Apple AirPods
Apple AirPods was launched in Singapore and in 100+ countries on 13th December 2016.
It is retailing for S$238 in Singapore and the current waiting time is 6 weeks!
I bought it immediately after I saw a screenshot of it on my friend’s Facebook post stating it is available and hence I managed to receive it on 20th December 2016.
If you lose one side of the AirPods, Apple will charge you S$98 for each replacement AirPod and the same price goes to the charging case as well. Battery replacement is at S$68 for either the charging case or each AirPod.
Unboxing
Not sure why my warranty card states for Malaysia only.
Apple AirPods are my first earbuds and the reason I bought it is because of the Apple W1 chip. I wanted to see whether the W1 chip will make a difference and I am happy to say that the W1 chip is fantastic.
W1 chip makes pairing extremely simple and fast and the connection between the AirPods and my iPhone 7 Plus has been very stable for my past week of usage.
The AirPods are extremely lightweight. Wear it frequent enough and you will sometimes forget that the AirPods are actually in your ears.
Apple did claim that a 15-minute charge is enough to give your AirPods about 3 hours of usage. I didn’t test that because I normally just leave my gadgets overnight to charge.
After a week of usage, the only complaint I have is the lack of playback controls. That is very irritating because you have to activate Siri for everything including increasing or decreasing the volume. The default double tap action on the AirPod will activate Siri, but you can change it in the settings (Settings -> Bluetooth -> [Your Name] AirPods).
I like that once you remove any AirPods from your ears, your music will pause.
With regards to audio quality, I think they are just average and acceptable. Of course, given the high price of S$238, you probably can get a better audio quality Bluetooth earphones if you are very particular about it.
AirPods are “open earphones” whereas most Bluetooth earphones I have are “close earphones”. What that means is that people can hear what you are listening to if you are using your AirPods in a quiet environment.
For me, the AirPods fit my use case as I am not an audiophile. Though I wish the design can be nicer.
