AirPods 2 review: The best wireless earbuds get a little bit better

In this video, we take a look at the new Air Pods - how do they compare to the first generation Air Pods? If you consider purchasing these, check out our full

review

right now. Thanks for watching Mack Nine to Five. Make sure you approve. Click the subscribe button and then enable notifications with the bill icon so you don't miss any upcoming videos. Well, first of all, let's unpack our second generation

airpods

and one thing you will notice about the box is that it is practically the same as the original Air Potts box, except for a few differences, the front is exactly the same, so you have the picture Of the buttons there, of course, you have an Apple logo on the side and if you opted for the top-the-line Ear Pods with

wireless

charging case, it will actually say

wireless

charging case right under the Ear Pods text , so let's take it out of the box.

Inside you'll see the Apple design on the California pack and right below you'll see your 2nd generation Airpods, so Apple sells two SKUs, one with the wireless charging case for $1.99 and one with just the charging case with normal cable for 159, but both contain these second generation

airpods

. Apple no longer sells the first-generation model, so inside the package you can find safety and handling details along with warranty details. Don't hesitate to read them when you have trouble sleeping. Here are the Air Pods, a getting started guide that walks you through some of the basic features of the second-generation Air Pods, and sadly, no Apple. stickers I don't think Apple stickers were included with the first generation models, I guess it's a price thing, so let's continue with the unboxing, at the bottom of the package you will find a Lightning to USB cable which, to be honest, it's pretty good.

I wouldn't have been surprised if Apple had left out the Lightning cable just because it supports wireless charging on this more expensive model, so take note of all the Apple haters who claimed the company nickels and dimes its customers, yeah , they still have a nickel and dime in there, but you guys I know, so we've got it all laid out here, it's the air pots with wireless charging case, so one thing you'll notice right off the bat is that it looks pretty much the same as The original model, obviously, there are some key differences here and let's discuss those differences.

Compare the original charging case with the wireless charging case. Compare the first chin headphones to the second chin headphones, but one thing that hasn't changed. Easy pairing. It doesn't get any easier than this. Just open the charging case of your

earbuds

and you will see a small pop up on the screen and then just tap connect and you will be connected. Beautiful design. Samsung tried to copy it, but no, they didn't do a good job now. You will find several settings, you can change the name of your Air Pods, you can change the double tap chest here for each button so you can invoke Siri, play Paul's next track, the previous track or disable the double tap gesture, like this I like to configure mine like this.

It also has automatic ear detection, so it uses a small sensor on the bud to detect when it's in your ear. You can also adjust your microphone settings now. One of the really cool things about the Air Pods integration with iOS is that it doesn't just show off your ear. battery status of the

earbuds

, but it also shows the battery status of the wireless charging case and there is a special battery widget that will also tell you the battery status of your earbuds again. Samsung tried to replicate this on the Galaxy S 10's Galaxy earbuds, but they didn't.

Don't do it so well. Another thing I really appreciate about the Air Pods is that they sync with iCloud, so when you connect to an iCloud and a bad device, those Air Pods are available on all your iCloud-connected devices, so your Mac, your iPad, your iPhone, etc. automatically recognize those airpods, but really, how do the first generation airpod compare well with this second generation airbox? For starters, if you opted for the version with a wireless charging case, you'll notice that the LED indicator is in place instead. Inside the case, like the first generators, it is located on the outside of the case, but almost everything has the same design, for example, you still have the Lightning connector at the bottom, but on the back you will find a slightly redesigned design. hinge without the mirror finish, you will also notice that the dock button on the air pots is placed a

little

higher, the side profile of both charging cases is exactly the same, while the top down view with the case open shows the updated hinge and that the LED inside the original charging case has been relocated to the front of the new wireless charging case, but the cavity where the earbuds rest is exactly the same with the same charging contacts and number Regulatory information series on the battery information is still located at the top. flap, but here's the really interesting thing: the design of the headphones is exactly the same.

I mean, there is nothing different between the old first generation air pots and the new second generation air pods; in fact, they cannot be distinguished except by dirt or grime in the ears. which may reside in the speaker cavity area, approved by Ness, but as similar as the first and second generation Air Pods may be, there are definitely differences, let's look at those right now, starting with the wireless charging capability . Technically, this is not a second generation. feature because you can buy a wireless charging case for your original earbuds if you want, but the $199 earbuds for sku include the wireless charging case that allows you to charge your earbuds wirelessly, which isn't groundbreaking but is tremendously convenient , so it will.

Working with any Qi wireless charger like this one from Nomad, which allows you to wirelessly charge multiple Apple devices simultaneously, sounds a

little

familiar, right? But even with the inclusion of wireless charging, Lightning is still an option as a quick way to recharge your charging case. but sadly the long-awaited Air Power wireless charging accessory that Apple revealed thousands of years ago still doesn't exist. However, we think it's coming soon and apparently Apple is too because they are listed on the product packaging for the air pots and wireless charging case. So yes, I think it will arrive very soon, but the

best

thing is not the wireless charging.

The

best

thing is Siri hands-free voice activated, so no more of this. What time is it in Chicago? The first generation headphones required manual intervention by double-tapping the button to invoke Siri what's the temperature right now in Paris, France, it worked, but hands-free voice activation is much

better

, so when you perform the initial setup of your headphones and you don't have voice activation for Siri already enabled, it will prompt you to do so. You can set it up by simply tapping this button here. By doing so, you'll be able to interact with Siri hands-free using just your voice.

Now you will still notice that it will route all. The data returns to your paired iPhone or iPad, however, the conversation happens in your headphones, so you talk to Siri using your headphones' microphone and Siri will respond to you using the headphones' speakers, but most importantly, It's all hands free watch, please what's up? It's like tomorrow in Chicago, so I'm chatting with Siri without using my hands. I just spoke and he responded, that's great. Hey, what time is it now in Paris, France? And of course the best thing about using your headphones is that no one can hear the a3 series response play new music, so all of this is possible thanks to the new h1 wireless chip inside the new airpods, it makes your interactions with Siri are even more personal and natural.

Now here's something else to consider, the voice quality of Siri on the airpods is also much

better

than the previous generation, the sound is crisper, clearer and simply more pleasant to listen to. Another benefit of that new h1 chip inside the airpods is also longer talk time, the h1 is more efficient so that will give you up to three hours of talk time now on a single charge and up to two additional hours of talk time. of talk time with a fifteen minute quick charge and the benefits of the H1 wireless chip don't end there - you'll also get faster device switching, so let me show you what I mean here.

I have my first generation headphones plugged into my iPad right now playing music, so now I'm going to switch to my iPhone just like that one thousand two thousand three thousand four thousand five. one thousand six thousand seven thousand eight thousand nine thousand ten thousand and now I can listen to music after switching so let's go ahead and start playing again and again we are using our first generation airpods for this test. one thousand two thousand three thousand four thousand five thousand six thousand seven thousand eight thousand about seven and a half seconds to reconnect, so it's not terrible, but it could be better, so what we're going to do is we're going to switch to our Second generation Air Pods and try them out just to see if the performance is better.

Apple claims the new Air Pods are twice as fast to switch between devices. We'll see it here, so I'm playing music. Back on my iPad and now we're going to switch to our iPhone so let's go ahead and do that now one thousand two thousand three thousand four thousand five thousand five thousand and we're ready to go five seconds that's about half of it obviously this It's not a scientific test, but you get the general idea, so now let's go ahead and go back one thousand two thousand three thousand four thousand five thousand, we're not bad, obviously the performance has definitely improved. let's go back one thousand two thousand three thousand four thousand five thousand six thousand, so about six seconds of that time, take it with a grain of salt.

My tests are not scientific in the least, but you get the idea. Apple also improved the connection time for phone calls so here are my original headphones transferring to my headphones and that was very fast with the original and let's try the new airpods transferring the phone call and that seems just as fast. I didn't really notice any difference there. To be honest, one thing I definitely noticed is the lower latency when gaming, so when you press a button or perform an action in the game that makes a sound, there is less delay between the action on the screen and what you hear on your Air Pods, for example, when I'm bouncing on these little platforms here and jumping, the bouncing effect happens almost immediately, there's less lag compared to the original Air Pods.

Now that we have discussed many different improvements to the second generation Air Pods. but to be honest, one of the biggest reasons to consider upgrading is because the battery life of the original headphones is downright terrible. I mean, Charles Barkley, terrible, yeah, so obviously buying new airpods will solve that problem because the battery will be new. and not create it, so what is my opinion on air pots? It's a great product, it won't be the cultural phenomenon that the originals were because I mean everyone has already seen them, but the air pots bring significant improvements and enhancements to the original, but I find it a little disappointing that Apple didn't include the carrying case. wireless charging with the $59 cent SKU, instead they charge an extra $40 ($199) to get wireless charging, which seems a little shortsighted to me, especially with the Air. power on the horizon, they probably could have recouped some of that money just from those candles now if you already own airpods.

I wouldn't necessarily consider this a must have update because the improvements will be incremental, it's more like 1.5 headphones not to mention the fit and selling quality is exactly the same as its predecessor and that means if you didn't like the way it Do the original earbuds fit your ears or you didn't care for the sound quality of the original airpods then there's really no reason to consider the air pots, because they are exactly the same in those two areas, but if you liked the original air pods, the h1 chip brings small but noticeable improvements to the table, you get more talk time, faster connections and less. latency, those are really cool features, but the most important thing is that the h1 chip offers true hands-free access to Siri, meaning that as long as you have the airpods in your ears, Siri will be at your beck and call and you won't even have to lift them up. as much as a finger, so if I already have a pair of headphones, I don't consider this an instant purchase;

However, if you are like many other people whose headphone batteries have seen better days, then perhaps you should consider upgrading them. and when you do, you will get some cool new features thanks to the h1 chip along with the wonderfulFirst day battery life. What do you think? Let me know below in the comments section. Be sure to subscribe to see more videos like this. It's Jeff with 905 Mac