Wireless earphones: a belated review

Since the early days of this Manual, my goal has been the “slow web,” which here translates to being the last to cover a topic. Even so, I didn’t expect I’d ever write about something eight years late.

Anyway — here we are. Let’s talk wireless earphones.

I resisted them for two reasons. First, I was happy with wired headphones. I used the same pair for… I don’t know, about seven years — headphones so old they date from the time Apple still bothered to include them in the iPhone box. Good times.

The second reason was my conscience, which took a while to accept that wireless earbuds have a limited lifespan because of the battery. On average, after two years capacity hits about 80%, the threshold for good performance. Except for rare (and expensive) exceptions, earbud batteries aren’t replaceable, which means most wireless earbuds are destined to the nearest landfill.

I gave in to a pair of AirPods Pro at the end of 2024 thanks to the perpetual construction site that is the condominium where I live. My ears are sensitive. The temptation of a little magical gadget you stick in your ears that cancels noise grew in direct proportion to the racket from the nearby renovations.

I won’t go deep into the technical or sonic aspects of my earbuds, because many others already do that. (And I don’t fully understand them, anyway.) There are more interesting nuances to discuss. Wireless, noise‑cancelling earphones can cause some curious behavioral changes.

The most obvious derives from its lack of a cable. That’s relative, don’t be fooled. Bluetooth range is limited — roughly 10 meters without obstacles like walls. I never had huge issues with cables, even with the usual annoyances (tangled cords, cables snagging on things). That said, the absence of a cable clearly offers more flexibility.

The downside is the battery, which on the AirPods Pro lasts about six hours with active noise cancellation (ANC) enabled. The charging case recharges the buds and iOS is smart enough to alert me when the case’s charge falls below 40%, which reminds me to top it up. Annoying, but much less so than I expected.

ANC — the main reason I surrendered to wireless buds — doesn’t fully isolate you from the world, but it’s strong enough to make city noise tolerable. More prominent sounds “leak” through; with a background of white noise, though, it’s possible to disconnect from the world, which is pleasant beyond my sensitivity to noise. That combo lets me concentrate enough to read a book in a noisy café, for example. It’s a blessing. If I regret that cities are so loud, at least there’s the solace of mitigating technologies.

In many situations that’s the goal: to isolate oneself. In others it’s just to curb the excess — and it’s in those cases that another kind of noise, social noise, becomes relevant.

Is it rude to talk to someone while wearing wireless earbuds? I don’t know. Whenever I can, I remove one bud when talking to someone, even though the ANC transparency mode would let me hold a conversation without taking them out. (Transparency, which activates when I speak, turns off ANC so I can hear other people.)

On the cultural side, I dislike that this specific model loudly (metaphorically) signals that I have an iPhone — even if it’s an old one. Since the Mesozoic Era Apple has used its white earbuds as free advertising, leveraging the white color against people’s silhouettes, almost a trademark still used today. I feel a bit like a walking ad.

Apple fills the AirPods with gimmicks, and to be fair most of them are neat and/or useful. The buds switch between phone and computer seamlessly, without the need to open Bluetooth or audio settings, and playback pauses when I remove one. They do a basic hearing test and can act as amplifiers if your hearing is poor.

It’s all very intuitive, zero hassle from the moment you open the case: pairing is embarrassingly simple.

The gestures, while useful, feel odd. I can shake my head to answer or reject calls and to stop Siri from reading a long notification. (She insists on reading calendar addresses, which… seems unnecessary.) It’s great to have hands‑free options, though you risk looking crazy to people around you.

Apple devices have several of these unnatural gestures. Besides the AirPods Pro head gestures, the Apple Watch has its own (pinch gesture, twisting the wrist). I feel like the company’s products create a mildly schizophrenic effect — someone already absorbed in their earbuds shaking body parts in odd, inexplicable ways.

Despite everything — the steep price, the limited lifespan — it was one of the best purchases I’ve made in recent years. The noise cancellation delivers on its promise and the audio quality is excellent, at least to my ears.