First impressions

I enjoy headphones, headphone technology, and all it entails. This includes earphone tech and how it’s all being brought together. The original Apple Airpod Pros were my favourite wireless earbuds for many reasons. When Apple announced the second generation I was intrigued, Apple wouldn’t bring something out unless it was an upgrade on the original, right? Either way, I bought a pair to find out and…I was impressed!

Active Noise Cancellation

The originals had excellent noise cancellation, not on par with something like the WH1000 XM4s but those are over-ear so you probably shouldn’t compare. They did have some bleed through and high-pitched sounds would make their way into your earholes.

I’m happy to say that they’ve upped their game with the new ones. They’re still not on par with the WH1000 XM4s but they’re a vast improvement on the prior gen. Music at the gym, where I work out, is sufficiently drained out. Noise on the underground and trains are taken away, even if I’m not listening to music and just using them for their noise-cancelling.

Overall a great improvement in active noise-cancelling.

Sound quality

There wasn’t much wrong with the original Pros in terms of sound quality. Neither the old nor the new can do lossless but they are really well-tuned for what they can do. The second generation feels to be slightly better tuned for bass response which is welcomed as the old ones did suffer in that area.

Another area I found they did much better in was the directional audio you get, the response to turning your head considerably faster and the sound stage presented feels more alive and less like someone is messing with the left/right slider on your audio output. I’m not big into music that’s recorded that way but I can see why it’s a cool feature to have.

Day-to-day use

I’ve never had a problem with battery life even in the old set and the new ones are meant to be considerably better. My only issue ever happened when I plugged in my originals but the connection wasn’t made and they didn’t charge. I got to the gym, tried to listen to music and after 5 minutes they died, annoyingly. This is also somewhat remedied by a charging case that makes a small noise (thanks to a small speaker) when plugged in and connected.

They come with extra small ear tips now, which is probably a welcome addition to some but I’d imagine also a welcome addition to people that have small children and would like to shield their ears from a noise-polluted area.

This brings me to another point: the transparency mode is much better. It’s the same in many regards until a loud noise occurs. Thanks to the new tech in the second gens, they are able to attenuate loud and sudden noises to more acceptable levels.

An example of this was while I was walking down the high street to grab a coffee, some guys were off-loading a truck and the rear truck door swung around and hit the side giving off quite a sudden and loud BANG noise. It gave everyone around a start which confused me because the sound itself was quite soft even though it happened almost right next to me. It was muffled or turned into a dull thud though, I still heard it in detail, just at a lower volume. Difficult to explain but you get the idea.

Lastly, you can now adjust the volume by sliding your fingers up or down on the stem.

Overall impressions

Their great, Apple nailed the build quality and the improvements are enough to warrant a second generation. If these are your first, Active Noise Cancelling, earbuds you’re buying, you’ll definitely be blown away. If you’re upgrading from an existing pair of Airpod Pros, prepare to be slightly underwhelmed.

The differences are there but the originals were a great pair, to begin with.