Wireless headphones and I have always had a love-hate relationship.
While it’s great to be able to put them in your ears without having to bother about wires, and many versions provide advanced features such as active noise cancellation, it’s quite annoying to have to remember to keep them charged, and they often appear to be plagued by syncing problems.
It is difficult to resist Apple’s new £249 AirPods Pro 2. In contrast to the standard AirPods, the Pro model includes silicone ear tips, which are available in four sizes, so they fit considerably more pleasantly in your ears and feel secure when running or walking.
They also provide active noise reduction that I can only characterize as mind-boggling. This is because when you place the earbuds in your ears and the noise cancellation technology immediately activates, it feels a bit like you’re in a plane that’s swiftly ascending.
Even if you’re accustomed to using noise-canceling headphones, it takes your brain some time to acclimate, but once it does, the effect is rather significant. Whether you are strolling along a bustling street or riding a crowded train, the hustle and traffic sound simply disappear.
Apple claims that the AirPods Pro 2 decreases undesirable background noise up to twice as effectively as the AirPods Pro. This is made feasible by the H2 chip, which “unlocks computational audio methods that could not previously execute on a device of this size.”
It is still possible to hear certain high-pitched sounds, such as the bleeping of the train doors opening or police sirens, but the low-pitched rumbling of background noise is eliminated.
By squeezing and holding the touch control on the stem of the AirPods, it is also possible to toggle between active noise suppression and ‘adaptive transparency’ mode.
This is a useful tool, however, I found it to be quite unstable. Sometimes, when you touch and hold, nothing happens, which is disappointing because pressing and holding should be a faster alternative than removing the earbud.
The touch control may also be used to pause and play audio, skip tracks, and adjust the volume by swiping your index finger up or down.
Again, this is excellent when it works, but on multiple occasions, I was forced to use the controls on my phone after the AirPods’ control panel failed to respond.
The sound quality is outstanding. Whether you’re listening to classical, pop, rock, hip-hop, dance, or dialogue on a radio station or podcast, the audio is clear and full – just as you’d expect from headphones at this price point.
Apple’s new ‘Personalized Spatial Audio’ function, which I find to be a bit of a gimmick, reportedly adjusts the surround sound experience to your ear shape.
When setting up the EarPods with an iPhone, the TrueDepth camera is used to scan the side of your head, similar to how FaceID is set up, to establish a “personal profile” of your ears.
Apple asserts that this enables music and voices to be heard more clearly, as well as directional sound elements in video material to be placed more precisely in the environment around you.
I viewed Dolby Digital’s HD Surround Sound Test video with the Personalized Spatial Audio enabled and off, and I honestly didn’t see a significant change; however, the directional components were arguably more evident when it was enabled.
In prior generations of the AirPods, it has occasionally been observed that the two buds are occasionally out of sync.
On multiple occasions, after removing one earbud and reinstalling it, I ended up with noise cancellation in one ear and transparency mode in the other, which is disorienting.
This is usually easily remedied by removing both earbuds, returning them to the charging case, and then placing them back in your ears, but it shouldn’t be a problem with this level of technology.
Despite this, AirPods are fantastic headphones, as they provide outstanding music quality, a comfortable fit, and highly effective noise reduction.
The fact that they provide up to six hours of battery life on a single charge and that a five-minute charge inside the case provides an additional hour of battery life helps to alleviate my irritation at having to remember to charge them every night.
