These new wireless earbuds have some of AirPods' best features and are smart enough to respond to your head movements
- The TicPods 2 and TicPods 2 Pro are wireless earbuds that resemble Apple's AirPods and offer some of the same features, like easy pairing once the case's lid is flipped open and the ability to detect when they're in your ears.
- The Pro version is also capable of responding to your head movements, allowing you to dismiss an incoming call by shaking your head.
- CES, the annual tech show is Las Vegas, is full of AirPods-esque headphones such as the TicPods, providing further evidence that wireless headphones have become the fastest-growing segment in the wearable tech industry.
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In the years since Apple's AirPods debuted in 2016, dozens of competitors have surfaced - some made by tech giants like Samsung, Amazon, and Microsoft, and others developed by lesser-known accessory makers.
CES, the massive technology conference that happens every year in Las Vegas, is full of headphones like these. Mobvoi's $99 TicPods 2 and $140 TicPods 2 Pro, which were announced at the show and launch on January 15, are yet another such example. The new TicPods and other AirPods alternatives that dominated the showroom floor at CES further suggests that a growing number of companies are hoping to challenge Apple's dominance in the wireless earbuds industry.
But the new TicPods 2 Pro do have one feature that sets them apart from AirPods and many other alternatives: you can control them just by shaking or nodding your head. If you receive an incoming call when wearing the earbuds, for example, you can nod to answer to shake your head to decline it.
Both earbuds also have two of the features that make Apple's AirPods feel so convenient: a case that easily pairs the buds with your mobile device when opened and sensors that can detect when the headphones are in your ears. That means they can also play and pause audio accordingly when the earbuds are removed or inserted into the ear, just like AirPods.
The TicPods 2 Pro are compatible with whichever smart assistant you typically use on your phone, but they can also respond to some basic voice commands even without uttering a wake word. I tried this during my brief time checking out the TicPods 2 Pro at CES, and they responded to my request to pause music without saying the "Hey Tico" trigger word even on the crowded show floor.
While it's impressive that the earbuds were able to react to my voice commands so quickly with so much interfering noise, it's unclear how comfortable most people would be with this capability given the growing concerns about privacy.
Many of the TicPods 2 more unique features are reserved for the Pro model, such as the head gesture detection, compatibility with voice assistants, and voice recognition, while the standard model has touch controls.
A booming category
The TicPods 2 and TicPods 2 Pro serve as yet another sign that the wireless earbud category is booming following the success of Apple's AirPods.
Truly wireless earbuds like AirPods have become the fastest-growing segment in the wearable technology space. Global shipments of wearable gadgets surged by 94.6% in the fourth quarter of 2019, largely because of truly wireless earbuds, according to The International Data Corporation. Apple, however, currently dominates the industry with 35% of the global wearables market, the research firm also says.
"The entire industry is trying to figure out, how do they compete with Apple," Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at market research firm Moor Insights & Strategy, said to Business Insider ahead of CES. "Apple is more expensive yet it has the unit market share dominance, and that's kind of unheard of."
