the second generation of Apple's AirPods Pro.

They're $249, they have a better case,

improved battery life and an all new H2 chip

that Apple claims--

- Delivers advanced computational audio

previously unable to run on a device of this size.

- And that coupled with new vent placements

reportedly adds up to twice the amount of

active noise cancellation

over the previous AirPods Pro.

Thing about reviewing earbuds on video

is that features such as ANC are incredibly

hard to demonstrate.

So, I wanted to try something new.

This is Owen.

He set up a sort of blind active noise cancellation test

that's going to simulate common noises

that most folks who are wearing ANC buds wanna cancel out.

Every earbud fits every ear differently

and that is incredibly important to ANC performance

but I'm hoping that this test will give us a

general idea of how each of these earbuds perform.

I'm gonna be listening to the same song

on four pairs of wireless earbuds

that we, here at The Verge, think have

the best active noise cancellation in this price range.

If/when I hear a noise, I'll raise this sign

and then we'll move onto the next sound.

Okay, go.

(bell rings)

(machine clattering)

Yeah, is that a jackhammer?

(waves crashing)

Is that like white noise?

Yeah, that's like a low.

Oh God.

Whoa, is that like a helicopter?

It's deep, it's deep.

I can like feel it but I can't hear it.

All set?

- [Owen] Yeah.

- Wow.

Okay, so jackhammers.

- [Owen] Yeah.

- Okay.

No other pair of earbuds came close to canceling

as much noise as the Bose QuietComfort II's did.

It was almost scary how much I couldn't hear.

That being said, the AirPod Pros second gen

did cancel out a pretty good amount of noise

and definitely more than the previous version.

Now, they also have a feature called

active transparency mode,

which is when you're in transparency mode

meaning that you can hear the things around you.

If there's annoying sounds, it's supposed to take

those sounds down so you have a more pleasant

listening experience.

Now, I have had an incredibly hard time

getting those to trigger it.

In fact, I haven't been able to get it to trigger.

Even here in the studio, we played some jackhammer sounds

and I couldn't get it to take them down.

So, we'll have to use these headphones more

and see if we can get that feature to work at all.

(light music)

For folks coming from the original AirPods Pro,

the biggest changes you'll notice are actually in the case.

There's a lanyard loop on the side

and now the case can be charged via MagSafe

or on any Apple watch charger.

But more importantly, the case now makes sound.

(dinging)

(beeping)

The only visual difference to the buds themselves is

the vent is now located on the top of the bud

and there's an added extra small size ear tip option.

On the stem, there's also now the ability to swipe

up and down to adjust the earbuds volume.

I have thought that all earbuds should have

swiping volume controls.

So it's absolutely excellent to see that coming

to these earbuds.

Apple also claims that they have improved the

inward facing mics on these buds.

So we put them through the ultimate stress test.

(rumbling)

Okay, I've wanted to do this mic test for a very long time.

These are $249 2nd gen AirPod Pros

and we're on a boat.

The boat test is not just about wind.

It's also about background noise.

It's also about just wanting to talk on the phone

when you want to talk on the phone.

And these are the original AirPods Pro.

You can get them for like $179.

Ah man, speaking on waves, baby.

Definitely has some really nice windshield

technology on their earbuds,

but this is a lot of wind and a lot of background noise.

Okay, okay, but here's what they sound like

in a more controlled environment.

There's like a noisy fridge behind me but,

otherwise, we're in a quiet office.

I continue to be impressed with the mic

on the Sony LinkBuds.

I continue to be disappointed by the mic

on the Samsung Buds 2 Pro.

But to me, the 1st gen AirPods Pro

don't really sound all that different

from the 2nd generation of the AirPods Pro.

And well, nothing will ever come close

to the wired Apple headphones

that of course have incredible mic placement

and a solid wired connection.

But, how do the AirPod Pros sound?

(upbeat music)

The new AirPods Pro have a personalized

spacial audio feature that is created via

the true depth camera on the iPhone.

It always feels fun to go through a personalization setup

but rarely does it affect real life performance

and sadly, that is true here as well.

I did not notice any real change in

spacial audio performance post-personalization.

But that didn't make me any less in love

with head tracking which many folks would label

as a gimmick and I don't know,

it just hasn't gotten old for me yet

and I especially love making people use it who

have never tested it before.

It's really cool.

It's a great bar trick.

Bt more importantly, the 2nd generation AirPod Pros

have an improved H2 chip and new amps and drivers.

The company claims that this creates deeper bass

and crisper highs and yeah, it does.

These buds sound great and incredibly full

with a balanced amount of bass.

But if you're coming from the previous AirPod Pros,

I'm not sure there's like that much of a difference.

Those earbuds have great sound and these do too.

I made a playlist that I'll link down below

full of all the songs I've been listening to

while testing these buds.

They happen to be all these like full,

really punchy songs that have lots of highs and lows

and good bass.

I mean, these headphones, they really shine

when they can kinda separate all those sounds for you.

Now, something that previous owners of AirPod Pros

and new owners will notice is battery life.

The new buds have six hours of battery life

with ANC turned on

and four and a half hours of continuous talk time

from a single charge.

All of that means that during a work day,

I started at nine-thirty AM.

I was able to get around three PM

before the buds died.

It's definitely better and will feel amazing

if your 1st gen AirPod Pros batteries

have begun to fade.

So, the 2nd generation AirPods Pro,

they're not the stemless, earth-shattering earbuds

I was kind of hoping they would be.

But they're a solid upgrade to the previous version.

Apple took an already great product

and added some simple upgrades to battery life,

some minor case improvements, a bump in audio quality,

and a much bigger bump in ANC,

and added a few gimmicks like personalized spacial audio.

All of these things will make these AirPods Pro

feel new and special to owners of the previous

AirPods Pro, but I don't think there's enough there

for folks who aren't due for an upgrade to jump at.

But I'm just not so sure why I'm seeing

so many reviews like absolutely raving about these earbuds.

They're good, yes, but they're not nearly as groundbreaking

as the 1st generation was and of course,

if you are an iOS user,

you're gonna love the tight integration

with the ecosystem and you're probably absolutely

gonna buy these so long as they fit your ears.

But for everybody else,

there's a whole huge sea of wireless earbuds

that have better ANC like the Bose QC IIs

or I don't know, better audio quality

like Sony's WF, WF 1000 XM4s, I think that it,

it's a bad name but I think that's it.

Or I don't know, anything from Anker that's gonna be

a much cheaper price.

But if you love your AirPod Pros

or you're set on having a pair of AirPod Pros,

then these, these are the absolutely best ones yet.

- I couldn't get this sound to play

when we were doing the case sound test

because the headphones weren't dead,

but they're dying now.

So, this is the sound that it makes

when you put your headphones in the case

and the headphones are dying.

It is the most useful sound they have

'cause it reminds you to charge it.

Anyway.

(light beeping)

That's sweet, right?

(imitating beeping)

(laughs) Bye bye.