i too waited until Gen2 to take the plunge, but even then was skeptical. i finally made the jump not really because of Gen2 coming out (although that gave me the final shove), but it was the rave reviews from friends of how "game changing" it was to have wireless earphones and how well they worked within the Apple ecosystem. also, as silly as it sounds, i didn't want to be the one of the weird guys with cigarette butts hanging out of my ears during my train commute. now that they are more common, i am less self conscious.
In practice, i think the Airpods sound very similar to the EarPods (which i use while hiking because i don't care if they get destroyed by sweat and i want to be able to hear things around me), but that is faint praise because they don't hold a candle sonically to my beloved Etymotic 4P for the past 20 years (and they aren't a fair comparison, considering the Eytmotics are wired and retail at $300 and isolate ~25db of sound), nor do they sound as good as my Sennheiser M30i earbuds which are modestly isolating and cost me only ~$30.
for me, comfort/fit were initially an issue with Airpods (which surprised me since the EarPods, while not super comfy, were never an issue fitwise for me). but i inspected how i wore the EarPods and realized that i needed to make sure the tails of the Airpods are closer to vertical than i was initially wearing them to replicate the fit of the EarPods (and hence comfort level). after this adjustment, i find i can wear the Airpods comfortable for a few hours in a row.
so at $159, am i keeping them? in short, yes. i am for several reasons:
- as much as i like the sound (for music) of my other earphones better, i actually like the fact that the Airpods aren't sound isolating since i want to be aware of my surroundings when i am walking during my commute (25 minute walk to train station in the evening).
- the sound quality of the AirPods is good enough especially for listening to podcasts and making phone calls.
- for phone calls, i can easily transfer over the AirPods which is something i would never do with a wired headset. this will save some radiation dose and discomfort of holding my phone to my ear.
- having no wires is a revelation to me. nothing to detangle or unwind or get caught in my clothes or messenger bag strap
- the integration with my iPhone is phenomenal. it connects fast and "just works" (which has not be the case of most apple products, IMHO, in the last several years)
i didn't buy the wireless case version because i think i will be a pretty light user, and so it shouldn't be too hard to charge the case once a week using a lightning cable for an hour. i have an iPhone XS, and still haven't invested in a wireless charger for it yet as i can get buy each day on one full charge, so it isn't much an effort to continue with my habit of plugging the phone in once every night to charge. maybe a few years down the road, i'll end up with a wireless charging case for my next earphones.
that being said, i think it would be nice to have a few improvements:
- sweat proof/water proof (might not be possible in the existing form)
- noise cancelling mode (again might not be possible to do this and keep the size and battery endurance of the AirPods the same)
- black color (unlikely to happen since the white is the iconic Apple color way back from the days of the original iPod)
- some way to control volume from the AirPods themselves
they are pretty pricy if one considers the sound quality coming from them, but due to the technology that makes them work so well with Apple devices, i think they were a reasonable expense if you can afford them. with my lighter use, i do hope i can get 4 years out of them before the battery degrades appreciably. that being said, my biggest concern is losing them!