The Great Thing About AirPods Pro

One of the best things about the AirPods Pro is that the user doesn't have to worry about everything that's going on to make all this work. And I know this sounds overly cliche, but it just works. If there's an inverse setting to active noise cancellation, it would be transparency mode. Now this is a handy feature that pipes sound in from the outside world to allow you to hear what's going on around you like active noise cancellation. Transparency mode can be toggled by holding the force sensor or via long press on the iOS 13 control center volume slider and transparency is perfect for when you need to hear things like announcements while in an airport or when someone starts a conversation with you. It allows outside noise to sell more naturally to your ears, which in turn allows you to respond more naturally if necessary.

I used transparency mode several times and I was impressed at how it allowed me to ingest the sound from my environment without needing to physically remove the earbuds from my ears even when not taking into account their noise cancellation properties. The AirPods Pro sound better than the regular AirPods for several key reasons. The biggest reason for increased sound quality has to do with the acoustic isolating ear tips. The ear tips which help a loud noise from outside sources allows for significantly more pronounced low frequencies when compared to the baseline buds.

There's also the presence of the inward-facing microphone, which allows for a feature called adaptive EQ. The microphone hears sound as you do, which largely involves the shape of your ears and this allows the AirPods Pro to fine-tune the audio mid and low-end frequencies and deliver a listening experience that's more rich and consistent. If adaptive audio sounds familiar, it's because Apple employed the use of similar tech in its HomePod smart speaker equipped with spatial awareness. The HomePod is able to automatically tune itself for optimal sound output wherever it's placed in a room. AirPods Pro works similarly, except the room is your own unique ear canal.

In addition to adaptive EQ, the buds feature a high excursion low distortion Apple Driver, which was custom-built specifically for the AirPods Pro. This driver is responsible for the bass produced by the earbuds, which is surprisingly powerful for such a small device. Along with the high excursion driver, there's a complementing custom high dynamic range amplifier. Not only does this amplifier help produce clearer sound, but Apple also touts its efficiency specifically calling out its ability to eke out additional battery life.

My Listening Experience with AirPods Pro

I like to think that I have a wide range of tastes in music from everything from hip-hop, G-pop, country, classic rock, and bluegrass. So, I tried songs from all of those genres on the AirPods Pro as a key song to help put Apple's new headphones to the test. The Eagles' "Hotel California" was my go-to choice. Now, if you're coming from regular AirPods, you'll notice that there is more bass with the AirPods Pro, partly because of the ear tips and partly because of the custom Apple driver. Yet, I didn't find the sound to be so overly beefy like products from Apple's Beats lineup. The Tenor sound towards those products wasn't exactly set the bar for how headphones should sound.

In my opinion, the AirPods Pro sound unequivocally better than either of those products and it's not even close. I get a similar feeling about the AirPods Pro as I did when I first heard the HomePod in other words, I know that better sounding speakers exist and I know better sounding headphones exist but for the price, these sound extremely good and I think most people are going to be happy with their audio quality.

The Cool Features of AirPods Pro

Not to mention all the cool features that come with the AirPods Pro. They're like the original AirPods in many ways, just a better overall realization. Although no piece of tech is truly perfect for every individual, I think the AirPods Pro are close to a perfect version of the original AirPods if you're gonna get the AirPods Pro, you'll get not only do they sound great, they're super portable come with great battery life and feature incredible active noise cancellation. All this, combined with transparency mode and adjustable ear tips make the AirPods Pro one of the best earbuds that money can buy right now.

Always-On-Always-Ready Functionality

One more thing I haven't even really touched on is the always-on, always-ready hey you know who functionality which was the flagship feature of the second-gen AirPods. This feature allows mundane operations like telling the time or current temperature to more advanced functionality like preheating your car or locking your doors having always-on you know who right in your ears is like having an assistant discreetly at your beck and call at all times. If you're on the fence about the AirPods Pro, this feature alone might just seal the deal for you.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the AirPods Pro are a game-changer when it comes to wireless earbuds. Their sound quality is unmatched, their features are numerous, and their convenience can't be beat. Whether you're looking for improved audio or additional features like transparency mode and always-on functionality, the AirPods Pro have got you covered.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI've been using air Potts Pro for the last several days and one thing is immediately clear these are really good headphones and easily the best headphones that Apple sells and for iOS users and those in the Apple ecosystem may be the best headphones that you can buy period that's because air Potts Pro presents the perfect mix of convenience comfort and features making the well worth considering even if you already own regular air pots don't believe it watch our hands own ear pods Pro review for the details thanks for watching 9 to 5 Mac be sure to thumbs up click the subscribe button and then enable notifications with the bill icon so you won't miss any upcoming videos the air pods pearl unboxing experience is similar to ear pods we've unboxed in the past the big difference this time around is the inclusion of multiple ear tips along with the Lightning to us PC cable instead of a lightning to USB a cable Apple pre installs the medium ear tips on the air pods during assembly at the factory but includes a set of small and large ear tips that are able to accommodate a variety of ear canal sizes along with the cable and ear tips Apple include some verbose documentation along with the typical warranty and regulatory info if you've ever used ear pods then you'll know more or less what to expect from ear pods Pro the premise is exactly the same as the baseline ear pods in that you have to truly wireless earbuds along with a wireless charging case to store your ear pods Pro and to facilitate charging the air pods probe wireless charging case features a similar hinge design found on the entry-level ear pods which also include the same satisfying snap sound when closing the case the front of the wireless charging case like the second-generation air pods released last spring features an LED status indicator for gauging charging state impairing activity and for those that prefer to stick with wired charging you'll find a lightning port on the bottom of the case the air pods Pro earbuds are similar to the baseline air pods but like the charging case slightly different in design and stature the new ear pods Pro buds are more compact and dense packed with loads of new technology and most notably feature replaceable ear tips on the ends to ensure a more secure fit in the ear canal while slightly altered the air Potts Pro remain true to the design of the original air pods if you love the look of the air pots that's a good thing but if you can't stand the way the original ear pods look the pro version will do little to change your opinion about the design one of my long-running gripes about the air pods is the lack of any color options other than white obviously Apple considers the white colors to be iconic when taking into account the history of the iPod and its trend-setting headphones they were all white but I think we're far enough beyond that era that Apple should consider switching things up not only would this add some much-needed variety to the airport that white color tends to attract all sorts of dust and dirt like nobody's business the air pods Pro wireless charging case is slightly bigger in the area than the regular air pods charging case it's also a little bit heavier than its forebears but not enough to negatively affect the device's portability in any meaningful way you'll find that the air pods Pro will easily fit inside a trouser pocket a purse etc and unlike the power beats Pro we reviewed earlier this year the air pods Pro make for the perfect traveling companion like the regular version the air Potts Pro comes bundled with the charging case that you used to recharge each wireless earbud the wireless charging case provides more than 24 hours of listening time more than 18 hours of talk time and can provide one hour of listening time or one hour of talk time with just a five minute charge the individual earbuds are capable of up to 4.5 hours of listening time or up to five hours with active noise cancellation or transparency disabled so as you can see battery life results are actually pretty good with the new air pods Pro certainly within the ballpark range of the regular air pods one of the biggest downsides of the standard air pods for active people was the lack of water and sweat resistance the new air pods Pro solves this issue by incorporating ipx4 sweat and water resistance which means that they are protected from splashing water no matter the direction one of the ways that Apple has addressed water resistance is by eliminating or reducing potential points of water ingress for example the microphone holes that were prominently located on the bottom of the stem on standard air pods has been relocated to the side of the stem while the hole that was used to occupy the bottom of the stem has been completely sealed up the biggest physical change with the air pod pearl versus the regular air pods relate to comfort and fit first and foremost the ear tips of the ear pods pro ensure a much better fit than standard air pods when performing activities like jogging or even walking through an airport the ear pods often fell out of my ears that doesn't happen with the air pods Pro Apple includes three sets of different sized ear tips inside the box removing and replacing the ear tips is a very simple process that involves just pulling off the tips and snapping the new tip into place users will hear a satisfying clicks in when replacing the tips confirming that proper fitment overall I found that switching out the tips on the air Potts Pro was easier than changing out the tips on the power beats pro but I have to say that I was quite concerned because acoustic isolation tips tend to make my head feel like it's in a pressurized chamber and I felt a similar sensation when using the power beats Pro for the earpods Pro Apple addresses this issue by employing and improved custom vent system to equalize pressure and although the design doesn't completely eliminate that pressurized sensation the uncomfortable filling isn't as noticeable when compared to something like the power beats now speaking of fitment with all that said the air pods Pro do lack one key feature of the power beats Pro and that's that ear hook design and that means that some extremely active users may still have trouble keeping these things in their ears even with the form-fitting acoustic ear tips in tow the ear pods feature significantly improved controls over the standard versions a new solid-state force sensor located on the stem allows users to do all the following they can single press to play pause a single press on an incoming call to answer a phone call double press to skip forward a triple press to skip backwards press and hold to toggle between active noise cancellation and transparency mode and then of course you have hey you know who to do everything else while the power beats pro feature a plethora of onboard controls as well along with the ability to control volume via dedicated volume rockers the unit's physical multifunction buttons which control things like Siri and playback controls way too sensitive in my opinion the regular air pods on the other hand come with even more limited manual controls other than hey you know who voice control they only allow for a simple double tap gesture to play skip forward or answer a phone call depending on how you configure it in the settings needless to say the solid state ambidextrous force sensor is a major enhancement to the air pods from a control perspective I just wish there was a way to manually control volume like you can on the power beats Pro the active noise cancellation on the air Potts Pro is very impressive on more than one occasion I was actually shocked when I took my earbuds out of my years and I could suddenly hear all this commotion going on around me you know the washing machine the dryer the dishwasher etc users can toggle active noise cancellation by holding the force sensor located on the stem of the earpods probe you can also adjust ANC by long pressing the volume slider in control center or via the air pods Pro section of settings Bluetooth Apple did a great job with ANC as it should have given that it's the flagship feature of the air pods pro along with a much better fit it's the primary reason why a current ear pods owners should consider upgrading like most ANC enabled headphones the air pods Pro features an external facing microphone that detects noise on the outside this allows the headphones to produce anti noise to cancel out the external sound faster than a user can hear there's also an inward facing microphone tasked with listening inside your ear for unwanted sound and that too is eliminated via anti noise Apple says their ear pods pro are the only headphones that feature active noise cancellation that can actually adapt to the geometry of your ears and the fit of your ear tips to help block out noise and all this is continuously adjusted at 200 times per second to help produce the cleanest sound while listening to your favorite music the great thing about the air pause pro is that the user just doesn't even have to worry about everything that's going on to make all this work because and I know this sounds overly cliche but it just works if there's an inverse setting to active noise cancellation it would be transparency mode now this is a handy feature that pipes sound in from the outside world to allow you to hear what's going on around you like active noise cancellation transparency mode can be toggled by holding the force sensor or via long press on the iOS 13 control center volume slider and transparency is perfect for when you need to hear things like announcements while in an airport or when someone starts a conversation with you it allows outside noise to sell more natural to your ears which in turn allows you to respond more naturally if necessary I used transparency mode several times and I was impressed and how it allowed me to ingest the sound from my environment without needing to physically remove the earbuds from my ears even when not taking into account their noise cancellation properties the air pods pro sound better than the regular air pot for several key reasons the biggest reason for increased sound quality has to do with the acoustic isolating ear tips the ear tips which helps a loud noise from outside sources allows for significantly more pronounced low in frequency when compared to the baseline buds there's also the presence of the inward-facing microphone which allows for a feature called adaptive EQ the microphone hears sound as you do which largely involves the shape of your ears and this allows the earpods pro to fine-tune the audios mid and low end frequencies and deliver a listening experience that's more rich and consistent if adaptive audio sounds familiar it's because Apple employed the use of similar tech in its home pod smart speaker equipped with spatial awareness the home pod is able to automatically tune itself for optimal sound output wherever it's placed in a room ear pods Pro works similarly except the room is your own unique ear canal in addition to adaptive EQ the buds feature a high excursion low distortion Apple Driver which was custom built specifically for the air pods Pro this driver is responsible for the bass produced by the ear buds which is surprisingly powerful for such a small device along with the high excursion driver there's a complementing custom high dynamic range amplifier not only does this amplifier help produce clearer sound but apple also touts its efficiency specifically calling out its ability to eke out additional battery life now I like to think that I have a wide range of tastes in music from everything from hip-hop G pop country classic rock and bluegrass of tried songs from all of those genres and came away largely impressed with the same quality of the air pods Pro as do many others I recommend the Eagles Hotel California as a keys song to help put Apple's new headphones to the test now if you're coming from regular air pots you're gonna notice of course there is more base with the air pods Pro partly because of the ear tips and partly because of the custom Apple driver yet I didn't find the sound to be so overly beefs heavy like products from Apple's beats lineup Tenace skew towards although the regular ear pods or the power beats Pro didn't exactly set the bar for how headphones should say on the air Potts pro sound unequivocally better than either of those products and it's not even close in my opinion I get a similar feeling about the air box pro as I did when I first heard the home pod in other words I know that better sounding speakers exist and I know better sounding headphones exist but for the price these sound extremely good and I think most people are going to be happy with their audio quality not to mention all the cool choose that they have the air pods Pro are like the original air pods in many ways just a better overall realization although no piece of tech is truly perfect for every individual I think the air pods pro R is close to a perfect version of the original ear pods is you're gonna get not only do the air pods pro sound great they're super portable come with great battery life and feature incredible active noise cancellation all this couple with transparency mode and adjustable ear tips make the air pod to pro one of the best ear buds that money can buy right now all this and I haven't even really touched on the always on always ready hey you know who functionality which was the flagship feature of the second G air pods from mundane operations like telling the time or current temperature to more advanced functionality like preheating your car or locking your doors having always-on you know who right in your ears is like having an assistant discreetly at your beck and call at all times if you're on the fence about the air pod to pro get off the fence just buy them it's a product that's super easy to recommend if you're an iPhone user let me know what you guys think down below in the comments this is Jeff with nine-to-five MacI've been using air Potts Pro for the last several days and one thing is immediately clear these are really good headphones and easily the best headphones that Apple sells and for iOS users and those in the Apple ecosystem may be the best headphones that you can buy period that's because air Potts Pro presents the perfect mix of convenience comfort and features making the well worth considering even if you already own regular air pots don't believe it watch our hands own ear pods Pro review for the details thanks for watching 9 to 5 Mac be sure to thumbs up click the subscribe button and then enable notifications with the bill icon so you won't miss any upcoming videos the air pods pearl unboxing experience is similar to ear pods we've unboxed in the past the big difference this time around is the inclusion of multiple ear tips along with the Lightning to us PC cable instead of a lightning to USB a cable Apple pre installs the medium ear tips on the air pods during assembly at the factory but includes a set of small and large ear tips that are able to accommodate a variety of ear canal sizes along with the cable and ear tips Apple include some verbose documentation along with the typical warranty and regulatory info if you've ever used ear pods then you'll know more or less what to expect from ear pods Pro the premise is exactly the same as the baseline ear pods in that you have to truly wireless earbuds along with a wireless charging case to store your ear pods Pro and to facilitate charging the air pods probe wireless charging case features a similar hinge design found on the entry-level ear pods which also include the same satisfying snap sound when closing the case the front of the wireless charging case like the second-generation air pods released last spring features an LED status indicator for gauging charging state impairing activity and for those that prefer to stick with wired charging you'll find a lightning port on the bottom of the case the air pods Pro earbuds are similar to the baseline air pods but like the charging case slightly different in design and stature the new ear pods Pro buds are more compact and dense packed with loads of new technology and most notably feature replaceable ear tips on the ends to ensure a more secure fit in the ear canal while slightly altered the air Potts Pro remain true to the design of the original air pods if you love the look of the air pots that's a good thing but if you can't stand the way the original ear pods look the pro version will do little to change your opinion about the design one of my long-running gripes about the air pods is the lack of any color options other than white obviously Apple considers the white colors to be iconic when taking into account the history of the iPod and its trend-setting headphones they were all white but I think we're far enough beyond that era that Apple should consider switching things up not only would this add some much-needed variety to the airport that white color tends to attract all sorts of dust and dirt like nobody's business the air pods Pro wireless charging case is slightly bigger in the area than the regular air pods charging case it's also a little bit heavier than its forebears but not enough to negatively affect the device's portability in any meaningful way you'll find that the air pods Pro will easily fit inside a trouser pocket a purse etc and unlike the power beats Pro we reviewed earlier this year the air pods Pro make for the perfect traveling companion like the regular version the air Potts Pro comes bundled with the charging case that you used to recharge each wireless earbud the wireless charging case provides more than 24 hours of listening time more than 18 hours of talk time and can provide one hour of listening time or one hour of talk time with just a five minute charge the individual earbuds are capable of up to 4.5 hours of listening time or up to five hours with active noise cancellation or transparency disabled so as you can see battery life results are actually pretty good with the new air pods Pro certainly within the ballpark range of the regular air pods one of the biggest downsides of the standard air pods for active people was the lack of water and sweat resistance the new air pods Pro solves this issue by incorporating ipx4 sweat and water resistance which means that they are protected from splashing water no matter the direction one of the ways that Apple has addressed water resistance is by eliminating or reducing potential points of water ingress for example the microphone holes that were prominently located on the bottom of the stem on standard air pods has been relocated to the side of the stem while the hole that was used to occupy the bottom of the stem has been completely sealed up the biggest physical change with the air pod pearl versus the regular air pods relate to comfort and fit first and foremost the ear tips of the ear pods pro ensure a much better fit than standard air pods when performing activities like jogging or even walking through an airport the ear pods often fell out of my ears that doesn't happen with the air pods Pro Apple includes three sets of different sized ear tips inside the box removing and replacing the ear tips is a very simple process that involves just pulling off the tips and snapping the new tip into place users will hear a satisfying clicks in when replacing the tips confirming that proper fitment overall I found that switching out the tips on the air Potts Pro was easier than changing out the tips on the power beats pro but I have to say that I was quite concerned because acoustic isolation tips tend to make my head feel like it's in a pressurized chamber and I felt a similar sensation when using the power beats Pro for the earpods Pro Apple addresses this issue by employing and improved custom vent system to equalize pressure and although the design doesn't completely eliminate that pressurized sensation the uncomfortable filling isn't as noticeable when compared to something like the power beats now speaking of fitment with all that said the air pods Pro do lack one key feature of the power beats Pro and that's that ear hook design and that means that some extremely active users may still have trouble keeping these things in their ears even with the form-fitting acoustic ear tips in tow the ear pods feature significantly improved controls over the standard versions a new solid-state force sensor located on the stem allows users to do all the following they can single press to play pause a single press on an incoming call to answer a phone call double press to skip forward a triple press to skip backwards press and hold to toggle between active noise cancellation and transparency mode and then of course you have hey you know who to do everything else while the power beats pro feature a plethora of onboard controls as well along with the ability to control volume via dedicated volume rockers the unit's physical multifunction buttons which control things like Siri and playback controls way too sensitive in my opinion the regular air pods on the other hand come with even more limited manual controls other than hey you know who voice control they only allow for a simple double tap gesture to play skip forward or answer a phone call depending on how you configure it in the settings needless to say the solid state ambidextrous force sensor is a major enhancement to the air pods from a control perspective I just wish there was a way to manually control volume like you can on the power beats Pro the active noise cancellation on the air Potts Pro is very impressive on more than one occasion I was actually shocked when I took my earbuds out of my years and I could suddenly hear all this commotion going on around me you know the washing machine the dryer the dishwasher etc users can toggle active noise cancellation by holding the force sensor located on the stem of the earpods probe you can also adjust ANC by long pressing the volume slider in control center or via the air pods Pro section of settings Bluetooth Apple did a great job with ANC as it should have given that it's the flagship feature of the air pods pro along with a much better fit it's the primary reason why a current ear pods owners should consider upgrading like most ANC enabled headphones the air pods Pro features an external facing microphone that detects noise on the outside this allows the headphones to produce anti noise to cancel out the external sound faster than a user can hear there's also an inward facing microphone tasked with listening inside your ear for unwanted sound and that too is eliminated via anti noise Apple says their ear pods pro are the only headphones that feature active noise cancellation that can actually adapt to the geometry of your ears and the fit of your ear tips to help block out noise and all this is continuously adjusted at 200 times per second to help produce the cleanest sound while listening to your favorite music the great thing about the air pause pro is that the user just doesn't even have to worry about everything that's going on to make all this work because and I know this sounds overly cliche but it just works if there's an inverse setting to active noise cancellation it would be transparency mode now this is a handy feature that pipes sound in from the outside world to allow you to hear what's going on around you like active noise cancellation transparency mode can be toggled by holding the force sensor or via long press on the iOS 13 control center volume slider and transparency is perfect for when you need to hear things like announcements while in an airport or when someone starts a conversation with you it allows outside noise to sell more natural to your ears which in turn allows you to respond more naturally if necessary I used transparency mode several times and I was impressed and how it allowed me to ingest the sound from my environment without needing to physically remove the earbuds from my ears even when not taking into account their noise cancellation properties the air pods pro sound better than the regular air pot for several key reasons the biggest reason for increased sound quality has to do with the acoustic isolating ear tips the ear tips which helps a loud noise from outside sources allows for significantly more pronounced low in frequency when compared to the baseline buds there's also the presence of the inward-facing microphone which allows for a feature called adaptive EQ the microphone hears sound as you do which largely involves the shape of your ears and this allows the earpods pro to fine-tune the audios mid and low end frequencies and deliver a listening experience that's more rich and consistent if adaptive audio sounds familiar it's because Apple employed the use of similar tech in its home pod smart speaker equipped with spatial awareness the home pod is able to automatically tune itself for optimal sound output wherever it's placed in a room ear pods Pro works similarly except the room is your own unique ear canal in addition to adaptive EQ the buds feature a high excursion low distortion Apple Driver which was custom built specifically for the air pods Pro this driver is responsible for the bass produced by the ear buds which is surprisingly powerful for such a small device along with the high excursion driver there's a complementing custom high dynamic range amplifier not only does this amplifier help produce clearer sound but apple also touts its efficiency specifically calling out its ability to eke out additional battery life now I like to think that I have a wide range of tastes in music from everything from hip-hop G pop country classic rock and bluegrass of tried songs from all of those genres and came away largely impressed with the same quality of the air pods Pro as do many others I recommend the Eagles Hotel California as a keys song to help put Apple's new headphones to the test now if you're coming from regular air pots you're gonna notice of course there is more base with the air pods Pro partly because of the ear tips and partly because of the custom Apple driver yet I didn't find the sound to be so overly beefs heavy like products from Apple's beats lineup Tenace skew towards although the regular ear pods or the power beats Pro didn't exactly set the bar for how headphones should say on the air Potts pro sound unequivocally better than either of those products and it's not even close in my opinion I get a similar feeling about the air box pro as I did when I first heard the home pod in other words I know that better sounding speakers exist and I know better sounding headphones exist but for the price these sound extremely good and I think most people are going to be happy with their audio quality not to mention all the cool choose that they have the air pods Pro are like the original air pods in many ways just a better overall realization although no piece of tech is truly perfect for every individual I think the air pods pro R is close to a perfect version of the original ear pods is you're gonna get not only do the air pods pro sound great they're super portable come with great battery life and feature incredible active noise cancellation all this couple with transparency mode and adjustable ear tips make the air pod to pro one of the best ear buds that money can buy right now all this and I haven't even really touched on the always on always ready hey you know who functionality which was the flagship feature of the second G air pods from mundane operations like telling the time or current temperature to more advanced functionality like preheating your car or locking your doors having always-on you know who right in your ears is like having an assistant discreetly at your beck and call at all times if you're on the fence about the air pod to pro get off the fence just buy them it's a product that's super easy to recommend if you're an iPhone user let me know what you guys think down below in the comments this is Jeff with nine-to-five Mac\n"