Majority of readers who are not buying AirPods claim ‘too expensive,’ here are some affordable alternatives

Our recent poll asking readers why they’re holding out on Apple’s AirPods after they’ve received overall good reviews has revealed the majority feels they’re ‘too expensive.’ The second most common reason is long shipping times (currently still 6 weeks on Apple’s website). Here are some reasons why people aren’t willing to spend $159 on Apple’s newest accessory and some affordable alternatives…

Even though AirPods are priced well relative to the other fully wireless options and have a good set of features, the $159 still sets you back 17-29% of the cost of your iPhone (depending on your model). When you think about the purchase from that perspective, I can see why 36%, the largest portion of readers who responded, said they weren’t buying because of price.

Of course another big price relativity factor is that many people will look not only at fully wireless alternatives, but also much more affordable wireless or even wired earphones. Our own Zac Hall mentioned he keeps a pair of $25 lower quality bluetooth earphones around for bad weather in his AirPods versus Powerbeats3 review.

However, there are also some highly rated options that aren’t much more expensive. Anker’s SoundBuds Wireless Headphones are a great option for $30. They feature 8-hour playtime, splash-proof design and they’re rated almost 4/5 stars with over 2,000 reviews on Amazon. Another highly rated choice if you like the neckband style are Mpow’s Jaws Bluetooth Headphones for $24. They have 4.2/5 stars with almost 3,000 reviews and feature 13 hour battery life.

If you don’t mind or even prefer wired earphones, the top selling Amazon option, Panasonic’s In-Ear Headphones can be had for $8 (roughly 5% of the AirPods’ price). Even though there’s a trade-off for wires, you don’t have to worry about charging them, which almost 5% of readers shared as their reason. Don’t forget you’ll need to use your lightning to 3.5mm adapter with your iPhone 7/7 Plus or use can use this slick Griffin accessory to make any wired pair of headphones you love bluetooth enabled.

Other motivations to pass on AirPods besides the reasons you can see below included wanting noise isolation or noise cancelling, planning on waiting for BeatsX or other headphones, and waiting for the 2nd generation. Here are the full results:

If you haven’t taken the poll already you can do so here. As always, please share your thoughts below, even if in contrast to the folks who took the poll you have AirPods and were happy to pay the $159.