I want to get them but reliability is a big concern. Everyone in my family has had problems with our first gen pros. Mine started developing crackling issues. During the pandemic I remember hearing that it was a known problem and could be fixed at the Apple store, but all of the stores were closed. I put off bringing them in until later. I finally got around to it this past week as the issue has grown a lot worse recently, and they said it is indeed a manufacturer defect, my AirPods are now out of warranty, and it will cost $180 to repair them. They then encouraged me to just buy a new pair given the high repair price.

That just rubs me the wrong way. They spent a good amount of time during the conference today highlighting their commitment to the environment yet are incentivizing that I purchase a new set. If these ones demonstrate stronger reliability and get USB C a year from now, I'll definitely consider them.