Finally bagged some Solo3s. They're nearly as good as advertised. I'm surprised by their range. Depends a little on weather, but I've been able to leave my iPhone inside, walk out the front door and about 30-40 yards further outside before I even got the "left ear orientation" issue -- the antenna seems to be in the left ear of the Beats, and it keeps the connection longer if the left ear is pointed towards the iPhone.

Anyhow, I wanted to write a review, but kept waiting until I had time. Instead, let me point out this review, which covers almost exactly everything I was going to say.

I'll add that the Solo3s don't automagically pair with my iPhone every time, however. The magic pairing is sooo much better than Bluetooth is usually, but I did run into this...

Connection Failed -- W1 chip (Beats Solo3 and Airpods)

So that could've been better. It's rare, but it happens.

Otherwise, though, they're great. When people say that Apple's missing out on Alexa and other personal assistants, these headphones make it obvious that they really aren't, they're just concentrating on personal computers. As long as I'm not planning to have multiple people listen to something, I now use my Solo3s instead of Alexa. Podcasts, weather, reading texts... they're all with me all the time now. The Beats really are an interface.

Oh, and though the range of the headphones for audio out is incredible, the range of the microphone isn't nearly as impressive. I've tried replying to texts that Siri read to me fairly cleanly from two three rooms down from my iPhone, but its transcriptions from the same distance are crap until I get lots closer. Pairing also seems much more range intolerant.

I'll also add that being able to hook up a cable to listen to music from the old jack without power is pretty cool too. That is, even if your batteries die, you can listen to music with a simple 3.5mm jack cord.

Overall, I'm paying entirely too much for easy pairing, but once you get over the $150 premium for fancy Bluetooth ($70 worth of headphones from $220 Solo3s), they're really nice. Long battery life, no reason to charge twice a day, and no reason to have my phone "Find my Beats".

Because if you have to add something to your phone OS to find your headphones, I don't care what you say about them being hard to lose, you've got a door with a sign that says push.

Door handle that visually says pull, but has a sign that says push

Solo3s are a better solution.

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