Apple just pulled the wraps of a shiny new(ish) pair of AirPod Pro 2s.
The big ‘revolutionary’ change? The charging case now comes with USB-C instead of a lightning cable. Not earth-shattering, but hey, no more juggling chargers, especially if you’re flaunting the new USB-C touting iPhone 15.
The new buds give you six hours of noise-canceling goodness on a single charge, along with 30 hours with the charging case. And here’s a neat little party trick—the USB-C port lets you charge it directly from a USB-C iPhone. No wall socket, no problem.
You really get the same old sound quality (I say old, but it’s still excellent) and adaptive noise cancelling, along with some new tricks like Adaptive Audio and Conversation Awareness. That means these buds know when you’re talking and adjust the volume for you. They also switch between other Apple devices much faster, which translates to less hair-pulling when you need to swap from from phone to mac.
This all seems like some rather small changes; but for people who tend to never be without an AirPod (or two) in their ears, the differences do add up.
One boon for those of us in the Middle East, the buds are more dust-proof than ever. We’re not sure how that change was made – the case and earbuds look identical as the last pair – but some magic was done to secure them against our sandy environment, and we’re happy about that.
Let’s round on to the main drawback here: they look the same. Exactly the same; unless you have a friend who has a thing for ports, no one will notice the difference between these and your last pair.
We’re of the opinion that if you buy something new, everyone should know about it (sans you telling them, which actually, is easier now, thanks to Adaptive Audio).
Which brings us to the big question: should you get them?
Well, if your current AirPod Pros are serving you well, you might not need this USB-C touting pair*. But if you’re new to the AirPod game (or wanting to upgrade from a much older pair) then it’s fair to say dive in! The AirPod Pro 2 USB-C (gosh, they need a better name) are the best in-ear headphones Apple makes.
*Instant caveat to this: The AirPod Pro 2 are the only buds to have Lossless Audio support for Apple’s incoming Vision Pro AR headset.
It’s a tad odd (considering the last generation of AirPods Pro have the same H2 chip) but for some reason, if you want to really make the most of Apple’s face computer you’ll need these.