Leaf&Core

The AirPods Pro: 3 Years Later

Danielle from Leaf and Core
Reading Time: 11 minutes.

AirPods Pro with one headphone out on top of a leather AirPods Pro case from 12South and an iPhone and keyboardI’ve made complaints about the AirPods Pro. They’re difficult to clean, they have crackling issues, they have fit problems, and sound quality is middling. They sound better than AirPods and most earbuds, but not great. The truth is, however, when Apple introduced them, they were ahead of their game. But now, three years later, they have stiff competition. Many other manufacturers have released truly wireless earbuds. Some have better noise cancellation, others have better noise isolation, some have easier syncing and reliability, and many have better sound quality. Apple’s headphones are starting to look a little rough around the edges, but how do they hold up, three years later?

Quick Specs

Well, These Aren’t My Original AirPods Pro

I have completely replaced my AirPods Pro headphones, one part at a time. In 2020, I replaced the right earbud. Later, I broke the hinge on the case and had to replace it as well. Finally, a recall allowed me to replace my left earbud. So, really, while I’ve had a set of AirPods Pro headphones since 2019, this set is from late 2020. It’s around two years old, and the battery life decay it shows is from two years, not three.

How I Mostly Use my AirPods Pro

I bought these a few months before the pandemic began. It seems like that was forever ago. In the beginning, they were great for tuning out office noise. I found the office endlessly distracting. It didn’t help that companies continue to insist on “open office” floor plans, packing workers as densely as they can, with no dividers. It also didn’t help that I was by a team whose job revolved around talking. Who puts the engineers that close to the product and sales people, anyway?

I needed a way to tune everyone out. I’d often use music, white noise, ASMR, whatever it took, to keep the outside world out while I attempted, in vain, to focus. The AirPods Pro were also great on my commute. They’d tune out the harsh sound of the train and give me a good excuse to pretend not to notice the “showtime” assholes.

Then the pandemic happened. Suddenly I found I didn’t have as many distractions. Yet I continued using my AirPods Pro. They turned out to be perfect for meetings, as the speakers and microphone didn’t cause feedback. When hanging with friends, I could easily watch whatever show or movie we were watching together and stay off mute because there would be no feedback. I’d do chores with it as well. I found it much easier to get anything done if I could easily hear the TV, or pull up a video or podcast to listen to on my phone. I’d leave them in while I was scrolling through social media, because why not?

I got these to tune an office out, but, once I had my special place to focus in silence, I still found them incredibly useful. Here, they made the silence a little easier to bear. Zoom meetings and Discord hangs, gaming, watching videos, listening to music, going anywhere by train, listening to the TV over the sound of me doing dishes. They were endlessly useful, even if I finally had my quiet work space. If my device is making sound, it’s better to come out of headphones than speakers.

Sound Quality 6/10

AirPods Pro sound very okay. That is to say, audiophiles won’t recoil from the sound and most people won’t think about it much at all. It’s inoffensively okay. It’s a bit muted on the bass, they’re not crystal clear in the highs. It just has a sort of flat frequency curve. Apple says they use an “adaptive” EQ, which changes depending on what you’re listening to. Still, hip hop doesn’t have that heavy bass. Rock doesn’t have the clarity of the drum as it pounds and rebounds. Bass is present. It’s audible. It’s clear, certainly not muddled. But it’s just there. It’s like sitting at the back of the class, never raising your hand, and getting a C+. You can hear the bass, you can analyze the bass, you can’t begin to feel the bass. And while that can be hard on truly wireless earbuds, I’ve had more energetic bass out of $25 Skullcandy Dime headphones.

Mids are decent. Vocals come through, but they’re not sparking. There’s just a small bit of detail lacking. In a good track, you might not notice it. You might feel like the vocalist is there. But for the most part, it’s like the bass. Present and good, but not great.

The highs come across with detail, but not crisp clarity. On one hand, some headphones overdo this in an effort to sound more “high-end,” but come off as tinny. The AirPods Pro do not do that. Apple squeezed a surprising amount of detail out of these drivers, but they’re still just in-ear headphone drivers. These are better than average earbuds, but still only on the higher end of “average.” They do average very well though.

Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency 8.5/10

The AirPods Pro are the kings of transparency. Even other reviewers who have claimed Sony’s headphones beat them in noise cancellation (I’m sure they do), admit that Apple steps ahead of the pack with their transparency mode. When you’re wearing them, it’s like you’re not wearing them… unless you’re moving. These do not work well if you’re using them outside. Running, cycling, skateboarding, whatever you’re doing, it’s too hard to hear your surroundings. I don’t know if it’s a slight audio delay, just that it can’t match the volume of the actual outside world, or the wind noise, but it’s impossible to accurately know when a car is coming up behind you or listen to a truck coming to the intersection. It’s why I got my Shokz OpenRun headphones, as they offer an acoustic transparency mode: your ears are open.

The transparency mode is great of around the house or office, or just running into a store quickly. But you’re not going to be able to use these to hear important things, like that car trying to run you over.

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)

Many good ANC headphones are a bit large. Sony’s WF-1000XM4 headphones are so large, I wouldn’t even consider wearing them. Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 3 headphones are infamous for their mix of sound quality and noise cancellation. Somehow, they make the Sony WF-1000XM4 look small.

But then there’s the AirPods Pro. They’re small, comfortable, and have some of the best noise cancellation in the business. Top 5, easily, if not top 3 for truly wireless headphones. Fan noises, air conditioners, trains, it’s all either turned down significantly or, in the case of white noise, turned off. It’s shockingly good ANC, and the first time I tried it, I was a little floored. The sensation of suddenly turning off all of the sound around me was jarring. I had tried ANC before, but nothing compared to the stark contrast between Apple’s transparency mode and their active noise cancellation. Apple turned me into a bit of a transparency/ANC snob, which has ruined me for other headphones.

Mic Quality 7/10

Apple’s AirPods Pro aren’t as good as a lavaliere mic or setting up a nice USB condenser mic with pop filter, but they’re as good as you’d expect from holding your phone up to your face. In fact, I used my AirPods Pro through the entire pandemic as I worked from home. They work great for calls with friends, everything. People can clearly hear you even when there’s a bit of background noise like a fan or air conditioner. It also sounds like a natural reproduction of my voice. It’s not overly modified by some algorithm trying to drone out background noises and amplify my voice. It just sounds natural. These are fantastic for calls, and if you’re looking for a pair of headphones for the office, they’re perfect.

Fit and Comfort 8/10

The AirPods Pro are the top of the line when it comes to long term comfort. Some headphones feel uncomfortable after 30 minutes. Others after an hour. But Apple’s AirPods can sit in your ears for an extended period of time without creating pressure points. Eventually you might get tired of having anything in your ears at all, but generally, Apple’s AirPods are uniquely comfortable. I’ve tried a number of different earbuds and in-ear monitors, and can confidently say Apple knocked it out of the park with the design of the AirPods Pro. The worst part of them may be the silicone tips becoming a bit itchy over time, requiring just a bit of adjustment every once in a while, especially if you struggle to get them to stay put.

Which leads to the only problem with the fit and comfort: the fit. The short silicone ear tip just doesn’t stay in my ears well. I often have to re-adjust to get a good seal on my left ear and my right ear? No matter what, I can never get a decent fit. It’s not as though I can try a different ear tip shape or size because the AirPods Pro case doesn’t give you much space for experimentation. This was a problem with the AirPods as well. You could barely add the thinnest piece of silicone over the earbuds to improve their fit. Apple designed these to have close tolerances, making them less likely to fit in everyone’s ears in the process.

Battery Life 6/10

Apple products and battery life, am I right? Never enough. The AirPods Pro start off pretty good. You have a solid 5 hours of listening time, and up to 24 hours of battery life with the case. There’s even fast charging. I’d take them out at lunch time, throw them in my charging case, and by the time I ended the day, they were getting low again. I rarely had to think about battery life much at all.

However, the other day, they died on me. I was traveling for a few hours, and, as it turns out, it was just a few hours too many for the poor little AirPods. Around the 3.5 hour mark, they died. I was watching TV, I couldn’t believe it drained them so quickly. But, sure enough, as I’d test throughout the next few days, they couldn’t make it more than 3.5 hours on a charge. Batteries degrade over time, and small batteries like those in the AirPods Pro have a lot to lose.

The case is worse. It went from giving me around 24 hours of listening time to just 12-13 hours. Why’d the battery case lose half its life? Well, a few problems. First, I often would leave it on the wireless charger. This would be topping it off, and with less efficient (and hotter) charging. That wears down a battery. Secondly was the connection issue. My AirPods would be connecting and disconnecting in my case, instead of just going to “sleep” and staying disconnected. This would drain the battery. If I was charging, it was just constantly draining and charging the case battery. It was just too much.

Since I’ve replaced my case and both AirPods Pro headphones individually, nothing here is actually more than two years old. In three or four years, I’ll be tossing these in a recycling bin. That just feels wasteful.

Connectivity 6/10

A lot of headphones are integrating multipoint pairing now. This connects to multiple bluetooth-enabled devices and outputs the sound from one of them. For the longest time, I didn’t find it useful. Even as I keep switching between my iPhone, an Android phone, my computer, my work computer, my Apple TV, my Switch, everything, I’d rather just sync it the old fashioned way. Why? Because multipoint never worked. At least, it didn’t. Modern truly wireless earbuds use Bluetooth 5.2, while Apple’s still using 5.0. The newer models support plenty of devices at once. When they do, they work like magic, in a way that Apple’s AirPods have never been able to work, seamlessly switching audio output from one device to another just by pausing one and pressing play on the other.

Apple’s implementation isn’t multipoint. Instead, it connects to one of your devices at a time, but can quickly switch to any of your devices using your iCloud account. It doesn’t work. I always just swap it out manually. Sometimes this takes longer than 3rd party headphones that I manually disconnect and reconnect to a different device, and it’s certainly worse than a good multipoint implementation. This feature has always been frustratingly bad, and Apple just hasn’t improved it at all over the years.

Other than that, it’s easy enough to sync to one device and then use your AirPods on all of your devices. That’s much easier than syncing with all of your devices. Well, the first time, anyway. After that? It’s about the same.

Controls 7/10

It’s so hard to put controls on something so small. Apple with with a pressure-sensitive stem on each of the AirPods. It’s an elegant solution, but it’s not perfect. The controls are rather basic. You have a tap and a long tap on each side. However, both sides do the same things. A long press for changing ANC, a tap for playback controls. There’s nothing for volume. You can ask Siri to do everything for you, but you’re not going to be doing that in public. They work well, they’re easy to find with your hand, but they’re not as cool as tapping on the side of your head, or the headphone, pressing a button, or just being able to adjust the volume.

Charging 9/10

Quick charging certainly comes in handy on these headphones as they show their age. 10 minutes without music and you can make it at least another 30 minutes listening to something. Apple says you can get an hour out of five minutes of charging. The case charges wirelessly, so you don’t have to even think about making sure the case is charged, just stick it down on a wireless charging pad when you have the chance. While battery life may not be stellar on these headphones, charging certainly isn’t an issue.

You just may have to do it more often than you’d like.

Appearance 6/10

These don’t look bad, they just don’t look like much of anything. They have clean lines, good symmetry, they look fine. But they only come in one color, white. The white plastic just looks cheap, especially as competitors are using metals, ceramic, and even sapphire glass. The stem design affords it some extra surface area for controls, but doesn’t give it a stand-out appearance. Not in 2022, anyway. When these came out, they were a nice design evolution over the AirPods. Now they feel a bit stuck in 2020.

And no one wants to be stuck in 2020 again.

Assistant: Hey Siri

I only use Siri through “Hey Siri” on my AirPods Pro. There is a problem though: I almost never use it. I switch my AirPods Pro between a variety of devices and not all of them respond to “Hey Siri.” Also, I have a small apartment and a HomePod mini. Frankly, there’s always something that can hear me say “Hey Siri” (and who knows what else). Does Hey Siri work? Yes. Will you use it much? Probably not.

Sustainability 1/10

Apple’s packaging is largely cardboard. I don’t remember if these had a plastic overwrap, although Apple’s newer packaging on other Apple products has abandoned it. However, the devices themselves are all plastic. On top of that, the battery life isn’t fantastic on these, which means they’ll drop below acceptable levels in just a few years. Apple’s not designing for the future, they’re designing for quickly replaced tech. Sustainability of these style of headphones doesn’t have to be bad. The batteries could be replaceable, which would allow people to use them for years. Instead, Apple made replacing batteries on their AirPods themselves and the charging case next to impossible. They made the headphones, something people would usually keep for decades, disposable.

Yeah, great job there, Apple.

Other Observations

I’ve had a variety of issues with these. From connection issues, them not holding a charge, poor fit, crackling noises, and more. I’ve had third party headphones jump between my devices faster and more smoothly than any of my AirPods. And my earbuds just never sat right with me.

Literally.

Also, unlike my other headphones, my AirPods Pro need a case for their case. I use an admittedly fantastic case from TwelveSouth, but it’s strange that my case needs a case to begin with. Unfortunately, the plastic is quite slippery and, when you inevitably drop these, your AirPods will scatter. Apple used the weakest methods they could to hold these in place, and one drop is enough to send them scattering. Ever need to pick up your earbuds in the middle of the street? I have. It’s not fun.

Overall 6.5/10

The AirPods Max are surprisingly great headphones that happen to be AirPods. The AirPods Pro feel more like they should be the base model AirPods at this point. There are plenty of other competing headphones that sound this good and have ANC for $100-$150. These retail for a whopping $250. It’s a good deal at $150. At retail price? It’s a little absurd. Still, the ANC and transparency mode on the AirPods Pro really set them apart. The ability to quickly jump between your devices is also a small plus. While I don’t use it much, if you don’t have HomePods in your house, “Hey Siri” support is a convenient thing to have.

However, they’ve been unreliable, battery life is a bit short, and the fit has never been perfect. And it’s not like you can try to find better ear tips because they likely won’t fit in Apple’s cramped case. The sound quality is passable, but you’re not going to fall in love with how these sound.

The AirPods really helped set off the truly wireless earbud craze. The AirPods Pro gave us a look into what those headphones should actually look like. Now, in 2022, they feel a little dated. There are rumored AirPods Pro 2 on the horizon, so perhaps Apple’s been hard at work making something that’s actually better than the AirPods Pro. You know, like nearly everyone else has done.

 

The AirPods Pro are comfortable, decent enough, and convenient. If you’re looking for an easy to setup and use pair of truly wireless headphones, they may be the best choice for you. They’re the choice that isn’t a choice, the path of least resistance. It won’t be the best you can get, but they’re easy to use and work well enough. But if you’re looking for faster multi-device switching, better sound quality, more modes, customizable EQs, long battery life, or easy cross-platform compatibility, look elsewhere.

Exit mobile version