First, let me say I’m a huge Apple fan. I own an iPhone, an iPad, a pair of Airpods, a Macbook Air and as they say once an iPhone user you’re in it for life. Apple products have the best quality and usability features compared to other products. I still have my first generation iPad (the heavy and thick one) from 10 years ago and I have to say, it still works! My son used the iPad when he was a year and a half and he figured it all out, gestures and everything. He also stomped and jumped on the iPad several times but it never cracked. Apple products are durable and the ease of use is amazing even to a one year old.
Having said all that, Apple products are in general more expensive. I don’t mind paying $1,000 for an iPhone if I use it for a couple of years or more. But if you ask me, if I'm willing to pay $160 for a pair of earbuds, it all depends and I’ll explain why.
Apple Airpods are small, the earbuds are only an inch and a half in length and you can easily lose one or both of them. I used mine for about 5 months before I lost one of the earbuds. My kids could have played with them and dropped an earbud somewhere. Somewhere could mean anywhere. I sometimes find DVDs in hampers and small objects inserted into DVD players. So having a pair of Airpods sitting somewhere convenient so they’re accessible when you want to use them could be an expensive proposition when you have smaller kids. You may say “I’m not a kid anymore and I take care of my gadgets pretty well so I will not lose my Airpods.” My wife dropped the Airpod in the sink filled with water not once, not twice but at least 3 times. Fortunately, the Airpods still worked after that. It could have been worse if she had the garbage disposal turned on! I also wouldn’t recommend taking your Airpods with you to the gym or while you’re running because accidentally dropping and the earbud landing under the treadmill or the earbud falling under the bridge may mean it’s lost forever. I also will not use my Airpods when I’m outside mowing the lawn or doing some yard work. All that sweat and dirt is not good for your Airpods and also not sanitary. Airpods are sweat and dust resistant but they are not waterproof so washing the earbuds with soap and water after using them while doing some gardening and laying down mulch is not a good idea.
So when would I use my $160 Airpods you ask? I would use it for teleconferencing at work. The Airpods’ dual beam forming microphones, the unparalleled sound quality and built in noise cancelling features are great for those important office meetings. I would use my Airpods when playing games. The H1 chip delivers up to 30 percent lower gaming latency and higher-quality sound. I would also use my Airpods when I’m just relaxing at home watching a movie or listening to music. Charging my Airpods in the case for 15 minutes provides up to 3 hours of listening or up to 2 hours of talk time and can easily support blockbuster movies that are 3 hours long.
Now that I mentioned when I will and will not use my Airpods, let me introduce a great alternative to Apple Airpods 2nd Generation - Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds. They differ on the overall design and how they look but Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds has some great advantages over Apple Airpods. Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds include rubber ear tips with replacement pairs which help with noise reduction and accentuates the bass surround sound when listening to music. Everything fits in your ear and there’s no weird stem-like appendage unlike Apple Airpods. Another Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds advantage over Apple Airpods 2nd Generation is operating the touch control. The area where you have to tap on the Apple Airpods in order to activate touch control is a lot narrower compared to the generous round fingerprint area on the Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds. For this reason, I have more success using the touch control features on the Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds. Another Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds advantage is the use of USB-C charging cable over Apple Airpods' lighting cable. USB-C offers faster charging time and is becoming more popular than the lightning cable. In fact, my Macbook Air uses USB-C for charging.
Similar to Apple Airpods 2nd Generation, Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds are so easy to use. Once the device is added to your Bluetooth settings, Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds are automatically paired and all you have to do is put them in your ear to start listening to music. It even brings up your default music player, I use my Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds with Pandora to listen to my customized radio station. The super bass stereo works really well and I would even argue they sound better than original Apple wired earbuds. The smart touch control on my Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds are very convenient to use. One tap pauses and resumes the music. Two taps on the right earbud plays the next song. Three taps on the right earbud increases the volume and three taps on the left earbud decreases the volume. Most of all, Bluetooth 5.0 technology seals the deal for me. The range is surprisingly wider than I expected and I can walk around or up and down the house with minor latency or connection issues. Once you've tried a pair of true wireless stereo earbuds, it will be hard to go back to using wired ones unless the batteries on your TWS earbuds run out. With 3-4 hours of battery life and up to 5 times re-charging on the case, that may no longer be an issue with Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds.
If Apple Airpods 2nd Generation and Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds were to compete on a boxing match, no doubt Apple Airpods will win. However, don’t count out Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds just yet with the price being a fraction of the cost of Apple Airpods. Just like in the Rocky movie, Apple Airpods will win the 2-1 decision over Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds with Apple Airpods’ advanced features like dual optical sensors, motion-detecting accelerometer and up to 5 hours of listening time in a single charge. However, Apple Airpods 2nd Generation and Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds will both have bloody faces at the end of the match since Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds counters Apple Airpods’ features on every punch. Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds hits back with features like Auto Power On, Auto Pairing, Touch Control, Built-in Microphone, Charging case and up to 4 hours of music time compared to Airpod’s 5 hours of listening time.
No doubt Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds are a great complement / alternative to Apple Airpods 2nd Generation. For around $20 I could care less if my Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds get soaked in sweat or covered in mud. And hey, I may not be too disappointed if I lose an earbud since Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds are so economical. A pair of Wyworx Bluetooth Earbuds will be a great gift for kids and adults alike and even to a technologically challenged since using them is a no-brainer.
