In a move that surprised no one, Apple announced the all-new AirPods Pro today via press release. A full list of features can be found on Apple’s website, but here are a few highlights of the product.
Active Noise Cancellation: A feature usually found on larger, more expensive headphones, active noise cancellation is a welcome addition to AirPods. This features works by sampling nearby noise and removing it from the sound being produced by the speakers. This results in clearer audio and allows you to better hear your music or podcast. You can also let in the sound from the world around you by enabling Transparency mode. This is accomplished by squeezing the stem of either AirPod and lets the outside sound reach your ears.
Comfort: The design of the original AirPods simply doesn’t fit well for some people. AirPods Pro come with three different sizes of silicone tips which hopefully, will provide an improved fit for a larger variety of ear shapes.
Adaptive EQ: This feature claims to tune music to the shape of your ears automatically. The result is supposed to produce a “rich, consistent listening experience.”
Water Resistant: A welcome feature for people with active lifestyles is water and sweat resistance. This might also help users to keep their AirPods clean without worrying about destroying the delicate electronics inside.
Battery Life: With a price tag of $249, I’m glad to see they included the wireless charging case as a standard feature this time around. You should get around 4.5 hours of listening time on a single charge and the case provides 24 hours of additional charge. It takes about 5 minutes to give you around an hour of listening time.
AirPods Pro is the next step in AirPod evolution. They’re smaller, sound better, and have more features than last year’s model. But, are they worth $90 more than standard AirPods or $50 more than AirPods with the wireless charging case? I’d say, if you’re planning on getting the wireless charging case, it’s worth the extra money to get the pro model. But if you don’t care about that and just want to enjoy a tether-free listening experience at a better price then standard AirPods are probably a better choice for you.
