AirPods Suck. Long Live Corded Earbuds.
Wireless wasn’t the improvement I hoped.
I should begin with a caveat that the AirPods I currently own are not the latest and greatest version. It is quite possible that if I had the AirPods Pro or, well, anything besides the first generation model that I have, I might feel differently. But I don’t think so. The bottom line is, AirPods kind of suck.
Don’t get me wrong; it is awfully convenient to be able to connect to my phone (or my computer! or my iPad!) via Bluetooth. It is nice to go for a walk and not have to worry about a cord getting caught or tangled. And the quality of the sound going into my ears is pretty dang good. But there are several drawbacks that, counted together, make the whole enterprise not really worth it to me.
They need to be charged.
Maybe this seems obvious, but the fact that they need to be charged means they are one more thing whose battery level I need to worry about. My phone, my laptop, and now even my headphones. It is “no big deal” to charge them occasionally to make sure they’re topped off, but it’s another maintenance task that collectively adds to a certain degree of mental burden. And if I forget, they’re useless.
The battery degrades.
