My partner wanted AirPods after losing their last set. Okay fine, we ordered it.
However I came across this knockoff pair for $25 so I ordered that too to compare side by side.
How do you think it will go? Side by side tests to be done next week.
My prediction is that the sound and battery life of the real deal will win out. The real question is will it be10x the price better?
And how good the noise cancelling is, and whether they stay connected via Bluetooth or if they drop a lot. Still, worth the risk for $25, just for science.
Also, I have a strong feeling the product description is against Amazon’s policies. I confusedly thought for a while that the listing was the real deal - did they mistakenly put $25.99 instead of $259.99?
Look deeper and you can find the knockoff indicators but at a glance this is definitely called Airpods. Not something like “compare to Apple AirPods”. Even with MFi Certified indicating it’s “compatible” (and I doubt it’s actually certified), it clearly pretends to be AirPods.
I doubt this allows me to keep the counterfeit, but I’ll be quick to return if it doesn’t impress.
I used those (or similar) knockoff airpods for at least a year. I believe my wife bought them for $15. I’ve never used real airpods, so I can’t compare, but I was satisfied with them given how cheap they were. They ended up breaking I think because I kept dropping them on accident.
I use the AirBuds(?) - the one’s with the flat head - exclusively, but it’s only because I thought that you had to stick the speaker part inside your earhole and these things would never fit. Apparently that is not how you do it.
It looks like I can perform the same experiement: link
I just use my battery-powered cans. They send a message: “I do not want to listen to you or your music. Thanks. Now, fuck off.”
AirPods arrived yesterday. Not one hour later, after weeks of missing them, my partner found them, they were in the center compartment of their car.
Knockoffs arrive tomorrow. I’m still going to try them out and keep one or the other for myself as I hadn’t had them before.
Consensus - the knockoffs are inadequate.
Audio output: Pretty good. Not as good as actual AirPods, certainly not as good as a quality pair of headphones, but better than expected for ~$25.
Audio input: Unacceptable. Tinny, echoing sound. Unusable for voice.
Fit: To be honest, earbuds rarely feel good to me, but these felt worse than AirPods.
Returning the knockoffs, likely returning the extra AirPods too. I’m getting some over-ear headphones, likely a Sennheiser.
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“Page not found” Guess Amazon wised up, too…
I’m probably just buying some Sennheiser or Bose over-ears for around $200-300. I can’t stand AirPods but thought for $25 it was worth a go.
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I think for work purposes of both blocking out sound and taking calls a good pair of over ear noise cancelling beat a pair of earbuds every day. Also way easier to keep track of. People lose AirPods over and over again. It seems to be a design feature.
I’ll say I love my AirPods Pro for work calls, and notice plenty of others using them as well
I have both the Sony headphones and the buds. I like the buds if I’m mowing the lawn, or for short flights given the smaller form factor. But I don’t find the buds comfortable for more than a few hours, and the big headphones offer (IMO) about 20% better noise cancelling.
I’ve never lost my earbuds, but some folks really need to glue an AirTag to them or something.
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