If you don’t mind buying refurbished units, it’s a good day to get your ears on some AirPods. As one of its Deals of the Day, Best Buy is currently selling a refurbished set of Apple’s beloved true wireless earbuds for just $135.99, down from the usual price of $159.99. They’re Geek Squad refurbished rather than Apple refurbished, but on the bright side, Best Buy’s generous return and exchange policy still applies.
It’s not a massive drop, but it’s a good price for a popular Apple product that almost never goes on sale. Indeed, often the mere fact that AirPods are in stock again counts as news on sites like Amazon. In some cases, they sell out within days or even hours.
And yes, they’re worth it. I was skeptical myself, but these days they’re what I usually reach for when I’m not working at my desk. (I prefer proper noise cancelling tech for that, and right now the AirPods don’t have it. At least not yet.) The sound quality blows the wired EarPods out of the water, and I love the way you can set double-taps on either earpiece to talk to Siri, play or pause the music, or switch to the next track.
They’re ridiculously easy to pair with an iPhone, and I admire the way the music stops for a couple of seconds when you take them out so that you can listen to a question from someone on the street. And yes, they’re particularly great for urban sidewalk commuters like me.
They’re even getting better. iOS 12 will bring the Live Listen feature to the AirPods, which basically lets you turn your AirPods into an amplifier for your hearing. That’s obviously a great feature for folks with less-than-stellar hearing, but even normal users can get some use out of it from time to time. What I’m trying to say is that AirPods are a great purchase for full retail price, so the savings here make them a truly great buy.
[Today’s deal: Refurbished AirPods for $24 off at Best Buy]
Author: Leif Johnson, Contributing Writer
Leif is a San Francisco-based tech journalist. He's a big fan of fantasy RPGs, and you can find his previous work on IGN, Rolling Stone, VICE, PC Gamer, Playboy, Mac|Life, TechRadar, and numerous other publications.