These AirPods are more like 1.5.
All right, big news in Apple Universe!
They’re releasing all kinds of new products quietly on their website without the need for a big event — granted, none of these products have significant changes. You had the new IMAX the other day, there were some new iPads in the form of the new iPad Mini, new iPad Air, and then today they come out with some brand new AirPods which were rumoured.
Apple was likely to refresh the AirPods soon, and now they’ve done it. They’ve changed some things. The new products a bit more competitive and it actually implements a feature that the Galaxy Buds have. Probably the most significant difference from the new ones to the old ones is the fact that the new ones now can charge wirelessly via a wireless charging case.
Now, you can still purchase the new version of AirPods without that case for a lower price. So you are paying a premium for the wireless charge case; putting the difference between the Galaxy Buds from Samsung and the AirPods price-wise even further apart. So the wireless case version of the AirPods 2 will be $200 U.S. and then the original charge case with the new AirPods the type that you have to plug in via the proprietary lightning cable those will be the same price as the old Air Pods at $159. They’ll just replace that old product.
Now on top of that, if you just want to upgrade the case on your current AirPods to the wireless case, you can purchase that for $79. So these are some pretty hefty price tags for these types of products. Of course, it’s a $40 premium just to get the wireless charging, it would have been nice to see Apple give you wireless charging at the same price point as the original AirPods and just get rid of the charge case that doesn’t support wireless charging.
So the other difference is here, you have a new chip they’re calling it the H1 Chip, a new brain inside of the AirPods which is going to improve the performance of the AirPods in various ways. It’s going to allow them to connect more quickly to your devices, it’s going to allow them to switch between devices more quickly, let you answer phone calls more quickly, and it will extend the battery life on talk time. It’s just a more efficient, more advanced chip. The other thing it’s going to be able to do is to allow you to launch Siri only via voice by saying “Hey Siri!”.
Now the other weird piece about this announcement is the fact that Apple still doesn’t make a wireless charger of their own. Of course, there’s been this rumour around this AirPower product which it does seem like Apple is going to make. They’ve had this Charging Pad floating around they even had it on their website at one point that supposedly can charge an iPhone, your AirPods, and an Apple watch all-in-one device. Now granted these devices all support the wireless Qi standard so you could drop them onto a third party wireless charger. You could even charge these new AirPods on a Samsung or Google charger if you want just to rub it in a little bit more.But anyhow in the meantime, we’re waiting for an official Apple solution for wireless charging on all these new wireless charge capable devices.
The other difference on the new AirPods particularly on the wireless chargecases there’s now an LED on the front to tell you that you’re actively charging when you are on a wireless charge pad. Now we don’t know anything about the sound yet. So I expect them to sound the same as well.
I know a lot of people out there we’re expecting a more prominent change here they wanted something more substantial or significant. There was the talk of black AirPods which I know got a lot of people excited, they didn’t want the typical white look, they wanted something more stealth, renders were floating around. So, no black AirPods as of right now, no product red AirPods as of right now. They look identical. You just get the new chip, the wireless charge case and some performance improvements with a price tag to match.
I still think they’re a bit expensive for what they are compared to the competitors on the market as the Galaxy Buds that delivering wireless charging in a fully wireless earbud device for $129. Now the AirPods 2 with the wireless charge case are at $200, almost double the price. But hey that’s what Apple does! You pay a premium for the convenience.
As far as upgrading, if your Gen 1 user of AirPods, if you just recently spent $160 on AirPods version 1, I don’t think there’s really any reason here to rush out and get the new pair. You can get the wireless charge case if you really want it, in fact, you could also get the wireless charge case adapter from a third-party company named East Brooklyn Labs. It’s like a rubber case that you put on the outside of the current AirPods Charging Case, and that gives it wireless charging. It’s a lot cheaper than $80.
If you want them, you can buy them through the shipping dates are already starting to slip it’s crazy how popular these things are. People are already buying them. I saw the report on MacRumors, they’re saying that the ship dates already slipping on the AirPods 2. People are savages, they’re out there, they love their Apple products, you can’t deny it. AirPods version 2, people are buying them!