Just over two years ago, Apple released the AirPods, its first wireless earpods. It immediately became one of my all-time favorite Apple products. In almost every circumstance, I find AirPods to be the best way to listen to an iPhone, iPad, or other device that supports Bluetooth. My only real complaint was that after using my AirPods numerous times throughout the day, virtually every day, for over two years, my battery life decreased. Instead of being able to listen for five or more hours, I was down to less than an hour, and even less on phone calls. It's easy enough to put them in their case for a few minutes to recharge them, but I'd rather not have to do that.
This is the week before Apple will announce its new streaming video service on March 25. Perhaps to drive-home the point that there will be no new Apple hardware announced next week, Apple has been releasing new hardware every day this week. On Monday, Apple introduced the new iPad Air and iPad mini. On Tuesday, Apple introduced new iMac computers. (The five-year-old iMac I use at home is due for an upgrade, so I ordered one of the new models, and I can't wait to use it.) On Wednesday, Apple introduced the new version of the AirPods. Apple is still just calling them the AirPods, but I'll call them the AirPods 2 in this post just to make it clear I'm not talking about the original model.
The AirPods 2 look the same as the original version, but add a few new features:
- The (starting) battery life remains five hours for listening to audio (after which you need to put them in the case for a few minutes to charge them again), but you now get three hours of talking on the phone instead of two hours. I would sometimes run out of battery life on long conference calls, so I'm glad that this was improved.
- You can now trigger Siri on the AirPods just by saying out loud "Hey Siri." With the original AirPods, you would have to tap one of the AirPods to trigger Siri.
- It is now twice as fast to pair AirPods to a new device. I frequently switch between my iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, so I'm happy to see this.
- While AirPods still cost the same $159, you can pay $40 more to get a version with a case that supports Qi charging — charging by placing it on a charging mat instead of plugging the case into a Lightning cable.
- For no extra charge, Apple can engrave some letters onto the AirPods case. My wife and I frequently lose track of which case belongs to which one of us, so putting names on the case sounds like a great idea.
The idea of using a Qi charging device — so-called "wireless charging" — doesn't appeal to me that much. I've had an iPhone that supports Qi for almost a year and a half and I virtually never feel the need to use that feature. But if you already own AirPods and Qi charging appeals to you, you can buy a new Wireless Charging Case that works with your current AirPods for $79.
I was looking to get new AirPods anyway because, as noted above, I'm wearing out the batteries on the AirPods I purchased over two years ago. I ordered the new AirPods yesterday (the $159 version, not the version with the Wireless Charging Case) and I'll let you know what I think about the new features after I have had some time with them.
As for Apple's streak of three hardware announcements in three days, I've seen some speculation that on Thursday Apple will start selling the AirPower — an Apple version of a Qi charger that Apple first announced back in 2017, when Apple said that it would go on sale in 2018, but Apple missed that date. We'll see.
