AirPods Pro

[...] I have two sets of headphones that are Lightning: Airpods Pro and Max. Both still have great battery life despite years of use. If either failed tomorrow, I'd buy a new example, but I'm not spending that money without good reason. I have a full suite of Apple desktop peripherals (trackpad, mouse, and keyboard) that I swap in from time to time for variety. Like most Apple kit, they're all very well made and will last a long time -- and all charge by Lightning. MicroUSB holds on, too: The battery charger for my bicycle's derailleurs is MicroUSB -- and SRAM still isn't selling a USB-C version, which is crazy. [...] Likewise, the charger for my camera batteries is Micro. [...]

[...] Between always-listening Apple Watch, the upcoming cameras of Airpods Pro, Siri AI forced on us for functionality that doesn't require it, ads, them not giving a damn for obvious easy fixable issues like App Store search, and other shit like not adding step counter complication to older Watch models, I'm seriously considering not moving to Android/Windows, but giving up parts of the "smart" ecosystem altogether. [...]

Do you want open ear (AirPods) or closed (AirPods Pro). [...] My Pro 2s are genuinely very comfortable and still work great after 2+ years of moderate use, so haven't felt a need to upgrade to Pro 3 yet. [...]

[...] But my AirPods Pro (1st gen) just finally crapped out last week. And the batteries are mostly fine: the speaker blew out in the right one, and it now sounds awful. [...]

[...] That and the super annoying behavior where two floors away they decide to randomly pair with my Mac Studio when someone Slack Huddles me or whatever, then I need to fiddle with settings to get my airpods pro to connect instead. This is coming from someone who thinks the Airpods Pro are downright magical in how well they work. Could be because I also pair them with regular old Bluetooth from a PC in addition to the Apple ecosystem. [...] Sound quality honestly isn't that great either, but I suppose that's more inherent in headphones in general vs. speakers than anything to do with them specifically.

[...] I'm concerned about audio quality and never thought to use airpods since I assumed they'd fall out when i was hiking. My gf bought me the last version of the airpods pro and they sound excellent. [...]

I recently upgraded from my Airpods Pro to the Huawei Freebuds Pro 5. Audio quality, battery life, noice cancelling, and especially microphone quality is so much better! [...] I would 100% recommend them to anyone over any other Earbuds, at 160€ they are also not amongst the more expensive models.

To offer a counterpoint, Airpods Pro are a great product that significantly increased my quality of life. Depending on how sensitive you are to noise then having easily accessible/socially acceptable noise cancelling is incredible. Perhaps you are too much of a normie to get it ;)

Have you tried replacing your eartips? I find that radically improves performance - I think they must either get clogged or brittle in a way that causes problems. Cheap foam eartips from Amazon are even better than stock for my AirPods Pro but they need to be replaced more often.

[...] Do you want open ear (AirPods) or closed (AirPods Pro). [...] The volume control is a nice feature to have and now it’s available on the cheaper ones. [...]

[...] I have AirPods Pro for when I really need isolation, and regular AirPods for when I need hours of comfortable wearing. [...]

I had the original AirPods Pro and they were really great until Apple nerfed them. Apparently the noise cancelling was too strong in some cases so they worsened everybody's. [...] I guess they make a good paperweight and reminder to never buy noise-cancelling products from Apple.

[...] I find the AirPods Pro knock down quick a bit of noise even when off just because of their tips, but when I want it even quieter I use the noise canceling. [...]

I wear my AirPods Pro on the train largely for hearing protection. [...] I usually have the noise canceling off, but if an ambulance or something is coming my way, I quickly click the AirPod to put them into noise canceling mode.

[...] Noise cancelling is a treasure. [...] The moment I start talking to someone, automagically the NC is paused as well as any audio you were listening to. It sounds so easy but is really running smoothly. [...] I am buying another pair of the AirPods Pro. [...]

Not a phone, but I use my old first gen AirPods Pro with my Windows laptop for work just fine using Bluetooth. [...]

No, it happens even with AirPods Pro/Pro2. [...] I have to keep Bluetooth disabled on the MacBook otherwise it randomly triggers while I'm between podcasts or whatever and squeeze the AirPods to resume, instead it launches Apple Music, or some browser tab starts playing audio. [...] There is no option for me to say: never use AirPods for anything but podcasts, and absolutely never automatically select them as an audio source for zoom/teams. AirPods microphones just don't work for my vocal range, they sound horrible and underwater. The microphone on my MBP works great, the mic on my iPhones works great. [...]

[...] A decade ago, quality sound on the go meant a pocket headphone amp wired to deep-seated inner-ear earphones or clunky over-the-ear cans. [...] Airpods Pro do the trick: the second- and third-generation models rival or exceed most wired options. And that makes sense: Apple's R&D spending and engineering capabilities for a product like Airpods dwarf the resources of traditional audio companies--the built-in DSP alone is a staggering achievement. So they ought to sound great, and they really do. [...] My pocket amps and wired 'phones (Etymotic, Shure, B&O, a few others I'm forgetting) have been gathering dust since the Airpods Pro came to market. [...] Those set-ups sound great--although not nearly so great as my two-channel speaker systems. But that's what it takes to get appreciably better sound than Apple's Bluetooth sets, and forget about portability.

For whatever reason, in my experience, the 1st gen Airpods Pro seem to pair much more easily to non-Apple devices than the 2nd gen. I have a 1st gen pair more or less dedicated to my Linux PC, and they auto-pair 99% of the time within a few seconds.

I have good wired earbuds and over ear headphones, but I still almost always go back to bluetooth. [...] I use my Airpods Pro. If I'm practicing drums or working with loud tools, I use my bluetooth 3M Worktunes. Being able to get my phone out of my pocket and not have to worry about the cable is worth all the tradeoffs. [...]

I got a pair of AirPods Pro, paid for by a past employer, and it's the only Apple product I like. I'd even give some of my own money to Apple if I had to buy another pair. [...] Plus I like being able to put my phone wherever I want, when I'm listening to podcasts while doing yard work. [...]

yeah I don't have this issue with airpods pro. charge them maybe every other week and never had issues pairing. The case charge should last for 30-40 hrs of listening. [...]

It's worth playing with iOS 27's new Custom EQ settings if you have compatible AirPods Pro. I plugged in my AirPods case, left it next to my phone for 15 minutes, and the firmware version updated. I thought the sound quality was decent before, but it's amazing what a few simple sliders can do.

I wish Apple would make a stemless version of the AirPods Pro, because I really like my pair but my ear lobes push against the stems and make it so they don't stay in my ears. I know there are other options out there, but for max compatibility earbuds, my only other real choices are Beats.

[...] My wife and I went out to dinner on Friday night, and they put me next a wall, which meant that I could turn the microphone on one hearing aid way down (so it didn’t amplify the neighbour noise so much), and turn the other one up. [...] I don’t find the hearing aid feature of the AirPods Pro to be very all that useful. I don’t know why tbh, just that if I had a choice I’d always have my tiny, lightweight expensive hearing aids on.

For real. I can take a walk around the block and guarantee you I'll find at least two discarded vapes. Meanwhile, I'm still using the AirPods Pro I bought 3 years ago.

My 6 year old Airpods Pro are barely chugging along at this point. I'm only getting a couple hours per charge.

My iPad 2011 is still going strong, except that my Airpods Pro won't talk with them anymore. So should I buy a second pair of work-out earphones or a new tablet? A new tablet would give me back access to app store and many apps, which are no longer compatible with this old slab, but at least Amazon Prime Video and most importantly, VLC still works.

Completely wild, but four years after I bought my first pair of AirPods Pro thinking I'd be able to use them when recording they finally added that functionality to iOS 26. It sounds really nice! [...] (Warning: this doesn't work on AirPods Pro v1)

I want a pair of earphones that are as comfortable as the AirPods Pro but have a very solid mic quality. [...] I originally thought I had hardware issues until I heard from others that all AirPods Pro are like this. [...]

Im on my third pair of Airpods pro (replacement courtesy of Apple) and all of them had the ANC partially fail the longer i use them. I wonder why Apple still release new versions of these whem they cant even get the basics right.

Nice, yea I think the AirPods Pro got some of the best noise cancelling out there

I got airpods (Pro v2) and got the squishy memory foam tips from a 3rd party that are a) comfortable, and b) actually stay in my ears. I hate normal headphones because they make my ears get sweaty and are heavy and uncomfortable.

I haven't contacted support about it. It's a minor annoyance, and my Airpods Pro (both gen 2 and 3) have worked perfect with my phone.

[...] You won't get ANC, mic is so-so I believe and you still have wires, but you get LDAC/aptX HD codec, it can still act as USB DAC if you forgot to charge it, it has very capable DSP EQ that allows loading headphone profiles. I use AirPods Pro as muffs on transit and concerts which is a killer feature for me, but use Qudelix dongle with IEMs for music.

A good bluetooth experience requires that both the headset and the audio source device implement bluetooth well, which is hard. That said, I have zero problems with my AirPods Pro pairing with my Mac or iPhone ever, it's pretty nice.

ah i already had an older airpods pro so the volume controls arent new to me but i use it all the time. yeah i got the airpods 5 (tbh i didnt realize there was a distinction between pro and base lol)

I got my AirPods Pro 3s and by the gods are they amazing with the ANC.

Super annoyed they did not announce a new AirPods Pro or Apple TV. [...] A bit strange for Apple to let fairly popular products just go so long without a refresh. [...] Apple Watch seems to be getting pretty good, might finally switch away from Garmin if the Apple one is as durable.

I disable Bluetooth on iPhone when I'm ready to go running using Apple Watch with AirPods Pro. Otherwise it's a big pain in the butt with the phone insisting of me doing stuff when all I wanted to do was check AirPods Pro battery level....

First generation of AirPods Pro were the only in-canal earphones that didn't fall out of my ears (rare shape of ear canal and yes, I tried different sizes, they all fall out or don't fit). Only have over-ears headphones, so I keep borrowing pods from my wife when I'm cleaning/exercising. Was very disappointed when she lost them and the replacement - pro v3 - had fixed the rare shape and they started falling out like any other earbuds.

[...] Just passive noise cancelling. My AirPods Pros block noise better actually, but I have after-market foam eartips on them. Regardless, the problem is less speakerphone music and more shrill child voices and screams. [...]

I don't have Max, but something similar happens with the AirPods Pro. See if you have "conversation awareness" and "hearing protection" turned on (both are on by default.) They're in the AirPods settings screen accessed via the bluetooth menu. [...] I've never triggered it on the Pro by merely speaking loudly, but they're earbuds and farther from my mouth. What does trigger it for me reliably, is sneezing.