Let me start by says I am an Apple girl all the way, but this is for my husband who can be techno challenged and has a habit of misplacing items.
Husband works out daily, so has his earbuds in all the time. His car’s handsfree speaker is horrible, so if he is on the highway, all other hear is car noise. While this has been a problem since he bought this car 3 years ago, he gave up addressing it with the dealer, other than to have a new mic installed, with no change for sound quality. That is a whole different story, but it means if he is on a call while driving, he usually has to put in his earbuds; currently just using his wired ones that came with his iPhone 11 Pro.
Do the Airpods hold up to the sweat of working out; will the mic end up dying overtime due to the sweat? How easy/hard is it to answer a call, or switch from music to call? Any other pros or cons to think about? I want to maybe get these for his birthday next week, but don’t want to spend the money if they are no better than the wired earbuds. Costco and Amazon have the Pro for only $10-$20 more than the 3rd generation. While the Pro had the silicon ear piece and active noise cancellation, the 3rd generation has a longer listening time. As he currently wears the wired earbuds, I would think since the 3rd generation has the same ear piece, he is fine with the harder piece.
Looking to purchase tomorrow, so looking to hear thoughts.
I can’t offer any opinion about airpods but as a possible alternative my DH swears by these. He doesn’t like having the buds in his ears all day and you can hear what’s going on around you.
He has the Aeroplex (which are water proof) and I bought him the opencomm for Christmas because he’s on the phone all day.
I have trouble wearing any ear buds - they just don’t stay in. I tried Bose SoundSport wireless headphones and they worked great and stayed on, but road noise interfered with my listening (mainly podcasts). So, I wound up getting full noise cancelling over the ear headphones and am ecstatic. I first I thought they would be too heavy, but sport versions are very light. Battery life is amazing. Very happy.
The problem is the car noise, so it has to be earbuds. His hands free works, and is ok for short drives and short calls, but if he is on the road trying to make a business call, and the person on the other end needs to hear the entire conversation, then he has to wear earbuds.
@Rivet2000 Curious which full noise over-the-ear headphones you purchased. I can’t use ear buds & tried one full over-ear brand, and was not impressed. I would like them primarily for drowning flight noise and watching in-flight entertainment. I don’t remember which brand I had, but they did neither successfully. TIA.
Yes, you can wear earbuds while driving if you are on the phone. Hubby only uses them for phone calls in the car, then removes them. Any other device will not work in his car due to the road/car noise. A car person suggested he have his car insulated to reduce the noise, but that is not something he is willing to spend money on, having his car taken apart!
Airpods in the car would be great b/c of the quick and seamless pairing. Either the regular or pros would be fine - get the pros if you need noise isolation. If he does long drives then they’re easy enough to recharge in the car by just putting them back in the case.
I wouldn’t use airpods for working out though. Especially for somebody prone to misplacing stuff (although airpods do have the “find my” feature). Personally I’d get some of the Sony or Bose sport buds - they have a more secure hold in the ear and are just less slippery in general.
So I guess my answer is - get airpods for the car and sport-oriented buds for the gym.
As far as the airpods pro, I’ve had a set for a while and find it really weird and a bit disorienting to use them for calls. Even on transparency mode the seal from the earpiece makes my voice sound all weird in my head or something; super distracting. I’m fine taking calls with non-isolating air buds, but for some reason the isolating ones drive me a little crazy. But tons of my colleagues use them regularly on calls and give me funny looks when I ask if they have the same problem I do, so it’s probably just me.
My husband has the AirPod pros and does like them. He’s hard of hearing so ear buds of any kind help so much to hear. So he does calls and listens to audio books all the time with headphones in instead of wearing his hearing aids.
However, my husband doesn’t wear the AirPods that often. When he does, he says I should wear these more often.
But he won’t wear them while exercising because he’s afraid of them falling out. He does take calls with his wired headphones in, he just can’t hear as well with the Bluetooth in the car. I know what the law is, I guess he likes being a rule breaker!
I’m not sure I would recommend the AirPod Pros for taking calls in a car because of the noise canceling feature. At least with wired headphones, you can kinda hear what’s going on around you.
So I guess I think that while the AirPods are nice, I kinda wasted the money because he’s very happy with the wired headphones.
A little bit late to the party but, I love my air pods! I have those with noise cancelling and have only used that feature once, on an airplane, but it was fabulous! I mainly use mine as a single bud for 'phone calls, to keep the other ear free, but when I use both (for podcasts etc), I love them
I’m one of those people who can never keep any earphones in long enough to walk a few steps. I’ve lately switched to the air pods pro (latest gen) and have successfully had them in for about half an hour several times while walking at a moderately fast clip. The right one slips off occasionally but the left is fairly snug. I used the smallest tips that apple provides. Noise cancelling and call quality is excellent.
Haven’t had them long enough to determine durability over time against weather and strenuous exercise.
I read an article comparing the latest Beats earphones (Beats Fit Pro), released earlier this month, favorably to the AirPods Pro. It works with both Android and iPhone and sells for $200, no discounts because of being so new. Seems like a good choice too if you’re looking for other options.
