I've been a contributing editor for PCMag since 2011. Before that, I was PCMag's lead audio analyst from 2006 to 2011. Even though I'm a freelancer now, PCMag has been my home for well over a decade, and audio gear reviews are still my primary focus. Prior to my career in reviewing tech, I worked as an audio engineer—my love of recording audio eventually led me to writing about audio gear.
The second-generation AirPods Pro deliver exceptional ANC and audio performance, making them the best noise-cancelling true wireless earphones for Apple device users.
The second-generation AirPods Pro are a strong rebuttal to the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II. At $249, Apple’s flagship noise-cancelling true wireless earphones come close to besting the $299 Bose model in the active noise cancellation (ANC) department and offer a much more sophisticated Transparency mode that lets you better hear your surroundings. In addition, the new AirPods Pro sound as good as ever and come with a more advanced charging case that has a built-in speaker that enables various useful features. Of course, the AirPods Pro also offer absolutely seamless integration with Apple products, making them easier to use with your iPhone, iPad, or Mac than any other Bluetooth headphones. So while the QuietComfort Earbuds II hold a slight lead in noise cancellation, the second-gen AirPods Pro are just as easy to recommend to Apple device users, earning them our Editors' Choice award.
At a glance, the new AirPods Pro look a lot like the old AirPods Pro. The case offers some new features (as we discuss later), but it too retains a familiar shape. Both the earpieces and the case stick with Apple's iconic, glossy, and hard-to-grip white plastic build.
On the earpieces, the interior ANC mic and the (now larger) vent are in slightly different locations. The eartips also seem a little more oval than before. The earpieces fit quite securely without any additional accessories, and the package includes four pairs of eartips in different sizes (a new XS tip joins the standard S, M, and L). Despite the overall secure fit, however, the earpieces still offer plenty of room for adjustment—slight positional changes can affect the ANC, so you should experiment a bit with how they sit in your ears.
Apple's new H2 chip contains roughly twice as many transistors (around one billion) as the original H1 chip. This new hardware leads to better power efficiency, a more stable user experience, and more useful ANC modes (including the new Adaptive Transparency mode). Note that any processing that the ANC and Transparency modes require happens locally on the earbuds.
Internally, 11mm dynamic drivers deliver a frequency range that, like Bose, Apple declines to share with the public. The Bluetooth 5.3-compatible AirPods support the lossy AAC and SBC codecs only, which means they don't support lossless audio from Apple Music or any other streaming service. Apple seems to favor consistency over scalable codecs like LDAC, which is capable of hi-res playback (including from Apple Music) in optimal conditions but dials back the bitrate in less ideal environments. Apple hasn't yet indicated support for Bluetooth LE or the new SB3 codec.
The good news on the Bluetooth front is that the AirPods Pro pair automatically with your iPhone—an animated overlay pops up on the screen and, as with previous iterations of AirPods, all you need to do is tap once to pair them. You can also connect the earphones across multiple Apple devices and let them switch sources depending on which one you are using. The feature is convenient, though I sometimes find it annoying because I don't always want the source to switch to another nearby device without my approval.
The on-ear controls still rely on a combination of press and press-and-hold gestures. Press either earpiece's stem to control playback and manage calls. A double-press skips forward a track and a triple-press takes you to the previous one. In-ear prompts let you know when you successfully perform any of these actions. By default, a long press-and-hold gesture on either earbud switches between ANC and Transparency modes, though you can add an ANC Off option to the cycle, too. Alternately, you can switch one or both ears to summon Siri with this command. One welcome change is that you can now use a swipe gesture to raise or lower the volume. My initial attempts to use the volume gestures didn't always register, but after some adjustment, I didn't have any issues with it.
The IPX4 rating here remains underwhelming, especially as many competing models offer fully waterproof ratings including the cheaper $199.99 Jabra Elite 7 Pro (IP57). In fairness, nearly every other pair of noise-cancelling true wireless earbuds, including the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II and the Sony WF-1000XM4, offer the same IPX4 rating as the AirPods. We just hoped that Apple, as an industry leader, would push the envelope further. But as it stands, the new AirPods Pro can withstand only light misting and splashes from any direction, so don't even think about submerging them or rinsing them off under a faucet.
We must tip our cap to Apple on one related front, however—the case, including its interior, carries an IPX4 rating that matches the earpieces, which is rare to see. Both should be fine after a sweaty workout or a light rain shower. We still recommend that you fully dry the earpieces before you dock them for charging, however.
Otherwise, the case now sports a U1 chip and an onboard speaker that jointly enable detection features. The speaker—three pinholes to the right of the Lightning port on the bottom of the case (the single pinhole to the left is an acoustic vent for the speaker, not a mic)—provides helpful chimes in various scenarios. For instance, if you place the case on a Qi charger but don't properly line it up, the case emits a chime every few seconds until you fix its position. Apple’s Find My functionality also now allows you to trace the location of the case (and each earbud) by setting them up in the Find My app. From there, you can initiate an audio-based search for the case—chimes play from the case's speaker until you stop them in the Find My app. You can still find a lost earpiece via audible chimes, too.
Apple now lets you customize the front of the case with more goofy engravings than before; aside from simple text, you can add emojis and, yes, even memojis. Apple Watch, MagSafe, and Qi chargers all work with the case, though you can also use the included Lightning-to-USB-C cable for wired charging instead.
Apple estimates that the new AirPods Pro can last roughly five-and-a-half hours (with ANC, Transparency mode, and Spatial audio with head tracking all on), six hours (with ANC and Transparency mode on), or seven hours (without any ANC, Transparency mode, or Spatial audio features on) depending on how you use them. For these same three scenarios, the case should respectively provide an additional 22, 24, or 28 hours of charge. All of these estimates pertain to audio playback time. For calls, you should expect four-and-a-half hours of battery life with ANC on, with up to an additional 18 hours in the case. Keep in mind that your real-world results might differ from those estimates and that Apple assumes a 50% volume level to achieve these numbers.
As mentioned, the AirPods Pro can quickly pair with your nearby iPhone. As soon as you open the case, an animated graphic pops up to show the remaining battery levels for each earpiece and the case. And then, when you place the AirPods in your ears, you hear a chime that confirms the connection. You can also pair the earphones manually if this automatic process doesn't work for some reason.
Instead of relying on a companion app, the AirPods Pro work seamlessly with iOS. Simply head to your phone's settings menu and look for an icon just below where your name appears. Tap it to access various controls and options.
At the top of the section, images of the AirPods Pro and their case sit side by side along with battery readouts for each. The Name section resides just below. By default, the earphones just use your name here, but you can change it to whatever you want. I successfully renamed mine as the scream emoji, for instance.
Farther down is the Noise Control section. Here, you can switch between Noise Cancellation, Off, and Transparency modes, but you can't adjust specific settings. The next section allows you to assign a function to the press-and-hold gesture for each earpiece—if you choose Noise Control, you can then opt to include an “off” option in the selection cycle. Alternatively, you can set this gesture to summon Siri. Because you get independent controls for each earpiece, we're not sure why Apple just didn't assign one to Siri and the other to the Noise Control mode by default.
The next section is the Ear Tip Fit test—keep tapping until you reach a screen with a play button. Heed the Do Not Remove AirPods warning that appears while you listen to a brief (around six seconds) loop. If everything works correctly, you see a “Good Seal” message below each earpiece on the screen afterward. If the test runs poorly, an “Adjust or Try a Different Ear Tip” message appears in yellow below the offending AirPod. Interestingly, I drummed my fingers loudly during one of the tests and got a “Noise Levels Too High for Ear Tip Fit Test” warning. Thus, make sure to perform this test in a quiet room and resist all urges to tap out a beat.
Moving down the menu, you can toggle Adaptive Transparency (the default Transparency mode that tamps down loud noises while still allowing you to hear your surroundings) and Auto Ear detection settings. The next option is called Connect to This iPhone, which “automatically transfers the audio route from connected devices to the AirPods when they are placed in your ears.” You can leave it at the default setting or opt for the “When Last Connected to this iPhone" option.
The Spatial Audio section is up next. Here, you can initiate the Personalized Spatial Audio process (which we describe in more detail a bit later) or explore a demo of how the feature works.
Keep moving down the menu to set the microphone to the Automatic (which automatically switches to whatever earbud you have in if you’re wearing only one), Always Left, or Always Right options. You can also toggle charging case sounds, an optimized battery charging mode, and the Find My Network feature (which allows you to locate each AirPod on a map if you lose them).
An Accessibility tab rounds out the options. It offers granular settings for how quickly controls respond, whether ANC works with only one earpiece in (off by default), whether Spatial audio tracks the location of your iPhone or your head, tone volume adjustments, and even delays between volume swipe adjustments. Finally, there’s an entire Audio Accessibility section with Headphone Accommodations, which notably lets you adjust the brightness of audio to emphasize voices or change how soft sounds come across. Here, you can also adjust the audio balance, turn off headphone notifications, enable LED flashes for alerts, switch to mono audio, and enable background sounds (such as Rain or Dark Noise) to help you focus.
You can also access some basic settings on an iPhone via the Control Center. For instance, when an AirPods connection is active, the fader controls the volume of the AirPods. Press and hold the fader to bring up a screen that features a larger volume fader, as well as options to turn on ANC (and then switch between ANC On, Off, or Transparency modes) and Spatial audio (and then switch between Fixed, Head Tracking, or Off).
This sort of integration puts most companion apps to shame, and is part of the appeal of the AirPods for Apple device owners. We do miss a customizable EQ, however; the Music settings menu offers a host of EQ presets, but none show EQ curves or is adjustable.
The hands-free Siri integration worked relatively quickly once we set it up on an iPhone 14, but the phone initially tried to relay all answers through the phone's built-in speaker, despite the active AirPods connection. Rebooting both the iPhone and the AirPods solved the issue. Note that you can disable the always-on mic for Siri if you wish.
Aside from working closely with iOS, the AirPods Pro also interface with other Apple devices and services. For instance, the Noise app on the Apple Watch can show real-time noise measurements and noise reduction stats. It starts to detect noise levels whenever you activate the ANC and then displays an estimate of their decibel reduction levels. Mind you, this isn't a precise measurement; the watch relies on data from its mic and shows what the earphones should do in such an environment. The iPhone’s Health app also stores data that the AirPods transmit—it keeps tabs on your daily average listening levels and lets you know when you’re approaching too much noise exposure over a seven-day period.
The new AirPods Pro deliver excellent noise cancellation, but you might notice that the ANC seems weak initially. Simply wait a few seconds. The earphones first need to measure the surrounding noise and create a custom ANC profile appropriate for your current environment. And then, when it kicks in, it's exceptional. Another positive note—the ANC doesn’t seem to introduce any noticeable hiss in quiet settings, unlike the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II.
The two models work differently to cancel noise. The QuietComfort Earbuds perform a test immediately after you place them in your ears and then don't change the ANC profile much after that. On the other hand, the new AirPods Pro audibly adjust at the outset, and then perform a second, subtle wave of tweaks afterward. If the audio around you suddenly changes, both pairs adapt, but the changes to the Bose earphones are usually subtle. The AirPods, like a recalculating GPS, seem to come up with an entirely new plan. You hear those adjustments briefly before the ANC kicks into full effect again.
In our tests, the second-gen AirPods Pro dramatically lowered powerful low-frequency rumble (like you hear on an airplane) after an initial adjustment period. In some of our deep rumble tests, the AirPods even matched the performance of the QuietComfort Earbuds, which is impressive.
What’s even more impressive is that, in some tests, the AirPods Pro fare better than the QuietComfort Earbuds. The problem, if you can call it one, is consistency, and something we experienced with the AirPods Max as well. The latter are also capable of shockingly good noise cancellation, but sometimes a slight head turn can reduce its efficacy. The new AirPods Pro are more likely to remain effective after the initial adjustment, but sometimes the resulting profile didn't impress me. But, to their credit, a slight change to the in-ear fit can induce a far more competent noise cancellation profile. So don't be afraid to play around with how the earpieces sit in your ear if the ANC isn't initially impressive.
This characteristic is most obvious in environments with higher and more complex frequencies. Still, AirPods notably lowered the overall volume of a busy restaurant recording with clanging dishes and boisterous conversation, letting in less of a masking hiss overall than QuietComfort Earbuds. Both models let through a little more hiss at times than the Sony WF-1000XM4, but dial back far more of the low and low-mid frequencies in the same scenarios.
Ultimately, I give a very slight overall edge to the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II. More often than not, they more thoroughly reduce deep low frequencies (by a small margin) and work slightly better against higher-frequency noise. But mostly, I like their consistency better. The AirPods Pro's adaptive approach sometimes leads to better results, but you have to deal with more adjustments to get the best experience.
At Apple's unveiling event for the new AirPods Pro, a video demo used jackhammers as an example of loud noise you don’t want to hear at full volume while you monitor your surroundings. But another possibility is to use the earphones as active, semi-transparent earplugs at a concert. Adaptive mode lowers volume intelligently; it keeps the basic timbre and envelope of the audio intact, while bringing anything over 85dB back down to that level. As a result, you hear music roughly as you would without them and can avoid potential hearing damage.
We tested this mode by blasting several Nirvana tracks at high, nearly concert-level volumes in our testing room, complete with a massive subwoofer to dole out deep bass. Impressively, there is a huge difference between regular Transparency mode and Adaptive Transparency mode in this scenario. You still feel the bass vibrations and the timbre doesn’t change, so some of the effects of concert-level volumes still come through, but the peaks are noticeably lower.
Compared with the Bose version of this feature—ActiveSense Aware—Apple's version sounds far more natural. You can easily hear when Bose’s Aware mode adjusts for loud sounds, and at high decibel levels, it doesn't behave very differently than the regular ANC mode.
When we played “Scentless Apprentice” through speakers that can approximate concert levels, Bose’s ActiveSense mode is roughly the equivalent of sticking fingers in your ears in a desperate attempt to save your hearing. Meanwhile, Apple’s Adaptive Transparency mode retains the concert-like dynamics of the sound.
Transparency mode can actually be adjusted in some useful ways (Amplification Level, Brightness/Darkness, Stereo Balance, Ambient Noise Reduction, and perhaps most notably, Conversation Boost—a feature sometimes found in Ambient modes in competitors). Unfortunately, Apple hides this settings page deep in the Accessibility menu. Why it isn't part of the regular AirPods Settings menu is a mystery, but for those who want to customize Transparency mode, it's worth the effort.
Crucially, before you start breaking windows with your speakers, make sure that you have a green light under each earbud in the Ear Tip Fit Test section. For future implementations, we'd love to see some real-time decibel reduction data and the ability to lower the threshold below even 85dB. But this first iteration is nonetheless quite impressive.
Apple’s latest update to Spatial audio comes in the form of personalized profiles. With the TrueDepth camera on iPhones, you can quickly measure the geometry of your head, which essentially amounts to the shape of your skull and ears. After encrypting the data, Apple then compares it with roughly 1,000 existing profiles to create an ideal one for you.
The test only takes about a minute. Think of it like a cross between selfies and thumbprint scans, but for your face. After the front-facing camera scans enough of your face, it measures your left and right ears in separate steps. It's slightly awkward to hold the camera off to the side of your head as you can’t really see the screen well, but that's not a big deal—your phone informs you if it needs more time to scan your ears.
If you notice little to no difference in how Spatial audio sounds after the test, you were likely getting optimal performance already—that was the case for me, at least. But if the Spatial audio experience didn't enthrall you on previous occasions, Apple's test aims to standardize the effect for everyone through better sound localization. To clarify, this Spatial audio test is really an iOS 16 feature, not one exclusive to the second-generation AirPods Pro. It should work just as well with the third-gen AirPods, the original AirPods Pro, and the AirPods Max. FaceTime should now work with dynamic head tracking and personalized Spatial audio, too. Apple’s aim there is for more realistic, seemingly-in-front-of-you voice localization, specifically on group FaceTime calls.
I maintain that Spatial audio for music and film audio is a gimmick. It might be fun to occasionally mess with, but it's not an ideal way to listen to most audio mixes. Spatial audio isn't surround sound or even an approximation of it; rather, it's a sound localization effect that uses the position of your sound source—such as an iPhone on your desk—to trick your ears into hearing the sound originate from it.
One easy way to test out Spatial audio is to spin around in an office chair: The audio doesn’t stay in the same position like with normal earphones, but rather from behind you when your back is to your phone or primarily through one ear when one is closer to your phone. Try to seek out music in which all the backing vocals or specific synth elements sound like they are coming from one ear. Bjork’s new track “Ovule” features some dramatic vocal and synth panning, for instance. If you enable Spatial audio with head tracking, her voice (which is dead center in the mix) moves around with your head movements, but the backing voices in the right ear stay more or less in the right ear while you move around.
Again, Spatial audio is a harmless, cool trick, but ultimately not a more pure or useful way to listen to music...yet. If Apple is really planning to release a VR headset at some point, Spatial audio in AirPods seems almost like a test run for what would be an essential VR audio feature.
A word on Adaptive EQ—it ostensibly measures your ear canal to ensure the balance of the audio is perfect. You can't turn it off and it’s simply a part of the audio experience here. Apple doesn't provide any data to show how it helps, however, so we just need to take its word on it (along with a grain of salt).
Before we get into details of the sound performance, we must restate our disappointment with the lack of a customizable EQ. It's not difficult to adjust bass, mids, or treble, and Apple should give this control to the end user. The company goes for a crowd-pleasing sound signature that should delight many, but you might still want to make changes to preference. Even Bose offers a customizable EQ for its latest earbuds, albeit one with just three bands.
Notably, we didn’t detect a significant difference in audio performance between ANC on, ANC off, Adaptive Transparency, and regular Transparency modes except for a brief adjustment period (maybe a second long) when you switch between them. We stuck primarily with ANC on but switched to others throughout testing.
On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the AirPods Pro deliver impressive low-frequency response. The bass doesn't distort at maximum volume levels and the lows still sound robust at moderate ones. Like the QuietComfort Earbuds, the Apple's digital signal processing (DSP) makes sure the bass remains full and rich at these lower volume levels.
Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, better reveals the sound signature. The drums on this track benefit from a slightly enhanced thump, but generally, the lows sound quite natural overall. Callahan’s baritone vocals exhibit a pleasant balance of low-mid richness and high-mid crispness, while the acoustic strums and higher-register percussive hits sound bright and natural. Ultimately, the AirPods Pros sculpt the sound a bit, but not to an unnatural extent. The lack of EQ, of course, means you need to rely on presets if you want more of an emphasis on bass depth, mids, or vocals.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop receives enough high-mid presence for its attack to retain its punch, while the background vinyl crackle and hiss take a step forward. This treatment, again, reveals plenty of sculpting in the higher frequencies. The loop also gets some additional thump in the lows—we notice this more than the high-mid attack—and the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat sound robust. The vocals on this track come across with solid clarity, but we notice a smidge of additional sibilance.
Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, get a rich, bass-forward treatment that might not appeal to purists. The higher-register brass, strings, and vocals sound bright and clear, but the lower-register instrumentation is a little more apparent in the mix than typical (even if it never threatens to overwhelm the other frequencies).
Generally, the AirPods Pro's 11mm drivers deliver a rich, crisp audio experience, although the QuietComfort Earbuds might appeal to you more if you like fuller bass—those earphones produce a deeper, but still relatively natural, low-end response. The difference in bass response is quite subtle though, and has more to do with how Bose tunes its earphones than specific driver qualities.
The AirPods Pro's beam-forming mic array works well. We didn't have any trouble understanding every word from a test recording on an iPhone. Apple adjusts the signal to maximize clarity, which means voices sound clear (albeit a bit unnatural).
The second-genetation AirPods Pro might seem like an incremental upgrade on paper, but that’s far from the reality. Yes, the audio performance remains similar to the previous model, but the new pair offers much more capable noise cancellation and transparency modes. New volume controls and a charging case that's harder to misplace are also welcome additions. Compared with the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II, the ANC here is only slightly less effective overall and the audio performance is comparable. Ultimately, the AirPods Pro are more than impressive enough to earn our Editors' Choice winner for Apple device owners who want a seamless software experience and highly effective noise cancellation.
The second-generation AirPods Pro deliver exceptional ANC and audio performance, making them the best noise-cancelling true wireless earphones for Apple device users.
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I've been a contributing editor for PCMag since 2011. Before that, I was PCMag's lead audio analyst from 2006 to 2011. Even though I'm a freelancer now, PCMag has been my home for well over a decade, and audio gear reviews are still my primary focus. Prior to my career in reviewing tech, I worked as an audio engineer—my love of recording audio eventually led me to writing about audio gear.
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