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Comment by addandsubtract | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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