MacFormat UK – June 2019

Buying your first

AirPods? You’ll be

even more delighted

than early adopters,

largely due to the

addition of Hey Siri.

+++++

Still surprisingly

good sound quality

Hands-free control

Mics can still mishear

Available only in white

VERDICT

APPLE’S

WIRELESS

CHARGING CASE

> Got first-gen AirPods

and want to charge them

on a mat? The new case is

available for £79. See

bitly.com/apqicase.

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macformat.com @macformat JUNE 2019 | MACFORMAT | 89

Hey Siri is a great addition if the places you hang out

provide you with a reliable internet connection.

W

hen we reviewed the

original AirPods (see

MF #309), we said they

were “the first Apple-branded

headphones you’ll want to wear”,

yet awarded them 3 stars out of 5.

A software update remedied our

complaint that you couldn’t assign

different double-tap gestures to each

wireless bud, which would’ve been

enough to warrant a 4-star rating.

If you’re glancing at our score

for the updated hardware, which

delivers other meaningful improvements,

you’re probably wondering why we still

haven’t awarded full marks. After all, the new

AirPods support hands-free control, deliver

an hour’s worth of extra talk time, and there’s

an optional wireless charging case if you pay

£40 more than the regular version. The first

of those alone sounds great, right?

That the new AirPods listen for you saying

“Hey Siri” is something we eagerly wanted

from a new model. It enables you to make calls,

dictate text messages, and request specific

music and control its playback simply by

speaking. You can still double-tap at times

when you don’t want to speak – there’ll be

plenty of those – but using only your voice is

a great convenience when your hands are full.

There’s an underlying weakness to this,

though it’s really one of Siri itself, not either

generation of AirPods: Apple’s voice-driven

assistant becomes useless if your internet

connection drops out. That’s disappointing

given that Voice Control, Siri’s far less capable

predecessor, is able to interpret basic playback

commands even when your device is offline.

Siri could do with gaining a similar degree

of on-device intelligence, which would in turn

make AirPods even better to use. If we’re to

put a positive spin on this, our frustration at

encountering it just a few times highlights

the usefulness of Hey Siri on AirPods.

Whiteout conditions

There are no audio or visual changes, not even

new colour options, bar the status light on the

Qi-compatible wireless charging case’s front.

That case adds £40 to the price, and can also be

charged over a cable. Sadly AirPower, Apple’s

convenient simultaneous iPhone, AirPods and

Watch charger, was announced as cancelled

days after the new AirPods went on sale.

As before, we still find the microphones

have trouble hearing us against noisy traffic.

Either Siri mishears or doesn’t respond at all

until we raise our voice. It responds quickly

and reliably when there’s less hubbub, though.

Apple’s claim that the buds connect more

quickly to devices rang true for us though.

Waiting a little longer wasn’t a huge problem,

yet hearing the confirmatory chime in a couple

of seconds is another thing that adds up to a

solid improvement. ALAN STONEBRIDGE

This version

has meaningful

improvements

like Hey Siri and

longer talk time

AirPods (2nd gen)

Take command without even a touch

£159 or £199 FROM Apple, apple.com/uk FEATURES Charging case

with Lightning or charging case with Lightning and Qi wireless, Bluetooth

Siri’s bad habit of taking over the screen when you simply

want to skip a track, say, is another drawback as of iOS 12.