Hands on: Apple's new EarPods headphones: Most people who end up with a pair of EarPods will have received them bundled with another Apple product. While some of them will opt for better sound through third-party headphones, many (most?) will happily listen to the EarPods, never realizing they’re getting a much-improved listening experience compared to Apple’s previous toss-ins.
If you don’t have a set of EarPods, are they worth spending $29 for? In the world of headphones, $29 is fairly inexpensive, and if you’re simply looking to upgrade from existing Apple earbuds, or to replace a lost or broken set, I can recommend the EarPods—they’re easily worth their retail price (which puts them far ahead of the company’s previous models). Whether you want to spend a little more for even better sound is another question. We’ll be updating this article with more-thorough impressions of sound quality after we’ve spent more time with the EarPods.