Apple AirPods 2: Release Date, Features, Cost, Rumors

Apple has always been on the cusp of cutting edge innovations. The launch of Apple AirPods sent the rest of the wireless world into a frenzy trying to create truly wireless earbuds, and while their first iteration isn’t without flaws, it’s safe to say AirPods are one of the best on the market. So what can users expect with Apple AirPods 2?

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Apple AirPods 2: Release Date, Features, Cost, Rumors

The first Apple AirPods hold about 5 hours of battery life, which is, so far, on the higher end of the spectrum. There are literally some buds that get you a mere 2.5 hours while taking 2 hours to fully charge. It’s all bad. Regardless, AirPods are a viable contender for the best truly wireless buds based on sound, connectivity, and battery life while its competition made good on features like fitness tracking, heart rate monitoring, active noise cancelling, various listening profiles and more. Like Tech Radar, we believe Apple will step it up yet again to inch out the competition.

Last year, Apple published a number of different patents. To date, we haven’t seen any come to fruition in any new models leading me to believe these new features might make their appearance in Apple Airpods 2. Fitness tracking and heart rate monitoring is likely to be found on the next generation of Apple AirPods. A patent for “Earbuds with Biometric Sensing” was published March 16, 2017 and it advised placing sensors at the location where the ear bud touches the tragus to track biometric measurements.  Also, a few months before that, June 17, 2016 to be exact, Apple published a patent looking into a water resistant speaker. This would make the Apple AirPods resistant to sweat and able to withstand rigorous workouts. Apparently, they’re already aerodynamic (thanks to the funky white stem sticking out of every users’ ears), so AirPods should be able to stay out during those intense workout sessions as well.

Additional patents include bone conducting earbuds and walkie-talkie-like earbuds. I have no idea when these two features will appear in an earbud, but I think the water resistancy and biometric sensing is way more likely taking into account the Apple Watch is already a fitness tracker and the Health app is a permanent feature on iPhones. I also hope there’s an active noise cancelling feature as well.

Price-wise, Apple AirPods are still the most affordable with the best run time and sound. I hope the apple AirPods 2 can do the same around the $160 price point, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they pushed $200 seeing as ANC technology, heart-rate sensing, and water resistant coating doesn’t usually come cheap.

As for the release date, let’s hope to hear something big during the highly-anticipated Apple Event on September 12.