 The launch of the AirPods, Apple's Bluetooth headphones, created a hole that most consumers didn't know they needed filled, and as always spawned a plethora of imitators who promised to do the same thing without being overpriced. But are the AirPods overpriced? Or compared to the other products in the market, are they better enough to justify the Apple tax? Well folks, I've got eight pairs of Bluetooth headphones with me to help us get to the bottom of this. The new Masterkeys Pro-MRGB and Pro-S White from Cooler Master are coming soon! Check out their lineup at the link below. Let's meet our contestants, shall we? Wow, that's a lot! Pro tip, by the way, you can watch videos at half speed with the button down there. The AirPods are gonna be our baseline, so we'll start with them. They've got a striking look that, for better or for worse, lets everybody know just how much you love Apple. They come in a lightweight charging case that feels fantastic in the hand, and they pair effortlessly with your iPhone or even other devices with a couple more steps. I would put their sound on the tinny side and the soundstage is a bit narrow, but the articulation is good and there's enough bass present that most people, honestly, will be happy with them. Battery life comes in at five hours of continuous listening, plus four to five quick charges from the included dock. Compare all of that to the Dash from Braggie, the only earphones in our lineup that are actually more expensive than Apple's. But should they be? They're comfortable, they're reasonably light, and subjectively, they look a little cooler than the AirPods, too. And the sound is better as well, with big bass and a full sound, and they even pack some cool extra tech in. Like the AirPods, they can pause when you pull them out, but wait, there's more. They have onboard storage and are waterproof, so you can swim with them while listening to music, they have a touch interface for taking calls and controlling media playback, and they even function as a fitness tracker. Though especially those last two don't work particularly well, leading us into the cons. The big two are range, James didn't experience it, but I've had issues with signal drops while holding my phone in my pocket, and the high noise floor. It sounds like a thhhhh in the background, and it's a big issue if you listen at relatively low volumes. Battery life is also kind of meh. Three to four hours, plus four to five charges from the case sounds okay on paper, but in practice, the bulky and heavy charging case is much less convenient to carry around than Apple's. Jaybird's freedom sound quality beats most of the competitors in this review pretty soundly. Bass is strong, and you'll hear things you wouldn't if you were listening to the same song with the AirPods. They're lightweight, and while you might think that having your phones connected by a wire is maybe less premium, I don't personally mind it. With the wire behind your neck, it's very unlikely to get in the way, and you'll get to keep in-line controls, which can plug into a little charging clip to extend Freedom's battery life from an advertised four hours to eight. It's easy to pop an ear out, and there's no way to lose one of the earphones. The only real drawback is that they're pretty pricey as well. The AxeTO Atom gets some style marks for the ability to offer your friends an earphone like it's the 1930s, and smoking is still cool. But while it's fully wireless, which is neat, it gets some significant points against it. Two and a half hours is too often to be recharging, in my opinion, even if you can do it up to 18 times in a row, and the case also functions as a battery bank, which is cool. The pairing process is relatively complicated, and the multi-purpose button doesn't work for track skipping, play, pause, and phone calls only. With that said, they are reasonably comfortable as long as the ear tips don't stay stuck in your canals, and actually sound pretty decent. I'm tempted to say they sound better than the AirPods because of their deeper bass, expanded soundstage, and reduced tininess, but your mileage may vary because the hi-hats in one of our metal test songs sounded absolutely abominable. I was actually embarrassed to wear the boots by Smartomi, or as I'll be calling them, the Shrek ears, in public. They are lightweight and reasonably comfortable, but never felt quite right due to their size. I would rate their sound as maybe comparable to the AirPods, but a little distant sounding, and turning the volume loud can actually make you wince, the hallmark of bad earphones. So what do they have going for them then? Well, you can access Siri by double tapping the onboard buttons, and the battery life is solid. There's no charging case, but they lasted a full five and a half hours in my test. Not too shabby. But I can't say the same about these. They're the worst ones of the bunch. The Apple Air Twinkies, also known as the Daycoms from TWS. Again, I did not leave my house with these on during testing because they actually look like an intentionally comical parody of the real thing, and not only do they look like hot dogs coming out of your ears, they pretty much sound and feel like it too. They have no punch, no bass, overpronounced highs, they have a horrible pairing process, the positions in the charge case are reversed from when you take them out of your ears, and they never really felt like they were in your ears. So I didn't wear them long enough to find out how long the battery lasts, because I don't care. They're awful. Fortunately, the downward price quality spiral ends here. The $50 Axgeo Dash earphones are my favorite budget pair of the bunch. I even like them more than the $99 Axgeo Adams. They pair more easily, have physical buttons for pausing, track skipping, and even volume control, and even have longer battery life at three hours. Meanwhile, the sound quality is just as good as the Adams, but with arguably more bass, and I would rather listen to these than the AirPods. And although I thought they would be heavy and look stupid, they're not, and I don't think they do. If you're on a tight budget and don't need a charging case, the Axgeo Dash are worth a look, and would be my undisputed budget pick if it weren't for the Aki EP-B4s. So cheap, they don't even seem to appear on Aki's website. They're light, they're comfortable, and believe it or not, they sound comparable to the AirPods, but with strikingly bigger bass. The poor build quality can make the volume rocker and other buttons a little difficult to use, but hey, the functionality is there. My only gripe is the Aldante pasta noodle connecting the two phones that makes you look and feel a bit like a dad on a safari, but aesthetics aside, these things punch way above their weight class. Their low price and five-hour battery life makes them a perfect pick to throw in the gym bag or ski jacket. So trophy time. If you want great sounding wireless earphones that you can listen to all day, it's hard to go wrong with something from Jaybird. The freedoms we covered here or their Blue Buds line, which we've covered in more detail before. If you want a ball on a budget, then go for the Axe Geo Dash or the Aki EP-B4s. But if you want a polished experience and IMO, fantastic industrial design with seamless switching between your Apple devices, the AirPods are there for you. Considering what else is out there, they're not that bad. Just for the love of all, that is good. Don't get the Air Twinkies. Look at these things. Can you think of a cool product or online service that would make sense to advertise online as tech tips in a spot like this one? Well, apparently our ad sales team couldn't and this spot is empty today. So I'm using this opportunity to reach out to you guys and ask you to give us some inspiration. Tweet at colton underscore potter. We're going to put that up on the screen. Tweet at colton potter and give him some ideas because apparently he is just plum out of them. All right, let's do it. Look at he's not even he's going to be stuck in that hole. No, let's go. Let us know what do you guys want to see advertised online as tech tips. So thanks for watching guys. If you liked like if you dislike dislike if you really liked get subscribed or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description. Also down there is our community forum and a place where you can buy cool merch and shirts and stuff like this. And I think that's pretty much it. So check out our latest video over on channel super fun here and I will see you guys on the flip side. What is a flip side? This is what happens when I try and sound cool.