Apple AirPods Pro. Picture: Noel Campion.

The AirPods are the most popular wireless earphones around and now they have gotten even better with improvements in every department including audio quality, battery life and ANC.

On the surface, the new AirPods Pro look identical to the originals. They feature short round stems with oval-shaped speakers that allow the custom silicone ear tips to neatly click into place. Crucially, there’s now an extra size ear tip that should suit a wider range of ear types and sizes. The new smaller (XS) ear tip should help those with smaller ear canals to use AirPods Pro where previously, they could not.

The same medium size fits me just as it did with the originals providing excellent comfort, seal and security — they never fell out of my ears no matter how hard I tried to make them.

The stems have a capacitive section that’s used for pinch and touch gestures which now includes the ability to control volume. As a long-time AirPods user, this is a big improvement and I’m not sure why it has taken Apple this long to add a feature that’s been commonplace in almost every other wireless earbud.

The biggest design changes have been to the case. There are now three small holes to the left for a new speaker — this emits a tone when you place it on a charger or when the battery is getting low.

However, the killer feature is that it now uses the Find My network to locate the case, including the AirPods Pro inside with a chirping sound that comes from the speaker on the case. This is such a life-saving feature not just for when you might lose them but more often to locate them in a hurry when you’re rushing out the door. Also, you will now see the battery level for the case and AirPods in the battery widget on your iPhone.

The case now includes a metal piece to hook a lanyard on to and Apple sells the incase lanyard as an optional extra for €14.99.

Apple has improved the H2 chipset inside the earbuds, bringing more powerful computational audio and a new adaptive transparency feature. According to Apple, the ANC is now twice as good. Additionally, the charging case now includes UltraWideband built-in, allowing you to track and locate it exactly like an Apple AirTag.

The new AirPods Pro doesn’t feel any more comfortable than the previous iteration but this isn’t such a bad thing. I had no problems wearing them for extended periods of time. I found I could wear them at night in bed and even lay on a pillow without any issues. Previously, I would get a sharp sound that was a result of feedback between the mic and speaker. This doesn’t happen with the new buds and it’s a welcome upgrade but perhaps it’s just my experience.

The extra small ear tip size should help those who previously found the small size still too big and the snap-on system makes them easy to remove and try the different sizes.

The AirPods Pro 2 come with an IPX4 rating so they’re protected against some light rain and sweat. The buds feature wear detection with a new sensor that knows the difference between skin and a hard non-organic surface to pause playback and then resume it when you put them back in your ears. This means that they won’t drain if you put them in your pockets for example.

The new touch controls are just as intuitive as the previous model with a simple squeeze to pause/play and a double-squeeze to skip forward or triple to skip back. You can call Siri by saying "Hey Siri" and switching between the new Adaptive Transparency and ANC settings with a squeeze and hold.

As I’ve said already, the ability to control volume now is epic and it works as it should with a simple swipe along the touch section of the stem on either bud.

There’s a new AirPods Pro option now in settings. Here you’ll find a treasure trove of features including a neat option to play background sounds to mask unwanted environmental noise to help you minimise distractions and help you focus. You can choose between balanced noise, bright noise, dark noise, ocean, rain or stream. You can also adjust the balance of volume between the left and right earbuds for those who may have a hearing imbalance.

The ear tip fit test is a quick sound test that ensures you’ve picked the best-fitting ear tip for your ears. Adaptive transparency requires both AirPods to be worn and works by trying to detect and reduce loud and harsh sounds that you might find on a building site for example.

The AirPods Pro 2 reduces the volume of ambient noise as soon as it goes above 80 dB. Even better, when you pair the AirPods Pro 2 with an Apple Watch, you can use the Noise app to see exactly how this is functioning in real time.

The new AirPods Pro now features head tracking with Spatial audio. Spatial audio on the AirPods Pro 2 is phenomenal and a major improvement over the originals while watching content that supports it. And, you can now use the iPhone's camera to capture a 3D image of your ears to use personalised spatial audio. This tweaks the soundscape rendering based on the information about the shape of your ears from the TrueDept camera and Face ID sensors. Perhaps it was a placebo, but I thought the audio improved after doing the test.

Transparency mode is class-leading and just as good as the original but ANC performance is vastly improved. While it’s hard to quantify by how much, I did a lot of A/B testing between generations one and two with a variety of sounds playing in the background from a noisy cafe, to plane engine sounds to construction work.

Using the Noise app on the Apple Watch it was saying the AirPods Pro were reducing the sound of the engines from 69db down to 45db. When the sound wasn’t playing the noise level was around 31db and 19db on the AirPods Pro. Interestingly, this feature is exclusive to the AirPods Pro 2 and you won’t see it when you use the AirPods Max.

The ANC performance is the best I’ve tested on any earbuds and even rivals many over-ear headphones which is really saying something. The only downside to all this amazing noise-reducing technology is that I did get that cabin pressure feeling in my ears. While it wasn’t uncomfortable, it was noticeable.

One of the best features of the Apple ecosystem is how seamlessly the AirPods Pro switch between devices and version two feels more consistent. I’m sure this is down to the new H2 chip inside that makes the hardware and software work better together in providing a seamless transition.

The AirPods Pro 2 take full advantage of Spatial Audio in Apple Music, but the results vary greatly depending on the tune you’re listening to. You also get the option to listen to music in Dolby Atmos and there’s a growing amount of compatible music now supporting the format. Again, I found it hit or miss but it’s easy to toggle it on and off.

My preference is to listen to music in simple stereo but that’s just a matter of personal preference. The overall sound quality has been improved but I found the mids aren’t forward-focused enough and a little bright. The treble response is excellent with good resolution. The bass response is impactful and punchy with excellent sub-bass detail. The soundstage is massive with an impressive presentation and good imaging.

While some might find the upgrade in sound quality subtle, for me at least, it’s the sum of all the parts that make it a more versatile improvement that will suit a broader range of music genres.

Where they really excel is when watching movies that take full advantage of Spatial audio. It’s like listening to a movie with a full-blown surround sound system. And, if you’ve got an Apple TV you can watch your favourite movies on the big screen and enjoy a totally immersive surround sound while not disturbing the neighbours.

Apple’s transparency works brilliantly for calls — I hate not being able to clearly hear my own voice when I’m on a video or voice call. Again, I A/B tested them against the originals and the callers said the AirPods Pro 2 were much clearer.

They also do a great job of reducing background sound. I compared them to the original wired EarPods and the difference is night and day. Since the integrated microphone on the EarPods is significantly closer to your mouth, they don't need to process sounds the way AirPods do in order to isolate your voice and drown out background noise. This is just a problem with wireless earbuds in general.

I never had an issue with the original AirPods Pros' battery life but they’re far from class-leading. Apple has improved their performance to provide up to six hours of listening time with ANC (up 90 minutes from the originals). You’ll get 30 minutes less with spatial and head tracking enabled and when you include the case, it’s a total of 30 hours.

Charging gets a slight upgrade as it now supports charging via the Apple Watch wireless charger as well as being compatible with MagSafe, Qi and wired via the lightning port. If you drain the buds a quick five minutes in the case will provide an hour of listening.

The Apple AirPods Pro 2 offers class-leading active noise cancellation and adaptive transparency mode. They’re more comfortable for a broader range of ear sizes and now boast an improved battery life and a variety of ways to charge them.

While they do work for other non-Apple devices, they’re a no-brainer for those who live in the Apple ecosystem with multiple Apple devices.

Apple AirPods Pro €299 apple.ie

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