Spending £150 ish on a pair of AirPods was a hard choice for me to make — I really wanted them, but at the same time I was worried I wouldn’t like them and find them appealing, but last month, I took the plunge. Honestly, I love them.

Design

Whilst they look exactly like EarPods, with a longer stalk and no wire, they have a vastly different feel — immediately EarPods feel cheap and have no weight in the ear. They feel completely natural as well — I was worried that I’d find them uncomfortable but for me, a larger worry was that they’d fall out and be lost forever whilst walking, or cycling but so far (knock on wood) this hasn’t been the case. The case is used for storing them and charging them — and that too, is great. It’s far superior than the Pixel Buds carry case. More on that later though.

Even though the inline controls have been removed, you can tap each AirPod for a user defined command. Personally, I have my left pod to play/pause my music, and the right to summon Siri. It’s still annoying not having the remote, but it’s not a huge loss.

Sound

In comparison to the EarPods, I’d say there is a slight improvement in the sound department, but there isn’t a night and day difference. If you’re looking for a wireless headset that has great sound, try Bose. They sound impressive for what they are however, you can notice on some songs where it’s lacking — songs with a variety of instruments and songs that are very vocal.

Pairing

I’ve used a pair of Bluetooth earbuds before and whilst pairing is straightforward, changing devices with them is annoying. The initial setup of the AirPods was magic — I literally flipped the lid and went from there — it took no more than 30 seconds. With normal BT earbuds I found switching to other devices was a huge pain, but now my AirPods are assigned to my iCloud account — meaning I can use them instantly on my iPhone and Watch.

Good news though — even if you don’t have any iDevices, you can still use them — they just pair and work like a normal set of wireless earphones.

Battery Life and Charging

Apple claims that the AirPods last for around 5 hours — and they are right. If you take a lot calls and use the microphones a lot, you’ll get slightly less. The case you get is incredibly handy. It stores the AirPods and can charge them around 4 or 5 times over. The AirPods simply slot into their place, and charge and the case itself, charges using a Lightning cable, which is supplied.

Should you buy them?

I would go for it. They are well thought out, well designed and well executed and you get a lot for your money. They are a perfect addition to your Apple devices too and even if you don’t have an Apple device, they still work as a traditional set of wireless earphones. Whilst the sound quality isn’t the best, it isn’t bad whatsoever. They are probably one of the best accessories I’ve bought from Apple in a while.