Review: Apple AirPods (2021)

If America stood up and collectively yelled its woes about wireless earbuds, everyone wearing a pair of standard AirPods would hear them. They don't have ear tips or noise canceling, and a leaky pair of dynamic drivers means that every sound from the outside world gets in. 

You might not even have them in your ears at all. If you try to use the squeeze-button controls without practicing first, one AirPod may be on the floor while the other goes down the drain.

I don't hate all Apple headphones. Despite their middling battery life, I still like the AirPods Pro, and the AirPods Max are the best wireless headphones I've ever used. Heck, I even love most modern Beats products—including the recently announced Beats Fit Pro, which just came out yesterday.  

But something has to be said. In the words of the immortal Howard Beale, I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore. Things have got to change! I'm begging you—yes, you, dear reader. You have to stop buying the newest AirPods just because they work well with your iPhone. Just don't. Buy any of Apple’s other models, which have the modern features (and comfy fit) you deserve.

Photograph: Apple

Standard AirPods—as they’ve become colloquially known since the AirPods Pro launched in 2019—used to be pretty decent.

When the AirPods were first announced in 2016, five hours of battery life—and the fact that they actually worked—was enough to rank them among the best on the market. Not to be too finger-pointy, but this wasn’t a huge surprise. The market for wireless headphones was created in large part by the company responsible for removing the headphone jack. It stands to reason they would corner it.

But in the nearly six years since, a ton of companies—including Apple itself—have developed dramatically better earbuds than they had when your crazy uncle couldn’t stop babbling about Her Emails. We've gotten longer battery life, better microphones, more ergonomic fits, better charging cases, and generally more durable buds from every brand, across the board.

But AirPods remained mostly stagnant. This one adds an hour of battery life, spatial audio, and new drivers in addition to the last update's wireless charging case. But they also raised the price by $25. I can name about a half-dozen buds that fit and sound better, including many Apple-made pairs. The Beats Studio Buds ($120) have the same sweat-resistance rating, a more ergonomic design, two hours more battery life, and active noise canceling. The Beats Fit Pro ($200) have the same spatial audio tech and H1 chip. 

Heck, you can currently buy a pair of AirPods Pro for $197, just $22 more than the standard third-generation AirPods. For ergonomics alone, you’re better off with any of those other pairs.

Photograph: Apple

That brings me to the most common critique I hear from friends and relatives who have bought AirPods in the past. They just won’t stay in anyone's ears.

Even though these AirPods are slightly more curved and slightly less golf-tee shaped, they still have a massive one-size-fits-all problem, which could have easily been remedied—and in fact was, on other models—years ago.

A proper seal between an earbud and your ears is essential to good sound reproduction in earbuds, particularly when it comes to bass frequencies. The need for a proper seal is supported by a lot of research, much of it coming via studies for hearing aids and other medical devices. By omitting ear tips from AirPods and leaving an imperfect seal, you invite all kinds of acoustic problems. All high-quality earbuds (really any buds besides AirPods) have silicone or foam tips.

Apple knows this, which is why when AirPods Pro were released, they came with a lot of PR babble about how much time they'd spent making sure these buds would fit in all manner of ears. Without a way to allow people to custom-fit buds, Apple has had to implement a whole lot of tech to balance the sound. They have inward-facing microphones to adjust bass and midrange EQ, depending on how the headphones are seated in your ears. On most other buds, all this tech is just not really necessary, because they have ear tips to seal out the world.

Speaking of fit, I have extremely average ears, and the newer, shorter, more angled earbuds made it super hard to find and squeeze the stem-based controls. Whenever I grab the stem to pause my music or ask Siri a question, I tend to slide the headphones around in my ears, like I’m trying to grab the ladle out of a punch bowl.

Once you get them seated in your ears, the new AirPods sound OK. But it's annoying how much outside sound gets in when you’re out and about, which makes everything much muddier. Again, in comparison to similarly priced models from Jabra, Samsung, and other top-tier modern producers, these get left in the dust. The Samsung Galaxy Buds2's dual-driver array sounds dramatically better, and those cost $25 less. 

Photograph: Apple

There are some legitimately nice things about Apple-made headphones. I'm trying not to be a total wet blanket. 

They have the same clear separation between low and high end that I enjoy on the AirPods Pro, though they’re a lot muddier in the midrange to my ears. The microphones are once again great, easily good enough for any Zoom or phone meetings. 

I also like that Apple has added spatial audio. I don’t think it’s a reason to subscribe to Apple Music, or that it will take off in the broader music industry in general, but I do think that it’s awesome for movies. I’ve enjoyed watching Netflix in Dolby Atmos on the AirPods Max. It’s nice that even Apple’s most basic buds now do this. 

I’m even stoked that they’re finally IPX4-rated for sweat resistance. I’d hesitate to take these on a workout due to the aforementioned concerns with fit, but at least you know you can drop them in the sink without ruining them. 

It took six years for the design team at Apple to realize that removing popular jacks and adding a touch bar to laptops was idiotic. How long will it take them to fix a fundamentally flawed and overpriced pair of earbuds?

I’m not sure. AirPods remain the best-selling buds in history, and they had nearly all of these same flaws a month ago. Just like the MacBooks of yesteryear, this is a ridiculous and unnecessary remake that many will probably buy in droves, unaware that they can actually get a better product from the same company for less money.

If you're an Apple stan, I’d spend $25 more for the new Beats. I’ve had less than a week with them—my review is forthcoming—but the Fit Pro are shaping up to be my new favorite pair of Apple-made buds. And they have ear tips!

If you don’t need spatial audio or special Apple integration (you increasingly don’t, for headphones to work very well), shop around. It's 2021. Nobody should pay $175 for a pair of plastic buds with no ear tips, no noise canceling, and two hours less battery life than a $40 pair we just reviewed.