The iPhone, the AirPods, and what? A laptop, an iPad? The AirPods charge in the battery case (which is good for 24 hours of playback). The AirPods charge quite quickly in the battery case. I've heard that it's several hours for just 3 minutes of charge.
Aren't the airpods independent of each other? Sooner or later one will end up with only one working. Apple just created a mess for no gain for the users.
The AirPods are independent of one another, but they fit into one case to charge. So, the case charges both the AirPods at the same time. If you want to charge the case, you use Lightning to charge it. But, the case is good for 24 hours of charge on the AirPods. Whether that is 24 hours total (so 12 hours each), or 24 hours for both I don't know.
Ah. But, you could easy say it's 5 then. iPhone, AirPods, Apple Watch, iPad, and MacBook. But, it's no different than if the AirPods were another pair of Bluetooth headphones, except Apple has a nice charging solution (and carrying case) for them.
Those have a pretty short battery life. They're 1.6 hours for "audio streaming" which I take to mean Bluetooth as the longer life is only for when you download songs to the earbuds. Then, the case recharges up to 2 times, so 4.8 hours total. Even if you assume Apple's 24 hours is a total charge split across both buds, you get 17 hours for Apple's (assuming the case is charged up while you're using the AirPods, possibly only 12 otherwise).
