Airpods, Apple’s iteration of bluetooth earbuds were released in 2016, but popularized at THS during the 2018 holiday season. The most critically acclaimed feature of Airpods is the W1 chip that allows for instant pairing to any of the users iCloud devices, while also being truly wireless earbuds.

“I love my Airpods; I’ve had them for about a year now, and they are very convenient, because I just pull them out and they start playing music when they go in my ears,” sophomore Dominik Fritts said.

Airpods have many features that made them popular. Including being truly wireless, meaning there is absolutely no external wires. Another feature is the touch controls, that allows users are able to activate Siri, play and pause audio content, skip to the next track, go back to the previous track and turn off audio content. Also, when a phone call begins the audio is played through the Airpods.

“I haven’t stopped using my airpods ever since I got them for Christmas this year They sound good, and they are comfortable in my ears,” freshman Bella Schlueter said.

Naturally the airpods have many competitors from, Jabra, Samsung and Jaybird. The Samsung IconX, are the closest to the Airpods, they have tap controls, when the user takes the Samsung IconX out of the ear they stop playing music and they even have passive noise cancellation which the Airpods do not have.

“I wouldn’t use anything but Airpods; they are by far the best earbuds out right now,” Fritts said.

The Jabra and Jaybird wireless earbuds are both behind the Airpods in terms of functionality, they don’t connect when they come out of the charging case, or have touch control (buttons on the side), and many users said they experience connectivity issues, according to amazon reviews.

“I would rather have a different brand of wireless earbuds, because the Airpods are very expensive and look goofy,” sophomore Connor Jeffreys said.

The price of Airpods was $250, when first released but have recently been on sale and are now marked down to $160, on many retail sites.