Airpods are very, very expensive compared to competitors with 90% of the same features. I've been using a $30 set for several years and the main drawback is it's difficult to switch devices—because apple doesn't allow third parties to use access the proprietary comms that allows this for airpods.
Also, I think the white is ugly. But kids seem to love it.
I'll happily pay the premium for "it just works", especially device switching iPhone to iPad to MacBook to Apple TV, it works first time, every time. I have a pair of Sony XM5s, and even at that price point, pairing and device switching can be a crapshoot some of the time.
Bluetooth honestly feels like a non-deterministic stack sometimes, it even took Apple 4 years to support it on the iPhone, how they have the AirPods working is close to magic.
> how they have the AirPods working is close to magic
They control the entire ecosystem and keep the variants and with it, the testing complexity, down as far as possible. That's how Apple stuff works so damn seamlessly.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world has to contend with dozens if not hundreds of Bluetooth chipsets, driver combinations, OS stacks... and each of these has their own quirks, and even if a bug gets fixed in a Bluetooth driver or controller firmware, good luck getting that distributed to users...
It should be stated that noise cancellation is not hearing protection, if you were using it for that while mowing.
An old groundskeepers trick for having music and ear protection is to get those big over ear protectors and put your buds on with that over them, just being mindful of volume of course.
Another trick is to get earbuds with passive noise isolation. The Sennheisers are a hybrid. They are solid ear plugs even with the power turned off, but support active cancellation too.
With the big over ear hearing protectors that works much better than either in isolation.
Sadly, you usually have to find third party tests to find out what the passive noise isolation rating is for different brands. Manufacturers are terrible at marketing it.
well to be fair, some people simply don’t tolerate ANC well. Likely due to a more sensitive vestibular system. I believe this group often (not always) also struggles with motion sickness.
I doubt very seriously your $30 headphones sound as good as AirPods Pro or have the ANC.
But you can buy much cheaper headphones with the H1 chip for fast switching between devices by buying one of the Beats headphones. I love my $60 Beats Fiex with the double flange ear tips for traveling.
I bought my Soundcore A40 for about $60 (occasionally goes on sale for $40).
I don't doubt the Airpods Pro is better. But not "pay an extra $200 better".[1] My ANC is pretty decent. Sound quality's quite good. Adjusts to my hearing frequencies. Etc.
(The A40 has a much better battery life).
[1] Unless you need a hearing aid. Then it's a steal.
Well seeing that the AirPods with ANC are $179. So you are not paying $200 extra..
I’m always surprised to see people who are willing to cheap out on things they will use often over the course of years. The sound quality of my AirPods and the seamless switching between my Mac, iPhone, iPad, AppleTV and Watch make it more than worth $249.
I have proper over-ear headphones for when I want to listen to music. I'm not sure what ANC is or why it's worth hundreds of dollars—hence why I said 90%.
I don't know what the h1 chip has to do with the fast switching—surely this is a bluetooth protocol detail, yea?
> I don't know what the h1 chip has to do with the fast switching—surely this is a bluetooth protocol detail, yea?
A detail apparently no-one else bothers to deal with. The amount of hardware out there that does bluetooth the worst way possible is horrendous, and I will gladly pay extra to not have those in my life.
It seems the $30 headphones by the brand I use (soundcore) do offer noise canceling in the years since I last looked. Is it as good? Probably not. But I'm not going to spend $200 for slightly better earbuds.
I can pair my AirPods Pro (or my $60 Beats Flex) to one device on my Apple account and they automatically are paired and switch between all of my devices - my phone, my iPad, my watch, my Mac and my AppleTV.
Why can't I do this with other bluetooth devices? It's a load of crap that they won't allow other brands to tap into this for fair competition. I refuse to give them money for software that should be free.
But, a sucker is born every minute, and it seems most of them find their way into control of our anti trust laws.
Because it requires firmware on the device that is on top of the BT spec. The better question is why can’t Google create an ecosystem for Android that is just as seamless?
What exactly should be “free”? The hardware? It is very much worth the extra $40 for the Beat Flex to have seamless integration between all five of my devices. Let alone the much better ANC of the AirPods Pro (or the AirPods with ANC).
The ones you have are bulkier on top of that, the AirPods Pro have heart rate monitoring when I exercise.
It shouldn't matter what brand you buy. Bluetooth should be a dumb pipe or it's worse than worthless, it's a shackle. A wire was better in almost every way.
Tell that to the Bluetooth committee. Even for regular headphones, the quality of BT chips vary as far as the speed to connect and reliability and whether they can pair with multiple devices and how many.
Even phones and laptops I’m willing to give a pass on, ever since USB-C got “good enough” and the battery life long enough.
If I had one complaint it’d be that they should sell one fat phone with no camera hump (because it has more battery).
Edit: I should have clarified as AirPods Pro are the ones I have experience with; no idea how the original AirPods are. But the Pros are phenomenal.