For example, I recently tried to switch from some airpods to a pair of Anker liberty earbuds. I have 4 devices that I regularly use the headset with, an iPhone, an iPad a macbook air and a work laptop. The airpods switch almost without any effort on my part between my personal devices, connecting automatically to whichever of the devices I am currently interacting with when I take them out. On the occasions when that doesn't happen, selecting them from the bluetooth menu connects them without issue. For my work laptop, because it's not registered with my personal accounts, the airpods don't connect automatically but after pairing them once during the initial setup, when I select them in the menu, they connect reliably and quickly.
By contrast the anker earbuds apparently are only able to store connection information for two devices at a time. While I can pair them to all 4 devices, when I take them out, they will always connect to whatever the last device they were connected to, and if I connect from the bluetooth menu/settings on the device, they will only connect to the second to last device they were connected to. For the other devices, they will attempt to connect and eventually timeout. Even though the device still has the earbuds registered, the only way to connect it to device 3 or 4 is to delete it from the device, and go through the entire re-pairing process, at which point the earbuds will stop connecting to what is now the 3rd to last device they were connected to.
The only good BT experience I've had is my Bose QC35ii headphones, which can connect to multiple devices at the same time.
If I’m on my iPad and playing something and put my AirPods Pro in my ear, sound automatically gets sent to my AirPods. The same happens with my Mac and iPhone. It doesn’t happen with the AppleTV since multiple people might be watching.
Also once I pair my headphones to one device on my account, it’s automatically paired to all of my devices. The initial pairing process for my phone and iPad is just open the case the first time and a pop up shows up.
On the other hand, if I’m on my iPad watching a movie and get a call on my phone, it switches over automatically. It then switches back when I go back to my iPad. If I take one AirPod out of my ear to gear someone, video pauses automatically on whichever device I’m using.
Then there are the little touches like being able to control headphone options like noise cancellation and special audio from my phone, iPad, or TV, seeing battery remaining and automatically being registered with Find My.
And for me apple decides to do these switches on its own without my input at times when I do not want this to happen. I have not found a way to disable this yet.
But is there ever a time that you said “I really wish I had to pair my headphones to each of my devices individually and had to adjust settings by clicking on a button on my headphones and decipher the various beeps”?
The upshot is that I suffer zero vendor lockin. I bought Airpod equivalents from Aliexpress, the FIIL T1 Lite for $35. They are little marvels of Chinese engineering that do everything I need and actually sound great - they frequently outperform $100+ earbuds both in reviews on blogs and according to casual Reddit commentary. Since I only use them when out and about, it's not possible to experience any audio quality upgrade unless I sacrifice practicality and go with some closed-back over-the-ear cans.
When you pair to one device, do they automatically pair to all of your devices?
All Apple headphones work as standard BT headphones on non Apple devices. I fail to see any “vendor” lock in.
As far as price, you can also pick up a pair of $50 Beat Flex headphones that have most of the same functionality with Apple devices.
I assure you those $35 “AirPod equivalents” don’t have the noise cancellation, spatial audio, transparency mode, or microphone quality that the AirPods Pro have.
Airpods were a neat party trick maybe... 5 years ago? Wireless audio isn't complicated nowadays though, I've tried at least a dozen Bluetooth headsets that embarrass the Airpods Pro (often at a lower price point).
The last thing I want to do is stop people from buying overpriced headphones though. If Airpods make you happy, then by all means, buy them. You're mostly paying a premium for iCloud integration though, which I'd frankly pay extra to avoid.
Shit though, if you want proof that Airpods are a downgrade from regular headphones, just compare the audio quality: https://youtu.be/N6Y_Q7RYmmY?t=360
The vendor lock-in is by definition there if there are any special Apple features. If there is no vendor lock-in, there is neither any special Apple-exclusive magic features that justify the price premium?
I know my FIIL buds don't have active noise canceling. They are IEMs and give about 20 dB passive noise reduction which is more than enough. The microphone quality is decent, but for any longer calls I use my Jabra which has a proper mic.
This is ridiculous. Then no manufacturer, weather it be cars, or clothing, or industrial equipment would offer anything different than their competitors, lest it be deemed "vendor lock in".
I see people mention this, and I don't get it. I have a bunch of el cheapo Bluetooth audio adapters (car/garage/bathroom), one Bose headset, one Jabra headset, one chi-fi headset, one JBL speaker. They just work.
Very occasionally on my Android phone I have to pull down the system tray, click the little arrow next to Bluetooth and select the device I want. But in those few ambiguous situations there is no tech apart from clairvoyance that would allow the phone to know my intentions without my input.