anything without replaceable batteries are designed to fail without recourse eventually. batteries are consumables goddamit!
No shit. And get this - The iPhone 7 did have enough space for a headphone jack.
I’m so angry that the 3.5 jack is gone… same with microsd slots…its such BS.
There’s still phones that have them, like Sony phones
True but in my market it’s basically samsung and apple at all the carriers. Hard to find alternatives.
There was no reason to get rid of the headphone jack. Funny enough, the microSD cards are designed to fail. When you’re using them in dash cams, cameras and drones they know they have to reach a certain bit rate and when they see that not happening they tell you that it’s time to format and/or replace. But using them as a supplemental file system in the phone is dicey. The difference between underperforming and being a problem is a line in the sand that Android has a mastered. Google even tried a series of tactics to make them less dodgy. They tried to make it where you can’t install apps out there. But even just putting media and other stuff out there when the operating system goes to check the storage driver can cause hiccups and lags and weird problems.
If SD cards weren’t almost all disposable trash we might be able to use them in our phones without creating any performance or support nightmares.
Good point with the micro SD. Although I have yet to see one fail personally, however that is a minuscule sample size.
The kinda depends on what SD card you buy. Don’t buy crap cards.
Also SD cards work well enough for the Switch and Steam Deck, and that’s objectively way more demanding than storing a few images on a phone.
The vast majority of SD cards are made in the same factory and just branded differently.
Switch and steam deck Don’t constantly try to enumerate/scan the entire file system. Putting game binaries is a one and done. Writing save files is a trickle every couple of minutes.
Android really does abuse the hell out of those cards.
Stuff like the Fairphone Buds seems like a good alternative.
Like other commenters here, I got something like three years out of my AirPods until they wouldn’t hold a charge.
In less than two years, the rechargeable lithium-ion battery found in your AirPods is due to die an untimely death.
Bullshit. I got four years out of each of my pairs and I used them several hours a day. Also replacing the battery when it does wear out is is something like 50 bucks. Sure, you can’t do it yourself but Apple will give you a refurbished pair, and they will recycle your old battery.
And they provide free recycling for all their products — you’re basically paying for it to be recycled when you buy AirPods and any that go into landfill that’s entirely the customer’s fault.
No wired headphones I’ve ever owned lasted even close to that long - the cable eventually fails with several hours per day of swinging around and being packed tightly into your pocket.
That said, I’ve switched to bone conduction headphones now, and will probably never own another pair of airpods unless they go down the same path.
Mine are two years and they’re working really really well. I’ve noticed a capacity drop, but it’s far more than enough for my needs.
The batteries definitely need to be replaceable. This would be trivially easy.
With that said, I’m not so convinced they are designed to fail in less than two years either. Article strikes me as sensationalist with a grain of truth.
PS: mine even come with a feature to reduce battery aging by delaying full charge until the device is expected to be used. Why bother if planned obsolescence is your explicit goal?
How would you compare capacity at purchase vs now?
Approximately 80% In my rough estimation. It’s fine for a workout which is my threshold for usability, but has begun to suffer on long flights. I use these while working out 3 to 5 times per week and on trips.
This seems generally in line with lithium ion batteries in smart phones.
This seems acceptable to me, though it may not be everyone’s experience, based on the thread
It’s kind of hard to tell with my 2 year old Pro 2s. I treat mine like dog shit. They’re in use constantly for 8 hours of remote meetings, and I leave them in for podcasts at night. I throw them in the case at lunch and during dinner, but it’s not because I’m getting a battery warning. It’s because I’m stepping away from the desk. All in all, I hit these things pretty hard.
My guess is that they’re probably down to 4+ hours of audio and 3+ hours of call time after 2 years. Long enough that I’m likely going to take a break, and put them in the case before I hear a battery warning.
That said, my old non-pro Gen 1 AirPods were really starting to struggle after 2 years. After 2 years I needed to swap between right and left buds to get through an hour call. They made it about 45min with the mic on, and those didn’t have ANC and head tracking.
I found one of mine developed a crackle after a year. It would eventually go away if I put it in the case and took it out a few times which seemed kind of silly.
They had (or maybe still have) an extended warranty / free replacement program for this issue
$50 bucks? I bought two batteries for $4 each from China and they came with sealant to recreate the waterproof seal.
This only works when you can open the earphones and the battery is not soldered (my hands are not so steady not to fuck anything up)
Lithium iOS is inherently unstable and that instability goes both ways. They designed it to only last 2 years, but there will be plenty that go beyond that, just as there will be plenty that die in , <2 years. The majority will die at about 2 years, as designed.
That being said,
bone conduction headphones
What’s that? I’m intrigued lmao
Edit: ion* lmao typo stays tho
bone conduction headphones
What’s that? I’m intrigued lmao
Sound is vibration. We typically think of it as vibration transmitted through air (to get to your auditory canal), but it doesn’t have to be. Sound vibration can be conducted through your bones (which your auditory canal is enclosed in) so you can hear without something being in your ears because the sound gets inside you through a different medium.
Do you have an electric toothbrush? Turn it on and bite down with your teeth on it. Notice how it gets MUCH louder? Thats the sound traveling through your jawbone (and skull) to get to your auditory canal.
I’m looking at waterproof bone conduction headphones to use in the hot tub, clearly you like yours, are they waterproof too?
I find it funny that people seek special overpriced “bone conducting” earbuds when they already normally do that when sounds vibrate your fucking ear drums.
The purpose of bone conducting earphones is that they don’t obstruct your ears, so you can still hear everything around you with virtually no distortion.
Any good recommendations? I want to purchase a premium one.
I had to return my bone conduction headphones because it tickled my ears too much when I turned it up so loud that I could hear it over my bike machine. My wired headphones kept dying from my sweat, so I just ended up getting some waterproof-ish JBL in-ear headphones so I don’t have to worry about destroying any of my wireless headphones.
Replacing a single earbud is $49, and the case is another $49, so replacing all three batteries is $147, which at least for the regular model is close to buying new AirPods. It’s pretty much a given that the repair costs more than the product is worth after a new model launches.
Apple also doesn’t swap the batteries, they replace the earbuds completely, “recycling” otherwise fully intact earphones. Not sure about the case.
You’re right that they probably last more than two years (that depends on a lot of factors though), and while features like adaptive charging hints that Apple doesn’t want them to die quite as quickly, they still aren’t designed to last and certainly aren’t designed to be repairable.
My Gen 2s are 2 years old and I use them all day for meetings with a short charge around lunch. I don’t really pay attention to the battery and I’m using them for calls for about 6-8 hours.
Then I usually sleep with one in my ear and fall asleep to a podcast. I usually get a battery warning beep sometime between 3 and 6 am, and I go to bed at 10pm.
All in all, I treat these things like shit, I they’re in use for half the day, I leave the case on a hot ass MagSafe puck at night, and they’re still in really good shape. I just used them from a flight from CA to NY with no problems.
Like many, my first Gen vanilla AirPods were struggling after 2 years, but Apple seems to have figured out how to prolong these little batteries.
This reads so much like Apple marketing talk. Just call any criticism bullshit and let the anectodes and fanboys circlejerk. Add “Apple also gives cuddly gifts to kids sometimes”, and you’re golden.
🤢
It’s not marketing talk if you know 5+ people and noone has problems with their battery after two years.
5 samples is still anecdotal. There is no statistical significance there.
Sure, but then it’s still worth more than this article lol
The recycling plug is a little silly, but they are correct about AirPods lasting longer than that article claims.
The first gen AirPods were absolutely ready for hospice after 2 years. But the new ones are much better. Anyone that’s used some Pro 2s or Gen 3s knows what I’m talking about.
This article’s claims are kind of outdated and they feel like they were written by someone who hasn’t used one of the models made during the last 5 years.
Gen 1 AirPods = Trash batteries that become miserable after 2 years. Good luck making it through a 1 hour call if you use them a lot. These things beg for the landfill by year 3.
Gen 3 AirPods or AirPods Pro’s = surprisingly good battery longevity. Expect these to be solid after 2 years.
Five year old second Gen AirBuds: working amazing
I have the og regular. They still work but the battery dies after 30 minutes.
I feel like they’re 7 years old.
I honestly never noticed any battery degradation on my OG pros. Like I’m sure they degraded, but they always lasted long enough for me to not care.
In other news, the sky is blue, water is wet, and the earth is round.
The headline could have been Apple make Apple product.
I got mine in 2019 and still going
Edit: mine are pro not reg
The battery lasts shorter than when you got them
Regular 2019 still last more than six hours so that’s a thing
It’s not just time, it’s discharging them fully. You only get so many cycles veggie the battery is significantly impacted
No shit. So does every battery. But 5 years in they’re still going. Not the 2 the article says. But apple should design them to be swapped or longer for environment.
No shit, that’s why I have replaceable battery TWS
#surprisedNoOne
Tbf almost all products nowadays are made to last short periods. That’s what people are trying to change to avoid so much waste.
All that and they didn’t give one example of wireless earbuds that have user swappable batteries.
Fairphone Fairbuds?
I wish, my problem is those doohickeys on the end there hurt my ears, and the only half-decent company that isn’t a walmart airpod knockoff that also isn’t skullcandy shaped like those is airpods themselves. Can ANYONE good please make earbuds that don’t have the buttplug on them?
The batteries in my awesome 49 bucks LG HBS 800 are still alive and kicking like 10 hours per day after what, 5 years now? Too bad this particular one was discontinued, but at least I have 2.
I also had 300 dollar sony buds, half the Audio quality with batteries that lasted 6 months, now I have 5 minutes of shitty audio quality before they die, yay!
Fuck these design to fail products, they should be outlawed
Charging patterns can make a big difference FWIW
I don’t think there’s that much variance in lithium battery quality.
That’s because the components inside each little white stick are glued together. Apple could use screws and latches to hold together the components. That way, if something needed to be repaired or replaced, you could easily get inside the device in order to fix it. But Apple doesn’t do this.
So as usual, they purposefully do this. This reminds me of the time with the iPhone battery ‘scandal’ Apple Batterygate.
I really like their Airpods Pro (1st gen), have them for about 4 years now. However not without problems. I had to replace them 5 times because of crackling sounds, muffled sound and broke-bass sounds. This even happend after my 2 years warranty but luckily (and thankfully) the Apple employees are nice people at times. When it happened (twice) outside my warranty, they told me, if I showed them my receipt - They can and will give me a new pair of Airpods Pros.
They told me ‘‘many do not know but there’s a law that forces companies (even Apple) to give a ‘decent product’ to the customer’’.
Not sure if I will get their Airpods Pro 2 (or 3) though after all the hassle.
EDIT: As I’m not sure if this law is also outside my country, here’s the official government website with their explanation of it. It is in the Dutch language though: Rijksoverheid deugdelijk product
If you’d wanted better sound quality you could have got literally any headphones including the cheap ones you get from gas stations. They really do not have good sound quality, they’re fine, but they are only fine.
Only an apple zombie would be loyal to a product that crappy 5 times? My $30 Sesh earbuds work like a champ after several years. Then I got the $100 pixel A buds for free with a new phone and have been using those for years with no problems. Since they were so cheap I use the Sesh buds in the shower to listen to music or podcasts and they still work fine. I abuse cheaper products and they last longer than luxury brand crap.
Haha no shit. It’s like 1000 worth of air pods.
Customers like this deserve to be ripped off imo.
Reading comprehension fail.
I mean, if you don’t understand that I only paid once and that Apple replaced them freely even out of warranty. And that, that’s why I keep using the AirPods Pro (1st gen) for now.
I don’t know what else to tell you. You can call me an “Apple zombie” if that satisfies yourself. But it doesn’t make sense.
I’m not going to explain myself to a stranger that soft-insult and can’t even give an good argument as to why I should not keep using them while Apple replaces them for free until I decide to purchase different in-earbuds.
How much of your time was wasted dealing with a faulty product? That’s beyond frustrating. When I spend apple money on something I expect it to work.
I understand you don’t like Apple. That’s fair. But you keep pressuring your opinion on others (me). You changed topics the moment, I told you, you didn’t understand my first comment.
Was it frustrating? Perhaps a little, I suppose. I don’t remember how much time, I spent. I don’t care either. The service was easy, quick and good. That’s what matters.
When I spend apple money on something I expect it to work.
Lets rephrase that shall we? “When I spent money on something, I expect it to work.”
Indeed. I expected it to work, it didn’t. Unfortunately several times but they replaced the product without any issue. So problems quickly solved.
Life isn’t going to always be in your favor. Have patience and find a solution.
EDIT:
why I should not keep using them while Apple replaces them for free until I decide to purchase different in-earbuds.
You also didn’t give me an actual good argument yet on this.
What key feature has you going back to the airpods? There’s very likely a good alternative, but it depends on what is keeping you using them.
None. I stick to the AirPods Pro at the moment because, they work right now and Apple keeps replacing them anyway.
That and don’t have time (yet) to do research for new in-earbuds that are good quality with real good NC. Noise cancelling is a must though.
I use IEMs they’re not noise cancelling, but more noise isolating. When I have them in they act like earplugs, silencing the outside world.
The big thing, for me, with my IEMs is that they’re wired, but there are solutions to that depending on how you want to proceed.
The IEMs themselves are pretty cheap, especially compared to airpods, so trying them to see if they isolate enough noise should be a very inexpensive proposition. So getting some decent IEMs and testing them using a wired connection for fit and isolation and sound quality should be the first task, if this becomes a serious consideration.
I don’t presume to know what it is you’re looking for in terms of design, style, sound profile, etc. Even if those things are simply preferences, and not hard requirements. I wouldn’t want to recommend bright pink headphones because their specs are great and in line with what you’re looking for, if you happen to hate the color pink (as a crude example).
What I can say is what I would think to recommend, which, off the top, I’d be considering the blon bl-05 IEMs paired with either a wired connection to a Bluetooth receiver, such as the Fiio BTR3 or similar, alternatively, the Fiio UTWS3 or similar for the “true wireless” type experience. The last piece that’s absolutely essential for sound isolation is better eartips, I’ve been using these for a while and they’re excellent: https://www.linsoul.com/products/tripowin-spiral-groove-memory-foam-eartips
The foam tips make it so I can’t hear anything when I have my IEMs inserted.
The catch to all this is that putting them in or taking them out can be a little bit of a pain point, since the foam tips can be a bit finicky to get properly seated in your ear (at least for me).
But, like I said, I don’t know enough about your preferences to really make a proper recommendation.
Of course, when you get into this level of earphones, you end up in a market where the sky is the limit on cost. I’ve seen some IEMs go for thousands of dollars. You can spend nearly as much on cables and add-ons. I’m not into that sort of thing. I’ve been on the hunt for cheap-but-good IEMs for years and have a small number of pairs that are very good and didn’t break the bank.
The nice thing about this kind of approach is that it’s very modular, so if you don’t like the BT receiver, replace it. If the fit of the eartips isn’t good, buy new eartips. If the sound of the IEM isn’t what you prefer, you can get a new IEM, and use that instead. It’s entirely up to you how you want to customize them and how you use them. Lots of options.
Personally I have a Fiio BTR5, a balanced headphone cable to my IEMs using the foam eartips. For IEMs I have a set of moondrop starfield, a set of blon bl-05’s and a set of Tin T2, which I regularly switch between. All of them sound great, but they all sound slightly different, so sometimes I’m in the mood for one over the other. I clip the btr5 to my belt, connected to my phone by Bluetooth, and usually run the cable under my shirt so it doesn’t catch on anything.
But that’s what I like. You’re different, so you’ll buy different things if you choose to go this route. No pressure, obviously, I just want to make you aware of the options you have in this regard. If you do choose to go this route, I’ll point you at linsoul (linsoul.com), which regularly runs sales on a lot of this, and otherwise has pretty good pricing. Some items may not be available there, like the Fiio bt receivers, but they’re generally going to be available on Amazon, so you should be fine there too.
My entire focus here, is to make you aware of the option. Not to tell you what to pick. Using IEMs has been rewarding for me since there’s nothing to throw away. Even if one set of IEMs died tomorrow, I would only have to toss the IEMs themselves. The eartips, cable, etc, would all be able to be reused with another set. With something like the airpods, you basically have to throw out the entire unit with the charging case and all accessories, since Apple usually doesn’t bother making any of that compatible with their future versions of the same. It’s wasteful. I don’t like it.
Whatever you decide, I hope you have a good day, and the best of luck finding a good replacement when you decide to do so. Cheers.
That’s highly fucked up if you replaced them 5 times within 4 years.
My Jabra 85h Elite ANC probably isnt as good as thr Airpods ANC but only had to replace them once within 4 years of having them. First replacement was within warranty and I was given new headphones but also could keep the old ones.
Used them for as long as they could still run. Very satisfied with the service from Jabra. Just the ANC is lacking.Agreed! Though, I asked one of the employees that worked there and was told that the 1st gen AirPods Pro had a very known issue with all the three issues I had. Especially the crackling sound.
And apparently Apple refuses to fix the entire issue with the 1st gen and rather replace them continuously (I suppose?).
I’m only so glued to the AirPods Pro at the moment for the NC. I got Tinnitus, hear damage and with loud sound I will get Hyperacusis. The NC allows me to have very low sound on, avoid the noise from outside but still capable of hearing other sounds a bit.
Great service of Jabra though, I’m surprised they allowed you to keep the old ones.
Each to their own, but I personally can’t imagine having to replace a faulty product 5 times and still wanting to use it
I think I did that with an Xbox 360 but it really pissed me off.
Unfortunately that’s true for all but the Fairphone ones. I have multiple. All other true wireless and also most with one wire behind the neck are not worth fixing. Non-Apple brands are cheaper though. Philips ones are like 50 €, for example. If they die after years that’s less bad.
