Review: Apple's New AirPods Pro Have the Same Old Look, But Add New Features
Apple's top-of-the-line earbuds promise better sound, but a new noise-canceling mode raises questions
By Allen St. John
Apple has updated its top-of-the-line earbuds. While the name remains the same, the new $249 AirPods Pro are distinctly different.
They’re more water-resistant, and the harder-to-lose case can be powered up with a MagSafe or Qi-certified wireless charger. The sound quality, according to Apple, is significantly better, too, thanks to the addition of a new amplifier and long-excursion driver, the element that actually delivers the sound to your ear. And the company further claims the new model’s enhanced active noise canceling mode can be twice as effective as that on the first-gen Pros.
So should you run out to buy them? That depends on a few things.
All of those features more or less delivered on their promises during my evaluation. On the other hand, a new variable noise canceling mode called Adaptive Transparency, which is supposed to attenuate the volume of loud noises, didn’t quite work as expected.
I requested a press sample from Apple to get an early look at the earbuds’ new features. As always, Consumer Reports will be buying a pair of AirPods Pro through normal retail channels for the testing done in our labs and this story will be updated with our testing results. The model is now available at Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, Target, and other retailers nationwide.
Apple’s AirPods earbuds have been a commercial success from the very beginning, and with good reason. The design is sleek—the downward-facing white stems quickly became something of a fashion icon—and Apple eliminated the pain point of some early wireless headphones with easy pairing, especially with iPhones and other Apple devices.
But in our labs, the early AirPods fared less well. Our testers didn’t give the original Air Pods a recommendation, for example, summing up the sound as "a bit boomy, grainy, and dry." The first-generation AirPods Pro fared better, earning a Very Good rating for sound quality on top of an overall recommendation, though the model doesn’t rank among the very top scorers in our ratings of noise-canceling wireless earbuds.
Do the new Pros perform even better than their predecessors? Here’s what we learned after spending a few days with them.
Splashproof and Easier to Find
When I removed the second-gen Pros from Apple’s ubiquitous compact white box, they looked quite similar to the previous-gen Pros. The earbuds and charger are about the same size, and the earbuds even use the same silicone tips. If you and someone else in your house keep a pair of the previous-gen AirPods Pro on the kitchen counter, you might take advantage of Apple’s free emoji engraving service to help make it clear whose case is whose.
Ultimately, the similarities are a good thing, because the previous-gen Pros are a well-designed product. The earbuds themselves are quite lightweight and comfortable enough that I found it easy to forget I was wearing them, though your experience may vary. Apple also added new extra small ear tips so the second-gen Pros will fit more consumers.
While the white hard plastic charger—which looks a lot like the case for the base AirPods on steroids—feels a little utilitarian for a high-end product, it is compact and easy to use. And whatever it lacks in style, it adds in some smart functionality. It now has a tiny speaker in the bottom so that you can ping it with the Find Me function that has helped to find countless iPhones. The case is now also splashproof and sweatproof like the earbuds themselves. And along with the option of wireless charging, Apple claims the next-gen Pros have a longer battery life, including a full 30 hours with Active Noise Canceling on, which is 6 hours better than their predecessor.
The case for the new AirPods Pro is now water-resistant and adds a speaker for a Find Me function.
Photo: Apple
The expanded Touch Control feature lets you not only advance to the next track, cycle through the various noise canceling modes, and access Apple’s Siri digital assistant by swiping or squeezing the stem, but also adjust the volume. While I prefer actual buttons for these kinds of controls, the new volume control is a useful upgrade over the Siri-controlled volume on the previous-gen Pros.
Noise Canceling vs. My Lawnmower
On the sonic front, the model receives a new H2 chip, an upgraded amplifier, and larger, high-excursion drivers. Our testers will soon put the buds through the paces in our audio lab and report back on the results. But even though my ears have been spoiled with some very-high end headphones like my own Audeze LCD-3s, I enjoyed listening with the AirPods Pro. While my untrained ear detected a distinct family resemblance to the older model, the differences—like a quieter background and fuller bass—seemed like improvements.
The latest-generation AirPods Pro (right) have new drivers and electronics that promise better sound than the original Pros (left).
Photos: Apple
The thing that truly differentiates the Pros from the base model AirPods is the noise canceling tech, and like the previous-gen Pros, the new model has three distinct modes. The first is passive noise canceling. That’s the surprising amount of isolation provided by the silicone ear tips even without an electronic assist. (Note that while the eartips on the regular AirPods do offer some level of noise reduction, they don’t seal the same way as the Pros.)
The second is active noise canceling, which produces an out-of-phase sound pattern that essentially cancels out sound waves from the world beyond the buds. Apple says the noise canceling in the new earbuds is up to twice as effective as that in the previous generation, which received an Excellent rating from our testers.
We will certainly test that claim, but informally, I heard a real difference. The noise canceling in the previous gen Pros made the room feel noticeably quieter, as if you had turned off an air conditioner, but the new Pros take that up a notch. I find them to be almost eerily quiet, evoking the spooky, hear-your-own-heartbeat silence of a university reference library during finals week.
While that profound silence is refreshing on its own, it also enhances music, especially delicate acoustic tracks. When I cued up "Mining for Gold" by Cowboy Junkies, hearing the reverberations in the big old Toronto church where "The Trinity Session" album was recorded, complete with its noisy heating system, gave me you-are-there goosebumps. Note that unlike some other earbuds, there’s no way to adjust the level of active noise canceling on the Pros, so you’re stuck with that dead quiet if you keep the feature turned on.
Next, I tried the new Pros out while mowing the lawn. My red mulching Toro provided a good test for how the earbuds handle sustained loud noises. I used the decibel meter function on an Apple Watch Series 8, which uses its microphone to measure outside noise as well as how much the AirPods are attenuating that noise. My mower measured around 86 decibels (dB), which is unpleasantly loud (and reason enough to wear foam earplugs). It’s also somewhat above the 80 dB level where Apple (through warnings on the Apple Watch and the company website) suggests you use hearing protection or move to a quieter place.
In passive mode (with the noise canceling off), the Pros reduced the noise level to a very tolerable 67 dB. Switching to full noise cancellation all but silenced the mower for me, reducing the roar of the engine to a quiet chug. However, according to the Apple Watch, it only reduced the sound pressure level to around 62 dB. In short, the well-fit silicone tips did most of the work of actually attenuating the noise, but the improved noise canceling reduced my perception of the lawnmower’s clatter.
Adaptive Transparency
The third and final noise-canceling setting is Adaptive Transparency and that’s where things get interesting. The previous-gen Pros have a Transparency mode that pipes in sounds from the outside world so that some background noise can still reach you. I found that the new Adaptive Transparency mode worked well when I popped into a store and wanted to have a quick interaction with the cashier without removing or muting the buds. It helped me stay safe while walking on a busy street, too; I played my Miles Davis playlist, while still remaining aware of traffic.
In the new AirPods Pro, the adaptive part of Adaptive Transparency is supposed to reduce the level of loud noises—like a passing siren—bringing them down to an 85 dB threshold set by Apple, which is slightly higher than the ceiling recommended on the Apple Watch. When I gave this mode a try, it didn’t work as well as I had expected. Since I couldn’t summon a siren on command, I used my dog, Rugby. When a stranger comes to the door, her bark can register over 100dB for a fraction of a second, according to the Apple Watch. The active noise canceling modes reduce those peaks to around 75dB. In Adaptive Transparency mode, however, the loudest peaks still registered 107dB, even though the Watch indicated the AirPods had reduced the level.
In a press briefing, Apple suggested that Adaptive Transparency mode can also be used to reduce the volume at, say, a live concert. To reproduce that situation at home, I played one of my favorite songs, "This Year" by The Mountain Goats, on my own Edifier S1000DB speakers much louder than I normally would, at about 90 dB. In the active noise canceling mode, the AirPods Pro attenuated the volume to as low as 58 dB. However, when I switched to Adaptive Transparency, I saw continuous readings as high as 91 dB. When I completed this brief evaluation, my ears were ringing.
Bottom line: The AirPods Pro earbuds are a consumer product, not one designed specifically for hearing protection, so don’t rely too heavily on the noise-canceling tech, even the relatively robust active and passive modes. On its website, Apple warns that long-term exposure to sounds over 80 dB "can lead to permanent damage."
When I asked Apple to comment on my experience, the company explained that it views 85 dB as a general threshold to ensure that environmental noise sounds natural when the noise-canceling tech is reducing noise spikes. When the external noise is at higher decibel levels, the AirPods Pro will see more attenuation, the company said.
For more context, I consulted Brian Fligor, a board-certified pediatric audiologist and president of Tobias and Battite Hearing Wellness in Boston, Massachusetts. The good news, he said, is that a few milliseconds of the dog barking or a few minutes of high-volume Mountain Goats music is unlikely to damage my hearing permanently.
"It’s a matter of the dose," he says. And while super-loud noises like jet engines and firearms can be dangerous even for super-short durations, our ears can withstand a very brief noise spike like a dog’s bark. The concern, he says, could come when a consumer listens to high-volume sounds for hours at a time, assuming that a device like the AirPods Pro offers more hearing protection than it actually does.
Should You Buy the AirPods Pro?
That’s a good question, especially when you may be able to save some money by choosing the first-gen model, which will likely go on sale in the days ahead.
I’ll come down in favor of the new ones, though it will be a qualified recommendation. The latest Pros are a little better in a lot of ways. The new case makes them easier to charge, harder to lose, and harder to damage if they get wet. The sound quality isn’t transformed but it does seem better, though we’ll leave the final verdict to our lab testers.
And the improved active noise canceling mode is worthwhile, not only for the way the deeper silence allows you to tune out the world, but the way it helps you tune in to your favorite music. All of that seems like it’s worth the extra $75 dollars over the previous-gen models.
But after my conversation with Dr. Fligor, I’d caution you to use AirPod Pros with care. I suggest starting with the Ear Tip Fit test on the iPhone app to make sure the buds are sealing properly. As for Adaptive Transparency mode, it’s fine for tamping down the sound of traffic on Fifth Avenue. But for hours at a loud concert? It makes sense to bypass the Adaptive Transparency mode in favor of the greater attenuation of passive noise-canceling mode. Or even just a set of foam earplugs from the drug store.
What about non-Apple options? If you’re entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, you’ll likely love the no-brainer pairing with an iPhone, a MacBook, or an Apple Watch. But if you’re into Android, you might check out other top-performing earbuds like our top-rated Sony WF-1000XM4, the budget-priced Sennheiser CX Plus, or the Beats Fit Pro.
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