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Comment by SilverRed | Hacker News Reader

They would probably see it like we computers that had memory which did not wipe when powered down. The inconvenience is minor and the benefits large. They will never deal with huge hell balls of cables/headphones. The charging is pretty painless and the airpods pretty much do just work instantly with any Apple device (they can detect which one you are using at the time).

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Oh, I love a computer voice screaming into my ear "BATTERY! LOW! " every minute when my headphones reach 30%. Yeah, hearing loss is only a small price to pay for not dealing with tangled cables.

AirPods do not STT announce a low battery unless that's an accessibility setting. By default they just play a little tone to alert you that your battery is low. An argument can be made around the expensive of AirPods but not when it comes to usability, they are bar none. Watching my Android friends cycle though bluetooth headphones like changing outfits is always interesting to me. Every few months I hear about "check out these awesome headphones, they are so small and they have noise cancelling", yawn, I've been using the same AirPods Pro since they released and they've tried 3+ and still aren't happy. I didn't want to believe it and refused to buy AirPods when they first came out until I got them as a gift and reluctantly used them but after I lost them (or they were stolen, still not sure) it took less than 3 days before I had ordered more. They really are magic.

How is the battery holding up on the Pros? My 1st gen AirPods were dead (each bud only holds about 20 mins of charge) after a year. I then tried a pair of the SoundCore Air Liberty 2 (what a name...) with the same result after a year or so. I can't justify paying $200 every year, so I'm sticking with wired for now.

I mean, I've had the same Pros since launch and I haven't noticed a decrease in the battery. I mean, I'm sure there is a decrease but I listen for hours and hours at a time without issue. If I go longer than 4 hours I might get the low battery notification but they charge so fast that I can either take a break or do the "charge 1 at a time" trick so keep listening.

Roughly how long have you had your Airpod Pros?

I just checked and actually got them for Christmas 2019 (so like 2 months after they released, my mistake, I thought I got them sooner). I use them almost every single day for 30min to 4+ hours depending on what I’m doing.

So to answer your question I’ve had them for around 20 months.

my original airpods were bought feb 2018 and mine still last hours on output only, they last maybe 90 minutes using the microphone on calls though

And the button that starts a glorified voice "assistant" that I've haven't pressed intentionally once.

Or the pain of switching between paired devices.

At least no more cables getting ripped out of my ears by the door knob.

It's not just charging. You can pretty much connect it to any device in a second without waiting for a minute for bluetooth connection. Maybe airpod is good for single person use who has very limited devices which are all Apple, but I own multiple non Apple devices. Even though all have bluetooth, bluetooth is much more error prone than 3.5mm jack.

It's planned obsolescence. Analog headphones from 15 years will work whereas Airpods will be nigh-unusable after 5 years because the batteries will be spent.

This is completely true but I also just don't really care. The airpods are quite small and use minimal resources so the environmental impact of buying airpods every 5 years is minimal compared to other things. I already do not use a car or public transport so I am well below the average persons resource usage.

And for price, $250AUD every 5 years is well within what I am willing to pay for the convenience of the airpods. I use them daily, I have them in my pocket always. Being able to quickly put them on and take a call and it all just works instantly is worth it to me.

I also have just not ever had in ear headphones ever last that long either. The cable always breaks within a few years max of usage.

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