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Comment by visarga | Hacker News Reader

> I'm not dealing with connectivity issues, battery issues, etc. Sure they're $500

My AirPods often have bluetooth issues, even when coupled to a MacBook, not just any laptop. They fail at the basic function of making sound.

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In my experience AirPods work like magic 99% of the time, but the 1% that they don’t is infuriating.

If you have any issues all you can do is the “put them back in the case and hope that kicks them back in line” dance, to mixed effect.

This is spot on. Every now and then only one of my AirPods will connect and then it’s just putting them back in the case over and over until they start working again.

I have this issue from time to time. But I discovered that changing the volume slightly solves it. It seems the problem is not that one AirPod is not connected, but that for some reason the volume is turned all the way down on.

Happens to me with Powerbeats Pro too (usually the left one for reasons unknown).

I setup a macro with BetterTouchTool on my Mac to turn on bluetooth and connect to my Airpods. And that has essentially solved any of the edgecase weirdness about connectivity. Now it's truly magical 100% of the time. I can be listening to a podcast on my phone, hit the macro and jump into a zoom call with no menu or case futzing.

Before this I was dealing with these bizarro issues occasionally that was really frustrating.

> magical

> Macro with BetterTouchTool

This is peak Apple rdf.

But don't all other bluetooth earphones also work 99% of the time?

Not saying you shouldn't by apple, but I don't see the "it works as well as other earphones that cost 1/10th as much" as a real selling feature.

My experience with the AirPods Pro is far from being smooth. Random disconnections, sometimes L or R do not connect, cannot use microphone and listen to music...

Tired of them. Bought a pair of Beyerdynamic with a 3,5mm jack and not even a single issue... For about 150$...

I had an issue with R constantly not connecting. Ended up replacing under the warranty and now have zero issues.

Same issue and also resolved with a replacement. At least having a physical store to return them and get a replacement on the spot is nice.

Yeah, I have no idea where people are getting the whole seamless wireless connectivity experience idea from. AirPods are pretty much awful in terms of connecting. It’s a little better than regular Bluetooth because of the case which gives a lot of visual feedback when you open it, but that’s mostly to trick your senses into not realizing it’s still just a shitty bluetooth headphone that takes forever to connect.

My "trick" is to keep the AirPods can open when trying to connect. For some reason, it does better with the lid open.

Because in the past most Bluetooth headphones were terrible and pretty much everyone got in pairing hell at some point. Airpods were much better than the status quo when launched.

That's simply not true. They might have been better than cheap bluetooth headphones with which they didn't compete, but there were plenty of price-competitive bluetooth headphones at the time which were as good or better.

The only new things about airpods were the truly wireless nature (which was definitely an advantage) and the Apple logo*.

Being limited to Bluetooth range isn't great if you're using them with any device other than the phone in your pocket. While the Airpods seem better than some other Bluetooth devices, you can't walk far around your home/office before they start cutting out

My (Apple) Powerbeats Pro work about 50% of the time. A really bad design flaw with the tiny contacts means that 1 of the pair frequently doesn't charge in the case after a few minutes.

Go to use them for a run and one is often flat. Or my phone will try and connect to the non-charging one in the case, leaving me with no sound when I'm not actually using ear phones.

Some Apple stuff is great - but 'it just works' is a myth.

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