Apple’s early AirPods adopters are seeing battery life issues

“AirPods continue to prove a hit despite being unchanged after two years. Look no further than the recent ‘AirPods for Christmas’ meme that spanned social media,” Zac Hall writes for 9to5Mac. “But while Apple’s wireless earbuds continue on their path as a cultural phenomenon, AirPods are showing signs of aging for early adopters.”

“It’s hard to believe AirPods have already turned 2 for a lot of customers,” Hall writes. “After a two month delay, AirPods launched on Apple.com on December 13th, 2016, and started reaching customers a few days later.”

“My own AirPods have been in use almost every day since December 21st, 2016 — almost always on my person when I leave home alongside my iPhone, wallet, and keys — and their age is starting to show,” Hall writes. “Batteries are consumable, we all know so well now, and that’s proven true for the tiny batteries inside AirPods after two years of daily use. Battery life that once exceeded five hours now struggles to power AirPods through three hours of continuous usage at the same volume. Battery life results can be cut in half if you need to play audio at a louder volume.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Perfect timing for AirPods 2!

21 Comments

    1. Tim Cook is the Willa Wonka of tech. He’s flamboyantly gay, has a piss poor sense of fashion, and all of his products are wonky, poorly made and overpriced.

      Instead of a golden ticket, it’s time for Cook to get a pink slip of paper.

      1. Hmmmm. The Zero, applewhinylittlebitch, Gob and the like — or the hundreds of millions of people voting with their wallets and rating Apple, over and over and over, with the highest customer satisfaction ratings.

        What a dilemma! Who to believe!?

  1. Criminal? Atrocious? If you see anything better on the market, go buy it and be happy. If you don’t, stop the petulant whining about the current state of the technology.

      1. BLIND HATEBOY Gob – ‘criminal’, ‘gay’, piss poor sense of fashion’ and ‘atrocious’ do not constitute the constructive criticism you and the other incessant whiners supposedly engage in.

  2. Customers are not getting it yet. Companies like apple are putting batteries that the user can’t replace, well simply because people are stupid and products are now disposable. Why make a product a person keep and use for 10 years, when you can make it die in 2 years and they will buy another.

    My wired BOSE i bought over 15 years ago are still going strong. I had to user replace the headband and ear cushions and then I’m up and running again for $20. What idiot would pay $300 for headphone where a battery will make it unusable in a few short years just to be wireless. It’s all a scam.

    1. This is the dumbest comment ever. How do you create a removable battery for the AirPods? The stupidity of people like rope-a-dope “dave’s not here” shows that when it comes to his mind, he really isn’t.

    2. The really Cool thing about Free Market Capitalism is that People can think for themselves, act on those thoughts, make personal choices on those thoughts without someone else telling them what to choose because in their opinion it’s better.

      If you had done the research, the headset that comes with every iPhone is wired and works perfectly fine, and lasts a very long time if properly taken care of just like the heavy over the head/ear wired headphones you reference.

      Other people have needs different that you. i.e. those who workout and do not want a cord in the way or bulky headphones on their head for instance would choose an earplug style set for instance, and wireless to eliminate the wire issue.

      Again, this isn’t a Marxist country where things are dictated to you by the elite and people can choose what they want for their individual needs.

      Also if you had done the research Apple’s offering in the wireless earbud space is $159.00 not $300, not even $200 as others suggested.

      Again, in a free society, people can choose what to spend their money on.

      From the article let’s look at the product, after 2 years of constant use, they are saying they get about a third, give or take, less battery life then brand new in a device that fits in your ear and only costs $159. I know people with Multi thousand dollar hearing aids that do not get that life, and are changing the very expensive batteries daily.

      Maybe, just maybe, people should look at the product and decide for themselves, if you don’t like it or think the cost benefit isn’t for you, don’t buy it. Simple. If enough people don’t buy it, they will improve it or replace it with something they will buy.

      Based on sales, it appears A LOT of people are opting to purchase the item

      As to the other Apple Haters, Tim cook is gay. the homophobic statements/inferences really add no value to any conversation.

      The only issue anyone should say about Tim Cook is that maybe he should worry more about product development and release dates and less about activism using his position at Apple. The company and the man are two different entities, they should not be combined.

      1. I think we are all missing a second piece of the puzzle… the charging case. So my AirPod battery is holding less of a charge than it did when they were brand new… popping them back into the case for a minute or two is the amazing part of the system. Look at as two pieces of the whole and you get a different picture unlike anything else in the market.

        As to the rant on T. Cook, grow up.

  3. a pair of earphones for RM600 that only lasts 2 years? too steep. I know the user friendliness is top notch, it works seamlessly with apple devices. But i would rather pay RM150 for that kind of durability.

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.