It’s coming: a dark world of desperate, wireless headphone zombies. Battling for the sole plug at Starbucks, killing their neighbor just to drown out the noise for 5 minutes more. Here’s how you can survive.
Wireless headphones have a lot of advantages. They also have tons of horrible disadvantages, most notably running out of power. Because there’s only one thing worse than your cellphone battery dying. And that would be your cellphone AND your wireless headphone batteries dying.
So here are some tips to survive the power-dependent future of portable audio.
Survival tip #1: Carry a tiny charger in your pocket or bag.
This already came included with the Beats wireless headphones (at least in the last generation). I just took the Beats cable and married it with my iPhone charger head.
Easy. That was my solution, but you can easily cobble something together using stuff from the headphone manufacturer’s box, or a quick order on Amazon. The result is clutch. You typically need about 15 minutes to get a boost until you get home, or someplace where you can charge for a longer period.
This takes up nearly zero room in your purse, backpack, laptop bag, or whatever. Just lodge it in whatever you’re used to carrying around, and you just saved yourself from a major outage.
Survival tip #2: Always charge your phone AND charge your headphones at the same time.
Simple, right? It’s all about slightly modifying your routine.
Phones have been around for a long time. Perhaps you’ve been using a phone your entire adult life, not to mention a big chunk of your teenage years. So you’ve set up processes for charging up without even thinking about it. Maybe right before bed or something, or during your commute. Whatever.
Sounds simple, but it’s time to bring your wireless headphones into that same ritual. So, if you charge your phone while you’re working or right before you go to bed, do the exact same thing for your wireless earbuds or headphones.
Get a splitter for your car if needed.
Survival tip #3: Keep a spare pair of wired earbuds around.
It sucks that you have to do this. But you’ll thank me later. Because there are lots of situations you haven’t thought of here. For example, you can’t use wireless headphones in a plane during take-off or landing. Some airlines won’t even let you use them at all, at any point during the flight.
So just carry a small pair of wired earbuds around for emergencies. For example, your wired white Apple earbuds are perfect. That way, you can ride out the dead times, plane rides, or other non-juiced moments.
Survival tip #4: Carry a portable wireless charger.
The folks over at myCharge send me this wireless charger to check out. It’s called the PowerGear Sound, it’s $40 on Amazon. Actually, they very kindly sent me a pair of Beats wireless earbuds to test them out (full disclosure), as I’m more of a headphones person.
Personally, I’d never had a wireless charger previously, because I can usually get to a plug. But a wireless charger is actually pretty nice to have. Basically, you charge up the charger (I know), then toss it somewhere like your gym bag, purse, whatever, and forget about it. Then, you have a fail-safe when you run out of juice.
+ If You Read This Review and Still Buy Beats Headphones, You’re An Idiot
It’s surprising useful for wireless earbuds, which can drain quicker than a phone.
Of course, portable chargers have been around for a while. Though these are pretty cool because they’re specifically made for Beats wireless earbuds. But, the concept is pretty much the same for headphones, other earbuds, etc.
Survival tip #5: Don’t buy wireless headphones.
Just because Apple is spending billions to make you switch, doesn’t mean you have to do it. There’s nothing wrong with wired, 3.5mm headphones. For starters, they have better quality. But you’ll also skip the endless Bluetooth connectivity problems and hassles.
Not to mention the constant stress of having to re-charge.
Image by miss_millions, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC by 2.0).
This was no help at all.
Most headphones can’t be used when charging and take 2-3 hours to charge, by the time they are ready you would be home ready to actually charge them.
Not to mention how clickbaity this title was, this article was just garbage.
I think this is helpful!
My headphones charge but as soon as i take them out of the charger they disconnect from my phone.
I am new to 21st century technology I’m 74 years old but I can’t get enough of this stuff knowledge is power and without Paul will you perish I’ve got myself and my third set of earphones and you are right you need to keep them charged all the time will it hurt it if I keep it plugged up all the time when I’m not using it just like my cellphone they say not to keep it plugged in after 100% I have portable power charger that I got from the pictures to fly I bought me one I’m fixing to buy for more and I have one that you can plug in the wall you can also plug into solar powered ones but what about your earphones and what about the cell phones can you keep them plugged up after 100% please let me know ketchup
Totally agree!! Came her to say that.
I can’t believe other people are saying this article helped!
They suck. Powerbeats 3. Do not buy them. They constantly die when they still have about 76%. Fuck wireless
So do meidong wireless earbuds. Supposed to have a 2 hour battery life, I can charge them all night and get about 30 minutes (if im lucky) of listening time before one of them dies on me.
The beats suck?DO NOT BUY THEM!!
Agree with all the above comments. Can’t use them whilst charging. Did even when they are turned off. Shite, buy wired.
mine play music for an hour only very fake dont buy
wtf my bluetooth headphones are only 30 dollars and they’re way better than what you make them sound like…
Can you please name them?
They r wrong for this garbage i7s tws wireless.one always dies on me can’t talk irs shuts off don’t waste your money on them continue with regular earphone dat u don’t have to charge up.i wish I knw head of time cozs my money could have stayed n my pocket sum of us work 2 hard fa our money 2 be wasting on garbage like this.
I have to use Bluetooth headphones as (I’m so stupid!) I broke my headphone jack inside my iPad so number 4 and 5 are usless for me
My headphones have to be charged for about a week, and I only get about 7 minutes play time from them.. On the plus side they are comfortable and I usually get to hear a couple of songs from them… My only gripe is usually on the 2nd song it’s interrupted by low battery bleeps every 5 seconds, which can be annoying. I was thinking of buying a few more pairs that I could keep in my rucksack so that I could switch to and listen to an entire album.
I wasn’t eaven looking up anything about beat headphones? so why did I get this I was looking for billboard wireless headphones
Thanks for this advice for taking care of wireless headphones. It’s good to know that you should try to have a charger with you in a pocket or bag, especially since it doesn’t take up so much space. That said, perhaps it could be good to at least make sure the charger is protected so it can be used on your headphones when you need it to.
Okay, this is bullshit. How are you supposed to carry a damn charger with you? Also, mine died at FULL charge. And then say 1%. What the fuck. I’m crying because they were so damn pricey.
I’m sorry for all of y’all’s bad experience with wireless headphones but mine need maybe an hour to get full charge they last for like 6 hours and they are ssooooo comfortable they are mpow if you were wondering
Wired is nice. But 2 flaws. Wires break. And two, wires tangle. I’ve broken enough charger wires and earbud wires to know, wireless is better. If you can find them, Walmart has cheap but excellent ones. Vivitar. I got my white one for under $5. But listening time sucks.
I dislike the fact that (the cheaper ones) they don’t tell you it’s charged. My phone, TCL Oreo, shows the batt power of Bluetooth devices.
Such an useless tips. These headphones lose their charge quickly and end up charging quite often. Providing alternatives is not a solution to keep head phones from dying.
Just recently bought ear buds because I see a lot of people using them at the gym. The so called instructions state they last up to 3 hrs. No, they don’t, am very disappointed with them. I actually timed them, they last 1 hour, you would think they would last as long as the instructions say. Not crazy that you got to charge the charger first before you charge the ear buds, it really sucks. I’ve only had them for a week, not sure if I can get my money back.
Well Mr. Paul, 1st things 1st, whoever the “Me” person was or is has definitely gotta be 1 of those negative all the time for any and every reason. Not finding any of your suggestions helpful at all is nonsense, if anyone is completely unable to use any of those to help with keeping the tunes flowin then in my opinion they’re unworthy of the great beauty and joy of music anyway. And he’s probably included in your side note referring to being an idiot for anyone buying those particular headphones, and I’m sure owns more than 1 set due to them breaking or going out . Anyways I appreciate the advise, thank you sir.
Insert ^ (type of making others miserable since he or she is person) immediately following “any and every reason”. Long pressed backspace while pouring a drink without realizing until after posting.
Like rechargeable shavers I’ve thrown out and gone to pure electric, I’ve gone back to Bose QC25 NC headphones. No charging, no discharging, and instead of 15-20 hours per charge, the replaceable battery goes 40 hours…and it takes 10 second to replace, not a week at an electric shop.
it was one of the best article to save our earphones from dying. thanks buddy
I’m sorry for y’all’s bad experience with wireless headphones but mine are amazing they take maybe an hour to charge and they last for like 6ish hours and they are sssooooo comfortable they’re also noise canceling they are mpow if you were wondering
Good Suggestions!
And I want to say that I LOVE my BOSE wireless headphones – no problem at all!
(in addition to the charging wire, they also come with a wire that you can use to connect with your device)