It seems as though the an upgraded version of Apple’s AirPods have been rumoured for months. We had a minor upgrade earlier this year, but all those came with was better connectivity and battery life. Both are very useful, but not the kind of thing people were expecting. Now, though, Apple’s gone and made the AirPods Pro official.
The first thing you might notice about the AirPods Pro are that they have a brand new design. Rather than that rubbish design that always seems content to sit in your ear without any sort of secure fit, these are in-ear earbuds. In other words Apple has promised they have a better seal and fit than AirPods have before. As with most in-ear buds, those tips are removable, made from silicone, and come in three different sizes to better suit your unique ear shape.
That seal is quite important too, since these come with active noise cancellation, which has been rumoured for next-gen AirPods for what seems like forever. That’s done with two microphones that can remove the background noise in a way Apple says is custom to you. The same is true for the ‘Adaptive EQ’, which Apple says will automatically tune the low and mid frequencies of the music according to the shape of your ear.
Other features include Siri control (obviously) water and sweat resistance (good) and a ‘transparency mode’ that lets you listen to the AirPods while still being able to hear what’s going on around you. In case you want to hear tannoy announcements or something. So far, so standard.
Apple has also included a new force sensor on the stem, which can be used to control what you hear, though users can also use the iOS Control Center or the Apple Watch to do some of that as well.
Battery wise Apple is promising four and a half hours of listening time (or three and a half hours talk time), and as usual you can use the case to top them up for a maximum of 24 hours use. The case also features wireless charging as standard.