Beats by Dre vs Apple Airpods

We are living in a world where you everyone is in control of what their world looks like. We have so much control. We control what we watch, when we want to watch it, we can even pause it to watch it when we are ready to watch it. It’s similar to sound, that includes music, podcasts, videos and streams. We have so much power and control over what we see and listen to, so much so now that we have different earphones for different times and moods. Earphones are no longer a one-size-fits-all solution – I’ve discovered that various ones have different functions.

Beats By Dre

In reminiscence of Youth month here in South Africa in June, Apple delivered the new Beats By Dre earphones at the office just before I flew out to New York for The Meeting of The Minds Conference that month. The first thing I noticed was that they were cordless/wireless, this was really cool in my eyes because I find that cords generally get in the way of one’s greatness at times, and when good earphones break, it’s very seldom the ear parts that break, it’s usually the cord that gets messed up making it functionally impossible to continue using them. Now with the new Beats By Dre set, you don’t have to have that issue, although the option of having a cord still exists for when you are in a situation where you need to plug in.

Another aspect that really got me impressed was the earphone’s noise cancelling feature, this means that the earphones block out any ‘external noise’ from the outside world, what’s even better is that this noise cancelling means that the person you are speaking to can only hear you, this is without a doubt a great feature. Sure, it could present some dangers, but for the most part, this alone presents greater pros than cons. I was also extremely pleased to discover that I could answer calls effortlessly, without having to remove them.

This is huge for someone like me who is always on the phone, the button on the side of the earphone allows you to press it to answer calls or to hang up on calls, or to pause and play any music you are listening to from the phone. What this basically meant for me, was that I had the earphones on at all times. The volume adjustment on the side of the earphone was another attractive feature, this feature allows you to increase or decrease the volume without having to do so on the actual phone. Things like doing the dishes with these earphones on are a breeze because of it’s cordless properties (I find washing dishes for me is therapeutic for some reason – don’t ask). I can truly say that these earphones are the best for those sorts of things, as well as for office use, PlayStation, or when you just want to block/cancel everything out. These will cost you R4 899 but that means you will not be buying a new pair of headphones in a long time. Available from iStore, www.myistore.co.za.

Apple AirPods

Now these are fascinating earphones for everyone, this is because people have a lot of questions about how they work, how they sound, and if tend to fall while running with them on. Now I am always hard on Apple when it comes to their invention abilities since Steve Jobs passed on, but here, they got it right hey. Firstly, they are cordless so they don’t fall off randomly, they stay put, in fact I am extremely impressed about how solid they stay on. I have slept with the AirPods on and they didn’t fall off at all, I’ve run with them as well and they didn’t fall either. Honestly, if they are not charging in their case they are in my ears. They are so light that sometimes you even forget that you have them on, until you get a call.

Compared to the Beats By Dre earphones, when you answer a call with the AirPods you get heard loud and clear because they have speakers on both sides. When you remove one earphone from one of your ears while music is playing, the music will pause and as soon as you put it back on the music continues. If you choose to answer a call without using your phone, all you have to do is tap the side of the earpiece once, and your call will be answered. To end the call, all you have to do is double tap it at the same place. If there is no call coming in, the command automatically links you to Siri and Siri will ask you what you want or you can tell Siri to “play music” and she will do so.

  

 

The charging case is very sexy, it looks very modern and is unanticipated for an earpiece. The case charges very quickly which means that the earphones also charge very quickly and they last longer. If you are on a call and one piece’s battery is dying, you can charge one piece as you continue using the other until you have both fully charged. These are amazing because they fit easily into your pocket unlike the Beats By Dre sets which are bigger and sometimes not too easy to store when they are not in use. You may be perceived as crazy at first glance when speaking on the phone, as since people don’t necessarily see the earphones, you may seem like you’re speaking to yourself. The sound quality is really good (as usual since its Apple), the only downside is that these miniature gadgets are much easier to misplace due to their size. They are amazing for conference calls, because not only are you clear, you can also hear everything that’s being said on the other end extremely clearly. For making calls, for travel, while waiting for meetings, or even for listening to something until you pass out, these are the best for that. For R2599 this is a good buy and they available from iStore, www.myistore.co.za.