As christmas break has passed and the new year has begun, Tahoma High School students return decked out in their new Christmas gifts in order to make an impression.

However, between 2018 and 2019 there has been a new change in the “statement” item that is popular around THS: Airpods. These wireless earbuds were first released by Apple in December of 2016 to order online, but have rapidly gained more and more attention over the past 3 years.

These headphones come with a variety of new features such as, bluetooth connection, the ability to pause once taken out of your ears, long-lasting battery life, and more. But, as technology advances, the price has risen too. AirPods now go for $159; a drastic $130 increase in price from the original “Apple Earpods.” So, even while these tech savvy headphones may include plenty of new features, the price can easily be a deal breaker.

Amidst the memes and jokes about this product, it can be hard to tell if they are truly worth all the hype. The price is normally the main topic of conversation when discussing AirPods, so to look at the reviews of alternative features, here are the honest reviews of the headphones. A survey of Tahoma students determined that 18.2% of students own a pair of AirPods. However, even if they did or did not own a pair, 9.1% of students thought that they would be worth it, while 63.6% think the quite simply are not good enough for the price. The other 27.3% believe that they might be worth it, but the pros and cons of the product leave them undecided.

In general, all of the new and improved factors of these headphones may be intriguing or lavish; but they truly would not be worth the cost. The majority of students have explained that they are satisfied with their own pair of headphones, or they could lose AirPods too easily if they owned a pair. While the non-traditional appearance may create a more “dazzling” effect, there’s nothing wrong with regular earpods if there’s no pre-existing issues. Between being overpriced, too unreliable, and somewhat useless, AirPods do not seem to be worth all of the hype.