AirPods Pro 2 are the classic example of Apple taking an already great product and improving on it in meaningful ways. Only the most studious AirPods Pro observer could identify the new Pros over the originals.
Yet, the total user experience has been upgraded in a way that clearly warrants a new version. In prior years, this strategy would be marketed by appending the letter S to an iPhone product name. While that naming scheme has fallen out of fashion, the spirit of the letter applies to second-generation AirPods Pro in the best way possible.
AirPods Pro 2 features
Changes between AirPods Pro and AirPods Pro 2 ($249) are mostly on the inside for the earbuds:
- Improved active noise-cancellation
- Transparency mode that now includes adaptive option
- Volume control with swipe gestures on earbud stems
- Battery life increase from four hours to six hours
While still part of the AirPods Pro experience, the other new features belong to the charging case:
- Improved battery life for the earbuds extends total listening time to 30 hours.
- Case charging adds Apple Watch charger support.
- Case now includes U1 chip like AirTags.
- Built-in speaker for alert tones and pinging from Find My app
- Built-in lanyard loop on the case (lanyard sold separately)
Any one of these changes could have warranted a hardware revision for AirPods. Apple added a wireless charging case option to first-gen AirPods. Then, Hey Siri support and not much more made second-generation AirPods. Apple similarly added MagSafe charging to AirPods Pro last year before actually releasing AirPods Pro 2. With that in mind, this ‘S’ revision to AirPods Pro is rather sizable.
Proven AirPods
The original AirPods defined the category of truly wireless earphones at the end of 2016. Wireless earphones at the time meant there was a cord between each earbud. It was truly a dark time, and AirPods made it better.
AirPods Pro somehow managed to pack active noise cancellation and a newer feature Apple called Transparency into an even smaller package. Frankly, this was like getting over-the-ear headphone features in something more compact than the standard AirPods.
Battery life
While the original AirPods promised up to five hours of battery life, AirPods Pro only dropped an hour off that with ANC and Transparency. The latter feature pipes in audio from your surroundings to compensate for environmental noise reduction from in-ear headphones.
The new AirPods Pro claim to have up to 2x improved active noise cancellation and includes an update to Transparency called Adaptive Transparency. They do this while adding two more hours of continued playback. Battery life doesn’t just catch up with the original AirPods this time. It exceeds it!
In a single test focused on battery life, I logged 5 hours 49 minutes of continuous on a single charge with AirPods Pro 2. Apple rates its battery life with 50% volume, which explains the slightly below six hours result.
While the original AirPods Pro quickly became my go-to headphones for running half marathons, battery life at higher volumes was always its own race. Up to two additional hours solves this at any volume.
Sound
Sonically, AirPods Pro 2 sound better than ever. Personally, my ability to fully appreciate this is as dull as ever.
Apple says its new H2 chip in AirPods Pro 2 “works in concert with a custom‑built driver and amplifier to deliver crisp, clear high notes and deep, rich bass in stunning definition — so every sound is more vivid than ever.”
I never found the original Pros lacking in sound quality given their compact size, and the new AirPods Pro certainly don’t sound any worse to my ears. The real H2 benefit for me is that previously mentioned battery life improvement.
Can you (not) hear me now?
Active Noise Cancellation claims to be up to 2x better on AirPods Pro 2 than first-gen AirPods Pro.
My first impression was that AirPods Pro 2 ANC is closer to AirPods Max ANC, but you still need big headphones to get closer to 100% noise cancellation, of course. A week later, I’m unsure if that was just the newness or if a number of factors account for the range between 1x and 2x performance.
I’ll echo what I said before. Noise cancellation was really good on first-gen AirPods Pro, and second-gen AirPods Pro either matches or improves it.
Transparency adapted
Adaptive Transparency is the new twist on how Transparency can perform on AirPods Pro. This is an optional toggle for Transparency mode that attempts to reduce loud noises while still piping in sounds around you.
The idea is that loud sirens, for example, aren’t amplified in your ears when you simply trying not to block out noise around you. I’ll have to report back on my experience with Adaptive Transparency. So far my experience has been that loud traffic sounds are still boosted with Adaptive Transparency than without AirPods at all, but that’s probably by design.
Volume control
Should you upgrade from AirPods Pro to AirPods Pro 2 for sound improvement? Maybe if you can appreciate the differences more than me. Two other differences are what made it worth it for me: battery life, as mentioned, and volume control.
Changing volume on AirPods has always required using a connected device (iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac, etc.) or voice control. Asking Siri to change volume is fine for HomePods, but it’s just not efficient for AirPods. I’ve mostly relied on pressing the buttons on my iPhone in my pocket or spinning the Digital Crown on the Apple Watch.
AirPods Pro 2 are the first to introduce on-board volume control, and it’s wonderful. I thought I would like this, and I do. It turns out if AirPods Pro volume control is easy, I’ll use it way more. In turn, that improves the overall experience.
Initially, swiping up or down on the front of the AirPod stem feels forced and awkward. Terrible first impression. Then you begin to trust it. You don’t always have to use two fingers to securely pull off the swipe. The slightest flick does the job.
Swiping the AirPod to change the volume now feels natural. This applies to sitting at my desk, walking around the grocery store, working out at the gym, or going for an outdoor run.
The swipe gesture has caught on enough with me that now I want to assign a different action to one of the AirPods. This already works with the squeeze gesture on the stem. You can assign sound mode to one AirPods and activating Siri to another.
I would love to try swiping for volume control on one AirPod and swiping to seek forward/backward with the other AirPod. Double and triple clicking the AirPod stem already lets you skip forward or backward on a track. This additional option could let you skip ahead 30 seconds or rewind 15 seconds during a podcast, for example.
Either way, people wanted a swipe gesture, and Apple delivered with AirPods Pro 2. And, it’s actually great.
I’ll also note that swipe gestures for volume almost brings AirPods Pro 2 up to audio control parity with wired EarPods. From Apple’s support document on EarPods:
Control audio with your EarPods
Pause: Press the center button. Press again to resume playback.
Skip forward: Press the center button twice quickly.
Skip backward: Press the center button three times quickly.
Fast-forward: Press the center button twice quickly and hold.
The only thing missing is the fast-forward control, and opening the swipe gesture to a second control for jumping ahead and back on the other AirPod exceeds that.
(EarPods can also “switch to an incoming or on-hold call, and put the current call on hold” by pressing the center button, then pressing again to switch back to the first call. For AirPods, you should probably just pull out the iPhone for this task. Siri can hang up on people in iOS 16, however!)
More capable case
I wonder what percentage of AirPods sales are buying to replace a lost pair? I’ve certainly been in this category more than once. The AirPods Pro 2 charging case is fully committed to easing that concern for customers. From the U1 chip to the new lanyard loop, there are more ways than ever to prevent losing your AirPods.
Everything is an AirTag
The U1 chip basically makes the AirPods Pro 2 case an AirTag sans year-long battery life. If your AirPods case is left behind, Apple’s Find My network will use nearby iPhones to show their location on a map. If the AirPods are in the case, you’ve found those too. This is a big deal if you’ve ever left your AirPods behind in a ride sharing car or coffee shop.
Everything is a speaker
And, for times when you know your AirPods charging case is nearby but not exactly where, you can now ping the case just like the iPhone can an Apple Watch. This has already been useful for me just around the house.
The built-in speaker also provides tones when charging or alerting you to low battery. The real purpose of the speaker is finding lost AirPods, but the tones add delight and whimsy to the experience.
Everything needs a lanyard
The last “don’t lose your AirPods” feature is the built-in lanyard loop. Lanyard sold separately. I dropped the whopping $13 on Incase’s lanyard marketed for AirPods and I like it, but any lanyard will do.
This is the one change to AirPods Pro 2 that I think could be considered a compromise. If you don’t use it, the silver loop is ugly compared to every AirPods case before it. On the other hand, building it in allows customers a way to add a carrying attachment without putting a case on a case.
Everything is a charger
Finally, the last two AirPods Pro 2 case features relate to charging. Apple touts up to 30 hours of listening time with the charging case. With six hours of continuous playback, that’s reached five AirPods recharges before needing external power. Math checks out. I did test how long it takes to recharge a pair of AirPods Pro 2 with the charging case. The result? About an hour.
Then there’s support for Apple Watch chargers. I didn’t ask for this, but thanks to whoever made it happen.
I would prefer Apple Watch to charge with MagSafe, but that’s not offered yet. Instead, Apple gave more purpose to the Apple Watch charging puck with AirPods Pro 2 case charging support.
Top comment by rajrc001
This is especially useful if you have a MagSafe + Apple Watch charger. Prior to AirPods Pro 2, MagSafe Duo and similar chargers could power up one Apple Watch and one other thing that supported wireless charging (including AirPods). Now the same travel charger can power up your iPhone on the MagSafe side and your AirPods Pro 2 on the watch charging puck side.
Aside from that and previously mentioned feature requests, there’s only one thing that annoys me about AirPods Pro 2. The charging case uses the Lightning port like the iPhone, but the tides are turning toward iPhones dropping Lightning in favor of USB-C next year.
I can’t remember the last time I charged my AirPods case with a wire, so it’s not a big deal for me. It might mean we’ll see a charging case revision before AirPods Pro 3, however, just like when the original AirPods added a wireless charging case and AirPods Pro added a MagSafe charging case.
Put simply, if the original AirPods Pro were within earshot of perfect, this ‘S’ style revision gets us oh so much closer. The last major missing feature is … colors that aren’t white. Like black. Apple, make black AirPods.
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