I am going to start with a straight-up unpopular opinion. I did not like AirPods. Both the first-generation and second-generation AirPods did nothing for me.
Primarily, this was a design thing. Those stems looked ungainly and unnecessary. And yes, I am keenly aware that to many people, this design characteristic was a most appealing one.
But for me, it was so problematic that I could never look past to the excellent sound quality and connectivity features that (also) made it Apple's second fastest-selling product of all time. I just couldn't.
All of that has changed with the new AirPods Pro.
Hey, good lookin'
First and foremost, I am all in with how the AirPods Pro look. Gone are longer, weirder longer stems, and instead, we have relatively shorter stems that do not grate as much visually. If anything, the fact that the cheaper AirPods are now ubiquitous makes it even easier to wear the freshly designed AirPods Pro in public.
Apart from the stems, the water and sweat proof rated AirPods Pro follow a contemporary design language that just works—black mesh sitting in a neatly curved white body. It is an aesthetic that works.
The shape is definitely more ergonomic too. These earbuds come with silicon tips, and I am here to tell you that I prefer them way more to the poky standard AirPods. They do not bite into your ears and do definitely feel less likely to fall out. Overall, it seems like they fit just right to one's ear grooves.
The design refresh extends to the charging case with is now smaller, stockier look but with all the standard wireless charging benefits. If that is something that matters to you.
Seamless setup
The AirPods Pro are easy to set up and get running with an iPhone, much like their cheaper cousins. Thanks to that H1 chip, the AirPods Pro will pair to your iPhones without a hitch. Pairing a non-Apple device is a bit more sluggish but not a head-scratching exercise.
The controls on the earphones themselves are somewhat trickier but not difficult to understand or get used to. The AirPods Pro utilize a force sensor in the stems.
Squeeze the stems once to play or pause your content or to take calls. Double squeeze to skip to the next song and add a third squeeze to go back to the previous song. Long squeeze the long stem, and you can jump between noise-canceling and transparency modes.
Obviously, Apple is never going to give all that you want, and you still can't control volume levels directly from the AirPods Pro. Volume can still only be controlled from a smartphone or with Siri.
Annoying, but something expected to be fixed. Soonish.
There are a couple of other cool features, including Audio Sharing that lets you share audio to multiple AirPods, aka you and your partner can listen to the same song simultaneously. A feature that you did not think you wanted until you do have it.
A+ on the sound
And now to the stuff that really matters. Sound quality. The short answer is this: great if not spectacular. Sure, some could argue that other earbuds can offer the same or better, but for me, the AirPods Pro excelled in sharpness, and clarity.
The same excellence cannot be related to call quality on the AirPods Pro but only barely. Executing calls in more noisier situations like train stations or loud cafes can be a bit tough but not impossible.
The AirPods Pro feature active noise cancellation (ANC), which to those who don't know is simply drowning out unwanted sounds by generating a second sound. This is a feature more commonly seen in the over-ear segment, but makers of in-ear audio are getting on this train too.
I have tried almost all of what is a tiny pool of earbuds that come with noise cancellation, and I am here to tell you that the AirPods Pro is the best on that metric.
First, getting the noise cancellation going is not an exercise into itself. Put on the AirPods Pro, and you will find that the ambient noise is automatically reduced within seconds once a proper seal is detected.
On a train, in a taxi, in a cafe, at a gas station, and in a reasonably busy co-working space—these are the situations I tried the AirPods Pro in, and it aced the whole drowning out noise business.
The AirPods Pro do a fantastic job of muffling out most of the sounds that you could encounter on your daily grind. With its ANC, you will find your everyday life quieter and relatively more cut off.
That being said, they are not over-ear headphones and are unlikely to completely drown out a talkative colleague in the next cubicle or the music your brother is blasting out in the yard.
Should you not want all sounds to be blocked, the AirPods Pro also come with a Transparency mode, where you do hear the (necessary) sounds in your surroundings. A feature equally useful at both an airport terminal and a pedestrian crossing.
Pick em up*
Using an ANC does drain the battery faster, though. While you can get up to 5 hours of usage on regular use, using ANC and Transparency mode will shave about 30 minutes of that time.
In practice, I got about 4 hours and 10 odd minutes with ANC on out of the AirPods Pro through the day before I felt the need to recharge them again. Not the best in segment figures, but not a dealbreaker either.
Should you run out of the battery, though, you can always drop them into the charging case—you will get an hour of battery life from just 5 minutes of charging. In all, a fully charged case can recharge the AirPods Pro about 6 times.
Our thoughts on the AED 999 AirPods Pro are not too complicated. If you are an iPhone owner, this is a no brainer. Get them. If not, this is another hella good reason to think about switching to an iPhone.
They are easily the best AirPods. They are also the best noise-canceling earbuds. They are well designed, are ergonomic, have excellent sound quality, offer seamless connectivity, and the ANC does make short work of loud ambient noise.
Save for the price and your budget, I do not see the point of getting any other noise-canceling wireless earbuds at this moment.
