- Apple just released the second-generation AirPods Pro.
This is huge.
- We're going to see how these AirPods compare
to the rest of Apple's lineup
to help you decide which pair you should buy.
- And we're gonna tell you why we think
everyone's number one complaint about the AirPods Pro
will turn out to be totally wrong.
- Let's meet 'em, the second-generation AirPods Pro
support two times better active noise cancellation,
personalized spatial audio,
and adaptive transparency
with environmental noise reduction, which is super cool.
More on that later.
- They're powered by the new H2 chip,
which is twice as powerful as the H1 chip
that's in AirPods Max and the previous generation.
The H2 chip allows the second-generation AirPods Pro
to do a lot of things headphones
have never been able to do before.
- The battery life is great,
up to six hours on a single charge,
and 30 hours with the wireless charging case
that you can charge, with MagSafe or a Qi charger,
by placing it on your Apple Watch charger
or using the lightning port at the bottom.
- And for the first time,
the AirPods case is IPX4 water resistant,
which will protect it from splashing water
coming from any direction.
- On the right-hand side of the case,
there's a new spot for a lanyard,
which you can purchase from Apple.
- Or you can make your own like me.
Before we talk about sound quality,
we want to touch on the fit.
The second-generation AirPods Pro
come with new, extra-small ear tips.
- I was a little bit concerned about the silicone tips,
because the first-generation AirPods Pro
didn't sit very well in my ears,
that's why I've been using the Beats Fit Pro,
they have a little wing tip for extra ear security.
I tried all four ear tip sizes and let me tell you,
I'm really glad Apple introduced the extra-small size.
- I just assumed that because I'm an adult male,
I would fall into the medium or large category,
so I tried 'em first with the mediums,
but I'm really glad I tried the other sizes,
because the smalls for me changed everything,
the comfortability and the sound quality.
- If you're like me and you've had trouble
with earbuds before,
I don't think you'll have an issue with these.
- Me neither, there's an ear tip fit test
in the settings app, which is really cool.
I tried it first with the mediums, I got good seal.
But then I tried it with the smalls,
felt better, also got good seal.
So the moral of the story
is try all the different sizes before you decide.
- I thought I was going to rip them
'cause you have to yank them so hard,
but believe me, you'll be fine.
- Some other headphones leave me wondering
if the ear tip is actually on all the way,
but these snap-on ear tips
is another example of Apple's amazing engineering.
- The ear tip is about more than just the fit.
The second-generation AirPods Pro
sound a lot better than the AirPods 3,
especially, at bass frequencies.
Let's talk about sound.
- The original AirPods Pro had great sound quality.
But when you compare them side by side,
the second generations sound a whole lot better.
Apple built a new custom transducer,
which is the part of the speaker that vibrates,
and a new amplifier to power them,
and that means more clarity and frequencies
that extend much farther into the low end and high end.
David and I used to talk about the Apple sound
on every pair of AirPods and Beats
we tested for the last few years.
It always sounded like music
was optimized for vocal clarity.
I am happy to say that the Apple sound
is no longer a thing with these.
They sound a lot better.
- I think with these headphones
more than any other Apple headphones in the past,
and earbuds more generally,
you can really hear the sounds
and the edges of the sound stage.
There was a really impressive clarity and wideness
when I listened to "Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles.
There's all these crazy sounds going all over the place,
but nothing was muddled.
Everything was distinct and clear.
- We'll talk more about it later,
but the H2 chip in the new AirPods Pro
gave Apple the power it needed
to extend the frequency response.
The bass used to disappear at low volumes,
but now it's consistent, even when it's soft.
- The vocals are super crisp.
You said the Apple sound is no longer a thing,
and I agree for the most part,
I just did find myself wanting a little bit more bass,
a little bit more punchiness.
- I agree, the bass is there for me,
but I felt like it was lacking a little bit
in the sub-bass frequencies,
like when I listened to "Brass Monkey" by Beastie Boys,
it just didn't have the lowest of the low end.
- Also important to sound is personalized spatial audio.
- Spatial audio sounds complex, but it's simple.
With two ears we can hear how far away things are
and pinpoint exactly what direction they're coming from,
which is amazing and very hard to do with technology.
That's what Apple is striving for with spatial audio.
- [David] It's a little awkward to set up,
especially, when you're doing it on your own.
- Yeah, it's hard to be looking at your phone
when you're pointing it at your ear,
but Apple did a good job of making it
so that you don't have to have your ear
perfectly centered in the camera for it to work.
- Personalized spatial audio is a neat feature,
but I don't think it's one I'm going to use very often.
It doesn't really improve the listening experience
and I think some of the richness
in the audio tracks gets lost.
For example, I was listening
to "Lost Cause" by Billie Eilish
and some of the whispering on the sides,
you couldn't hear it as well.
- I agree when it comes to music that was mixed in stereo.
For instance, Quincy Jones did a great job
of mixing "Thriller,"
I don't think that personalized facial audio
is gonna make that sound better,
so I like to leave it off for music.
- However, this feature is amazing for movies.
It's kind of hard to describe,
but I'd say the audio experience
is somewhere between a conventional movie theater
and watching a film in IMAX.
- For most people,
unless you have a high-end Dolby Atmos sound system at home,
these are gonna make your movies
sound a lot better than a TV speaker or a soundbar.
Let's talk about noise cancellation.
- I think the active noise cancellation was solid,
but left just a little bit to be desired.
However, on some earbuds we've tested before,
they play this little white noise
when noise cancellation is on,
that kind of ruins the audio experience for you.
There was none of that on the second-gen AirPods Pro.
- I think the ANC on these sounds great,
and it sounds a lot better
than the first-generation AirPods Pro,
especially, when it comes to lower frequencies
like you might hear if you're flying on a plane.
A quick note about the design of these,
that's a huge improvement over the previous generation.
Apple moved the vent from the side to the top
on the new generation of the AirPods Pro,
which allows for better noise canceling
and pressure equalization,
so the noise canceling doesn't just sound better,
it's more comfortable,
there's less pressure in your ears.
- On the flip side,
let's talk about what used to be called transparency mode.
- Now it's called adaptive transparency.
When we hear our own voices on a recording,
a lot of the time it sounds weird to us,
and that's because our bodies are resonance chambers.
When we speak, we hear all this bass coming from in here
that doesn't get put out into the world.
- Adaptive transparency is simply amazing.
It really sounds like there's nothing in your ears.
I was totally blown away.
- And the adaptive part of this is really a cool feature.
Let's say you're walking down the road
and a fire truck comes blaring by,
you'd need to hear the siren,
but you don't need it amplified into your ears.
What adaptive transparency does
is it takes the loudest sounds,
those above 85 decibels,
and reduces them without ducking the level
of the lower sounds.
I wasn't gonna say this,
because I'm gonna come off as an Apple fanboy,
but this struck me as a better way to hear
because it protects you against the really loud sounds,
but you still hear the quiet ones.
- Could be an upcoming "Black Mirror" episode.
And when you use the second-gen AirPods Pro
and your Apple Watch at the same time,
you can see the level of noise reduction in real time.
- One point of feedback for Apple,
I hope eventually that they build in a volume control
for the transparency mode,
because sometimes I like to hear the outside world
a little louder or a little bit quieter.
- A little bit quieter for me.
Next, let's talk about battery life and the case.
- The second-gen AirPods Pro get six hours
on a single charge,
that is 1 1/2 hours longer than the previous generation,
and just about the same amount
as the third-generation AirPods.
- When you bring in the case,
the second-gen AirPods Pro
get about 30 hours of listening time.
That's about the same as the AirPods 3,
and six hours more than the first-generation AirPod Pros.
- At first glance, the new AirPods Pro case
is pretty much the same as the old one,
but it does have a few distinguishing features.
- Apple added the U1 chip,
which enables precision finding,
allowing you to quickly find your case.
Maybe it's tucked underneath the couch cushion.
- There's also a speaker on the case
that plays sounds when the battery is low,
when charging has started,
when they enter pairing mode,
and when you put the wrong AirPod in the case.
- I love these new tones.
It doesn't seem like a really big change,
but it was a big boost for me in terms of user experience
and it's one of those hyper attention to detail features
that really makes Apple, Apple.
There's also a lanyard loop on the side of the case,
making it really easy to attach your AirPods case
to a gym bag or a purse.
- I know you've been admiring my lanyard here.
I had it custom made last weekend
at the Big E in Massachusetts,
and you can win one of these custom babies.
I feel like I'm on QVC.
24-karat, gold-plated, jeweler's bronze.
- It's better than pyrite.
- Subscribe to our channel and hop in our Discord
to find out how you can win this beauty.
- [David] You can also get an incase lanyard from Apple.
- [David P.] Or you can make your own outta string.
- Next, let's talk about touch controls.
- Apple did a really good job
of making the touch controls intuitive and simple.
They improved the force sensor
from the previous generation AirPods Pro
by adding a capacitive touch layer on top of it,
so now you can change the volume on your AirPods Pro
without having to talk to Siri or touch your phone.
- When you swipe up and down on the stem,
it only changes a little bit of volume at a time
that way you're not blowing out your eardrums.
I just think this whole swiping functionality is super cool.
- I hope they change it
so that you can adjust it a little bit more with each swipe.
Maybe they build in some sort of a smart volume system.
- It can be a little bit tedious going from a very low level
to a very high level just by swiping up and down.
- You can kind of get this thing going on though.
That's what I was doing. - Okay.
- Have you tried it with the two-handed swipe?
- I didn't try the two-handed swipe yet, no.
- Well, you're gonna have to try that, it's great.
Let's talk quickly about the skin detect sensor.
Most headphones have an optical sensor
that tells you something's in front of them,
but it's not good at identifying what that something is,
so sometimes they get turned on if they're in your pocket.
- The skin detect sensor uses two light sensors
that detect reflections of light that only come from skin
and it works across all skin tones.
We can't do a headphone review
without talking about the microphones.
Let's compare the four most recent AirPods models.
- This is a test of the AirPods Max microphone
in a quiet environment during a phone call.
- This is a test of the AirPods Max microphone
in a loud environment during a phone call.
- This is a test of the AirPods third-generation microphone
in a quiet environment during a phone call.
- This is a test of the AirPods 3 microphone
in a loud environment during a phone call.
- This is a test of the AirPods Pro
first-generation microphone
in a quiet environment during a phone call.
- This is the test of the AirPods Pro
first-generation microphone
in a loud environment during a phone call.
- This is the test of the AirPods Pro
second-generation microphone
in a quiet environment during a phone call.
- This is the test of the AirPods Pro
second-generation microphone
in a loud environment during a phone call.
The microphone is definitely better
than previous AirPods models,
particularly, the first-gen AirPods Pro,
but it's nothing really revolutionary.
They'll sound good on phone calls and Zoom calls,
and that's what you need 'em to do.
- We're gonna get to our final verdict in just a moment,
but we need to talk about why the H2 chip
that Apple invented for these is a total game changer
with wireless audio technology.
- So why should they be so excited about this chip?
- When you listen to music with Bluetooth headphones,
a digital signal gets sent from your phone
in zeros and ones to the headphones themselves,
and then, Apple built a custom transducer,
which is like the speaker and an amplifier,
which takes that digital signal
and turns it into an analog audio signal waves
that we can hear with our ears.
Yes, the second-gen AirPods Pro have great acoustics,
but, in the past, the processor
has been the limiting factor.
- And that's Apple's secret weapon,
and nobody else can build a chip like they can.
- Bluetooth audio has always been about trade-offs
between reliability of signal,
battery life and sound quality.
We don't have lossless audio yet,
but there are plenty of indications that the power is there,
it just needs to be unlocked by Apple,
and that's what brings us to the reason why we think
everyone's number one complaint
about the AirPods Pro second gen is wrong.
I think they're gonna roll out lossless audio
with the next AirPods release.
Every time you see 48,000 times per second
in their marketing materials,
that's a clue to us that lossless audio
is just over the horizon.
In terms of marketing strategy,
you have a ton of people out there saying,
"I would buy the AirPods Pro second gen
if they came with lossless audio, but I guess I'll wait."
Well, there's a marketing thing out there called consistency
where we wanna keep promises we make,
even the ones we make to ourselves.
All those people are gonna go out
and buy the AirPods Pro second gen,
as soon as Apple rolls out the lossless audio.
Apple knows this, they're just waiting to roll it out.
That's what I think.
This is not anything that's confirmed.
We have no inside knowledge.
- Total speculation. - It's a guess.
But I saw the numbers and I said,
"Lossless audio's on the way."
- And when he's wrong, you can leave a comment down below
and tell him how wrong he was.
But should you buy them?
I can tell you right now,
these are gonna be my new workout headphones.
I've been using the Beats Fit Pro
because of the ear security.
The AirPods Pro second generation
are comparable on ear security,
they sound a lot better,
and they cancel noise a lot better.
- In spite of all the amazing features that these come with,
it all comes down to sound quality for me,
and these are a huge improvement
over the previous generation and over the AirPods,
and I really think they would compete
even with the AirPods Max,
and that's because of the H2 chip
and just how far Apple has come with that technology.
- I think the second-generation AirPods Pro
are also the best bang for your buck
in Apple's AirPods lineup,
they're $70 more than the AirPods 3
with that MagSafe charging case,
and for those $70 you get the U1 chip
with precision finding, active noise cancellation.
- Lot of stuff. - Lot of great stuff.
They're also a lot cheaper than the AirPods Max.
And I think whether I'm working out,
or on a Zoom call, or even traveling,
just the portability and the sound quality
of the AirPods Pro second generation,
I'd rather have those at less than half the price
than the AirPods Max.
- The AirPods Pro second gen,
I think it's a great buy for 249.
- They totally surpassed my expectations.
And now, like the AirPods Pro second generation,
iOS 16 also just recently came out.
Is your iPhone optimized for it?
If not, watch this video next appearing on the screen.
Click it, check it out, you'll enjoy it.