REVIEW: Apple AirPods great, but...

Dubai - Why did Apple leave out on-the-fly volume controls on its latest wonder?

They look like toothbrushes, hairbrushes, cleaning brushes or anything else with a handle dangling out of your ears.
And Apple's newest wireless gizmo, the AirPods, are basically your trusty EarPods without the tangles of cables, plus controls you'd expect from wireless audio devices - but not everything you need.
Much like with the Apple Watch, pairing it is easy enough (but no aligning-anything like that wrist bling); open the AirPods case and place it anywhere near your iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch or Mac within a 5cm distance. A pop-up will appear and you'll know you're ready to use them.
Remember, at the minimum, you need an iPhone, iPad or iPod with iOS 10.1, an Apple Watch with watchOS 3 or a Mac with macOS Sierra for your 'Pods to make some noise.
And good news: the AirPods can be used with Android devices. Yipee.
Once connected, opening the charging case (with the AirPods in them) will bring up a box showing how much juice they have left (even on the lock screen). Alternatively, you can also check the battery life in the widgets screen to the left of your first home screen.
 

Connects and shows you its battery status almost instantly.
 
And here's why you see two battery levels: the case has its own stored power, so putting your AirPods in them will automatically charge them. Apple says a 15-minute charge will give you up to three hours of life, five hours on one full charge and an additional 24-plus hours with the charging case. Not bad, considering the Samsung IconX will give you three hours and double that with its charging case, while the Sony Xperia Ear belts out up to four hours and up to 16 hours.
The charging case, by the way, has a magnetic function that firmly holds the 'Pods - which means, given its smooth finish, you may have trouble pulling out the AirPods if your fingers are a bit slippery or oily. And you can charge it using an Apple Lightning cable, which is, thankfully, included. (Which leads to my public apology: During my Facebook Live video the other night I erroneously mentioned that it charges using USB Type-C. Well, I'M SORRY! Stuff happens! And thanks - and I mean it - to one particular user who was calling me out using some NSFW language during that post!)
Obviously, you won't have a problem slapping in the AirPods into your ears; they fit in nice just like your ol' one-size-fits-all EarPods. However, it did fall off after some seconds while putting it through some old-school head-banging test courtesy of one of my KT colleagues (who ended up with nausea) - so much for that one-size-fits-all thing.
 

At least they're easy to pull out.
 
Apple's busy strengthening its own ecosystem, so if you have more than one iOS device using the same Apple ID, it automatically makes itself cozy there.
Putting the AirPods in your ears automatically connects it to your device, and it disconnects when you take them off. If you're listening to music, removing both stops your track, while taking out only one pauses it - and this works even if you transfer it to another person's ear. (Also, initially, I observed it wouldn't work if you placed one 'Pod in the wrong ear; I was eventually able to make it work even if L is on the right and R is on the left.)
And they've also decided to slap in Siri functionality on the AirPods; double-tap on either 'Pod and command Siri just like what you would do on your iOS device. You can also use this function to answer/end calls or transfer to another.
And looking for the volume controls? Well, this brings us to the downside: the only way you can control the volume is to fire up Siri and issue a command like "increase volume" or "decrease volume". And every time you bring Siri up, the music pauses and you'll have to wait for Siri to process what you've asked it before putting your track back on. Every. Single. Time.  I'm telling you, seven seconds - from double-tapping to resuming a song - is waaay too long to boost your volume.
 

Why, Apple... WHY?!
 
And in all fairness, it does have nice audio quality. I particularly noticed it has better bass than some of its competitors; that W1 chip is doing a pretty good job in there.
It's Dh649 a pop, pricier than the IconX's Dh599 (already out a long time ago) but lower than the Xperia Ear's Dh799 (available from January 1). And if you lose one of them, it'll cost you $69 for a replacement (no word yet exactly how much it'll be in dirhams here in the UAE). And as at this writing, you can only order it online.
As always, you be the judge.
- alvin@khaleejtimes.com