https://www.bluflux.com/bluetooth-antenna-design-guide-step-...: “So 31mm is the desired length of a Bluetooth antenna without “dielectric loading” (see next section)”
https://www.instructables.com/id/Increase-and-extend-the-ran...: “As Bluetooth devices work at frequencies of around 2450MHz, the formula will give you an antenna length of +/- 12cm. This figure then has to be divided by 4 to give us a quarter wave antenna, which will be 30mm in length”
AirPods are 40.5mm (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPods), so I guess they have such a 30-ish mm antenna (edit: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/AirPods+Teardown/75578 agrees: “That hanging boom is for more than just balance—it's also to improve reception.“)
Chances are hanging the antenna (a tiny bit) away from the bag of water called “skull” also helps reception quality. It also provides an easy handle to take them out of your ears.
I have long earlobes, I think the extra little bit of length of the non-pros gets it past my lobes and allows a connection that the pro's can't make.
- They fit my ear and don't hurt. Nothing else ever has expect apple buds, wired or not. - I find the design much more appealing than all the other products on the market. - They actually work properly.
I have had bluetooth headphones etc before that either sound like crap or are just to buggy to use. Hell, even my 'premium' Bose BT speaker randomly gives up for weeks on-end and then decides it will work again.
The latter two points hold for most apple products in my experience. Over the last year I've tried replacing my laptop and phone with non-apple products, and not the cheap crap either. It was fucking torture to me :P
Same for me. I'm lucky, for my partner they hurt minutes after wearing them. The only other in-ear besides Apple's "dagger tip" design that works for me without pain is a custom mold.
Note that I never said they suck, I was pretty certain that the $200 something is not all just the Apple tax ;)
If Apple says it looks good, then people believe it looks good.
Putting aside all subjective qualities. People know they are expensive and regardless of whether you agree w/ the decision, you know they cost $195, $249 or whatever.
That's a signal of wealth like certain clothing, a super car, or a bloomberg terminal.
For example, Lifehacker posts some articles about how to do something on iOS every so often, and the comments always have those people saying, “iPhones suck; just throw it away and get an Android” with no mention of why.
To generalise massively, the ones with the AirPod-like stalks do tend to have better voice quality for transmission (ie, I sound better) on calls.
The ones that look like buttons give me the impression that it's a medical device and are simply too pronounced. I assume they are that beefy because they need to house the battery in the "head" but the "head and stick" design can have more elegant head since the battery is in the stick part. Since Apple was the first to have that design, they now pretty much own it.
I also suspect that the microphones work better with the head&stick design since the orientation of the mic and the proximity to the mouth is better.
Interesting, I always thought they look better simply because they don’t stand out as much.
But to be fair I don't think that I'm in their market as I think it goes too far into the ear to be comfortable to me
Ditto. Whenever I see someone wearing them I make a point of locking eyes, then smirking. AirPods and similar headphones are an upscale version of a face tattoo. They are like a South Park parody come to life.
I firmly believe that in twenty years we will look back at them in chagrin, like bell bottoms and bowl haircuts.
Some people on hacker news are so cringy... I promise you they don't even know why you're smirking, just think you're either autistic or an asshole. The answer is likely both so I guess they aren't wrong.
Objectively, airpods are the worst wireless earbuds in the market on every single metric, but still command a premium price.
Hahaha I wish.
Objectively, airpods are the worst wireless earbuds in
the market on every single metric, but still command a
premium price.
Oh, and I bought them to go with my android phone because they are that good...
Objectively, this is the worst list formatting on the internet in every way.