So the AirPods Pro 2 have a a lot of upgrades to them. Some of these upgrades were really needed, some of these upgrades were expected and some of these upgrades… I didn’t even know I wanted. Overall, the AirPods Pro 2 are solid, they’re a great upgrade from the Original AirPods Pro, and if you’re an iPhone user, you can’t go wrong with the AirPods Pro 2.
regarding pricing, the AirPods Pro 2 retail for $250… which is pretty much in line when compared to other premium ANC earbuds like lets say the Sony WF-1000XM4’s, the Sennheiser Momentum 3’s or Bose QC Earbuds 2… but when compared Apple’s other earbuds… the AirPods 3 retail for $180 with wireless charging, the studio buds retail for $150 and the AirPods 2 retail for $130. Nonetheless if you want to pick these earbuds up they’ll be linked down below or you can always press on the Youtube Shopping button.
Now first, lets address this carrying case cause this is something that apple has always gotten really right… and there are some major upgrades specifically on this case. Size wise, the AirPods Pro 2’s case is that same shape and size as the original AirPods Pro case… this case is also a little larger than the AirPods 3 and AirPods 2 cases. But regardless, the AirPods Pro 2’s case is noticeably smaller than all of these other cases like lets say… Pixel Buds Pro, Sony linkbuds S, Sony WF-1000XM4, Galaxy Buds 2, Galaxy Buds 2 pro, Sennheiser CX Plus, and Sennheiser Momentum 3’s, Jabra Elite 7 Pro and Jabra Elite 85T… and there’s also the Beats Studio Buds and Bose QC Earbuds 2 which both have relatively chunky cases. So, even though the AirPods Pro 2’s case is a little larger than the AirPods 3 and 2’s cases… the AirPods Pro 2’s case is still relatively super small, and you’re barley going to notice it while its in your pocket… making the AirPods Pro 2 a very convenient pair of earbuds to carry around.
However, one of the first and major upgrades about the AirPods Pro 2 is how you charge this case. Now obviously, you can charge this case up with a wired connection and use the lighting port on the bottom. Pretty basic. And you can also use any standard QI wireless charging mat to charge this case as well. But also, the AirPods Pro 2’s have mag safe, so you can use apple’s mag safe charger and you can charge it up that way. And the cool thing about mag safe is that the case and charger will automatically get lined up. But the unexpected upgrade here is that you can now also use your Apple watch’s wireless charger to charge this case up as well. And thanks to mag safe, this smaller charging pad is also going to get automatically lined up. And personally, I think its very cool that apple has given you the option to charge this case with your apple watch charger, cause it gives you more flexibility when it comes to charging. The more options, the better. The only think that this case is missing is USB C charging.
But another upgrade that is found on this case is that it now has a built in speaker. Now this speaker is used for a few things. First off, it will play a little chime when you plug in this case to charge… which admiditly can be a little annoying at first. But also, you will get a chime when the case’s battery is low… and personally, I have found that this has helped me to remember when I have to charge my case… cause personally its very easy for me to ignore the indicator light on the front and its also very easy for me to ignore my notifications when they appear in the dynamic island.
But this speaker will also play a little chime if you put in the wrong AirPods in to this case… But more importantly… this new speaker on this case is going to help you find this case if you’re trying to find them using the Find My app. But this also leads us to another upgrade found on this case… and that the U1 chip.
Now the U1 chip basically makes this case into an AirTag. You can make track this case where it goes in real time, and when you’re within bluetooth range, your iPhone can help you track it down by displaying an arrow on the screen. And now you can even track your case, even if the earbuds aren’t inside. But from a more practical level, I love that this U1 chip constantly tells you the battery status of your case, it tells you the battery status of your earbuds, and it also tells you when the case and or earbuds are charging. And you can see all of this either from the battery lock screen widget, or you can use a home screen widget.
Personally, I have found that with this case, I am much more aware of my earbud’s battery levels, and I am much more inclined to charge my ear buds when I should… and I am much less likely to get caught with dead earbuds… which has always been a problem for me. But I am also really happy that I can track my AirPods and the case by using the Find My app if I lose them… And also, the case now has a loop in it, so if you want, you can attach a lanyard to it… but you don’t get an included lanyard in the box.
Now when it comes to battery life, I would say that this is an expected upgrade. The AirPods Pro 2’s now have a combined advertised battery life of 30 hours with their active noise cancelation turned on. The earbuds themselves can go for 6 straight hours and the case can supply 4 additional charges. However, if you’re like me and you only use the ANC on these earbuds when you have to… you can extend their battery lives for longer.
But for comparison, the Original AirPods Pro have an advertised combined battery life of 24 hours with their active noise cancelation turned on. The Earbuds themselves can go for 5 hours and the case can supply 4 additional charges. Overall, this isn’t a huge upgrade on the AirPods Pro 2’s… but in general, the AirPods Pro 2’s still have above average battery lives for earbuds in late 2022 and early 2023.
But now lets talk about fit. The AirPods Pro 2’s fit the same as the original AirPods Pro. They’re in ear earbuds, but they have a shallow fit to them. They aren’t standard fitting in ear earbuds like lets say the Sony Linkbuds 2, Galaxy Buds 2, Jabra Elite 7 Pro’s or Sennheiser Momentum 3’s. The AirPods Pro 2’s fit more similarly to lets say the Jabra Elite 85T’s, the Pixel Buds Pro or even the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro…except these go in a little deeper. Now thanks to the AirPods Pro 2’s fit, these earbuds are very comfortable to wear because they don’t feel as intrusive… and their silicon ear tips don’t get itchy… unlike the foam ear tips that you’ll find on the Sony WF-1000XM4’s. However, the draw back about the AirPods Pro 2’s shallow fit is that these earbuds like to wiggle out a lot. If im doing and type of exercise with these earbuds, they will wiggle out, and they will even wiggle out if im sitting at my desk. And even though both the Jabra Elite 85T’s and Pixel Buds Pro have a shallow fit, similar to the AirPods… I have noticed that they don’t wiggle out as much… and I think that is cause these earbuds haver more surface area coming in contact with the surface of your ear canal. But over all, the AirPods Pro 2’s fit well and they are great for casual use… but personally these would not be my top pick for working out cause they do like to constantly wiggle out.
Now when it comes to connectivity, just as always, each earbud establishes a connection with your phone. So if you just want to use on earbud at a time, you can use either on, it doesn’t matter. Now apple has been doing this from day one… but there are some cheaper or older earbuds out there that are still using a hero and side kick set up where if you just want to use on earbud a time, you have to use the correct earbud.
And thanks to the H2 chip, if youre an apple power user you can easily a quickly hot swap between any of your apple devices associated to your iCloud account… And the H2 chip is also going to allow you to have Hey Siri support. So you can ask Siri to do something for you, without having to touch your earbuds.
But now, lets talk about actually listening to music with these earbuds. Now if you have been watching me for awhile now, you’ll know that I never actually really liked or used my original AirPods Pro to listen to music or watch movies with. I would strictly only use them to watch YouTube videos cause I have always felt that the Original AirPods Pro sounded very narrow and super flat. However, when the Beats Studio buds came out, I was very impressed cause they had better instrument separation and they had a lot more resends in their bass… and when the AirPods 3 came around… they also gave me high hopes for the AirPods Pro 2’s cause the AirPods 3’s managed to sound great, even though they aren’t in ear earbuds. And thankfully, the AirPods Pro 2’s managed to exceed my expectations, and I feel that these are truly a great sounding pair of earbuds. Now the most obvious improvement on the AirPods Pro 2’s is that they have much better bass response this time around. The bass on these earbuds resonates a good amount. And these earbuds have good instrument separation as well. Overall, these earbuds perform very similar to both the Studio Buds and Beats Fit pro…. But the main difference here is that the highs on the AirPods Pro 2 are much more relaxed… so that don’t get overly bright at higher volumes. And I gotta say, the AirPods Pro 2 are now my second favorite sounding earbuds. I can confidently say that the AirPods Pro 2 sound better than the Sony WF-1000XM4’s and Pixel Buds Pro, cause both of these earbuds have a warm and bass heavy nature to them. And I also feel that the AirPods Pro 2 sound better than both the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and Bose QC ear buds 2 cause both of these earbuds lean towards a brighter sound signature to them with a little less bass. However, I am still going to have to maintain than both the Sennheiser CX Plus and Sennheiser Momentum 3’s continue to sound better than the AirPods Pro 2’s… But the improvements here are going to be marginal and I feel that most people won’t really care. Nonetheless, I feel that Sennehsier’s sound a little more balanced than the AirPods Pro 2 cause their highs are as prominent. I also feel that both of Sennheiser’s earbuds do a better job of giving more clarity to the instrumentals… and finally there’s the bass on these earbuds. With their stock EQ… the bass on these earbuds doesn’t hit as hard as the bass on the AirPods Pro 2, however, you can go in and increase the bass on these earbuds… and if you do that, then the bass on these earbuds is going to hit way harder and resonate much deeper than the AirPods Pro 2. So overall, yes I am going to have to maintain that the Sennehsier CX plus and Sennehsier Momentum 3’s are my preferred sounding earbuds… but the AirPods Pro 2’s have truly shot up from dead last, to my second favorite sounding earbuds thanks to their improved instuemnet separation and improved based response… albeit, they still air a little towards the brighter side, but I think that’s okay cause the vocals are strong on these earbuds.
But for context, this is all with the Spatial audio on the AirPods Pro 2’s set to fixed… cause if you have spacial audio on these earbuds turned off, they do get a little narrow. And personally, I just stick to having the Spatial audio on these earbuds set to fixed… I think the whole head tracking thing is simply a gimmick for now. Now another gimmick that apple has thrown into these earbuds is their personalized spatial, where you can take a picture of ears and get these earbuds customized to you. I didn’t really notice a difference.
Now when it comes to the media controls, this is another upgrade for the AirPods Pro 2. Now you can press on these stems to play and pause and you can skip through your music, and you can press and hold to cycle between your ANC settings and activate Siri. You can do this on the original AirPods Pro, you can do this with the AirPods 3’s, and you still have your wear sensors. Now I have always felt that this pinching gesture feels awkward… but I do prefer this to having touch pads. But one major upgrade found on the AirPods Pro 2’s is that you can now rub these stems upwards or downwards to adjust your volume. Now it does take a minute to get a hang of, and every swipe is a single step… but regardless it works… and you no longer have to reach for your phone or apple watch if you have one, to adjust your volume. And personally, I do find this new gesture on the AirPods Pro 2’s to be a rather important upgrade cause being able to adjust the volume of your earbuds, directly from the earbuds themselves is very conviente. And you don’t have to sacrifice any of your other gestures or commands.
But now, lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these earbuds. Now apple claims that the AirPods Pro 2 block out twice as much noise as before… And I gotta say, yes, the AirPods Pro 2 block out significantly more noise than its predecessors… and I would argue that they are blocking out as much noise as a pair of mid tier ANC headphones. However, the AirPods Pro 2 still aren’t blocking out as much noise as either the AirPods Max, Sony 1000XM5’s, Bose QC45, or Sennheiser momentum 4’s.
However, when compared to other ANC earbuds… for me the AirPods Pro 2’s are my new number ones. Now right below them, are the Bose QC earbuds 2, below them are the Sennheiser momentum 3’s, below them are the Sony WF-1000XM4’s, before them are the Sony Linkbuds S, below them are the Jabra Elite 85T’s, below them are the original AirPods Pro, Below them are the Galaxy Buds 2 pro and below them are the Pixel buds Pro.
So overall, the AirPods Pro 2 have really improved from the original AirPods Pro, and the AirPods Pro 2 are leading the pack in this new generation of ANC earbuds, cause a lot of new ones have dropped very recently.
However, just like the AirPods max which we’re my top teir ANC headphones for awhile… the AirPods Pro 2 is going about blocking out as much noise pollution as they can with brute force. Now the AirPods Pro 2 don’t have a whole lot of cabin pressure… like the AirPods Max do… But with the AirPods Pro 2… I did notice that when I turned on their Active Noise Cancelation… I would feel a little nausus, and sometimes I would even lose my balance when I did my cardio with these earbuds.
And I think its very important to point this out, cause I have never experienced this with another pair of ANC earbuds… and even after a month of using these earbuds, there are some times where I lose my balance with these earbuds or ill simply feel a little nausus or dizzy if this ANC is working hard.
So the short of it is, yes these earbuds block out a ton of noise, and as of Q4 2022, these are my number earbuds when it comes to blocking out noise, however, if you’re someone that’s sensitive to cabin pressure like I am… then these earbuds could make you feel nausu or make you lose you balance on occasion if their ANC is turned on. This will might not happen to everyone, but this is what I have experienced.
But next up there’s the transparency mode on these earbuds. Now apple has always had the best sounding tranaprancy mode out there on both their earbuds and headphones. Transparency more on these earbuds sounds like there’s nothing there. Unlike with some other headphones or earbuds out there where you’ll might hear some hissing, there could be a slight delay, it sounds very artificial, or the wrong sounds are amplified.
And thanks to the mesh covering the microphones on these earbuds… these earbuds do an amazing job of rejecting wind noise when walking out doors. Even if its super windy outside, very rarely will you hear any interference.
But the new upgrade found on the transparency mode on these earbuds is that they will now actively lower the volume of your transparency mode if there’s a sudden loud sound. So if a dog starts barking or if there’s a siren rolling by while you’re walking out doors… your ears aren’t going to get blasted. And this is something that the AirPods Max, kind of try to do as well, but they don’t get it right like the AirPods Pro 2’s do.
Now there are a few other headphones and earbuds out there that do this, like the Sennheiser Momentum 4 headphones, Sony 1000XM4’s headphones or Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds… but in general, an active transparency mode is still fairly rare. So, now that the AirPods Pro 2 have this… expect more earbuds and headphones to have this in the near future.
But overall, I have always really liked the ambient mode on the AirPods Pro, and the AirPods Pro 2 is no exception. Apple still have the most natural sounding ambient mode out there, and now its even better cause its going protect your ears from getting blasted unlike some other earbuds out there which just let in everything. Now this isn’t a feature that youre going to appreciate all of the time… but if you live in a city, you’ll be glad that you have it.
But finally here’s the microphone test. Now the AirPods Pro have always had decent sounding microphones on them…
But the AirPods Pro 2 do have a better sounding microphone on them. They do a better job of focusing on your voice… and for time sake, the microphone on the AirPods Pro 2 sound and preform the same as the Microphone on the AirPods 3.
And I also feel that the microphone on the AirPods Pro 2 sound and perform better than the microphone found on the AirPods Max. The AirPods Pro 2 do a better job of focusing on my voice.
But where the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 3 really shine here is when it comes to blocking out noise pollution. Right now the AirPods Pro 2 are doing a really good job of keeping my voice front and center, all while reducing this road noise. Cause if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone, you’re going to clearly hear all of this road noise, but if we were to switch over to the AirPods Pro 2, it is severely reduced.
Now the original AirPods Pro also do a good job of blocking out this road noise… but they do change how my voice sounds. My voice sounds a little more high pitched here.
And with the AirPods Max, you can hear more road noise in the back ground and theres more interference going on with my voice.
And when it comes to blocking out chatter, the AirPods Max are letting in a noticeable amount of chatter, and there’s a noticeable amount of interference with my voice.
Where as with the Original AirPods Pro, these are trying to block out this chatter, but my voice is getting pushed down a little bit.
Where as with the AirPods Pro 2, these are reducing this chatter but my voice is a lot more prominent than the Original AirPods Pro. And again, for comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone, you’re going to clearly hear all of this chatter, but if we were to switch over to the AirPods Pro 2, it is reduced. So overall, the AirPods Pro 2 do have an improved microphone from the originals, and just like the AirPods 3, these are great for taking phone calls with.
But with all of that being said, at first glance the AirPods Pro 2 may not seem all that different from the original AirPods Pro, however, there are a lot of upgrades here that justify upgrading from the originals, and if you’re an iPhone user, you can’t go wrong with the AirPods Pro 2. Sound quality wise, the AirPods Pro 2 actually sound really good now, I actually enjoy listening to music and watching movies with them now cause they have much better instrument separation now, And they actually have bass now that resonates a good amount. These are easily my number two favorite sounding earbuds now, second to only the Sennheiser Momentum 3 and CX Plus. The AirPods Pro 2 are now my number one earbuds when it comes to active noise cancelation, albeit, just be warned that they could make you feel nausus and make you lose you balance. But more importantly for me, the AirPods Pro 2 still have the best sounding ambient mode out there. And they’ll now actively protect you from getting your ears blasted. And the AirPods Pro 2 have a few other goodies worth mentioning, I like they they can now actively show you their real time battery status on your phone, I like that you can track their case down using the find my app, I like that you can now charge this case with your apple watch charger and I like the improved battery life. I even like the built in speaker in the case, even though it may seem annoying and unnecessary at first.