as advertised. If you don’t, you can disable it.
Wireless Charging Case
The 1.8-by-0.9-by-2.1-inch (HWD) wireless charging case is one of the more elegantly designed cases we’ve tested, with a flip-top lid and a glossy white contour that matches the earpieces. You can add a free personal engraving on the charging case, just like in the old days with iPods.
As promised, the case can be wirelessly charged with any Qi-based charging pad; it worked just fine with a Samsung Wireless Charger Duo pad. (The AirPods box advertises that they also work with Apple’s promised AirPower charging pad, but when and if that product will ever come to market is anyone’s guess.)
When the back of the case rests on a charging pad, the front LED lights up orange to indicate it’s charging. If you don’t have a wireless charger, the case also supports wired charging with the included Lightning cable.
When you flip the case open, an LED lights up green to tell you that the docked earpieces are fully charged, or orange if they’re only partially charged. When the earpieces are out of the case, these colors refer to the state of the case’s internal charge.
Pairing, H1 Chip, and Battery Life
One area where Apple always has an advantage over the true wireless competition is in pairing (with iOS devices, that is). Your iPhone or iPad will recognize the AirPods as soon as you take them out of the case and display an on-screen prompt asking if you want to connect them. You can still switch seamlessly from one Apple device to another, name them, and tweak their functions in the Bluetooth settings menu.
Internally, the AirPods use Apple’s new H1 headphone chip, which enables faster switching between different devices. I was able to switch between an iPhone 8 and a Mac Pro as audio sources quickly and effortlessly. Apple claims the chip also decreases audio latency for gaming by 30 percent.
The battery life has improved, though it’s still not mind-blowing. The previous AirPods get somewhere between three to five hours of audio playback, or roughly two hours of talk time. The new AirPods get closer to a full five hours of audio playback or three hours of talk time per charge. The case still holds another 24 hours’ worth of juice.
Like most battery life estimates, these numbers are optimistic. And when you read the fine print, Apple’s estimates are based on having the volume at 50 percent, among other variables. That said, this level of battery life is par for the course in this category. And, like many other models, you can do a quick charge and get plenty of power—15 minutes of charging can get you roughly three hours of playback.
Audio and Mic Performance
The original AirPods sound good, but not great. The same is true here. The main issue is ear-to-ear balance due to the in-ear design. As mentioned, since they don’t form a consistent seal, the earpieces can rest at different angles in each ear and produce wildly different stereo imaging and bass response. So even if the drivers can produce ideal bass response, the challenge is positioning them properly to get the most out of them. It’s also worth noting that Apple doesn’t offer any form of user-adjustable EQ like some of our favorite true wireless pairs do, such as the Jabra Elite Active 65t.
On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the AirPods are capable of delivering some solid rumble, but only if they’re properly angled and the volume is fairly high. The real thunder only happens at volumes loud enough to be classified as unwise to listen to for prolonged periods of time, and listening at medium volume levels causes the bass to drop off considerably. And on tracks with seriously deep lows that are used more subtly in the mix, like Panda Bear’s “Dolphin,” the AirPods just barely register the presence of the deep bass; you can hear it, but it’s nothing like what you get with an in-canal seal.
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Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the AirPods’ general sound signature. The drums on this track can sound overly thunderous on bass-forward in-ears, but that’s not an issue here. Without the in-canal seal, the drums lack any real sense of heaviness, which is fine—they aren’t really mixed to sound tremendous in the first place. Even then, the mix generally sounds a little brighter and lacking in the lows than it should be. Again, this changes at higher volumes, but at the fifty percent volume level that Apple’s battery estimates are based on, things simply sound thin. Higher volumes bring out some depth in the drums and more richness in Callahan’s baritone vocals.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop receives ideal high-mid presence, allowing its attack to maintain its punchiness. The vinyl crackle and hiss that’s usually relegated to background status is pushed forward notably here, while the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered without the serious deep bass presence that you might hear through earphones with proper seals. The depth isn’t completely absent, but it lacks the sub-bass that makes the synth hits powerful and ominous. The vocals on this track are delivered with excellent clarity, though sometimes with added sibilance.
Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound crisp, detailed, and have a lovely richness for the lower register instrumentation. Despite being on the brighter side, this is one of the better mixes we heard through the AirPods—without the canal seal, the drivers seem most at home with natural, acoustic mixes rather than pop mixes with deep bass.
The AirPods’ beam-forming dual-mic array offers better-than-average intelligibility for voice calls. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 8, we could understand every word we recorded. Things were a tad fuzzy around the edges, as is often the case with Bluetooth in-ear mics, but the audio was crisp, and the mics sounded closer than most competing true wireless mics do.
The internal accelerometer can also determine when you are speaking, letting the mics work to block out ambient background noise—at least that’s the claim. In practice, we found that the mics will still pick up ambient noise, be it AC whir or Bob Dylan playing on iTunes in the background, whether or not you’re speaking. Even then, we could still understand everything clearly.
Comparisons and Conclusions
The hands-free Siri feature is a welcome addition and the charging case improvements are nice, but the new AirPods don’t represent a significant step forward from the previous model—but they cost $40 more. The on-ear controls are still awkward, the battery life hasn’t significantly improved, and the lack of water resistance and fit stabilization are hard to overlook. If the AirPods offered the best audio performance in the true wireless category, this could all be forgiven. Instead, without an in-canal seal, the sound can suffer even while the drivers themselves are capable of delivering deep bass and crisp highs.
As noted earlier, many of the best true wireless options we’ve tested are exercise-focused, or at least have gym-friendly designs. The JBL UA True Wireless Flash, the Jaybird Run XT, and the Jabra Elite Active 65t all offer guaranteed water resistance, as well as fitness-minded features and solid audio performance. We also really like the RHA TrueConnect as a stylish, sonics-first option.
All of these models offer in-canal seals and thus better balance and bass depth, and are less expensive than the AirPods. And if it’s brand recognition you’re after, the Bose SoundSport Free earphones offer better audio quality than the AirPods for the same price. While Apple has made some improvements here, it simply hasn’t done enough to justify the price or keep up with the competition.
