Apple’s truly wireless wireless earbuds
Apples first announced their AirPods on the 9th September 2016 at an Apple Special Event. Apple originally planned to release the AirPods in late October. However Apple delayed the release of the AirPods until the 13th of December and was only available online. It wasn’t until the 20th of December that they were available at Apple stores and Apple authorised resellers.
1st Generation AirPods
AirPods 1 Features
The AirPods have a very similar form factor to the companies original wired EarPods, with the obvious omission of the cables and addition to Bluetooth connectivity. Despite the similar form factor, early reports suggest that the new AirPods were better at staying in your ears.
They offer Apple’s latest wireless pairing system, based on the W1 chip. They pair instantly, and that pairing propagates across all your Apple devices via iCloud. The secret sauce behind the new pairing system turned out to be all in the W1 chip in the headphones themselves, so it works with Bluetooth LE devices all the way back to the iPhone 5.
| Battery Life (Talk) | 2 Hours |
| Battery Life (Music) | 5 Hours |
| Chipset | W1 |
| Bluetooth version | 4.2 |
| Siri connection | Double-tap to activate |
| Wireless charging | With additional wireless Charging Case purchase |
| iOS system requirements | iOS 10 or later |
| watchOS system requirements | watchOS 3 or later |
| macOS system requirements | macOS High Sierra or later |
| Apple TV support | Yes |
2nd Generation AirPods
The second generation of Apple’s AirPods were released in March 2019 with the same form factor as the 1st generation. The difference between the 1st and 2nd generation is slight. The biggest change is the upgraded H1 chip which improves on the W1 chip in the following ways.
- Up to 50% more talk time
- Faster connection to phone calls
- 2X faster switching between devices
- 30% lower latency for gaming
- Stronger connectivity
- Support to voice activated Siri
| Battery Life (Talk) | 3 Hours |
| Battery Life (Music) | 5 Hours |
| Chipset | H1 |
| Bluetooth version | 5.0 |
| Siri connection | Voice activated or double tap |
| Wireless charging | with wireless charging case |
| iOS system requirements | iOS 12.2 or later |
| watchOS system requirements | watchOS 5.2 or later |
| macOS system requirements | macOS 10.14.4 or later |
| Apple TV support | Yes |
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