Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) Truly Wireless Headphones Review

The Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation have nearly the same design as their predecessor, the Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless. They have a sleek white design with a stem design and white silicone tips. They only come in one color variant, which is to be expected from Apple products.

These in-ears are comfortable and lightweight. Unlike their predecessor, Apple has included an extra small pair of ear tips, raising the total number of pairs of included ear tips to four. Their fit doesn't apply pressure to your ear and won't be pushed further into your ear if you're trying to register commands. However, like the previous generation, the earbuds can wiggle out of your ear over time. While this doesn't affect all users, some people have solved this issue by purchasing foam ear tips, which mold to your ear.

These buds have very good controls. Compared to the first gen, the manufacturer has improved the 'Force Sensor' controls, and there's click feedback for the amount of clicks you make on the stem. There are different chimes when cycling between ANC modes and touch volume chimes when adjusting the volume and reaching the min/max volume. Overall, the controls are easy to use and responsive. If you're on iOS 17 or later, you can also pinch the stems to mute and unmute the mic during calls.

On either stems' force sensor:

• Single press: Plays or pauses audio. Also answers and ends a call.
• Double press: Skips the track forward.
• Triple press: Skips the track backward.
• Press and hold: Cycles between ANC on, off, and transparency mode, which allows you to hear your surroundings without turning off your audio.
• Say 'Hey Siri': Activates Siri voice assistant. This command only works on iOS devices, though.

These lightweight buds are very portable. You can easily put them into most pockets or bags without an issue. They also come with a carrying case that's small enough to take with you on-the-go.

The Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Gen's carrying case is great. It has the same plastic design and finish as the previous generation. It supports MagSafe charging and has a lanyard loop if you want to attach it to something. It's also certified IPX4 for resistance against water splashes and has a U1 chip that lets you easily find the case if you lose it using the 'Find My' app. The original version of this case uses a Lightning port, but Apple offers a carrying case with a USB-C port.

The Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation have a great build quality, like other products from this manufacturer. They're mostly made of plastic with silicone ear tips. They're also certified IPX4 for resistance against water splashes, which is good if you want to wear them to the gym.

These in-ears have a stable in-ear fit. Some users may find that the buds wiggle out of their ears over time, but once you achieve a good fit, they'll stay in place with moderate head movements. If you want to use them while running, they may fall out of your ears.

• Apple AirPods Pro Gen 2 headphones
• Charging case
• USB-C to Lightning cable
• 4x tip size options
• Manuals

The Apple AirPods Pro 2 have an adaptive EQ, and when on, they have a slightly warm sound profile, which is great if you like genres with a bit more bass or if you like your vocals and instruments to sound cozier in your mixes. Compared to their Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless, they have a better bass extension, which helps improve the depth of bass in your audio. Overall, their sound is quite versatile and well-suited for various audio content. However, there are no built-in EQs or presets to help you tweak their sound. If you're an iOS user, you can access sound customization features in your settings via the 'Accessibility' tab, though.

Thanks to their H2 chip, these headphones can adjust their bass and treble response, depending on the listening volume. However, this is only noticeable when connected to an iOS device. This change mitigates the effects of equal-loudness contours (and, more specifically, the Fletcher-Munson curve). The listener perceives more bass and treble at high volumes than mid sound. However, the listener perceives less bass and treble at low volumes than mid sound. These headphones counter this issue in their frequency response by increasing bass and treble at lower volumes to encourage people to listen to audio at lower volumes. You can see the change in frequency response when using an iOS device with ANC on and ANC off. This effect doesn't apply to PCs or Android devices.

There have been user reports that firmware 5E133 added more bass and treble to the frequency response. However, upon retesting them using several reseats, we didn't notice a change. It's important to note that frequency response changes depending on whether you turn the ANC on/off.

Note: There's a slight discrepancy between the left and right drivers in the raw frequency response graphs. It's due to how the files were processed and level-matched. However, all other graphs are correct, and this difference isn't audible. We also don't expect users to encounter this issue with their own units.

The frequency response consistency is outstanding. As long as you achieve a proper fit, you'll get consistent bass and treble delivery each time you use them.

The Apple AirPods Pro 2 have great bass accuracy. They have an extended low-bass, which helps the bass have more depth in your mixes. There's also a bump of extra warmth to help balance their underemphasized low-bass. While the bassline in songs like Lavender Haze by Taylor Swift feels a little lacking compared to other in-ears, like the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro True Wireless, the bass still feels satisfying and present without overwhelming vocals and instruments.

The mid accuracy is excellent. There's some warmth coming from the bass range into the mid. This overemphasis slightly clutters vocals and instruments, but the rest of the range is flat, so these sounds are still present and detailed in mixes. In vocal-centric songs like Vegas by Doja Cat, Doja's voice sounds cozy and warm but a little muddy.

The Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation have great treble accuracy. The response is slightly underemphasized across the range, which takes the edge off of vocals and instruments. The upper harmonics of these sounds are slightly veiled, while sibilants like hi-hats lose a bit of their sharpness.

The peaks and dips performance is great. There are only a few prominent deviations, meaning the headphones can control their sound profile well. There's a peak across the high-bass to low-mid, which adds boom and muddies mixes a bit, while a dip in the mid-mid affects the left driver more prominently and nudges vocals and instruments to the back of the mix. Another bump in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals piercing.

The Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation have an outstanding imaging performance. This manufacturer has shown consistent quality control and ergonomics across all of the products that we've tested. That said, imaging varies across units. Our unit's L/R drivers are well-matched across all of our tests, which results in the accurate placement of sound objects like voices and instruments in the stereo image.

These in-ears have a bad passive soundstage, but that's normal for in-ear headphones. Since they bypass the pinna by design, their soundstage feels closed-off and as if sound is coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed in the room around you.

The Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation are compatible with Apple's Spatial Audio in the iOS interface. It scans your face from the front as you rotate it to capture all the angles of your face. Once complete, sound will follow your head movements, creating a more immersive and dimensional audio experience.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is great. All frequencies fall within good limits, resulting in clear and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation's full-range noise isolation performance is great. They can block out a wide array of noise well. This includes the low rumble of buses, ambient chatter, and the high-pitched hums of an AC unit. As a result, these buds are a solid choice if you're looking for something to use during busy commutes or noisy days at the office. There are also some handy features like Adaptive Audio and Conversational Awareness that automatically adapt the headphones' performance based on the noise around you. These features are only available on iOS 17 (or later), and you can read more about them here.

Note: Due to user feedback, we've tested these headphones using firmware 5A377 and 5B58 to see if the noise isolation changed. You can see a comparison of both firmware here. We also did multiple passes using firmware 5E133, and you can see a comparison of 5B58 and 5E133 here. However, there wasn't much of a difference between firmware updates.

You can expect excellent noise isolation performance in common scenarios. The ANC can reduce rumbly plane engines and street noise well. While it reduces slightly less sound when it comes to office noise compared to other scenarios, it's still quite a solid performance overall.

Unlike noise like voices or traffic, wind directly interacts with the ANC's mics. However, this sound doesn't really reach your ear. As the ANC system tries to cancel the sound out, it ends up creating loud, unwanted noise. For the Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation, this noise is quite loud. Since they're earbuds, the amount of wind noise can also vary depending on the angle due to their small size and shape. For example, there's more wind noise reduction at 90 degrees than at other angles. Unfortunately, they also lack a wind reduction feature to help tackle these sounds better.

The leakage performance is great. Leakage is mostly concentrated in the mid to treble range and sounds pretty thin. Overall leakage is quite low, so if you like to listen to your favorite tracks at high volume, then others around you won't hear it.

The integrated mic has disappointing recording quality. Your voice sounds thin and somewhat muffled, making it harder to be understood well.

The integrated mic has a mediocre noise handling performance. If you're taking a call from a moderately noisy environment like a busy office, your voice can be obscured by background sound and even drowned out. Instead, it's best to take calls from quieter spaces like an empty meeting room.

The Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation have a decent battery performance. Apple advertises that they last six hours continuously, which is on par with what we measured. It's worth mentioning that battery life varies depending on usage, the features you're using, and even your listening volume. On the upside, you can always pop them in their carrying case if you need more battery life since it holds an extra four charges. The buds also enter standby mode when not in use to conserve battery life further.

You can access the headphones' interface if you're connected via iOS; check out a video of how the interface works here. If you're on iOS 17 or later, you'll be able to access features like Adaptive Audio, which shifts your volume level depending on the amount of noise around you. There's also a Personalized Volume feature, which uses AI to generate a profile for your Apple account to record your content, volume, ANC mode, and external noise for the headphones to dynamically adjust to you. Conversation Awareness reduces your content's volume and switches to transparency mode so you can hear your conversation. Subjectively, it also seems to boost the mid-range so that you can better hear yourself and the other person. If the feature detects that the conversation has stopped, it turns off. Lastly, there's Automatic Switching. If you play audio from one device, it'll switch over to that device. It's useful if you've paired your headphones to your MacBook and iPhone, as you can easily switch between audio sources.

In addition to the iOS 17 features mentioned above, the iOS interface allows you to check the battery life of the headphones as well as the case, switch between ANC modes, and remap the press and hold control. You can also use the 'Find My' feature to track the case if you misplace it, and do a fit check to ensure the best possible fit. While there isn't any EQ in this app, you can access sound customization features via your iOS device's 'Accessibility' tab.

Since our model's carrying case has a lightning port, these headphones come with a Lightning to USB-C cable for recharging them. You can't use this cable for audio. If you have the carrying case with a USB-C port, Apple provides a USB-C cable in the box.

The Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation have great Bluetooth connectivity. They have an H2 chip for seamless pairing with other devices in your Apple ecosystem, and you can connect them simultaneously to two different Apple devices. However, you'll only be able to receive audio from one device at a time. However, this won't work if you're using Android devices. They also support AAC codec, which can offer better audio quality than SBC. That said, their SBC latency falls just outside of good values, resulting in lip sync mismatch, which can be annoying if you're streaming video. Latency can vary depending on the app and device, though. It's also worth mentioning that these buds don't support any codecs designed for high-quality audio, like the LDAC support you get with the Technics EAH-AZ80 True Wireless. This can be disappointing if you want to listen to Hi-Res audio via services like Tidal or Apple Music.

The Apple AirPods Pro 2 can connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full audio and mic compatibility. However, you can't connect them to your PC in any other way.

This model comes with a carrying case with a lightning point for recharging. It also supports wireless charging. However, you can also purchase this model with a case that has a USB-C port and wireless charging support.