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After spending a week testing out Apple's new AirPods Pro, there's a lot to really like. At the same time, the 2nd Generation AirPods are also REALLY good. So should you spend the $250 on AirPods Pro?
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0:00
What's going on everybody
0:07
Ian Hiffrault of Mac. And now that a week has gone by since the release of the AirPods Pro, I've had the chance
0:12
to test them out in a bunch of situations to see just how they compare to Apple's previous AirPods
0:18
There's a couple of primary things about the new AirPods Pro that make them different than the
0:21
original AirPods, most notably the design. With the original AirPods, they would sit just inside your ear and the new AirPods Pro actually
0:28
have an in-ear design, meaning that tip actually goes further into your ear, which has a lot of
0:32
knock-on effects to make the AirPods Pro both better and worse. From a comfort perspective
0:38
the AirPods Pro are slightly less comfortable to me, but that doesn't mean that that would be
0:43
the case for everyone. There are three different tip sizes in the box allowing you to kind of
0:47
customize the fit for your ears, depending on what your needs are. If you have smaller ears
0:52
the smaller tips might be better. If you have a slightly larger ear, the larger tips might be better. For me, the medium tip is not exactly the most comfortable, but it is the one that
0:59
creates the best seal, meaning I have better noise cancellation with the medium tips, but I can't
1:04
wear the AirPods Pro for nearly as long as I could the old AirPods. The old AirPods I could wear
1:08
literally for hours and not even remember they're there because they would just sit right on the
1:12
edge of my ear. The in-ear design of the new AirPods Pro does have some positive effects, though
1:18
Most notably, the ability for it to both isolate and cancel outside noises. The noise
1:23
isolation is created just by creating a better seal within your ear, meaning less sound can
1:27
actually get through and into your ears. Noise cancellation, on the other hand, is a feature of the AirPods Pro using software and
1:34
technology within the AirPods to cancel out outside noises, making it great for using on an airplane
1:40
or public transportation or in a coffee shop or anywhere where the environment can be a little
1:44
bit noisy and you need to reduce that sound to either hear a phone call or your music or podcast just a little bit better One of the most common places you see AirPods is at the gym and with AirPods Pro having them for your workout is kind of a mixed bag
1:58
If you're doing things that are fairly low impact that don't have a lot of up and down movement or bouncing around movement, AirPods Pro are pretty great
2:06
They'll cancel out a lot of that gym noise and allow you to hear your music perfectly
2:10
The struggle for me with AirPods Pro when working out was when I was running or doing higher impact
2:15
activities. Because of the movement both up and down or laterally, you end up with this kind
2:20
of tunneling effect or a thumping effect, which is the actual sound of the AirPod shifting
2:25
ever so slightly inside your ear. And to me, that was very disorienting and made it hard
2:29
to focus on both the running or activity that I was doing and the music that was playing
2:35
Now again, that's something that's kind of unique to you as a person and depends on the fit
2:39
of the AirPods. But for me personally, that made AirPods Pro a lot less enjoyable for things
2:45
like running. Now shifting gears from comfort to sound, the AirPods Pro have a slightly better sound
2:50
than their predecessors, and that's thanks to their in-eer design. That provides a little bit more
2:55
base, and again, because of that isolation of the outside sounds, you're going to just overall
2:59
hear a little bit more of your music. Now, when it comes to the sound of the AirPods Pro
3:03
it's hard to talk about how they sound without talking about the noise cancellation features
3:07
of Apple's earbuds. Now, I won't get really deep into the science of noise cancellation
3:12
and what these do and don't offer in terms of noise cancellation, it's worth noting that these work fine for canceling out most of the outside noise
3:21
as long as it's not too overwhelming and it's not too inconsistent. Things like air conditioners, furnaces, airplane noise, even coffee shop, just kind of that murmur
3:30
can be canceled out very well with AirPods Pro making it possible to use them in slightly noiseier situations and still be able to hear what it is you listening to Another nice upgrade to the AirPods Pro is in how you can control things with them With previous AirPods you had one of two options
3:46
Either tap the side of the AirPods to play or pause your music or activate Siri
3:51
or in the second generation AirPods, you could actually use Hey Siri to trigger the AirPods
3:56
to listen for whatever your command was, allowing you to ask them to pause or skip songs
4:01
With the AirPods Pro, you can now use built-in buttons to actually control what's happening
4:05
in your earbuds. A single click will play or pause your music, a double click will skip forward
4:10
a triple click will skip back, and a click and hold will actually cycle through the different
4:15
noise cancellation modes. This makes it really convenient to quickly switch up what you're listening
4:20
to without the discomfort of actually tapping on the side of the earbud, something that people
4:24
never really cared for on the previous ones, and also freeing you from having to use Siri to get
4:29
things done. Now, if the noise control options isn't something you need all the time or something
4:34
you're going to use on the AirPods themselves. You can also program that longhold to be used to trigger Siri
4:39
meaning you don't have to say, hey, Siri to activate it, giving you a little bit of customization to the AirPods experience
4:47
With AirPods Pro, you have three different noise control options. The first of which is the standard no noise cancellation mode
4:53
and this is essentially just how they would sound as regular earbuds plugged into your ears
4:58
The second option is noise cancellation, which, as I discussed before, helps cut out a lot of that background noise, making it easier to hear your music or your phone
5:06
call or whatever it is that you're listening to. The third option seems like voodoo magic
5:11
and it's called transparency mode. And essentially, this is using the microphones of the
5:15
AirPods to pump in the outside sound into the actual speakers of the AirPods, making it easier for
5:22
you to hear things like boarding announcements for a train or an airplane or a conversation with somebody without having to take the AirPods out of your ears and deal with restuating them or putting them back in their case It a layer of convenience that you don get with other AirPods and it something that makes
5:39
them really nice for a ton of different situations. Now for me personally, the noise cancellation isn't a huge benefit, but transparency mode
5:47
has been really useful when I'm running or cycling because it allows me to hear the
5:51
world around me a little bit better. But with the regular AirPods, the non-professional amateur AirPods, I could also hear most
5:57
of the outside world because they just didn't isolate things quite as much
6:02
So really when it comes down to should you get the AirPods Pro or the more amateur version, the
6:07
regular AirPods, which is right for you. Basically, if you're in a situation frequently where you need noise cancellation, say a train
6:15
or a bus, or you take a lot of airplanes, having noise cancellation is absolutely critical
6:21
to being able to hear things with your headphones. If you find yourself in a much less noisy lifestyle
6:26
say commuting by car and then sitting at a desk all day like I do, the regular AirPods are actually still really good
6:33
Unless you have a need for the fit of the AirPods Pro
6:37
or you think you have a need for noise cancellation, I can't say that it's necessarily worth it
6:41
But at the same time, having that button is making me really want to keep the AirPods Pro
6:46
even though I do not need the noise canceling features whatsoever. Let me know in the comments now below what you guys think of the AirPods Pro and which AirPods
6:54
you're currently using if you're using them at all. Be sure to give the video a thumbs up if you enjoyed
6:59
Make sure to subscribe to the channel and hit that notification bell so you don't miss any uploads so we put them out about every week
7:04
I'm Ian for Cultive Mac. I'll catch you guys in the next one
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