AppleDigger

AirPods 2 Features, Design, Release Date, Should you upgrade?

AirPods is one of the biggest selling Apple’s gadgets of all time – it’s an amazing present for any celebration, a totally new experience of phone calls, music and everything with voice on your iPhone. When they first came out, people had a lot of skepticism, jokes, but it all vanished once more and more people started appearing on the streets wearing this cool piece of tech. It’s clear – apple wanted to show other manufacturers how to make wireless earphone, create a foundation of the new wireless era, and as a result, nowadays, we have plenty of AirPods alternatives from famous tech industry leaders – Samsung, Xiaomi and Huawei. They are doing a great job and undoubtedly have their own advantages, but still, up to this date, no-one can come very close. But with a recent release of the new Samsung buds, they can, in theory, create a small or big competition. So with that in mind, Apple was working really hard on their next generation of wireless earphones – Apple AirPods 2.

Design and First Look

Design of the AirPods earphones & how its going to change.

The old design of the AirPods is still truly outstanding. It took a tremendous amount of time and effort to engineer something as simple, and yet, even fashionable, that could fit everyone. But that’s changing, in an even better way. If we take a closer look at the first generation of AirPods and Apple Pencil, a similarity in design can be spotted – the main tube (grip) of the Apple Pencil is the same shape and form as the AirPods battery part. These are all small things, that aren’t visible from the first glance, but Apple has its product design guidelines which they follow in the certain period. Now, if we take a look the new Apple Pencil 2nd Generation, the main part which changed is the grip, it doesn’t have this perfect cylinder form anymore, its got a hexagon like shape to it for a better grip and more comfortable use. Besides that, it looks even more high-tech now. As rumored, the new Apple AirPods 2 are gonna get the outer part flattened to match the Apple Pencil 2 esthetics. Don’t get me wrong, these 2 products are not connected between each other in any way, but the design pattern that Apple has been following and their will for opening to a new possibilities is what has been happing through all these years, so AirPods 2 are getting a more aggressive but in the same time a more futuristic look.

AirPods 2 vs AirPods 1 with the comparison between Apple Pencil Design

AirPods 2 Changing Case Design

While for for many people, AirPods case serves enough juice to power their music for a whole week – for others its a pain. You have to connect them to the charger and leave AirPods and your music at home every time you forgot to do it. In my experience it happens rarely, but what if there was a bigger battery inside? From a recent Max Weinbach report, Apple decided to increase the width and height of the AirPods case, so it’s now bigger and can house a bigger battery. It’s still unknown how the size may impact the future buyers, because AirPods main strength was the compact size and lightweight, but a much bigger battery with 36 hours would be a great benefit with a size tradeoff. Its Still unknown whether Apple will add a black edition to the AirPods or not, a render of such a concept is available below.

Old case in comparison to the new AirPods 2 case with bigger battery

AirPods 2 Features

As for today, we have plenty of features inside AirPods: double tap on both earphones or opening and closing animation with battery percentage right on your iPhone. But Apple is not sitting at once place – they move forward, so their products do. The aforementioned new design will make room for more features, for example: the new flat side can include a sensor area, so aside for double tap, we will be able to adjust volume right on the AirPod itself – swipe up for max volume and swipe down to make it quite. Another feature that we might see is always on Siri, so we can talk to Siri at any time.

Hey Siri feature for AirPods found in IOS 12 code

This can dramatically decrease the standby time of the AirPods 2, but we should leave this challenge to Apple, as they always create magic out of something complex, and the new W2 chip will be more energy efficient, so we can easily expect that feature. In addition to the new chip, Bluetooth 5.0 will be definitely built in, it will provide a faster data transfer and more stable connection with a wider connection range, so if previously AirPods denied to work in your kitchen, they probably will now. As for the case – the main new feature will be wireless charging. AirPods 2 will be able to charge wirelessly from any QI charging device, and the most exciting part of the Max Weinbach about the wireless charging is about charging speed. He claims AirPods 2 will go from 0 to 100% in 15 minutes, so there won’t be need to worry about them not being charged enough before going somewhere. It’s still unclear whether it will be only possible with AirPower or third party fast chasers, but it’s a game-changer.

Release Date

As stated by multiple sources, Apple AirPods 2 will be ready for sale on 29th of March, so it’s not that far away. Alongside AirPods 2, we might see a new iPad 2019, iPad mini 5, which was leaked earlier as well as some accessories, such as long – waited AirPower and optional wireless charging case for AirPods first generation. The new AirPods 2 are rumored to be starting at 199$, which is more expensive than the current ones.

Should you upgrade?

If having latest and greatest is your thing, and you can justify the price then yes. Also if you had any problems with a small battery and too much charging – the new generation of AirPods will be welcomed, it may resolve all of the battery issues. But in theory, AirPods 2 shouldn’t make a big difference as they are offering extra features and functionality for the most part, and the biggest upgrade an iPhone user can make is to upgrade from wired EarPods to AirPods. There will also be a lot of people who’d want to sell the current AirPods, so if new AirPods 2 aren’t your thing, look for some great deals after the release.