Yahoo Finance Apple AirPods Pro review: The best gets better
Apple’s (AAPL) second-generation AirPods Pro are getting big software improvements that unlock new listening modes, including the ability to automatically lower the volume of whatever you’re listening to when you start speaking to someone.
In addition to the software update, the company is also rolling out a new USB-C charging case for the second-gen earbuds with better dust, sweat, and water resistance. You can’t, however, buy the USB-C case on its own. It is only available with the purchase of new AirPods Pros for $249.
The good news, however, is that Apple’s software updates are available for all second-gen AirPods Pros and offer massive upgrades to the overall listening experience. I’ve been using a pair of second-gen AirPods Pros outfitted with the latest software for the past few days and they easily manage to make Apple’s best wireless earbuds even better.
The software improvements are broken down into three categories: Conversation Awareness, Adaptive Audio, and Personalized Volume.
Conversation Awareness
Of the three, Conversation Awareness is easily the best addition to the AirPods Pro. It automatically lowers the volume of whatever you’re listening to and increases the sound of people’s voices in front of you whenever you begin to speak. It’s impossible to count the number of times I’ve been listening to music with my AirPods in, only to awkwardly have to pull one out of my ear when someone starts talking to me.
Conversation Awareness eliminates that entirely by instantly dropping the volume of what you’re listening to as soon as you speak a few words. It’s almost surprising how well the feature works. Whether I was in a crowded airport or my hotel room, Conversation Awareness automatically kicked in when I started speaking to someone. What’s more, it doesn’t activate if you’re mumbling to yourself under your own breath like I was while waiting for my plane.
Better still, after a few moments of silence, the feature turns your audio back up without you having to do a thing. If you don’t already own a pair and are debating whether you should buy the second-gen AirPods Pro or not, Conversation Awareness should be enough to convince you to pull the trigger.
Adaptive Audio
Adaptive Audio is another new feature that serves as a mashup of Transparency mode and Noise Cancellation mode. On its own, Transparency mode uses the AirPods external microphones to amplify ambient noise, so that you can hear what’s going on around you more clearly while wearing your AirPods.
Noise Cancellation, on the other hand, uses the AirPods Pro’s external mics to listen for ambient noises and then play the opposite audio frequencies to muffle outside sounds. Both are great features, but there are plenty of situations when they just aren’t the best option. If you’re walking down the street and want to remain aware of your surroundings, Transparency mode is great — right up until a fire engine drives by with its siren blaring. Few things are worse than Transparency mode amplifying the high-pitched shriek of a siren passing by your head.
Noise Cancellation mode is usually my go-to, but it also means I can’t hear my wife when she calls out to me from upstairs or if I risk missing the doorbell when someone rings.
Adaptive Audio, however, gives you the convenience of Noise Cancellation mode, while still allowing in a small, but noticeable amount of sound. So you’ll still be able to rock out to your tunes and listen up for your DoorDash order at the same time.
Personalized Volume
Then there’s Personalized Volume, which runs in the background and uses machine learning to understand how you listen to content and improve your listening experience over time by adjusting the volume and noise cancellation.
In addition to new listening modes, Apple has also added the ability to mute your phone calls using your AirPods. Now you can press once on one of the earbuds’ stems to mute and unmute calls. You can still press once to answer calls, but to hang up, you’ll have to press twice.
Like Conversation Awareness, the mute call option is a hugely helpful update that I started taking advantage of virtually the minute I started using the AirPods Pro with the new software update.
If you’ve used AirPods before, you probably know how annoying it is to be on a call and have to pull out your AirPods when a coworker or friend, unaware that you’re already on the phone, starts talking to you.
If you’re like me, you ask the person on the phone to hold on and try to take out both of your AirPods, only to accidentally hang up your call. Being able to mute your calls means you can keep your AirPods in without the person on the other end of the line hearing you tell your coworker to take a hike.
Finally, the AirPods Pros’ software update enables Lossless Audio with ultra-low latency for use with the company’s upcoming Vision Pro headset. I wasn’t able to try out the feature since the Vision Pro isn’t available yet, but Apple says it will make the AirPods Pro the best wireless earbuds for the platform when it becomes available early next year.
Apple’s second-gen. AirPods Pro are already my favorite wireless earbuds for the iPhone, Mac, and iPad, and the company’s software improvements only build on that. If you’ve got a pair, you’ll definitely appreciate the upgrades that Apple has baked into the new software.
And if you’re thinking of buying your first pair, the new features should help make that decision a lot easier.
Daniel Howley is the tech editor at Yahoo Finance. He's been covering the tech industry since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @DanielHowley.
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