Gadgetory

- Here are the new AirPods. 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.