TLDR; spent over two hours trying to get a £550 pair of Apple headphones to stay paired to my apple devices, get stuck in loop, after several hard resets and looking up on forums, this is a known issue with firmware. Returned. To say I was frustrated and angry is an understatement.
I bought a pair of these, and I have to say for an Apple product I had one of the worst experiences ever.
I need a pair of over ear headphones to replace my rapidly dying Bose QC35's which i've had for the best part of 6 years. Battery life isn't what it was, and they keep randomly dropping bluetooth and failing to connect back again. When they were new, they were fantastic. Switching between iPad, personal iphone and work iphone was seemless.
Last week, finally decided to bite the bullet, as I had been eying these up for a while partly because I thought why not get them as they are Apple devices, all working in one eco-system, they should 'just work' like most Apple products. Apparently that is asking too much.
So the issues start:
Pairing first device iPhone 13 Pro - press the transparency button check...nothing happens.
Try again, it takes me to the next step.
Turn knob, and press it, check.
All set up - Airpods Max displaying 85% battery
Device 2 - Work iPhone SE 2020
Repeat the above.
Device appears, great.
Device 3 2018 iPad Pro 11"
Repeat process, similar issue to iPhone 13 pro.
Headphones then disconnect from all devices, not listed in bluetooth devices.
Reset bluetooth on personal iPhone, reconnect QC35's, work first time. Turn them off. Try connecting Max's again, don't appear in list.
When they are connected, they play sound for about 30 seconds, then disappear from all devices. Put them back in the case, take them out, it brings up the set up wizard again. Go through the process again, this time they don't respond to any button presses or proceed to the next screen.
Checked bluetooth, device is not even listed. Put them in the case, and take them back out, they appear for a split second before disppearing again, not even getting the pop up to say they are connected.
I went back to the Apple store and returned them after trying several times to get them to remain connected.
These were the biggest disappointment of a product I have ever bought.
Wanted to use them for work and personal use as it just seemed like the obvious choice. Feel pretty let down by this product, and am now still searching for a pair of headphones to urgently replace my dying pair of QC35's.
Has anyone else had an experience like this?