>Compared to what, your "over-ear" set?
Yeah, that's the comparison I was making. The airpods didn't provide any functional upgrade over earpods (or any set of cheap wired headphones with a remote/mic in them) for me. The airpods made things harder. The double-tap to skip tracks was far from ideal given that it just resulted in slamming this little headphone into my ear, and that kind of hurt. The inline remote/mic was better for that, and it also allowed me to change volume - the airpods not having volume adjustment on them meant I had to keep my device in my pocket, so now the advantage of bluetooth (device set further away, not in the pocket) is gone. The over-ear set has volume controls and a play/pause button.
>Put them in the case, they're charging. The case stays charged for days of casual use. What exactly is "finicky"?
Charging my over ear set is uncomplicated - everything I have charges off of microUSB so I always have that connector around, and to charge the headphones I just plug in the charger. I can use them while they're charging. Airpods require me to stop using them to charge. Nothing else I have is like this - phones, iPods, laptops, or other bluetooth headphones.
I don't worry about the over-ear set coming off. They're comfortable and sit nicely while walking. I always wear a hat when using airpods because I worry about them falling out. When an earpod falls out, it dangles off the other one, and I put it back in. Especially useful while biking (helmet makes wearing ear-covering hats harder).
I get that airpods are probably the best in the category of tiny little 'true wireless' earbuds. I get that 'put them in the charging case' is really the only way to do charging for this type of headphones. I understand they did the best they could, and that with this style of headphones there's severe limitations. But after having owned a pair, I don't understand why anyone would want to use them over something 1/3 the cost that offers much more convenience.
That goes with the form factor (which is the main selling point for its other benefits, mainly freedom from cables when using them), not some special problem of the airpods themselves.
There’s plenty of better sounding fully wireless headphones in that price range - Jabra elite 65t are meant to be good, I have the beoplay e8 and they are quite nice, Sennheiser momentum are in that same price class etc etc.
For the "lightweight, minimum BT-connectivity fuss, no wires, BT earbuds" category, which they basically kick-started and dominate.
>These are not good headphones.
Yes, they're not good. Just the best in their category.
>The battery life is kind of bad
For two tiny isolated, on-each-ear earbud style headphones? Compared to what, your "over-ear" set?
>the charging system is finicky
Put them in the case, they're charging. The case stays charged for days of casual use. What exactly is "finicky"?
>the sound is poor
Good enough for music, movies, and calls. I also have (from past purchases) the Parrot Zik 2, the ATH-50x (for simple DAW monitoring), and Sony WH1000XM3, and I could not care less for the differences in sound compared to the convenience of the Airpods.
>and there's not even passive noise isolation.
A fact which probably saves lives of people crossing the street constantly.