On test:
AirPods Pro (2nd generation)
Are they worth it, asks Daniel Bennett
AirPods are ubiquitous. At least, it certainly seems that way if you set foot on public transport. Little white baubles dangle out of every commuter’s ears. So what’s the big deal? Is it just a fashion trend or is it worth following the crowd to enjoy better wireless audio?
We tested Apple’s new flagship-model earphones, the 2nd generation AirPods Pro, to find out whether there really is some wisdom to be found in the crowd, and if they really are the best wireless earphones money can buy.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
I should start by admitting I’ve got high hopes. My other half owns a set of 3rd generation of AirPods. They rarely leave her ears. I could take it personally, but she reassures me that it’s testament to the AirPods’ comfort and sound quality. We’ll see…
First, here’s a run through of the significant upgrades you can find in the new AirPods Pro. The case is now said to have more accurate sensors to detect if you leave it behind and a louder speaker that you command to sound an alarm if the mislaid case is within range of your phone. It’s louder and therefore more helpful than its predecessor. The case also now has a little bar that you can attach a lanyard to.
The batteries in the earbuds are longer lasting too, with six hours of listening time on a single charge (a 90-minute increase over their predecessor). Return the AirPods to the case and you’ll get 30 hours use out of them before you need to recharge the case, which can now be done wired or wirelessly. The recharge is pleasingly fast too – you can get an extra half an hour or so of listening by popping the AirPods in the case for as little as five minutes.
Touch controls are new too. Slide up and down the ‘stem’ of either earbud to adjust volume or give it a squeeze to pause and play music. Holding the stem flicks between noise cancelling and transparency modes. Touch controls are the status quo on earbuds these days. I have no idea why, it’s an impossibly small surface to contend with. Maybe I just have grubby, sausage fingers, but I found it too fiddly to bother using. I can’t overstate how much I’d prefer some simple controls – skip, volume, shuffle, etc – on the case itself, but this criticism can be levelled at every pair of wireless earbuds (except the JBL Pro Tour 2 earbuds, see Ideas we like). That said, the tiny, touch-sensitive surfaces of the AirPods work well if you really don’t want to take your phone out of your pocket and are reliable enough for you to operate the AirPods with them.
RICHER SOUND
The most important, and probably most boring, upgrade is the audio chip powering these AirPods: the H2. The extra processing power it provides is what’s behind some of the most significant improvements to the AirPods Pro. First off, there’s Spatial Audio. This is essentially Apple’s version of surround sound: an attempt to simulate the direction that the ‘real-life’ audio would be coming from, rather than just broadcasting it straight into your ears.
You set this up by sending Apple some pictures of your ears. Presumably not for Tim Cook’s personal consumption, but to measure where your ears sit on your head. There’s also a short hearing test to check how your AirPods fit and to customise the levels appropriately.
I can’t tell you, realistically, whether the test works, but Spatial Audio sounds surprisingly good, particularly when it comes to TV and movies. It has the effect of opening up what you’re listening to, so that distance and direction are more readily perceivable. In the opening scenes of Andor, for instance, you can hear the thrum of a nightclub off at the end of an alley, while the strange planet’s denizens call you from behind. It bestows a level of immersion on these earbuds that you could only really get from a big pair of over-the-ear headphones before.
The same feature is available via Apple Music, signified by the Dolby Atmos logo. You can search for Spatial Audio in the Apple Music app, but the selection, though broad, feels limited. That said, when you do find an album suited to spatial audio, like The Weeknd’s After Hours, it feels like the music’s been let out to play – it occupies the space around you. Backing vocals feel like they interject from the sides, drums beat from further back. It empowers the music to help you visualise what you’re listening to – play The Son Of Flynn from the TRON: Legacy soundtrack and you’re away in another world.
Even without Spatial Audio baked into a track, my music sounds big and bassy with tonnes of fine detail and no distortion. On a subpar pair of earphones, a track like Sma3 by Moroccan post-punk band Taqbir, would sound like everything’s been thrown into a washing machine. On the AirPods, the thrashing, thumping guitars fight for attention against the punchy female vocals. It’s full of aggression with no loss of clarity. If post-punk’s not your thing, the gospel melodies of Gabriels’ backing singers feel full-bodied and powerful, while the lead singer’s delicate vocals remain rich and full of details. It’s these clashes and contrasts that make the very best earphones stand out from the crowd, and the AirPods perform brilliantly in this respect. Are they the best-sounding earphones out there? I’m not sure. They are on a par with the Sony WF-1000MX4, even if, at times, the AirPods can sound a little clinical – accurate, but missing some magic.
Apple says the active noise cancelling in the AirPods Pro is twice as powerful as its predecessor. While I can’t imagine what twice the silence sounds like, the noise cancellation works – almost too well. It takes out most of the low-frequency noise and thrum of a Tube carriage. On the streets, it’s a little eerie, which means the transparency mode, which pipes in a little of the outside world, is definitely a welcome feature. It’s that H2 processor again, managing the signals from the outside world and figuring out what to do with them.
Oh, and did I mention they’re comfortable? They feel barely there. You think they’ll drop out half the time, but they never do. It’s got to be down to how weight is distributed across the earphone.
AirPods Pro (2nd generation) From £249, apple.com
VERDICT
The 2nd generation AirPods Pro have the most features we’ve ever seen on a pair of earphones. There are probably some we’ve left out. For example, being able to effortlessly switch sources, from your phone to your laptop, is a joy. Sadly, these features will be lost to anyone not embedded in the Apple ecosystem. But this isn’t the end of the world, as for Android users the Sony WF-1000MX4 earphones are a worthy alternative, and some ears might prefer their warmer sound quality. But for anyone on an Apple device, the 2nd generation AirPods Pro are hard to look past, and a worthy upgrade over the standard AirPods thanks to their top-of-the-class noise cancellation.