Hands-On With the New AirPods Pro

[Steve686]

I’m considering a pair to replace my Sony WF1000MX3 which were great on my XS with iOS 12 but are rubbish with my new 11 Pro on ios13 - never connect automatically any more needing a prompt on the Bluetooth settings screen every time, and sound quality reduced between 12 and 13. Sony don’t appear to care and have offered no new firmware.

People undervalue the ease of connectivity between the AirPods and Apple products when it comes time to pay.

I have used the Bose SoundSport Wireless for the last year or so and they still take at least 30 seconds to a minute just to connect, if the Left unit even connects at all.

For me, the A-P-P's have hit everything that I've waited for from Apple since the first AirPods and the in ear headphones with silicone tips. Fit, ANC, Connectivity, size, and sound quality.

 

[armut]

Yesterday I bought a pair in Store and need to say that I‘m dissappointed. The NC and transparency modes are nice but SQ is in my opinion to less for this price.
I feel the lows and mids are little too less. That‘s why I will return them.

 

[I am Andy]

What's the volume like? I noticed the regular AirPods have a much lower maximum volume than Apple's wired earbuds.

Hi Stephen,
I feel that they are much louder.
Better than AirPods 1 and 2.
Very impressive ANC. Easy handling.

I received mine yesterday and I‘m really happy with them.
Andy

 

[pavinder]

Hope you don't have the "Volume Limit" setting lesser than max? I discovered this setting recently myself

No, no limits set low.
The maximum volume of Airpods is simply lower than the wired earbuds.

I’d love some Airpod Pros if they could play at the same volume as earbuds.

 

[RaTzA2K]

Bose Soundsport Wireless are great sound wise. They might not be as sleek as the AirPods Pro, but SQ is in a different category. They sound very rich and cost $100 less.

I own a pair of Bose SW and also B&W PX (my main cans). You cannot compare the Bose as the drivers are twice the size of the AirPods Pro and they don't fall into the buds category (the Bose SoundSport Free does). The sound quality is pretty ****** on the Bose mostly because in real world use cases (not in a quiet office) you would have to crank the volume to over 75dBs (which will destroy your hearing on the long run). I'm a bit lost as I wanted to change the Bose with the AirPods Pro but I'm waiting for a comparison vs B&O Beoplay E8 (v1 or v2), Sony WF-1000XM3 or Sony WF1000X. That is the category where you can fit the AirPods Pro in my opinion. NC is essential to keep your hearing intact for years to come. For office/home use you have other options that have a SQ 10x better than anything in this category ... B&W P7 or B&W P7W just to give some examples.

 

[Plett]

How can this be called Pro? Apple is going too far

Well it really is just a marketing term, like all subjective marketing it just differentiates their standard fare from the premium fare. Nothing to be alarmed about.

 

[bbeagle]

$250 with a rechargeable battery life of 2 years? Insanity.

$279 with a rechargeable battery life of 4 years. (AppleCare + battery replacement at 23 months)

 

[Rogifan]

I just tried mine in the office where there are fans constantly blowing and the noise cancellation is amazing. It’s like you had an air conditioner running and then flipped the switch to turn it off. No sound. The guy in the cubicle next to me is on a conference call and I can barely hear his voice. When I flip to transparency I hear almost everything. And when I switch to off mode I hear everything it’s just muffled. Very cool.

 

[ninethirty]

Don't get me wrong, do what you want, but 5 minutes doesn't seem like you tried to love them.

I bought a pair today and played with them for about 5 minutes. They're already packaged for return tomorrow. They sound great, but no greater than my existing previous generation pair. The noise cancellation seemed impressive, but isn't something I really care about. The biggest thing I noticed about them (and the reason they're going back tomorrow) is how hard I found it to remove the AirPods from their charging case. Maybe my fingers aren't the right size or shape, but I just can't get a good grip on them to pull them out. This would drive me crazy to live with on a daily basis. Oh well, I tried to love them.

 

[Rogifan]

I bought a pair today and played with them for about 5 minutes. They're already packaged for return tomorrow. They sound great, but no greater than my existing previous generation pair. The noise cancellation seemed impressive, but isn't something I really care about. The biggest thing I noticed about them (and the reason they're going back tomorrow) is how hard I found it to remove the AirPods from their charging case. Maybe my fingers aren't the right size or shape, but I just can't get a good grip on them to pull them out. This would drive me crazy to live with on a daily basis. Oh well, I tried to love them.

Just curious why you bought them, especially if you didn’t care about noise cancellation.

 

[jcshas]

Do 3rd party foam tips work with these new AirPods? I imagine they should unless Apple made their tips in non-standard size.

I don't know if there are any 3rd party foam tips yet? The foam covers I'm currently using on my AirPods gen2 will not fit the AirPods Pro.

 

[macguru212]

It’s become quite a cottage industry to find things wrong with anything Apple produces while the competition releases perfect, flawless products all the time.

Some of us believe that second rate quality is not acceptable, especially from Apple, therefore we are very critical.

 

[Jimmy James]

I have other iem’s and I’ve come to dislike that design. Uncomfortable while eating and thumpy in my head when walking. I’d rather have regular AirPods and an over ear ANC set. If these work for you it would be a great all in one.

 

[Farrellcollie]

I just picked up a pair last night. I like the fit and the sound -which I think is much better than originals and I think the sound is a little better than the power beats pro - or maybe it is just the fit. The noise cancelling worked better than I expected. I think they are very slippery and surprising hard to get out of the case. Really that is my biggest complaint - getting them out of the case is a pain.

 

[trellus]

Hmmm... I was initially quite excited to hear about these, but after reading the balance of impressions here so far, I think I'll pass and possibly get the Powerbeats Pro as I had intended previously. If the microphones on the AirPod Pro aren't as good as the regular AirPods then that erases what I thought would be an advantage of the AirPod Pro over the Powerbeats Pro for me.

 

[turbineseaplane]

$279 with a rechargeable battery life of 4 years. (AppleCare + battery replacement at 23 months)

Total bollocks.
At the $250 pricing, they should be including battery coverage up to 4-5 years.

 

[RobNYC]

Currently I have the Jabra Elite 65t.

Just got these, initial feedback is I don’t find it as comfortable as the Jabra. Sound wise, it’s... fine. Not great or special, maybe a bit more clarity than my Jabra but I don’t think my music sounds as exciting? In some ways kind of disappointed I guess.

Noise cancellation seems alright but haven’t tested on train or otherwise. Transport mode is better than the version in the Jabra for sure.

Considering £100 price premium over my Jabra, not sure it’s a winner for me. I’ll test it a few more days to decide if I keep it.

Also coming from the Jabra 65ts. The Jabras for me feel like they seal in the ear more, but that may be because they're not vented. I kind of feel like the sound on the Jabra's is better. Maybe that's because you can play with the EQ levels on those and with the airpods you only have the EQ presets in the music settings. I find the ANC to be pretty good. It's pretty noticeable when turning it on and off. I think I'm going to keep using them for the next couple of weeks to see how it goes and decide if I want to keep them or go back to the Jabras.

 

[alexandr]

...Received the Airpods Pro today.... but already packed the return package.

Unfortunately, I felt something like motion sickness when turning ANC on ("fit" test performed with good fitting before etc.) - a feeling I have had with ANC overear devices before, but hoped it wouldn't occur with in-ear models. With ANC on - my wife talking in the same room - I was still hearing clearly here voice. How should this work e.g. in a train with many others talking?

Transparency mode is unfortunately not like "hearing normal" (as some very early reviews suggested) - you continue to hear that the noise/voice is coming from a microphone...sounds little unnatural, and louder than normal, but ok, there is a clear difference between ANC and TM.

The worst thing: during a 10 min telephone call in a very quite surrounding, with ANC on, I hardly couldn't here my own voice - which made it really difficult to adjust my own voice "volume". After turning transparency on, I heard my own voice louder than normal. My partner in the call wasn't able to here me well during all the call. I then switched back to my Airpods 1, and was able to here absolutely normal my voice as well as my partner had another 20 min normal telephone talk without any problems.

I'll return these Airpods Pro, and already ordered AirPods 2, instead. Never had to return an apple product before, and I'm a really pro user.

wow, thanks for the review. this sucks )

 

[Chacocliff]

Pro tip: you can turn on ANC for just one earbud in the Accessibility->Airpods setting. This is something I had been curious about for phone calls.

 

[TitsLegendary]

I miss the tap gestures and I don’t like how short the stem is. This makes it hard to grab the stem to use the click features.

 

[jamface]

How can this be called Pro? Apple is going too far

Quite reasonably, when you consider what it denotes in Apple’s terms - a bit better on account of a couple of extra features. (Oh, and way more expensive).

Anyway, all their naming conventions are silly. Like, What the hell is a ‘pod’?! A small thing with stuff in? So... the iPod perhaps makes some sense. But EarPods? HomePod? Podcast? Macintosh? That’s something you wear when it rains and you’re a schoolboy in the 1970s. Newton? That’s a unit of force...

Just don’t try to buy a GoPro. It’ll be really difficult to choose.
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I'll return these Airpods Pro, and already ordered AirPods 2, instead. Never had to return an apple product before, and I'm a really pro user.

You failed to assert your status with an uppercase ‘p’ so, personally, I think the AirPods Pro should have returned you. Sorry.

 

[Lazlow]

I bought the original AirPods a few months ago and hated them. Uncomfortable pieces of hard plastic with bad sound quality that just fall out of my ears. Returned them after 24 hours.

I bought the AirPods Pro yesterday, and so far I'm very impressed. I'm a big techno head, and the sound quality is great - yes I'm sure the Sennheisers are amazing, but these sound plenty great to me and the other features you get are worth it. The noise cancellation is fantastic. This morning on the NYC subway platform I couldn't even hear the train coming. The ambient noise passthrough mode ("transparency" or whatever) is great for walking around NYC so that I don't get hit by a bus, or for sitting at my desk at work and still being able to hear when people call my name. I like the new squeeze gestures on the stem. I think they're very easy to use. Also, the tap gestures on the original AirPods had me accidentally pausing or skipping tracks when I was readjusting them (which was often because they fall out so much), versus now I can readjust without worry - ironically, there's little need to readjust with these.

One subtle advantage of the AirPods is that each earbud pairs to the device versus most other products where the right bud is the master and the left one is the slave. This means I can bike around the city with only my left AirPod in while the right one is in the case. Bike lanes are on the left side of the road so I really only want an earbud in my left ear (again, trying not to get hit by a bus). Can't do that with other models.

 

[Ma2k5]

Also coming from the Jabra 65ts. The Jabras for me feel like they seal in the ear more, but that may be because they're not vented. I kind of feel like the sound on the Jabra's is better. Maybe that's because you can play with the EQ levels on those and with the airpods you only have the EQ presets in the music settings. I find the ANC to be pretty good. It's pretty noticeable when turning it on and off. I think I'm going to keep using them for the next couple of weeks to see how it goes and decide if I want to keep them or go back to the Jabras.

Yeah ANC is good, but I have to say transparency mode is amazing on the Airpods Pro, far better than anyone else. It is as if you are't wearing anything! That feature alone might make me keep this pair.

 

[lenard]

These new AirPods are super great, its like a concert in your head when listening with them, every element of the music is noticeable and clear, they are really what a pair of ear pods should sound like and the price is spot on....

 

[elipem01]

Has anyone tried using a single AirPod Pro and can comment on the functionality? I frequently only put one in while I’m at work to still hear what’s going on around me. I realize transparency helps with this but just curious if anyone has tried it yet.