The AirPods are magical. The only time the magic breaks down is when you're in a place where there is a ton of signal interference (e.g. walking around in busy parts of Manhattan). Aside from that, they're about as close to Just Works as anything I've ever used in my life.

Yeah, but they're pretty mediocre headphones in terms of sound quality, and they're built as a single unit making them impossible to recycle.

From what I understand they also don't fit/stay in a lot of people's ears. A lot of in-ear headphones come with different sizes for this reason.

I don't quite understand why you're being down-voted here for a very reasonable statement. I suppose that perhaps 'a lot' is a bit hyperbolical, and it is realistically closer to 'a small few'. I had AirPods for a while, but they simply did not fit comfortably in my ears. I bought some Jabra brand wireless headphones, which come with a selection of different sized buds, and I'm very satisfied with them thus far. They don't quite have the "sleek" look that Apple does so well, but the side button functions are excellent and the call quality seems clearer when in noisy areas. I've had a few friends complain about their AirPods just about not fitting, and I always recommend the Jabra's now.

They actually stay better even if wired Apple earbuds do not. There is no wire pulling them out.

As a headphone buff and snob, I respectfully disagree. I think they sound wonderful, and I own Sennheiser HD1s and HD820s. For as small and portable and convenient and affordable as they are, they are far higher audio quality than I would expect. I use them all of the time.

So it breaks when you need it the most? Gotcha

"Hey let's make everybody use the unregulated band for a basic function so that we make our phones thinner and we can sell more expensive accessories, how about that"

I was initially rather skeptical of bluetooth headphones - but after yet another gardening related headphone incident I bought a cheap pair (£30) and they worked perfectly well. They broke (headband snapped) and I upgraded to moderately priced Sony ones (~£100).

I've literally never had any problems connecting any of these to any devices (desktop PC, iPads, iPhones).

Bluetooth also seems to work pretty much perfectly with my car as well.

I'm not doubting you have problems - but interesting to note that for some people Bluetooth does actually seem to work.

I have a pair of moderately priced Sony BT headphones. Could be a similar model given the price range.

You can't charge and listen at the same time (wtf)

I get no warning when the battery is about to die (combined with the above this really sucks, they shut off in the middle of something)

I dual boot OSX and Windows on my laptop and I have to re-pair the headphones every time I switch OSes. I suspect each OS has a different encryption key, but the headphones can't tell the difference between which OS is running.

They cut out and skip all the time when walking through the City. They are borderline unusable when walking between the train station and my office.

They cut out and skip occasionally when not walking through the City, for no discernable reason.

They have an obnoxious and unnecessary blue LED that blinks periodically when they are turned on. This lights up our whole bedroom at night and annoys the crap out of my wife. I have to keep a piece of black electrical tape over the LED.

These are the best bluetooth headphones I have ever owned, they sound great, and I absolutely hate them.

"I dual boot OSX and Windows on my laptop and I have to re-pair the headphones every time I switch OSes. I suspect each OS has a different encryption key, but the headphones can't tell the difference between which OS is running."

Your suspicion is correct.

The real problem is that Apple and Microsoft both have not provided any way to specify the key to connect with, and they both paired independently, creating a different key each time.

One solution would be to find where the link key was stored in one of the OSs and copy it over to the other OS. Then they would both use the same link key and you are good to go until you re-pair for some reason. I don't know if this (still) works, but some instructions are here:

  https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/268837-dual-boot-bluetooth-pairing-solved/

A different solution could be that the Bluetooth adaptor usually has a way to store the link key within the device in NVRAM. The technicality of that is that the adaptor does never ask the OS for the link key, it just connects. I don't know if tools exist in OSX or Windows to do that, however.

Mine are the MDR-XB650BT - I checked and they were probably cheaper than I thought (probably ~£60).

I use mine when I commute by train into Edinburgh and they really haven't given me any problems - I didn't even know they had a blue LED until I checked there... :-)

Battery life is good enough for my purposes - but I do make a point of keeping them charged up as I live in fear of a commute without an audiobook! They certainly don't cut out for me.

My favorite regular reason for mine cutting out and skipping is when I turn my head to the right.

These were an inexpensive model, but were nonetheless very well-reviewed on many tech sites, and often recommended as one of the top budget options.

I'm surprised when it works.

I still don't know how to unpair on some black boxes. My partner has a speaker, and I think auto-pairing occurs if used previously, so we have a strange ritual of turning off bluetooth on other devices until it seems to correct itself when wanting to use it.

I've always assumed this was a UI issue.

I've had phones that have presented themselves as a pointing device to a computer. Some as modems. Some that have transferred/pushed files okay on some OSs, not others. I have no idea what's going on with Bluetooth most of the time, and it's quite infuriating. On Linux Blueman doesn't give much away. On a Windows PC I have, using Bluetooth kills WIFI, and requires a reboot to fix.

From a mobile perspective if I say try and transfer a file from a phone, it can turn Bluetooth on, fail and then leave it on.

Wireless headphones sound like a great idea though! But again not sure which protocols are being used. Again that's a UI issue, I've a streaming speaker - and have no idea about the stream quality of what I'm listening to. Oh for some simple feedback diagnostics.

We have a couple of those bluetooth speakers (UE Booms) and I've never had a problem with them either!

Mind you - I never 'unpair' a device - I just set the BT device to be in pairing mode (or whatever it is called) and then connect from my phone/tablet and that removes the previous connection. Having to do this on both devices and that the step necessary to initiate pairing is device specific is the only issue I have with BT - but it's a relatively minor one.

Funnily, I had the almost the same experience (started with a cheap pair of headphones, loved them, broke them, went on to a ~100EUR Sony pair). With Android never had any problem with bluetooth devices. Windows almost never.

Linux though is a complete disaster: when I turn the headphones on I _always_ have to manually disconnect them and reconnect. Even so, from time to time they stick to the audio only profile and there is not way to use the embedded microphone unless I disconnect them, turn them off, turn them on and repeat the incantation.

Same with me. I’ve had two bluetooth headphones, one pair from sony and one pair from bower & wilkins. Never had problem with them.

All the Bluetooth issues being downplayed in this thread are a far cry from wired headphones that just work.

I've found (after many bad buys) a pair of cheap bluetooth headphones that 'just work' with my iphone. The problem is, there is no way for a customer to tell whether a bluetooth device is going to work well or not (or even not at all!)

Bluetooth can be good but there are just too many devices which are 'bluetooth compatible' in theory but have many odd incompatibilities. Perhaps it is the complexity of the spec that causes this to happen to bluetooth, rather than wifi...

I had zero problems while using Apple products: mouse, keyboard and Airpods. Other two non-Apple products: Withings watch and Honda Civic gave me no problems either.

Microsoft makes excellent Bluetooth keyboards and mice. Sennheiser does OK with headphones, with their newest models being markedly better than ones even to years ago. There are also a few, rare, small companies that do a pretty good job: TechNet and AfterShokz come to mind.

They're getting better. It's a little reminiscent of Android, actually, which wasn't really solid until KitKat.

For example, I have a microsoft bluetooth mouse that is utterly painless & two AA batteries last for something like a year working full time. Also have a pair of Jabra 65t, pairing is annoying and on rare occasions it hiccups, but 97% of the time they are excellent. I had owned BT mice & headphones previously, and they have never been better than today.