The Apple AirPods Pro are the best-sounding earbuds from Apple. They deliver active noise cancellation as well as an improved design compared to the original AirPods.
While there’s no denying the familial similarities between the 2nd-gen AirPods and the AirPods Pros – the glossy white finish, protruding stem and bulbous body – there are clear differences, too. Most obvious is the silicone tip of the new AirPods, which is shorter in length than on many in-ear headphones and elliptical rather than round.Th
at main body is chunkier, too – presumably to accommodate the extra components – but the stem is shorter, making the AirPods Pros less conspicuous when worn.
Where the existing AirPods respond to taps to the body, the AirPods Pros' controls have been moved to the stems, which now contain force sensors. A quick squeeze on either stem pauses or resumes a track (or answers an incoming call), a double-squeeze skips forward, a triple-squeeze skips back and a long squeeze switches between noise-cancelling modes.
The AirPods Pros generally stay in the ears well when running. They are so light (5.4g each) and comfortable that they can give the impression of not being secure, but they refuse to budge in action. Some people may manage to shake them loose, but they are much more secure in place than the original AirPods. Third-party fins/hooks that make the fit even more secure are also now fairly widely available and have been tried and liked by members of the review team.
Apple supplies just three pairs of tips, with two of those hidden beneath a flap at the bottom of the box. The message here is that the pre-attached, medium-sized pair should fit most, and you should only dabble with the others if there’s an issue.
The biggest change here is, of course, noise-cancelling, and Apple’s implementation is typically techie. Each Pro has two microphones: one on the outside to detect incoming noise that can be cancelled out by anti-noise, and one on the inside that detects any noise that makes it through the seal and also analyses how your music is responding to the individual geometry of your ear.
Battery life is a claimed five hours for the earphones with another 19 hours from the charging case and, in our time living with the AirPods Pros, those figures have proved to be, if anything, conservative. The case itself is wider than that of the standard AirPods but also more squat, resulting in a package that’s actually not much larger in terms of volume. If the earphones run out of charge, five minutes back in the case will give you another hour of listening.
Sonically, Apple has taken the same approach with the Pros as with its other products, favouring clarity and a neutral tonal balance rather than lots of weighty bass.
The Pros also achieve something that few other in-ears do: they combine the directness inherent in the design with an open airiness that's far harder to achieve. That feeling of the sound being pumped directly into your brain is far less intense here and, while you're not quite fooled into thinking you're listening out loud, there is a spaciousness that allows instruments to breathe.
There's not tonnes of bass here, but that's not to say that the AirPods sound lightweight – bass is just more balanced and considered. The midrange is where the AirPods Pros really shine, though, with vocals reproduced with plenty of texture and detail. There's good sparkle to treble, too, but with no hint of brightness sneaking in.
The AirPods Pros can't quite match the best-in-class noise-cancelling true wireless headphones for sound quality, but the user experience and unprecedented levels of comfort still make them a very strong option in the category.
