Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Gen) Wireless Earbuds, Up to 2X More Active Noise Cancelling, Adaptive Transparency, Personalized Spatial Audio MagSafe Charging Case (Lightning) Bluetooth Headphones for iPhone
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Sunday, Sep 6
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Features
- RICHER AUDIO EXPERIENCE The Apple-designed H2 chip pushes advanced audio performance even further, resulting in smarter noise cancellation and more immersive sound. The low-distortion, custom-built driver delivers crisp, clear high notes and deep, rich bass in stunning definition. So every sound is more vivid than ever..Note : If the size of the earbud tips does not match the size of your ear canals or the headset is not worn properly in your ears, you may not obtain the correct sound qualities or call performance. Change the earbud tips to ones that fit more snugly in your ear
- NEXT-LEVEL ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION Up to 2x more Active Noise Cancellation than the previous AirPods Pro for dramatically less noise on your commute, or when you want to focus. Adaptive Transparency lets you comfortably hear the world around you, adjusting for intense noiselike sirens or constructionin real time.
- CUSTOMIZABLE FIT Now with four pairs of silicone tips (XS, S, M, L) to fit a wider range of ears and provide all-day comfort. The tips create an acoustic seal to help keep out noise and secure AirPods Pro in place.
- SOUND ALL AROUND Personalized Spatial Audio surrounds you in sound tuned just for you. It works with dynamic head tracking to immerse you deeper in music and movies.
- HIGHER LEVEL OF CONTROL Now you can swipe the stem to adjust volume. Press it to play and pause music or to answer and end a call, or hold it to switch between Active Noise Cancellation and Adaptive Transparency.
- A LEAP IN BATTERY LIFE Up to 6 hours of listening time with Active Noise Cancellation enabled 33% more than AirPods Pro (1st generation). With the charging case, you can get 30 hours of total listening time with Active Noise Cancellation enabled 6 hours longer than AirPods Pro (1st generation).
- A MORE CAPABLE CASE Keep track of AirPods Pro with Precision Finding and a built-in speaker. A lanyard loop keeps your AirPods Pro close. Charge with an Apple Watch or MagSafe charger, or use the Lightning connector or a Qi-certified charger.
- MAGICAL EXPERIENCE Quick access to Siri by saying Hey Siri. Easy setup, in-ear detection, and automatic switching between devices. Audio Sharing lets you share a song or a show between two sets of AirPods on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple TV.
Specs & Other Info
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Brand Manufacturer | Apple Incorporated |
| Product Model | Pro version of AirPods |
| Available Color | Pure White |
| Design Style | Ear-fit shape |
| Type of Connectivity | Completely wireless |
Frequently asked questions
The 2nd Gen Apple AirPods Pro come with enhanced active noise cancellation with up to 2X higher performance. They also include personalized spatial audio and a MagSafe Charging Case for convenient, fast charging. The adaptive transparency mode allows you to adjust the level of noise cancellation according to your environment.
The MagSafe Charging Case is primarily designed for iPhone models which support MagSafe. It can still charge other iPhones or AirPods Pro but without the MagSafe advantage.
Personalized Spatial Audio in AirPods Pro gives you the experience of sound coming from all around you. It's akin to being in a room with a multi-speaker set-up, offering a more immersive music or audio experience.
Yes, the Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Gen) offer an adaptive transparency mode. This feature allows you to hear the environment around you while you are listening to music, and it automatically adjusts to the level of noise in your surroundings.
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5 Reasons Why the AirPods Pro Are the Only Earbuds You Need
🚀 Abunda's Overview
This is our summary and key points to consider based on customer reviews.
The AirPods Pro 2 have been highly praised by customers, particularly for their advanced features and high-quality sound. Many compliments were focused on their Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), which effectively mutes most external noises, making them great for office environments, industrial workplaces, or simply for personal enjoyment in noisy surroundings. The seamless integration with iPhone and the personalization of sound settings has also been highly regarded.
Pros
- 🎵 Impressive sound quality and immersive listening experience
- 🔇 Highly effective Active Noise Cancellation
- 📱 Seamless integration and advanced controls with iPhone
- ✨ Natural soundstage that effectively blends audio content with surroundings
- 🔋 Satisfactory battery life and fast charging
Cons
- 💧 Stock silicone tips may not stay secure during activities like biking or jogging
- 😴 Noise cancellation feature may not work as well when user is lying down
- 🎧 Usage with Android phone lacks full functionality
Should I Buy It?
Considering the overwhelmingly positive reviews, the AirPods Pro 2 are indeed worth the purchase. They provide superior sound quality and noise cancellation, seamless integration with iPhone, and appreciable versatility. Some downsides are noted, such as issues with earbuds falling out during movement and less-than-perfect noise cancellation in certain positions, but these minor issues are greatly overshadowed by the multitude of positive features.
I've had two sets of Gen1 Pros, have previously reviewed the Airpods MAX under the Blue ones, and I'll say that as expensive (and nice) as the MAX headphones are, Apple better have an upgrade path where swapping the internal logic for the H2 chip that's in the Gen2 Airpods Pro is an option (the rest of the MAX is perfectly fine the way it is), 'cause I'm not re-buying them. I'd like to, because the overall experience with the Gen2 Pros are so good with the packaging and driver diameter I'd be fascinated in what it can do with a real driver and closed-back design. But I digress; here's the breakdown for the Gen2 Airpods Pro: Sound Quality: It's hard to overstate (maybe not that hard) the degree to which sound is improved on the new earbuds. Previously they lacked real punch to the bass, and while midrange was okay, the treble ranges were much less responsive. You could really tell that Apple had given them a light Beats treatment to improve response at the bottom end. On the iPhone and iPad this was somewhat correctable with the Audio Accessibility settings, but not completely. It's not necessary with these; they have good response through the range, and have a similar roll-off up top to the Maxes and my Sony MDR-V6 wired cans, so at this point I'd have to say they fixed it. Again, the computational wizardry in these is stunning, and they can actually reproduce the final bass hit in my test track, something few buds can manage (I'm actually looking at you, Sennheiser, why can't you do this?). Suitably impressive for a driver so small that it makes me wonder what's done to achieve it. Magic gnomes, possibly. ANC: Noise Cancellation was one of the bigger features initially, but was rapidly caught by the rest of the direct competitors, and this once again puts Apple out front. Seriously improved: The H1 only sampled 200 times per second, while these sample 48,000 times per second, fast enough to compensate for frequencies all the way up the range. Previous work required good passive dampening for higher frequencies (not hard to do, but it's only passive) and the thin silicone of the tips didn't always meet that need especially if sealing was poor. I have one ear that the Large tips can't seal for, and even without it I didn't feel like the ANC was any less from one ear to the other. I even swapped to a pair of Foam Masters memory-foam tips, and while there may have been better sealing, they didn't seem to make a large difference in dampening, the ANC here is that good. Transparency: This. This is the feature of Apple's ANC headphones that absolutely destroys any and every single competitor in the space that's tried it. On all others it sounds thin and tinny, like you're listening to a phone call. Not here. The Gen1's (and MAX) versions prior had this feature (the MAX was especially impressive) and the Gen2 only improves on it. One, Transparency now works as well on the Pros as it does on the Gen1 MAX, and two (this is the best) they can actually live-cancel loud outside noises that would exceed the dB limit set by the device to which they're paired. I've tested this; first by clanking dishes and glasses together while putting them away, and second by walking up to a car wash vacuum head that ran the row of hoses. The first is loud enough usually I can tell it's above the limit, and the second might as well be an idling passenger jet engine, clearly operating in the "damage" range. In both cases, the Gen2 Pros were able to reduce those sounds so they never exceeded an apparent 85dB. You could probably wear these to a concert in Transparency and get the full experience without the hearing damage, and still hear clearly as well. Remember that 48,000 samples per second? Well, when your audio logic is this fast, you can do things like the Transparency mode here. Finally, the Apple Ecosystem: Apple's had for a while a feature for their devices called Handoff. It lets you share media and functionality between and across multiple devices. With the Beats and Airpods lines, it allows for seamless device-switching depending on use, listen to music on the Mac, and if you get a call, they'll switch to the phone once you answer. When done, they'll go back to the Mac once it restarts the audio stream. A useful feature, but the H1-driven devices were always a little slow to migrate, and sometimes just wouldn't. The improved performance of the H2 controller in the Gen2 Pros solves this. I've not once in two weeks of use had a situation where they failed to start and join upon being removed from the case, nor have they failed to switch to the phone. They boot fast. They join fast. They know what the goal is and will consistently pair with the intended target device. They really can just Do What I Mean. It's pretty much eliminated the biggest frustration I had with the Gen1 buds. Now they sound great, kill sound great (ha), and deliver on the promises made with prior versions of cross-device support. So that's pretty much it. Battery life is improved and I can confirm that Apple's sandbagging when they say "six hours of listening" as it's closer to seven, and seems likely to hit 10 if you turn of ANC and Transparency, as like all previous Airpods they include an "Off" setting that only outputs and relies on passive dampening only. Calls sound good and you'll sound better when using them, and reasonably get nearly three hours of talk on a single charge when new; past that and you'll have to do some ear-juggling to keep going. An absolute home run!
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Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2023 by Daniel Shiderly
I'm a self-described armchair audiophile, and this would be my first wireless set. I've sampled a few sets in the far flung past to demo, but have never felt compelled to keep them. Not these. I'm using them right now as I write this review on my pc desktop. Outside of really dedicated audiophile listening, or applications that demand extreme attention to detail such as audio engineering or sound production for high profile projects, they're too versatile *not* to use for the vast majority of daily scenarios, with very decent sound quality to boot. To start, I don't have to reach for my phone to operate them (remember, this is the first wireless set I've logged more than a few hours on). The closest I had before was volume and playback controls integrated into the wire at the joint on wired sets. Very serviceable, but also finicky in certain situations. If you were, say, leaning over or had your body twisted a certain way, reaching for the controls would pose various difficulties. Worse if you had happened to tuck the wire into your jacket. Having a bunch of different gesture and pinch commands at the stem by your earlobe has been a joy to operate. The automation is also nice. You can set it so that if one or both buds are taken out of your ears, it automatically pauses content. It auto resumes when the bud(s) go back in. You can long pinch to swap between Transparency Mode and ANC (active noise cancelling), because they correctly predicted that just ANC-off (thereby functioning like $15 earbuds with no tech built into how they handle an external sound environment) is useless. The ANC is astonishing, but Transparency mode even more so. It's scarily good now that I’ve spent a good week using these at work. I'm in a position (mechanical engineer working in industrial power delivery) where it's safety critical that I can hear my surroundings, and at the same time I'm sometimes exposed to loud machinery for short (less than a couple minutes), medium (5-15 minutes), and extended (hour+) durations. For environments involving loud machines, ANC performs extremely well, cancelling out the vast majority of noise so that it's well within safe levels for my ears, while still letting me hold conversations with shocking ease. I've had colleagues remark at my ability to converse fluidly, without asking them to repeat themselves in deafening environments, whereas they have trouble hearing me shouting into their ears (while they're taking a moment to lift off their earmuffs). I let one of our machine operators demo these and he immediately bought his own pair. That's how good they are. How he'll get around the prying eyes of his supervisor (since we're still in medieval times where seeing earbuds in ears can be misconstrued as a productivity issue) remains to be seen. Outside of that admittedly niche environment, Transparency Mode has been amazing for regular office use. I literally can’t tell (for non-obvious content like podcasts and talking head YouTube videos) if they’re in. I kept anxiously double checking the other morning that James Hoffman wasn’t actually lecturing our entire office about coffee flavor notes out of the phone speakers. I leave these in throughout the day and, frankly, forget that they're in. The environmental reproduction is unparalleled. So that’s the big thing about the raw sound quality that the marketing hasn't quite articulated: the soundstage is extremely natural. It’s like open backed headphones, but better (literally like not wearing anything), and they’re shockingly good at integrating media content with your surroundings to the point that unless you’re listening to something that would make it obvious (like loud or highlight/bass heavy music), it’s legitimately hard to tell if the sound is coming out the buds plugged straight inside your ears. So wearable audio gear comes in 3 broad categories: neutral/open, noise isolating, and noise canceling - the latter being a relatively very recent addition to the list. The 2nd category, noise isolating, relies on mechanical design to prevent external sound from entering the stage. It’s good if you’re, say, an audio engineer and really need to nitpick and correct intricate details, but isn't the best for normal listening. The classic design puzzle here is that the better the mechanical isolation, the more obvious or cumbersome (read: uncomfortable) it is to use the wearable. I usually personally favor the 1st category because those headsets tend to be lighter and easier to wear for longer periods and the natural soundstage just sounds better to me in the vast majority of scenarios. It's the 1st and 3rd categories that are more interesting - higher end models occupying the 1st category tend to be "open backed" headphones, typically these big cans you wear on your head that are surprisingly lightweight and have a gentle, natural soundstage. They don't have software processing, so any sound produced is natural and unpolluted from the headset. But besides being bulky and wired, they're also infamous for leaking out sound to your external environment, so they're best for personal use cases and aren't appropriate for public or office use. The 3rd category, ANC, uses realtime processing to negate leakage getting *into* your wearable audio gear by canceling any external sounds before you can hear them - basically the "software version" of the hardware-based 2nd category. The challenge here has classically been execution - working with sound involves a lot of advanced mathematics. Remember sine, cosine, and wave characteristics including frequency and amplitude? And how everyone hated them? Well, I've worked with them (still do sometimes), and I can confirm they're the worst. Fourier transforms, ugh, kill me now. ANC is based on these really complicated mathematics, and you have to combine the math - hopefully with very high precision and with no errors - with good software logic, and ON TOP of that you need good hardware like a fast processing chip and responsive speaker design to achieve results with as little time lag as possible. There's a lot that has to come together, and historically the execution/implementation side has been lacking, resulting in random and omnipresent inconsistencies like weird lowkey "hissy" noises you'll catch here and there. At worst, at least for self-described armchair audiophiles such as myself, there's the real concern that poor execution damages the raw sound quality of what you're listening to. ANC has been known to interfere not just the external environment (which is its intended use), but also with the desired audio produced by the wearable (which is really bad), undercutting bass frequencies in headsets that are already poorly optimized for low frequencies in the first place, or negating and partially muting the sparkle of higher registers. The Airpod Pro 2s are the 1st and 3rd categories simultaneously and insanely good at both. Like, unprecedentedly good at both. And this starts with their frankly astonishing implementation of practically flawless ANC. This has allowed them to get around the design challenge of the first category (the aforementioned leakage issue) by leveraging their superior ANC *in reverse* to also be the 1st category: the Airpod Pro 2s are extremely good at reproducing your sound environment in a way that feels indistinguishable from not wearing them. This opens up a huge amount of usage options - such as walking around the office with zero fear of missing cues from colleagues, or, in my current scenario, using these to play music while writing this review so that I don't bother my sleeping cats with loud music, while still being assured I can hear them if they need to get my attention for anything. On top of that, I don't have to swap away from this window and ruin my rhythm if I need to change tracks or adjust volume. Another thing - iPhone users have the option to modify Transparency mode to enhance vocals, or boost certain frequency ranges, making them function as very good entry-level hearing aids. This can be done by heading into your iPhone Settings, selecting Accessibility, selecting Airpods, heading into Audio Accessibility Settings, and tapping into Headphone Accomodations. From there you can literally upload an audiogram and from there select "tune audio for audiogram" and voila - Transparency mode is now tuned for your specific hearing shape. Besides that, a good amount of basic control (not having to upload anything and just tweaking menu knobs) is available, from focusing on enhancing vocals and specifying how softly or strongly softer sounds are enhanced. It's very likely I'll be purchasing these for my parents in the near future. On top of that, as a default feature, they actively monitor your environment for harshly loud sounds and protect you against them in realtime. Drop a pot? Well, sucks for the pot, but it won't be as harsh on your ears. You're walking along and a dog comes barking at you over the fence out of nowhere? Well, you may or may not get jump scared practically out of your socks, but at least the sudden barking will be at the level of, you know, a reasonable conversation. One nitpick - the stock silicone tips are prone to fall out if you're on the move. They're fine for normal walking and definitely sitting, but I definitely wouldn't trust these to stay in while riding a bike or taking a jog. There are 3rd party options that help with this (I'm currently using a silicone/memory foam tips that already feel much more secure), but be aware I don't really use these outside daily office use and walking between the different production cells at our manufacturing facility. Quite frankly, these things have been a joy to use for hours every day. I only wish I'd gotten them sooner. Besides being extremely versatile and natural sounding earbuds with cutting edge realtime processing, it's amazing to me that we have commercial access to essentially non-surgical ear enhancements. You know what that sounds like. The future. And you can shove it straight in your ears today.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2023 by Vicente
Got these for Christmas in 2022. They have been my favorite piece of tech in the last few years and I’ve probably used them more than anything else I’ve purchased. I use them pretty much daily anywhere from an hour or two to six hours + and they’re still working just fine. Other than a minor glitch here and there I’ve had no major issues. I find the sound quality and features to be excellent. Noise cancellation could be a little bit better but still pretty impressive for buds. I’m curious how much better the pro threes are going to be it it’s hard to believe there’s a ton of room for improvement. Battery life is pretty good but could also use improvement. I find them to be very comfortable. My best friend has Samsung‘s newest competitor version and in my opinion, they don’t even come close. Apple really outdid themselves with the quality product here. Walking around the house in transparency mode with spatial audio and head tracking activated makes it seem like you have theme music playing in your life. It really tripped me out the first time I experienced. It sounded like there were speakers hidden in the walls. I’ve gotten used to it overtime, but it’s quite the experience if you’re used to regular buds or over the ear headphones and then you upgrade to something like this. On a totally different level. Something about noise cancellation can sometimes make me feel uneasy or even nauseous. I can’t really explain it. Especially when training at the gym. So transparency mode has been an absolute game changer for me. Being able to answer or deny calls or notifications by simply nodding or shaking your head is awesome. When you actually open up all of the features on your iPhone, it’s kind of crazy the amount of tweaking and stuff you can do. This is an elite piece of audio technology that pairs perfectly with your Apple device. If I’m on my iPhone and I open my iPad and start using that the headphones switch from my phone to my iPad and then back without me having to do anything at all. I love using them with the Apple TV at night when my girlfriend is sleeping. It allows me to enjoy an action movie without having to sacrifice audio. In the past, I was always trying to turn it down during an action scene and then turn it back up during a regular dialogue. With these no need to worry about that. There’s a lot more I could say. But I’ll end the review here. I would definitely recommend them. And if you’re on a budget, the price point for the pro twos is probably really good right now…
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Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2025 by Mr. Spice Cakes
A while back I was looking for a set of noise cancelling headphones because I was going to take an international flight. I bought a couple pairs, including the 1st generation Airpods Pro. The second generation came out at almost the same time so I returned the 1st gen and spent the extra money to get these. And wow, what a difference. They fit great, these are the only earbuds that ever have fit me (including the 1st generation airpods pro). They come with multiple ear tips too, and I've been able to find a combination that suits me. The gimmicky features aren't that interesting to me, like the spatial audio and taking a scan of your ear or whatever. These are also supposed to auto switch between devices, that's never worked right (but really I prefer to switch manually anyway). I don't have a device with a u1 "find stuff" chip, so I haven't tried that. Fortunately I haven't needed to either. What I like is the sound quality, which is very good, it has a rich range of highs and even somehow manages to get some pretty good bass in the lows. I also like the portability, and (compared to the first gen) I love the silly lanyard hole so I can put a strap on the case so I don't drop it. But what really shines is the noise canceling. I find better than all of the over the ear ANC headphones I've tried, including some of the very expensive Bose and Sony headphones. And even in the case where it might not be quite as good, the fact that they are tiny and portable makes the utility so much higher. I've used these when using power tools, on airplanes, on trains, the freeway, or sometimes when my kids are talking (kidding (sort of)). The noise canceling is actually good enough that if someone is standing right in front of you and talking at a normal level, you almost can't hear them at all. And in extremely loud environments like airplanes, these cut the noise down better than some of the noise-cancelling headsets made for pilots and crew that I've used. The transparency mode is also extremely good, way better than the first gen. And, it's a great deal more comfortable wearing these with transparency mode on (it makes my ears feel less "plugged"). Making calls is good too. Other people say that they didn't know that I was on headphones. These also don't get "warm" in my ears either, something that I've noticed with other earbuds and over-the-ear cans. The battery life is also fine. The specs say 4-5 hours or something, but that's plenty. Even on a long flight I usually won't be wearing them the for more than a couple hours at a time. Tip: If you have an Apple Watch, you can charge the Airpods' case using the Apple Watch charger. I recently discovered this by accident. If I had a complaint, it's that sometimes I'd prefer that they had a physical connection to a wire that was around my neck, so I could take them out for a sec without worrying about dropping them. That and they are quite expensive if all you want to do is listen to music. But if you don't mind the price tag and want an extremely nice set of earbuds, these are it.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2023 by Seth
This has been my most compelling purchase in a long time! Apple just took audio integration to the next level. There are 4 major reasons to upgrade your AirPods to the pro gen 2. Its important to upgrade your iPhone with IOS 16.0 or higher in order to realize the benefits of these earbuds. Without this update you will not have access to adaptive transparency or the new spatial audio so before testing make sure you do this step. 1. Sound - The clarity and detail these produce is astounding, especially with the new custom spatial audio activated, but we will get to that later. Bass - sub frequencies now extend all the way down to 20 hz vs the gen 1s 40 hz so it goes low! Not only is it lower but it’s a lot more present, they finally gave these buds the oomph they needed to compete with the top tier wireless audio! They simply cover a better range of sound when listening and offer a more complete listening experience. I use Spotify almost exclusively and with some tweaks in the Spotify 6 ban EQ I actually prefer this sound profile over my Sennheiser MTW3 earbuds which are widely regarded as some of the best sounding earbuds on the market. 2. Adaptive transparency - The Adaptive transparency feature has been such a game changer for me. Basically it filters out any loud sounds over 95 DB and automatically lowers that sound to match everything else you hear. This does not sound like that big of a deal but for those of us who use earbuds for several hours a day in noisy environments it changes the game. No more worrying about the deafening jolt of a dog barking, or a car honking in transparency mode, the new H2 chip lets you hear your environment as if you had no earbuds on at all, very natural and without the worries of yesterdays deafening surprises. 3. Spatial audio - This might be the feature that surprised me most only because the older version of spatial audio did not do much and had very few applications to use it with. With the new update this version of spatial audio is such a substantial improvement it cannot be overstated. Apple has a customizable feature for spatial audio when you hold the phone about 10 inches from your ear the LiDAR scans your ear canal in order to figure out the proper sound implementation. I know it sounds very gimmicky, but it actually works very well. I am now a believer. I went from watching an occasional movie with the old version to now almost exclusively leaving the spatial audio on. It adds an incredible amount of soundstage and depth! So not just hearing voice and instrumental separation from left to right but also you can distinguish sounds from front to back as well. And this works for music but it noticeably changes my podcasts also. It sounds like your actually in the room listening live now! Try the song Bubbles by Yosi Horikawa it will blow your mind!! 4. ANC - Considering how light and comfortable the gen 2s are I’m deeply impressed with how much noise is filtered out. It eliminates the all lower frequencies like AC or a treadmill and it brings voices down to a very slight whisper. Even while listening to a podcast when ANC is activated you will not hear anything else around you. It’s a marked improvement over my MTW3. Other improvements - The Case has a speaker now and let’s you track it within a foot when lost, just open the find my app and it will guide you with an arrow to where the case is. Full Siri integration, you can use Siri for everything from turning on Transparency mode, or ANC, to playing music, to listening and sending messages, weather updates, making calls ect. You can be 100% hands free the whole day if you wanted to be. Volume button - finally apple! now you can slide up or down on either earbud stem for volume control, it feels awkward at first but you get use to it quickly. I will update with any issues if I run into with them but as of now I can’t think of a single flaw these have other then maybe the lack of color options. If you have an iPhone these are a must! Let me know if this helps.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2022 by Penny Pincher
UPDATE (2024): The early issues below appear to have been worked out. After more than a year, no complaints. Rating updated from 1 start to 5 stars. ----------- SUMMARY: The audio quality of the AirPods Pro (2nd Generation) is fantastic, but it's a shame that they experience persistent and frequent connectivity issues that make them practically unusable, as reported elsewhere. No settings, firmware updates, or diagnostics remedy the issues. While Apple provides free diagnostic support (even if they returned my apparently defective product unchanged and missing ear tips), the product and support quality here fall far short of that expected from a premium product. Apple makes many well-designed, reliable products—as of now, this isn't one of them. BUYER BEWARE. ----------- I've owned the first generation AirPods Pro for several years and use them daily without issue, so when I saw strong initial reviews for second generation ones, I purchased them on launch day. And the hardware does indeed live up to the hype—the noise cancellation, sound quality, and battery life are all fantastic. It's a shame, then, that connectivity issues make them practically—heck, literally—unusable. I've experienced continuous audio dropping, intermittent disconnects, and issues with only the left or right AirPod connecting. In the short time I've been writing this review, I've experienced no fewer than a dozen drops and disconnects. And I'm definitely not done writing. Yet, if I simply swap out my brand spanking new AirPods Pro for the first-generation ones, all these problems go away. It's night and day. Now, I know I'm not alone. Based on online forum discussions, it's apparent that many users have and continue to experience similar issues. MacRumors has reported on them (in an article titled "AirPods Pro 2 Users Report Issues With Connection Randomly Dropping") and discussion threads on the issue can be found on the official Apple Support Community. For some, the issues are apparently resolved by changing particular settings—turning off spatial audio or disabling automatic ear detection, for example. Sadly, none of these fixes have helped me. Since I purchased them on launch day, I figured I'd give Apple the benefit of the doubt and wait to see if there was a firmware patch that might resolve the issues. To date, more than a month later, there have been none. If the issues are as widespread as reporting suggests, this gives me pause. Come on Apple, there are dozens of us—dozens! Assuming then that it might then be a hardware problem, I trekked to my local Apple Store this past week with a Genius Bar appointment and AirPods in hand. While the Specialist didn't find any issues with them, I arranged to have them packed up and shipped them to a repair facility for technicians to run complementary diagnostic tests. Disappointingly, I received them back today (though without the ear tips sent along with them, naturally), still experiencing the same issues—evident after just seconds of use. At least I have a brand-new note indicating that the "complete" set of diagnostics performed on them indicate that they're working correctly. If this is a product functioning correctly, I'd hate to see incorrect.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2022 by Reid Johnson
My use case for these is as daily wear headphones, particularly while working in an office. I have AirPods Gen 1 and I'm quite fond of them, but I'm also a fan of active noise cancelation. I am a pilot and I've used headsets with active noise cancelation (mostly Lightspeeds) for about 15 years now (I was an early adopter) and I also use electronic hearing protection while shooting. The AirPods Pro 2 are significantly cheaper than aviation headsets but roughly in the price range of shooting headsets so I thought I had a pretty good idea what I was getting into with these - i.e. ear buds that offered an active noise cancelation that was not necessarily useful for hearing protection (they have no rating) but offered something like the active noise cancelation I'm used to from my Lightspeed aviation headset (in noise canceling mode) and something like the noise reduction with voice passthrough that I'm used to from my Sordin shooting headset when in transparent mode. Noise reduction mode delivers shockingly well. It does a very good job of shutting out ambient noise. Someone watching TV in the background? Significantly muted. HVAC/fan/PC noise? Gone. They're good enough that I'm probably going to wear them in my car since my Apple Watch informs me that my car is a loud enough environment that I'm vulnerable to long term hearing damage (it's a convertible, the exhaust is quiet but there's a lot of wind noise and the top doesn't do much to quiet other people's exhausts) and despite lacking a rating the rubber earpieces offer some passive noise reduction and the active may well be enough to take the edge off the poorly muffled motorcycles that seem to love to pace me right next to my left ear for miles on end. Update: Not sure whether they’ve quietly updated their algorithms or just adjusted the default tuning in the background, but transparency mode is now usable. It still ought to support volume control, like active electronic hearing protection does. /Update Transparency mode, on the other hand, is a massive disappointment. The idea behind transparency mode is, essentially, a not-rated-for-hearing-protection version of what you get with a pair of Sordins except instead of passive noise reduction with ambient noise passthrough (with processing to filter out sharp sounds, normalization, and clipping and filtering of loud sounds) and a volume control, so that ambient non-noise sound can be anywhere from significantly muted to amplified enough to cut through a pair of passive ear plugs worn under the electronic muffs. You sort of get a version of that. The AirPods Pro 2 add active noise reduction on top of it. Unfortunately, it's tuned very poorly. The default transparency mode plus "active transparency" perform something like what a pair of Sordins does in terms of clipping maximum volume but there's no volume control. You get a volume level that is basically slightly louder than ambient but with maybe some reduction of low range sounds and, crucially, a significant boost to mid and particularly high range sounds. HVAC noise is actually worse in transparency than it is when you're not wearing the AirPods at all. It also has an extremely unfortunate effect on keyboard sounds. A typical keypress is sort of a dull, low, clack. The default transparency settings turn it into a louder, shriller, sharper click. My keyboard, which I never really thought about before, is actually quite unpleasant in transparency mode. In general, the default transparency mode is probably something one would only use for very short periods such as a temporary interaction with someone (e.g. long enough to order coffee). For longer term use it's unpleasant enough that you would simply pull the AirPod out rather than switch modes. This is unfortunate as it largely undermines the entire sales pitch for the AirPods Pro. They aren't something you could put in and leave in with transparency enabled while on a walk with a friend and carry on a conversation with someone while preventing your ears from being hurt by a passing vehicle that's had its exhaust system compromised or wear in the office listening to music and switch to transparency mode to have a conversation with some coworkers. It amplifies background noise (again, keyboards become particularly unpleasant) enough that you're much better off simply taking them out, exactly as you would have with the old first gen airpods. There are custom adjustments for transparency (inexplicably buried a couple layers deep in accessibility settings rather than in the AirPod configuration menus) and they... help. Sort of. It's possible, with some fiddling (the best settings I found were maximum ambient noise reduction, zero amplification, and darkest sound settings, conversation boost disabled) to configure transparency such that it actually does a much better job of muting unwanted ambient sounds (you can get rid of the HVAC again) and retaining clear voice passthrough and even acceptable music passthrough, but even after spending an hour or so playing with all of the available configuration options I cannot find one that allows me to leave transparency enabled while typing. It just makes keypresses to shrill, sharp, and loud. There's a pretty significant amount of processing power built into these for their tiny size, though, so hopefully Apple will be able to update their algorithm such that you can wear them while using a computer. Honestly, given that Apple sells computers, it's kind of shocking that they were released in this state, but here we are. (It's worth noting that part of my disappointment comes from the Sordins I have being totally usable in similar situations (but lacking bluetooth and also obviously being industrial hearing protection) and I also have a set of Walker's digital hearing protection that does have Bluetooth and is much better at ambient sound passthrough (at half the price) but having disappointing sound if you want to listen to music on them. tl;dr Buy them if you have an iPhone and want good active noise cancelation in a very compact package with good battery life, and decent sound for music. If you're buying them as something you could wear to get, essentially, some background noise reduction and loud noise reduction in an office setting while still being able to talk to coworkers with them in - their weird tendency to actually amplify certain unpleasant frequency ranges in transparency mode makes them poorly suited for this application. Update: See Above
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Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2022 by John Cuyle
Let me start off by saying, I LOVED my AirPods Pro Gen 1’s. Like immensely. I would’ve taken the AirPods Pro 1 over the AirPods Maxes, AirPods 3’s, Bit Fit Pros, XM4’s, anything. Everything that I loved about the original AirPods Pro is capitalized upon with the 2’s and improved greatly. Now that’s not to say that that’s a bad thing for the original AirPods, as I only realized most of the grievances I had with them AFTER I got and used the Pro 2’s. Starting with the sound quality, it’s an obvious improvement. Like…. By a lot. I’m noticing a lot of bass and lows in songs that I was not able to notice with the original AirPods, along with the tones sounding more…. Separated? I’m no audiophile so I’m not sure if that’s the correct term, but the best way to describe it is that you can hear and pick out all the individual instruments and tones much easier than on the original AirPods Pro. Again, the sound quality was never really a problem for me on the 1’s, but it’s lovely that they would include that as an upgrade. I’ll shift gears for a sec and talk about the case now. The Lanyard Loop? For me personally, it’s arbitrary. My front left pocket is almost always reserved for my AirPods, and when they’re not in my pockets, they’re in my backpack or in my room. That being said, however, the addition of the U1 Chip to the case was an absolutely fantastic idea. I can’t say how many times I would have my AirPods in, throw the case down somewhere in my house or in my room, and then spend an hour looking for the case when I was done listening to whatever. The U1 Chip functions exactly like an AirTag, implementing a chime to get you to the general location of the Pods, and then precision finding to track down exactly where in the couch cushions you lost the case. The last thing about the case, and this was probably just a defect with my model, is that with the 1’s there was a massive issue with the right bud not contacting with the pad inside the case and either not charging or not being recognized as being in the case… that’s gone now. Everything works as a charm as you would expect. Going back to the Pods now. First up, to just get it out of the way, Haptic Touch for sound control? Big yes. I know for a lot of people that not having direct sound control on the AirPods was a gripe, but that’s no longer an issue as you can just swipe up or down to adjust the volume to move in intervals, equivalent to tapping the volume button on your phone. Will definitely be using that a lot when I am on the move and don’t feel like getting my phone out of my pocket or awkwardly trying to press the volume button on my phone through my pant leg. And, finally, perhaps the most important new piece of hardware for the 2’s, the H2 Chip. Again, I never had an issue with ANC or Transparency on my AirPod Pro 1’s. With ANC on, listening to music with the 1’s would be a completely immersive experience and I would not be able to hear anything from the outside world. That’s even better with the 2’s. Just like the 1’s, static sound waves (like humming, vibrating, etc.) is completely gone and unable to hear. Other than that, voices and general noises passing through ANC with the 2’s is…. Amazing. In a cafeteria or busy area, if I just have ANC on with no music playing, I am able to recognize that people are talking, but it’s more like whispering than actually talking. With ANC AND Music playing? No chance. All I hear is the music. And then you switch to transparency and you’re like “Uh… What just happened?”. It’s this big rush of realization that there was so much more going around you than you thought there was and makes you realize how good the ANC actually is. Speaking of transparency, I have no issues with it. It continues to be the best transparency mode on the market for any wearable earbuds, and completely emulates the feeling of not having anything in your ears. I have not gotten to try out or test the adaptive transparency as advertised as a selling point of the 2’s, but if I do I will edit this post with my feelings about it. Overall, just like the original AirPods to the AirPods Pro 1’s, I do believe the 2’s are worth the upgrade from the 1’s. The Sound Quality, H2 Chip, U1 Chip, Case Features… they all just work so seamlessly and I could not have asked for anything more from Apple. (Well, besides USB-C but you know.)
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Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2022 by Brodie W.