Design and features:The AirPods (1st gen) have integrated microphones and music player play pause and cellphone call connect/disconnect controls for use with paired Bluetooth devices. They support Apple's Siri digital voice assistant (which can be activated via touch ) when used with Apple devices that use later operating system versions and have a WiFi or cellular Internet connection; volume level adjustments and music player control functions can be done using Siri voice commands. Either earphone can also be used alone for one ear monitoring or for shared listening (one person listens to one earphone while another person listens to the other) of Bluetooth streamed audio and telephone communications.This model comes with a charging cradle/recharger battery/carrying case that the manufacturer claims can be used to recharge the earphone batteries up to four times between its own charges and a USB charging cable.
Sound quality: We found the AirPods (1st gen) delivers sound quality that falls in the good range - it reproduces music and voice reasonably well despite the obvious shortcomings in its sound. The overall sound can best be summarized as a bit boomy, grainy and dry. Bass (as in bass drums, bass guitars, stand-up bass, etc.) is a bit boomy, has so-so impact, and doesn't go deep. The midrange (voices, guitars, horns, etc.) has very good detail but is a bit thin, constricted (as in straightjacketed), and grainy, and gets slightly congested (think sonic traffic jam) during complex musical passages. The treble (cymbals, the upper range of violins, etc.) is extended but a bit smeared (sounds that should have a delicate shimmer sound blurred) and the pronounced upper treble can exaggerate sibilance and sounds a bit dry and papery. This model does a decent job of recovering the room ambience of a recording (the sense of the acoustic space in which the audio program that's being listened to was recorded). The sound also has a decent sense of liveliness, and is open -- sound-wise it there is not much of a sense of anything plugging up your ears. The sound of this model is not significantly different from that of the Apple EarPods that are included with iPhones.
Comfort: We found that these earphones essentially fit the same as the Apple EarPods. There was no pressure in the ear canal and they stay in place even with fairly vigorous head movement, but you have to fiddle with them a bit to find the position in the ear that provides the best sound quality and hitting one of the stems that hangs out of the ears can knock an earphone loose and cause it to fall out. Tapping on either earpiece twice (double tapping) will answer/disconnect a call. With older Apple and non-Apple Bluetooth devices double tapping will also play/pause compatible music player apps. Double tapping the earpieces is not particularly uncomfortable like with some other totally wireless models. With Apple devices that can run the latest OS versions double tapping can be set to either play/pause the music player app or to activate Apple's Siri digital assistant function for voice activated music player control. We found using Siri for music player control to be slow, and cumbersome, and as with any other digital assistant potentially annoying to anyone else within earshot: when using Siri you double tap an earpiece - the music pauses, the command is said out loud (e.g. "turn up/down volume" or "skip forward/reverse"), the command is carried out, and the music resumes.
