Apple AirPods Pro

amazon Apple AirPods Pro reviews

Apple’s AirPods Pro true wireless headphones are vastly superior to the standard model, with solid noise cancellation, quality audio performance, and a much better headphone fit that saves money.

Apple isn’t the first company to make truly wireless earbuds, but it’s undeniably the company that popularized them with its seemingly popular AirPods. Despite their popularity, we’re not huge fans of the first two models, so it’s a surprise that we like the new AirPods Pro. For $249, these are earbuds that practically seal your ear canal instead of relying on it like regular AirPods. That results in a dramatic improvement in sound consistency and performance, with rich bass depth and crisp highs. AirPods Pro also offers strong, active noise cancellation (ANC) in a certified waterjet-resistant construction. They are easily worth more than the standard model.

Design and Control

The glossy white design of the AirPods Pro looks quite similar to the regular model but with some new touches. There are black grilles on the outer panels for ANC/mic ambient for starters, and there’s a strip of panels on the front of the “body” of each earphone. The IPX4 rating also means that the headphones are splash-safe, not as strong as the IPX7 rating we’ve seen on some waterproof, gym-friendly models, but a marked improvement over Standard AirPods, no official ratings. That said, don’t expose them to real water pressure or submerge them, and don’t get the case wet, as the IPX4 rating only applies to the headphones.

AirPods Pro ships with three pairs of silicone earphones in small, medium, and large sizes, all with a slight oval shape rather than a perfect circle. An in-ear fit is ideal — they stay in place with no problem and seal the ear canal, unlike regular AirPods.

A 1.6-ounce wireless charging case, measuring 1.8 x 2.4 x 0.9 inches (HWD), can be charged with a Qi pad (not included) or a USB-C-to-Lightning cable. Opening the box for the first time will trigger an on-screen prompt on your nearby iOS device. If a software update is needed, the first prompt will advise you to download and install it.

Once the software update is complete, the headphones are ready to pair, and this is also achieved with an on-screen prompt, rather than having to access the Bluetooth menu on your phone. All of this is enabled by Apple’s H1 chip, an update to the W1. Both chips support similar features, but the H1 supports the newer Bluetooth technology, which allows for lower latency. You can also share music between two pairs of AirPods as long as both have the H1 chip.

The on-ear controls are quite simple. Single-tap either ear to play or pause, double-tap to forward the track, and triple-tap to rewind. There are thin strips on the front of the stem that you can press lightly to toggle between ANC and Transparency modes. The only thing we don’t like about the design is that there is still no physical volume control.

The headset will immediately sense when you put it in or take it out and automatically play or pause accordingly. This feature can be jarring if you’re not ready for the music to kick in, but you can turn it off by turning off Automatic Ear Detection in your iPhone’s Bluetooth settings.

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Voice control “Hey Siri” is hands-free, and you can now ask Siri to read your messages.

As mentioned earlier, you can switch between ANC and Transparency modes. To disable ANC completely, you have to go to the Bluetooth settings menu on your device and click on the paired AirPods Pro. That will open a menu that allows you to press and hold the headset’s body to activate Siri instead of ANC, or you can assign one ear to activate Siri and the other to activate ANC. It would be even more helpful if Apple made a dedicated AirPods app that would have all these settings available instead of requiring you to navigate through the Bluetooth menu to get there. The controls are customizable and a far cry from the regular model, both in functionality and ease of use.

Adaptive EQ scans your ear shape and automatically changes the sound signature based on the results. Technically, I can’t tell if the shape of my ears creates a custom sound signature for me in a way that it doesn’t for someone else. I want to adjust the bass, mids, and treble manually, and there’s no way to do that here. Of course, there are EQ modes on any iOS device you use, but nothing beats real control with a 5- or 10-band graphic EQ.

The dual mic offers ANC mode and Transparency mode, both of which we will discuss in the next section, but the ANC is not adaptive in the sense that you can adjust its level as much as you can. With the Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700. So again, if there’s a widespread complaint here, it’s that we’d rather see a dedicated app or some other method for adjusting ANC levels and customizations EQ.

Apple estimates battery life to be a pretty average of 4.5 hours per charge. With combined ANC, your results can vary greatly, and volume levels also play an important role. (Apple claims 5 hours of battery life without using ANC or Transparency Mode.) The charging case provides an additional 19 to 20 hours, but keep in mind that Apple’s battery estimates are based on listening at 50 percent volume.

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ANC and Transparency Mode

The AirPods Pro does an excellent job at minimizing keyboard clicks and even nearby office music and chatter in terms of noise cancellation. They also emit a large amount of low-frequency rumble, making them ideal for airplanes and trains.

We were able to detect a very slight hiss when ANC was on, which is common. It has very low volume and no annoying sounds, although the top ANC circuitry does not have this problem. Regardless, it’s barely audible and not even close to a transaction breaker. It’s hard to spot much of a difference in audio performance when ANC is on or off, which is a sign of quality active noise cancellation. In the end, it’s not as good as what Bose is capable of, but it’s some of the better ANC we’ve tested among wireless headphones.

In addition to ANC, there’s also a Transparent listening mode, where the ANC mic lets you hear your surroundings so you can communicate without removing your headphones. This mode is great at giving you the right amount of ambient sound needed for natural conversation.

Audio and microphone performance

On tracks with powerful bass content, such as The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” AirPods Pro delivers powerful bass depth combined with crisp highs. At the highest levels, listening is unwise, the drivers are not distorted, and at more moderate levels, the lows are still intense.

Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better feel for the overall sound characteristics of the AirPods Pro. The drums here have a pleasing bass depth — nothing over the top but around and solid thump. Callahan’s baritone has some pleasantly enhanced mids and lows, complemented by a sharp mid-high edge for added clarity, while the tonal ranges and percussion hits are crisp. The taller sign has an attractive bright presence. That is a sculpted sound notation that won’t appeal to purists, but the bass boost isn’t crazy, and the highs are carefully sculpted for the total balance.

In Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum ring receives a large amount of mid-high sound, allowing its attack to remain uncanny. We heard the vinyl crackle and hissed, often brought down to the background, pushing forward a bit, while the beat-breaking sub-bass synths delivered with punchy depth but no never moved into subwoofer territory. The vocals on this song are delivered with excellent mid-high clarity—perhaps there’s a bit of extra sound here and there, but it doesn’t sound bad.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene of John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, have an extra bass depth that, again, won’t appeal to purists but will suit most listeners. Lower register instruments never sound unnatural, it just has a slightly more body, and higher registers, strings, and vocals retain their bright, prominent place in the mix. Even with amplifiers and sculpting, this is a uniquely balanced sound signature.

The voice microphone provides above-average clarity. Using the Voice Memos app on the iPhone 8, we got a loud and clear signal, which isn’t always the case with true wireless in-ear mics. We also heard a bit of typical Bluetooth distortion around the edges, but nothing to make a conversation difficult to understand. All in all, the microphone quality here is on the higher end of what we’ve tested.

Compare and conclude

If you’re looking for quality true wireless headphones and don’t need ANC — or the Apple branding that adds to the price — consider the JBL UA True Wireless Flash or the RHA True Connect. Both options cost around $170, with the JBL pair delivering a bass-oriented, gym-friendly design (with an IPX7 rating) and the RHA pair offering a stylish, classy look and Great audio performance. But the AirPods Pro does a few things very well, integrating seamlessly into the iOS ecosystem.

With AirPods Pro, Apple shows us that simple changes can make a huge difference. Compared to the standard AirPods, the AirPods Pro are much more consistent with improved sound quality, official waterproof ratings, and impressive noise cancellation. All these features cost the headphones $250, and frankly, they should be offered by Apple as an alternative to the regular AirPods.

Advantages

Powerful audio performance

Quality active noise cancellation

Guaranteed fit in the ear

Hands-free Siri Access

Wireless charging case

Water-resistant construction

Defect

Expensive

No on-ear volume control

ANC and EQ are not adjustable