Technology news story

Review: Redefining headphones

Chris Gress

MSP 171 The Montgazette Contributor.

The AirPods. ( Photo by Chris Gress).

The first set up of AirPods came out almost six years ago and initially Apple did not find the success it was hoping for. It took Apple two years for the product to really pick up steam, but when it did they quickly became Apple’s most popular and sought after product. The catch was that they were the same old headphones Apple had been selling for years, but they did not include the wires making them a lot more convenient for the users.

Since coming out with the initial pair of AirPods back in 2016, Apple has come out with two more generations of the product and, most recently, the AirPod Pros in October 2019. The difference between the Pros and the regular AirPods is the fact that the Pros have “noise canceling” technology. Apple never sits still with this product as they are set to release another generation of the product and the Pros sometime this year.

Product lineup

The first pair of AirPods came out in 2016, and they were called just that, AirPods. Once they started to pick up some steam, Apple released another version of these called AirPods 2nd generation which came out in March 2019 and were also a success.

Although the AirPods 2nd generation were also a massive success, Apple felt that they had to spice up the product so just six months later they released the AirPod Pros. The big difference between this iteration and previous versions of the product is that the pros had a different design and had different technology associated with them.

The pros were also a massive success and are the biggest reason why the AirPods are Apple’s most successful product, according to Forbes.

Price

When the first version of the AirPods came out they were priced at $159. Initially, consumers were a bit confused because this was way more expensive than the previous wire headphones that had been released by Apple over the years. But, once people realized how much more convenient AirPods were and the different features they had, the price of these quickly became a non-issue.

Once the Pros were released, Apple decided to raise the price from $159 to $249 but this time around people were not as concerned about the price because they knew they would be getting a lot more features and they were correct. The Pros included noise canceling technology which was a big upgrade from the original and they were still as convenient as the original iteration of the product.

Design

The initial design of AirPods is truly what made these so fascinating. They looked just like the wire headphones Apple had been selling for years; they just did not have the wires and instead had Bluetooth technology. This was a game changer because instead of people having to buy Beats, which are also wireless headphones but are a lot bigger and bulkier, they could just buy these and it would make their workout, bus ride, etc.. that much more convenient.

As for the Pros, they were designed almost the exact same way except for the fact that the part of the AirPod that is placed in the ear is shaped differently and is bigger than the initial design. The reason for this is the fact that they had to make them look a little different than the initial release and with the noise canceling technology they also had to adjust how these components worked.

Final thoughts and review

. For the initial version of the product, they are definitely worth it. They are a strong upgrade over the wire headphones and are as convenient as advertised. As for the Pro’s they are also priced fairly and are a firm upgrade over the regular AirPods. The noise canceling technology is very apparent and is the big reason these are ahead of the original version of this product.

Overall, Apple advertised these perfectly and released them in a manner that made perfect sense.