Apple AirPods Pro initial review: Silence is golden

• Apple’s AirPods, whether you agree with the polarising design have become an overnight phenomenon.

After the launch in 2017 they’ve gone on to become the number one selling headphones in the world and you only have to head to a city street to see how many people are wearing them.

Following the launch of a tweaked version of the AirPods earlier in 2019, Apple has deemed the headphone popular enough to expand the range.

The AirPods Pro, rather than just offering tweaks completely redesign the experience, adding Active Noise Cancelling, a new design, and much more.

But in doing so, has the AirPods Pro lost that pocketable design and easy to use experience. We’ve put a pair on to find out.

A new pro design

• New design
• Wireless charging case as standard

There are two elements to the AirPods Pro that you need to worry about. In the ear and in the pocket.

The carry case, which doubles as the charging case, is now shorter in height, but wider in design. It’s still very much just as pocketable as before and comes in the same gloss white.

The AirPods Pro headphones slot in the case in a similar way to the AirPods and instantly start charging the moment you do. Charging can be done via a Lightning cable or by putting the case on a wireless charging pad.

The AirPod Pro headphones are considerably different in design to the AirPods. The noticeable difference is the inclusion of silicon tips to improve the fit or “seal” and the thin rod that hangs out of your ear is now much shorter. This reduction in length will certainly appeal to those that thought the previous design approach looked odd.

Finding your fit

• three silicon tip sizes; small, medium, large
• Ear Tip Fit test via iOS 13.2

Connecting the AirPods Pro for the first time is incredibly simple. You simply open the case near your iPhone (running iOS 13.2) and press connect on the screen. It’s as simple as that thanks to the use of Apple H1 chip (also found in the AirPods and Beats Powerbeats Pro), but unlike AirPods, there is a secondary step to setup.

This involves you running an Ear Tip Fit Test. Using both the internal and external microphone within the headphones iOS 13.2 analyses the sound and tweaks it to sound better for you.

The process, which involves playing some music, takes about 5 seconds. It’s here it will determine whether you’ve got a good fit, and if not recommend you change the silicon tip to another size – there is a small, medium, and large option with medium the default fitting that’s pre-installed. 

For us the medium worked perfectly and we were up and running with a minute.

It will be interesting to see how they feel after some time (all day for example) and whether or not the silicon tips will feel tight in the ear. An hour in and we now we are wearing them, more so than the standard AirPods, but they aren’t uncomfortable. Aware of this potential problem, Apple has included air vents to try and reduce potential pressure and isolation build up. 

Active Noise Cancelling

• Internal and external microphones actively listen for noise changes
• Adaptive EQ
• Transparency Mode

One of the big new features of the AirPods is ANC or Active Noise Cancelling. Using those microphones the AirPods Pro will check the ambient noise around you over 200 times a second and then react accordingly.

You can turn the feature off, called Transparency, if you want to hear what’s going on around you, like someone talking, and this is all controlled via a squeeze of the AirPods Pro, via your iPhone volume control settings, or the Apple Watch.

So far we’ve used it on a 10-minute London Underground ride and a further hour long train ride. It’s surprising how much of a difference it makes, and so far from what we’ve heard makes a huge difference. Classical music fans will love them.

What is instantly clear is that it’s considerably better than the standard AirPods we’ve been using.

Switching between the two modes with that squeeze will take a little getting used to. There is a specific indented area that you need to squeeze so precision is key, and do it to quickly and you’ll stop the track. We suspect we’ll quickly get the hang of it, but it’s a new gesture control mechanism that you’ve got to learn.

Another interesting side affect is wearing them and talking. Because of the microphones both internally and externally that are trying to cancel the noise your own voice is amplified when in Transparency mode. The best way to describe it is akin to speaking into a microphone while wearing headphones to hear yourself. It’s something I do when recording the Pocket-lint podcast or talking on the radio in a studio, so it was unexpected to experience that here.

You don’t get that experience when your on a call with ANC on, although the silence your end can again be something alien if you’re used to hearing lots of noise around you all the time when on a call.

Music sounds better with you

• Uses Apple H1 chip
• 5 hours battery life
• 4.5 hours with ANC enabled
• Rechargeable via case 

We’ve yet to really test the new AirPods Pro with a range of music, but so far we’ve listened to a number of dance tracks from Ministry of Sound and the Interstellar soundtrack by Hans Zimmer to give us a sense of how well the headphone cope with both quiet and booming noises.

It’s fair to say the original AirPods focused on ease of use rather than amazing sound quality, and the AirPods Pro now addresses that.

The new AirPods Pro aren’t as bass focused as the PowerBeats Pro for example, but certainly deliver a decent sound for what they are and what they are trying to achieve. For many they will be more than good enough for commuting and running, especially once you factor in the ANC performance.

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