Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

AirPods—Is Wireless case worth the $$

Porterhouse

Porterhouse

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 13, 2011
381
179
USA
I’ve been waiting for the new AirPods to come out before getting a pair. Now I’m faced with a regular case and a wireless case. Those of you that currently have AirPods, is the wireless case worth it? I don’t know what the battery life is on these.

Thanks to all that answer!
 
Porterhouse said:
I’ve been waiting for the new AirPods to come out before getting a pair. Now I’m faced with a regular case and a wireless case. Those of you that currently have AirPods, is the wireless case worth it? I don’t know what the battery life is on these.

Thanks to all that answer!
Click to expand...

I’d say it partly depends on how many other Qi enabled devices you have. I have the Apple Watch and XS Max and charge them nightly on my nightstand wirelessly. I already have a backup Qi charger plus a Qi enabled portable charger, so I chose the wireless case option for the $40 extra. The only thing I currently have that uses a lightning cable is my iPad Pro. I personally wouldn’t pay the $79 for the stand alone case, there are other options out there that allows you to add wireless charging to the current case for much less.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Porterhouse
Porterhouse said:
I’ve been waiting for the new AirPods to come out before getting a pair. Now I’m faced with a regular case and a wireless case. Those of you that currently have AirPods, is the wireless case worth it? I don’t know what the battery life is on these.

Thanks to all that answer!
Click to expand...

I would say no. Especially since you have 24 hours of listening time in the case itself. Plus the next gen, though that could be a year or two away, may need a complete case redesign. However, if you are using wireless charging for all your devices currently it might be worth it for simplicity.
 
  • Like
Reactions: turbineseaplane and Porterhouse
I think it's totally worth it if you already have a wireless charger. But even without one, it's only $41 more than the regular case model, so why not future-proof it? Otherwise you'd have to splurge an extra $79 if you decide to purchase the wireless charging case at a later date.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Porterhouse
igroeg said:
I think it's totally worth it if you already have a wireless charger. But even without one, it's only $41 more than the regular case model, so why not future-proof it? Otherwise you'd have to splurge an extra $79 if you decide to purchase the wireless charging case at a later date.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. However I am disappointed in lack of improvement on the original version of AirPods.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Porterhouse
hubieonekanubie said:
I’d say it partly depends on how many other Qi enabled devices you have. I have the Apple Watch and XS Max and charge them nightly on my nightstand wirelessly. I already have a backup Qi charger plus a Qi enabled portable charger, so I chose the wireless case option for the $40 extra. The only thing I currently have that uses a lightning cable is my iPad Pro. I personally wouldn’t pay the $79 for the stand alone case, there are other options out there that allows you to add wireless charging to the current case for much less.
Click to expand...

Actually, if you buy it with the AirPods, the wireless charging case is only $40 extra.

I’m still hesitant, but I’m leaning toward getting it. I’ve cut lightning out of my life for the most part; almost everything is wireless or USB-C at this point.
 
chabig said:
What would you improve beyond what Apple already improved?
Click to expand...

Sweat/water proof, volume controls, better sound, a design that fit every ear type and sealed out ambient noise, noise cancelling, letting in ambient noise settings when you need it, new colours. All kinds of ways to improve them.

Sweat/water proofing being the most important. That being said I still bought them. Wasn't sold on jabras, Sennheiser are crazy expensive and will likely be useless in 2 years when the batters wont charge anymore. If galaxy buds played nicer with ios controls I would have strongly considered them as well.
 
I don't have any wireless chargers, so it's not worth it for me.

The biggest thing for me is the improved battery life for calls, as I tend to be on the phone for hours in a day/night, but even then, I can quick charge one while using the other.

In a sometimes noisy environment though, i'd prefer to delay the need to use one bud, so the extra battery life will come in handy.

I won't be buying though as I just had my Airpods replaced ~6 months ago so they're as good as new still.
 
I Personally don’t see the value for the wireless charging case for the AirPods, maybe my stance would change if the Airpower was actually released, which my iPhone and Apple Watch could take advantage of having all three devices charged simultaneously , then maybe it would have more interest to me.
 
Porterhouse said:
Actually, if you buy it with the AirPods, the wireless charging case is only $40 extra.

I’m still hesitant, but I’m leaning toward getting it. I’ve cut lightning out of my life for the most part; almost everything is wireless or USB-C at this point.
Click to expand...

Yup also trying to cut lightning out of my life. I went for the wireless charging case for sure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire and Porterhouse
If it would have come out shortly after it was first announced, I'd have bought it, but now my Airpods are that much older, and closer to their eventual demise. So it makes little sense except for impulse buyers, or for people that will buy both the non-wireless current version, and the Qi case for traveling, but that doesn't make sense.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Porterhouse
For me it worth the money because I charge my iPhone only wireless and it`s annoying to have a cable only for my airpods. I gave my "old" airpods (4 months old) to my sister and will order the new airpods with wireless case when it`s available in apple store
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: parker5011 and Porterhouse
My husband and I both are getting new AirPods, but without the wireless case. We rarely use wireless charging for our phones because of the type of case we use, which has to be removed for wireless charging. The AirPods charge so quickly that we didn't feel the extra $40 each was worth it. If we were really into wireless charging, we definitely would've ordered the wireless charging ones. We don't plan to order the AirPower mat, either.
 
  • Like
Reactions: turbineseaplane, parker5011 and Porterhouse
WiseAJ said:
For my usage $40 wasn’t worth it. I might have considered if it was only $10-20 more just to future proof.

Really Apple should have released only the wireless case version and set it at a $179 price point.
Click to expand...

That would have been a good idea! Perhaps you should work for Apple.
 
JGIGS said:
Sweat/water proof, volume controls, better sound, a design that fit every ear type and sealed out ambient noise, noise cancelling, letting in ambient noise settings when you need it, new colours. All kinds of ways to improve them.

Sweat/water proofing being the most important. That being said I still bought them. Wasn't sold on jabras, Sennheiser are crazy expensive and will likely be useless in 2 years when the batters wont charge anymore. If galaxy buds played nicer with ios controls I would have strongly considered them as well.
Click to expand...
While they’re not waterproof, I’ve never had problems with sweat. As for sound quality, they’re fine for what they are. Extra colors is really a novelty. And for a volume control, if you have a Watch, the Digital crown works great
 
  • Like
Reactions: radiologyman and dgreening
Lounge vibes 05 said:
While they’re not waterproof, I’ve never had problems with sweat. As for sound quality, they’re fine for what they are. Extra colors is really a novelty. And for a volume control, if you have a Watch, the Digital crown works great
Click to expand...

This might be the best reply ever.

Just because you've never had a problem with sweat lets not care about improving them by making them sweat or waterproof?

Sound quality is fine for what they are, so let's not care if it could be improved?

Extra colours are a novelty? Ok perhaps, and honestly I personally don't care much about colour. The white is classic but I've seen a lot of people post they won't buy them till there is black option which kinda seems reasonable to have two colour options at least.

The absolute best though is if you want to control your volume with more ease go out and buy a $500+ Apple watch and honestly I don't find that very intuitive since I've had my Apple Watch but hopefully it does when I get my Airpods. :rolleyes:

Either you work at Apple or you've been drinking the :apple: flavoured cool aid a looooong time. Airpods are a great product but still a lot of ways they can be improved. Complacency of Apple fans is what is ruining this company effort at innovation and improving it's current products. Kinda sad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RadicalKAM
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back