I’d been keeping an eye on a pair of these, ever since Apple announced them back at their press  in September 2016. Knowing that they were going to cause a £159 dent in my bank account, I looked forward to the “late October” release like many others. As late October came & went, my disappointment was palpable. With no clear reason given by Apple, potential Airpod owners were left wondering when they could expect to get their hands on a pair.

By shear luck, I was perusing the interweb on lunch time, when low and behold! An article suggested that Apple had rather quietly put AirPods on sale via its website with a very small quantity to actually sell. Straight to www.apple.com/uk/shop low and behold there they were, order now and receive in a couple of days. Bingo! £159 lighter and I’d secured myself a pair of the Apple’s elusive wireless earphones.

“Wireless. Effortless. Magical”

As is always the case when ordering anything from Apple, the process was quick, easy and pain free. True to their word, a couple of days later the courier (his name was Richard apparently) delivered the latest Apple product in my collection. I had read many reviews, so I had a fair understanding of what to expect. Opening the box, I found that the AirPods were charged sufficiently to go right ahead and start using them.

The “effortless” in Apple’s strap line plays on the ease of setup and on-going use. The idea of effortless tech is often banded about. Many of our favourite gadgets claim to be user friendly and easy to set up, however once you get past the shiny exterior these can often be far from simple. Ever tried to pair a Bluetooth device to your phone: is your device in “Discover mode” if not, why not? Do the pass codes match, hardly ‘effortless’. Apple promised that there would be one simple step in pairing your brand spanking new AirPods, ONE! Not only would it require one step to pair your AirPods to your device of choice, your iPhone for example, but due to the magic of iCloud, that one effortless step would mean that every one of your Apple devices signed into your iCloud account, would recognise your AirPods as connect automatically when wanted.

Was it as simple as that? You bet! Open the AirPod case next yo your unlocked iPhone, press connect and voila.

Unlocked iPhone

Done!

Are they the best sound quality? Doubtful, although unless you are a superstar DJ or serious audiophile, then you’re not going to notice or care. Do they look odd? They look like they’re missing the cord (which isn’t a bad thing), took me approximately a minute to be comfortable wearing them, now AirPods are not only my go to headphones, but its now second nature to have no chord. Seriously why do you lot still spend time untangling your corded headphones?. Are they expensive for what you get? I’d say that it was all relative. For ease of use, the overall experience, in true Apple fashion, the fact they are well built mini marvels of engineering, I’d say they were worth the £££.

What happens if you loose one or both? Well, at the moment, it could get expensive. £69 per AirPod should you accidentally misplace one! There is a rumour that the next version of IOS (10.3) will ship with a “Find My AirPods” feature that similarly to the Find my iPhone app plays a sound through the AirPods and shows the location on a map. The catch – the AirPods have to be connected to your iPhone and not away in the case. This somewhat stifles the usefulness of the feature. My advice – be careful and don’t loose them!

If you’re in the market for some wireless headphones, and especially if you deeply entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, then the AirPods in my opinion are a great choice. I’m off on holiday in a few weeks, and will be taking them for the journey. I’m keen to see how effective they are in allowing me to ignore the rest of the world on the plane, whilst I watch Back to the Future for the 10,000th time.