I've had the original AirPods Pro for a while, and ordered these primarily for the touch volume control, a sorely lacking omission on the originals. I didn't expect that these, the "2's," would be *so* much better than the originals, in every way! If you can get these, get these. They're fantastic.
Here are my side-by-side comparisons:
The sound is better, clearer, flatter. Tons more bass which is clear and strong. Gone is the fake/compressed sound at the high end; these just ride evenly across the mids and the highs.
The noise cancelling is twice as good. Really knocks down a ton. By far the best noise cancelling I've ever experienced with any headphone, period.
The transparency mode is better, clearer, cleaner, and crisper. Take these out of your ears, with nothing playing, in transparency mode, and you don't hear any difference! That's some feat.
I love that the case now has MagSafe. And when you charge it, MagSafe or not, it dings to let you know it's charging. Finally.
I love that "Find My" gives precise location of each earbud, and the case, separately. Bonus: If you use a Mac and have Widgets enabled in your sidebar, you can see, at a glance (using the Battery widget), the charge level of both the AirPods and the case, separately!
Oh, and the battery life, compared to the first version, feels infinite. I believe it's reported as double. I could (and have) had the old AirPods die on me during a long Zoom call; that won't happen here.
The pairing is instant across all Apple devices.
The touch volume control works nicely. It's predictable and not finicky. You get a little audio beep when you use it, as feedback. It controls your iPhone and/or your Mac; ditto for play/pause control (same as other AirPods).
The only downside is that these are noticeably heavier than the model they replace; I think all the new weight is in the case. But that's a minuscule price to pay for so many great upgrades. Great job, Apple.
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Compare Apple AirPods
| Price | From: $199.00 | From: $89.00 | From: $169.00 | From: $449.99 |
| Ratings | (1,819) | (621,455) | (665) | (3,013) |
| Fit | Customizable | Universal | Universal | Customizable |
| Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency Mode |
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| Chip | Apple H2 headphone chip U1 chip in charging case for Precision Finding | Apple H1 headphone chip | Apple H1 headphone chip | Apple H1 headphone chip (each ear cup) |
| Hey Siri | Always on | Always on | Always on | Always on |
| Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking |
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| Battery life (listening time on one charge) | Up to 6 hours of listening time | Up to 5 hours of listening time | Up to 6 hours of listening time | Up to 20 hours of listening time |
| Battery life (listening time with charging case) | Up to 30-hours | More than 24-hours | Up to 30-hours | - |
| Bluetooth |
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| LED Charging Light Location | Front of Case | Top of Case | Front of case | - |
| Qi Compatible |
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| Adaptive EQ |
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| Case | MagSafe Charging Case (USB-C) with speaker and lanyard loop | Lightning Charging Case | Lightning Charging Case | Smart Case |
Reviews with images
Detailed review of v1 pros vs v2 pros - The improved ANC is real!
I've owned all versions of airpods, normal, pro, max, etc. My favorite one for the longest time was the Airpod Pros "version 1". This product is the Airpods Pro "version 2". It took me a while to convince myself to buy these, but after testing both side-by-side I noticed a few very noticeable features.*ANC is improved. I can say this with certainty. I work hobbies that at times involve loud machinery and fellas yelling at each other. I can tell the difference in the ANC "level". It simply works better than before and it has this additional thing that detects vocal conversations and adapts- the V1 pros didn't have that.*Sound quality is minorly improved - I have pretty good ears, and the bass sounds a bit better with these. Unfortunately, that's about all I can say about that.*Battery and compatibility vastly improved; USB-C Charging has been long overdue. The wireless charging works better than v1 too- v1 heats up quite a bit and seems to charge endlessly using the official wireless apple charger. V2 doesn't have that issue. The batteries in the case and pods are nearly 2x better from what I am seeing so far.*Quality hasn't declined; This one is important to me. I buy apple products mainly because of their build quality and how well they operate with each other. These pair nearly effortlessly with the iPhone, and the FindMy function has VASTLY improved; Making the case able to produce a sound to locate with has been a game changer. Previously with the older Airpod Pros, if you lost them while in the case, you couldn't locate them with the find-my app because they had no way to produce a noise whilst in the case. I am so glad they improved upon this quality aspect and the Airpod's quality continues to rise without noticeable compromises.*AppleCare+: Nothing has really changed about this and that's a good thing. AppleCare+ works well, and I recommend it. I use it on all of my apple devices. I was happy to see that they made it even easier than before to get AppleCare+ bundled with the actual purchase of the airpods. Before, you had to manually activate it and that was a bit inconvienent. Plus people would forget they had AppleCare and leave their device unprotected because they didn't activate it. Glad to hear they addressed all that as well.*Lasting technology: My final point is most important to me. I could ramble on and on about this part but long story short- I use these ALL the time, and I'm not joking- around 60-75% of the time I have these in, even without music playing. If you're the type of person who uses these a lot, then going from V1 to V2 is a no-brainer. But if you do NOT use them constantly like I do, don't worry! That's probably good for you and if you're not tethered to them like I am, then you should probably wait for the newer "v3" ones that are coming out sometime next year.The Airpod Pro's v2 might not be an impressive upgrade for audiophiles, but for almost everyone else the extra bells & whistles make up for the marginally improved sound quality and make it worth the extra cost.
