Hey, guys. I’m Tomatoekja, and these are the new AirPod Pros Two. And as someone who’s been using these at the original AirPods since they came out back in 2019, I was really excited to test these new ones. So are they a big upgrade and are they worth paying £250 for? Well, from the outside, unless you look closely at the small text on the back of the box, you’d be forgiven for not realizing these are the new ones. It’s all very familiar. You’ve got your earphones in the MagSafe charging case, you’ve got your Lightning charging cable, and a selection of earbuds, including this all-new extra small, which I know was a big deal for my friend, Justine, who can now finally wear AirPod Pros comfortably. Now, Apple did send me this review sample, but I also ordered my own pair with a little tech chap engraving. Normally, I don’t bother with the engraving because I like to be able to resell my iPhones and iPads and things like that. But for earphones, I’m probably going to keep this as long as they last, or until I lose them, which hopefully won’t be as often. And we’ll come to white in a second.
AirPods
And also, among all the other white AirPods, since you still cannot get any other color unless you go through some sort of case, this makes it stand out a little bit. Now versus the old AirPod pros. These new second-generation Pros get this Lanyard loop. There’s also a new speaker on the bottom, which chirps out various connected charging and low-power chimes. And best of all, together with a new U One chip, they’ve added to the case. If you lose it, you can use the Find My app to make it ping, and you can track it as if it were an iPhone and iPad or an Air tag. Now, the earphones themselves feel exactly the same in your ear, so if you didn’t like the ones before, then you’re not going to like these new ones either. Unless, of course, that new extra small ear tip bud thing makes it more comfortable side by side. You can see we’ve got this new acoustic mesh on the top of the earbuds, which apparently helps to reduce wind noise for the mics. There are also new touch volume controls on the stem, and there’s also a new optical rather than IR skin detection sensor.
Adaptive Transparency
So it should be better at pausing if you take them out and put them in your pocket. Now, I’ll be honest, in the process of this testing, I have got these mixed up a couple of times. I put them both in and I was like, Why isn’t one working? And actually, my iPhone popped up saying, you’ve got a mismatch, mismatch, mismatched earbuds. So actually it does know when you’ve done that because unless you do go for an engraving, you do have to basically look for that Lanyard loop, the speaker grille, or that top acoustic mesh, otherwise, you wouldn’t really know the difference. But on the inside, it’s all new. We’ve got the new H Two chip, which unlocks the new adaptive transparency mode. It also powers the new low distortion drivers, the new Amp, and the new Transducer, and Apple are promising two times better noise cancellation, better sound quality, and also longer battery life. Sounds good, but let’s put it to the test. Now, the first thing you should do when you get a pair of these is jump into the new AirPods menu within the settings on your iPhone. And firstly go to ear fit test.
APOP Pros
It plays a sound and then tells you if you’ve got a good seal with those ear tips in your ears. Now, the skeptic in me thought, is that just going to be the same result no matter what ear tips you use? Is this going to say good seal? It’s all like a placebo thing? Well, actually, no. So I’ve put the extra small ones on. Now, look at that. Here we go. Adjust or try a different ear tip. And I agree, the mediums, the default ones are a lot more comfortable. So do the fit test. After that, head down to the personalized spatial audio tab. Now, this is new for iOS 16 but works with both APOP Pros. It’s not exclusive to the Nuance, and it uses your phone’s front camera to scan the shape of your head and your ears to get a more accurate Spatial Audio experience. It’s basically 3D sound and uses the five one or seven one or atmosphere signals from whatever you’re watching or listening to. Then applies some fancy directional audio filters and adjust the frequencies for your ear. And then tracking both your head movement and the position of your phone or your iPad or your MacBook, you get this wonderful, really, audio effect.
Quality
People are standing up, they’re afraid. Right now they’re afraid. Let’s move on to noise canceling. And while you could argue other earphones, actually do it a bit better. Now, I’m thinking of the new Bose QC Two S. Very, very good noise canceling. The original AirPod Pros are still some of the best. And actually, even sometimes I don’t have anything playing. I just put them in. It cancels out a good amount of that background noise. And I always thought it did a good job. So I must admit I was a bit skeptical when Apple said, these new ones cancel two times more of that background noise. But how the heck do you quantify that? I mean, you can take my word for it, because I think it’s absolutely true. But you can also look at my Apple watch. And as I sit at this cafe, my town square, wearing the old Epoch Pros with noise canceling on, the noise app on my watch is telling me that I’m hearing around 60 decibels of background noise. A normal conversation, if you will, but then switching to the pro-Twos. It’s roughly halved to the low and mid-30s now, the equivalent of a whispered conversation.
Changing my headphones
I must have looked like a complete idiot changing my headphones every 30 seconds while I was testing these, but I can tell you it is a big step up. I would probably agree it’s two times better. We also get this new adaptive transparency mode which now adjusts the level of outside sound. You can hear reducing loud noises but boosting voices and conversations. So if you work in a loud environment like construction, or you go to a lot of loud music gigs and don’t want tinnitus, I know a lot of people don’t like full noise canceling because you can’t really get your surroundings. You might be run over by a bus or something. So I think the new adaptive transparency mode is going to be very popular and that is exclusive to the new model. But what about battery life? Well, I can tell you after an hour of listening to a podcast, I’m partial to a bit of stuff you should know. In The Verge cast, the original AirPod Pros are down to 80% versus 85% on the Pro Two S which does roughly tally with Apple’s claims of an extra hour and a half, or about a third longer battery.
Lightning
And as well as that, the case itself holds an extra 6 hours of battery. So we get a total of 30 hours of listening time before you need to top it up. That’s a pretty substantial upgrade. Now, speaking of charging, of course, you can still top it up with the Lightning connector on the bottom, but still no USB-C. But as well as MagSafe charging, you can now also use your Apple watch charger. And also then there’s Qi wireless charging as well. And actually, in terms of charging speeds, it is that order. Lightning, MagSafe watch, and then qi.
But what about microphones?
I’m actually recording this audio as a.
Voice memo on my iPhone from the AirPod Pro gen two S. Bit of a breeze going on, people talking. Now the microwave itself, the mics are the same as before but they have.
Actually rejected the placement and also brought a new acoustic mesh which is supposed to reduce wind noise.
And there is a bit of a breeze.
So you guys have to let me know what you think in the comments below.
But let’s do a quick sidebyside with your versus the new. So now I’m on the original pros. Tell me what you think. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe like subscribe like And.
Subscribe and then back to the new ones.
Like and subscribe like and subscribe like and subscribe like and subscribe what do you think? Could you hear much difference?
HD chip
It’s funny with this part of the review and I haven’t even mentioned the sound quality yet, which you could argue is like the most important aspect of an earphone. Now, in my experience doing some b tests and also I was doing it blindly because these do feel the same in my ear. I think the new ones do sound a little bit better. I think there’s a slightly wider sound stage a little bit richer, but it’s very subtle. Now, I will admit I’m not an audiophile or an audio expert. This is just my experience as someone who enjoys the original Epoch Pros and they’ll test in the new ones. But I think it’s maybe 5% better. Hard to quantify, and impossible for me to show you on this YouTube video. I appreciate it a lot more going on. We got the new amp, a new transducer, and the HD chip. And so it is technically superior, but at least in what I listen to, podcasts and music. And while I have quite an eclectic mix of music in my playlist, I couldn’t hear that much difference. So personally, I wouldn’t upgrade based on the sound quality alone.
Apple ecosystem
I would upgrade though for that noise canceling. It is significantly better and also the longer battery life is nice, particularly on longer flights or journeys. You don’t have to top it up as often for me, because I use these every day. I think it’s probably worth the investment. If you’re not bothered or don’t like noise canceling, then you can go for the regular third-generation AirPods, which are very much the same, but without noise canceling. And that will save you £70. Also, being Apple, these are very much geared towards you being in the Apple ecosystem. If you have a MacBook, an iPad, an iPhone. If you don’t use those, yes, you can still use them as Bluetooth speakers. Actually uses the new Bluetooth five three standards. You can use it with other devices, but you do lose a lot of that functionality and it’s just much better and nicer to use within the Apple family if you will. So alternatively, if you haven’t fully turned to the dark sides, I would consider the new Bose QC Two S or the Sony WH 1000 XM Five S. But what do you think? Tempted to upgrade? Have you already have a pair?
And if you do, let me know your experience in the comments below. That is a bit windy. How are these polling up? If you do enjoy this video, by the way, I want to see more from me. Don’t forget to hit that like and subscribe button below. I’ll see you soon right here on the Tech chat.
