AirPods 2 or Sony WF-1000XM3: Wireless earbud battle

[MUSIC] Sony is taking on the air pods with its latest pair of noise cancelling wireless ear buds.>> This is Apple air pods versus Sony WF 1000XM3. Three. Three. [MUSIC] We're here at the beautiful Everdeen Rooftop at the Virgin Hotel in San Francisco. And what better place than this to test out some wireless Cuz we're obviously gonna be throwing them down to see which one survives the 12th floor that we're on right now. Yeah that's the next video. So stay tune for that one. Well first thing first let's Let's get something out of the way, Lexie. Obviously, we're very well aware that these are two different beasts. First off, just in terms of price range. The Airpods here are $159, while the Sony earbuds are $229. So, just that is a huge difference. But also in terms of specs, it would seem that it's no brainer. That the Sony's would win, but it's not necessarily the case. Well, let's dive into it. Let's start with design and the most obvious differences between them externally, the Airpods seat in your ear, whereas the Sony's have selectable tips that you can swap in depending on the size of your ear. So that creates a. It's an extra seal a little bit more security, perhaps a lot of people, maybe the apples just won't work for you just because you have an ear where they'll pull out if you're doing something active. I know Sony is very, very generous with what they do given the box, but I still felt like I was kind of between sizes. So what ended up working for me was that and something that Sony suggested was using a different size. Tip on one ear canal and different size tip in the other because apparently your canals are different. Yeah. And that ended up it didn't make a perfect fit me, but it definitely help. It's still a lot of work that makes me light the earpads and this simplicity of the sticking in my ear, that said. I'm obviously one of the lucky ones that they fit. Something where you need a really good fit is working out. But I did run with them. And they were fine. I ran with them as well. It seemed like they didn't fall out but they were heavier. So I was much more aware of them than I was with the air pods.>> I really like the design of the Sony case. I think it looks Very premium compared to the Airpods and I love that you call it finishes that black. And that's cool. For sure. I mean the only thing is to consider that if you are going to be putting it into your pocket, it is going to have a bigger bulk and it's almost too I would say more than twice the size of the Airpod case. [MUSIC] Ok, let's talk call and sound quality cuz to me this is really the most important part of any headphone, any ear bud. And straight off the bat, the Sonys absolutely blow the AirPods out of the water, like Vanessa there's no Competition here. If you're an audio file, you're going to want to go for these. The active noise cancellation is fantastic. Overall, just like the sound on the default sound profile is super clear. And the app that you can download to go with it on iOS or Android, so you get a full equalizes control. I love that and also you get the ability to adjust the enemy. We have sound control so if you want to have more external noise come in rather than having pure noise cancellation. You can adjust that or have the automatic selection choose it for you, depending on where you are. I'm not even a sound expert, like you are, Lexi. And it was obvious from the get go for me which one was the clear winner. For sound quality I didn't know how bad the air pod sound quality was until I listened to them back to back. So I would totally agree with you on that note and as you said it's really nice to be able to turn off noise cancellation because there're times where you wanna listen to your surroundings and it's a huge difference when you turn it off and you turn it on, on the app. It's nice that it detects it automatically. It didn't always do it for me especially sitting down in the office it lets in too much ambient noise so I would have to manually put it on transportation mode. Where it's not so clear cut though is when it comes to call quality I tested both out and obviously sound when you're listening into a conversation is better Sony because of what we just discussed, however, on the receiving end, so basically the microphone There was not much of a difference between the airpods and the Sony ear buds, and the sound was not great coming from the microphone on either one of them. [MUSIC] You can use both of these ear buds on iOS and Android, but your ecosystem will really I guess determine how easy it is to connect With the Sony's, you have NFC tap to pay which I love on Android so you just hold it against the back of the phone and they pay instantly. But on iOS for the airpods you just flip open the case and they'll instantly connect too, obviously you can use one with a different ecosystem. You just have to pay through the settings Mainly through Bluetooth. And I said like once I did pair the Sony's with an iPhone, it was pretty seamless thereafter it was just kind of the initial setup that was a little bit more clunky than doing it straight from the air pods. The other thing though, that you won't be able to do though, if you have air pods and you're using them with an Android phone is customise the controls you can only customise them. The settings of an iPhone whereas the Sony ear buds allow you to download the app and customize from any phone including an iPhone. So the Airports have a hey Siri functionality so you can just talk to your assistant. The Sony's you do need to press to activate the Google Assistant. I'm gonna go with Siri on this one only because it's hands free and one of the things that I'm lacking most on both of these are volume controls. Yeah. So, I really miss that, and it's something that I love about the powerbeats is just to be able to manually control the volume and just, I mean, it's one of the things that I use Siri for, so it's nice not to have to Tap or do anything and just seminar and turn off the volume or whatever I'm already pissed off at both of them for non essential to begin with. So it's just kind of the lesser of two evils for that reason [MUSIC] When it comes to performance, both of these earbuds are Bluetooth 5.0, and the Airpods use the H1 chip, whereas the Sonys use Sony's Q1Ne. It doesn't matter, just think about Sony's naming, it's so hard to remember, don't even get me started. I feel like Apple does a great job at catchy names, so Airpods Recently remember what these are called. These are called the Sony WF100xm3 1000. [LAUGH] Sure. Yeah. Either way I don't care because I'm not gonna remember this. You remember this? No. We keep calling them phonies because this just that's not acceptable as a name. I'm sorry. [LAUGH] I think the Airpods have a little bit better connectivity overall with IOS, as I experienced fewer dropouts overall. And there was just a couple times when I was listening to the Sony's when they were doing a little bit of stuttering, but then I did a software update They automatically keep releasing you updates and they've improved so much over the couple of weeks that I was testing. So you're calling them to the Sony's too. Yeah. Well they are the Sony. I'm not gonna say that you ask 1000 story. [MUSIC] So forth. Sony and Apple say you'll get around 24 hours of total charge on the cases. And then the bugs themselves to get five hours listening time on the Airpods and six on the Sony's with noise cancelling and at a moderate volume. I found that that actually helped pretty true the Airpods so five hours on the dot nothing more, I could squeeze out of them and And then the Sony's were pretty good around that six hour mark. Yeah I noticed that the Sony's had more juice at the end of the week than the Airpods, I had to charge the airpods after three days of my use. So I don't use them quite as much you do maybe where the Sony ear bud, I, they lasted almost five days. I'm not sure why, I'm not sure is they were just better at turning off when I wasn't using then or consuming battery or what, because as you say on paper, this coz has a lot to say but I definitely got more. Out of the Sony's. [MUSIC] All right, let's see it is crunch time. I'm gonna turn to you and pretend like I don't know which ones you're gonna choose and ask which ones were your winners? Isn't that obvious to you, the Sony WF 1000 XM3, wish they had a catchy name, but regardless I love the noise cancellation. The sound quality is off the charts. And they feel such like premium ear buds for the money compared to the Apples. I gotta say I'm truly Totally shocked by your decision. [LAUGH] I'm so shocked. [LAUGH] And I'm just gonna disagree with you just- Come on. For the sake of disagreeing. I mean, if money weren't an issue, I would agree. And obviously the sound quality is amazing on those. But if you factor everything in price included, I'll go for the Air Pods, yes because of the price. Also they're lighter I don't have to worry about the tips falling out in my ears, and the case is a lot smaller and lot more Portable. Well, what do you think? Let us know if the Sony's or the airport's one this comparison big thank you to the everdene rooftop here at the Virgin Hotel in San Francisco and let us know what you want us to compare next on vs.