These AirPods-style earbuds cost $30 less

It's been over a year since Apple launched AirPods, but it's only now that other companies are really starting to unite them when it comes to the style and shape of wireless headphones. The last ones are from Mobvoi, which is starting an Indiegogo campaign to sell TicPods Free, a pair of wireless headphones that look like a slightly thicker and more angular version of the AirPods. In addition, they come in colors other than white.

TicPods offer the same set of AirPod features: they come with a charging case, pause music when you remove it from your ears, play them to control playback, have built-in microphones to answer calls, and you can access a smart assistant – Google Assistant, Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri – with a twist.

Here are some advantages over AirPod, but they are not necessarily huge. TicPod have a degree of resistance to water and sweat; they are designed to be compatible with Android (AirPods also works with Android, but some features are not available); and you can get them in blue or red, in addition to solid white. Another good feature is that your headset comes with two sizes of silicone tips, which should help them to adhere better to the ear and even form a seal.

The question that this announcement can not answer is whether they will match the reality of the AirPod key feature: reliability. Apple's greatest strength has been simply that AirPods work well no matter what, while other companies have had problems balancing wireless connectivity with battery life, size and shape.

Photo: Mobvoi

Given this great unknown, you may not want to back up the TicPods immediately. Some of the first sponsors in Indiegogo will be able to obtain them for $ 59, but Mobvoi intends to sell them for $ 129 retail. That's only $ 30 less than AirPods, which is not a big discount when you do not know what you get. It is assumed that the first units will send the sponsors in July. Meanwhile, Apple seems to be preparing a second generation of AirPod for this year.

Mobvoi is also not the only company that works for similar AirPods. Huawei recently announced a pair of very similar wireless headphones, but in the same way, we still do not know how they will actually work. Mobvoi also launched several Android Wear devices and Google Assistant; According to reports, Google invested in the company in 2015.

Photo: Mobvoi