- Three years later and we finally have
the second generation of Apple's AirPods Pro.
They're $249, they have a better case,
improved battery life and an all new H2 chip
that Apple claims--
- Delivers advanced computational audio
previously unable to run on a device of this size.
- And that coupled with new vent placements
reportedly adds up to twice the amount of
active noise cancellation
over the previous AirPods Pro.
Thing about reviewing earbuds on video
is that features such as ANC are incredibly
hard to demonstrate.
So, I wanted to try something new.
This is Owen.
He set up a sort of blind active noise cancellation test
that's going to simulate common noises
that most folks who are wearing ANC buds wanna cancel out.
Every earbud fits every ear differently
and that is incredibly important to ANC performance
but I'm hoping that this test will give us a
general idea of how each of these earbuds perform.
I'm gonna be listening to the same song
on four pairs of wireless earbuds
that we, here at The Verge, think have
the best active noise cancellation in this price range.
If/when I hear a noise, I'll raise this sign
and then we'll move onto the next sound.
Okay, go.
(bell rings)
(machine clattering)
Yeah, is that a jackhammer?
(waves crashing)
Is that like white noise?
Yeah, that's like a low.
Oh God.
Whoa, is that like a helicopter?
It's deep, it's deep.
I can like feel it but I can't hear it.
All set?
- [Owen] Yeah.
- Wow.
Okay, so jackhammers.
- [Owen] Yeah.
- Okay.
No other pair of earbuds came close to canceling
as much noise as the Bose QuietComfort II's did.
It was almost scary how much I couldn't hear.
That being said, the AirPod Pros second gen
did cancel out a pretty good amount of noise
and definitely more than the previous version.
Now, they also have a feature called
active transparency mode,
which is when you're in transparency mode
meaning that you can hear the things around you.
If there's annoying sounds, it's supposed to take
those sounds down so you have a more pleasant
listening experience.
Now, I have had an incredibly hard time
getting those to trigger it.
In fact, I haven't been able to get it to trigger.
Even here in the studio, we played some jackhammer sounds
and I couldn't get it to take them down.
So, we'll have to use these headphones more
and see if we can get that feature to work at all.
(light music)
For folks coming from the original AirPods Pro,
the biggest changes you'll notice are actually in the case.
There's a lanyard loop on the side
and now the case can be charged via MagSafe
or on any Apple watch charger.
But more importantly, the case now makes sound.
(dinging)
(beeping)
The only visual difference to the buds themselves is
the vent is now located on the top of the bud
and there's an added extra small size ear tip option.
On the stem, there's also now the ability to swipe
up and down to adjust the earbuds volume.
I have thought that all earbuds should have
swiping volume controls.
So it's absolutely excellent to see that coming
to these earbuds.
Apple also claims that they have improved the
inward facing mics on these buds.
So we put them through the ultimate stress test.
(rumbling)
Okay, I've wanted to do this mic test for a very long time.
These are $249 2nd gen AirPod Pros
and we're on a boat.
The boat test is not just about wind.
It's also about background noise.
It's also about just wanting to talk on the phone
when you want to talk on the phone.
And these are the original AirPods Pro.
You can get them for like $179.
Ah man, speaking on waves, baby.
Definitely has some really nice windshield
technology on their earbuds,
but this is a lot of wind and a lot of background noise.
Okay, okay, but here's what they sound like
in a more controlled environment.
There's like a noisy fridge behind me but,
otherwise, we're in a quiet office.
I continue to be impressed with the mic
on the Sony LinkBuds.
I continue to be disappointed by the mic
on the Samsung Buds 2 Pro.
But to me, the 1st gen AirPods Pro
don't really sound all that different
from the 2nd generation of the AirPods Pro.
And well, nothing will ever come close
to the wired Apple headphones
that of course have incredible mic placement
and a solid wired connection.
But, how do the AirPod Pros sound?
(upbeat music)
The new AirPods Pro have a personalized
spacial audio feature that is created via
the true depth camera on the iPhone.
It always feels fun to go through a personalization setup
but rarely does it affect real life performance
and sadly, that is true here as well.
I did not notice any real change in
spacial audio performance post-personalization.
But that didn't make me any less in love
with head tracking which many folks would label
as a gimmick and I don't know,
it just hasn't gotten old for me yet
and I especially love making people use it who
have never tested it before.
It's really cool.
It's a great bar trick.
Bt more importantly, the 2nd generation AirPod Pros
have an improved H2 chip and new amps and drivers.
The company claims that this creates deeper bass
and crisper highs and yeah, it does.
These buds sound great and incredibly full
with a balanced amount of bass.
But if you're coming from the previous AirPod Pros,
I'm not sure there's like that much of a difference.
Those earbuds have great sound and these do too.
I made a playlist that I'll link down below
full of all the songs I've been listening to
while testing these buds.
They happen to be all these like full,
really punchy songs that have lots of highs and lows
and good bass.
I mean, these headphones, they really shine
when they can kinda separate all those sounds for you.
Now, something that previous owners of AirPod Pros
and new owners will notice is battery life.
The new buds have six hours of battery life
with ANC turned on
and four and a half hours of continuous talk time
from a single charge.
All of that means that during a work day,
I started at nine-thirty AM.
I was able to get around three PM
before the buds died.
It's definitely better and will feel amazing
if your 1st gen AirPod Pros batteries
have begun to fade.
So, the 2nd generation AirPods Pro,
they're not the stemless, earth-shattering earbuds
I was kind of hoping they would be.
But they're a solid upgrade to the previous version.
Apple took an already great product
and added some simple upgrades to battery life,
some minor case improvements, a bump in audio quality,
and a much bigger bump in ANC,
and added a few gimmicks like personalized spacial audio.
All of these things will make these AirPods Pro
feel new and special to owners of the previous
AirPods Pro, but I don't think there's enough there
for folks who aren't due for an upgrade to jump at.
But I'm just not so sure why I'm seeing
so many reviews like absolutely raving about these earbuds.
They're good, yes, but they're not nearly as groundbreaking
as the 1st generation was and of course,
if you are an iOS user,
you're gonna love the tight integration
with the ecosystem and you're probably absolutely
gonna buy these so long as they fit your ears.
But for everybody else,
there's a whole huge sea of wireless earbuds
that have better ANC like the Bose QC IIs
or I don't know, better audio quality
like Sony's WF, WF 1000 XM4s, I think that it,
it's a bad name but I think that's it.
Or I don't know, anything from Anker that's gonna be
a much cheaper price.
But if you love your AirPod Pros
or you're set on having a pair of AirPod Pros,
then these, these are the absolutely best ones yet.
- I couldn't get this sound to play
when we were doing the case sound test
because the headphones weren't dead,
but they're dying now.
So, this is the sound that it makes
when you put your headphones in the case
and the headphones are dying.
It is the most useful sound they have
'cause it reminds you to charge it.
Anyway.
(light beeping)
That's sweet, right?
(imitating beeping)
(laughs) Bye bye.