It’s what’s inside that matters, or at least that’s what our moms and Apple want us to think. The Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) looks nearly identical to the first-gen earbuds before it. It may seem that the big Apple is just resting on its laurels, but the case and buds’ new chipsets make the AirPods Pro smarter than before. These chips usher in better battery life, active noise canceling (ANC), and sound quality into the AirPods line. Will the new AirPods Pro successfully succeed the first-generation AirPods Pro, or will someone else take the wireless earbuds throne?

Editor’s note: this review was updated on August 25, 2023, to update the available charts.

Aside from the glossy white charging cases, the first and second-generation AirPods Pro look like twins. This time around, Apple adds a silver lanyard loop and speaker to the otherwise blank block. Rather than play music, the case’s speaker emits a sound to help you locate it through the Find My app. You’ll also hear an alert tone if the battery is low or once pairing is complete, though you can disable these tones through your iPhone’s Settings app. This is the first time Apple’s AirPods come with an IPX4-rated case and earbuds, so both will withstand any splashes or light rainfall. As before, it’s easy to flick the case’s lid open with your thumb, revealing the buds.

The celebrity stemmed earphones slide right out of the case, and it’s a cinch to guide them back in. Although there are benefits to a stemmed design, masks and longer hair can catch or snag on them. When I towel off mid-workout, I occasionally fling one of the earbuds out of my ear because the towel snags against the stem. The same thing can happen when I carelessly remove my bike helmet. The AirPods don’t fly far, so it’s not a dealbreaker—just something to be aware of with any pair of AirPods-like earphones. More ergonomic workout earbuds often have ear hooks or stabilizing wings.

To help secure the buds’ fit and get the best sound quality, experiment with Apple’s four pairs of silicone ear tips (XS, S, M, L). The medium size works best for me, and the ear tip fit test (iOS only) confirms this. Not only will this prevent the earbuds from falling out with vigorous movement, but it will also block out as much background noise as possible. Plus, it’s easier to squeeze the stem controls when the ear tips form a seal to your ear canals.

You can control media, listening modes, and field phone calls all from the new AirPods Pro. When paired to a compatible Apple device, you can use the hot word, “Hey Siri,” to make hands-free commands and inquiries. Apple debuts swipe gestures on the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) too. While this is another first for the AirPods line, the Nothing Ear 1 and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds have been rocking swipe gestures for some time.

The AirPods Pro also supports automatic play/pause functionality. When you take the earbuds out, your music will stop, and when you reinsert them, the music will resume. Interestingly, if you have ANC or Transparency mode on, this will turn off when you remove the earbuds too. Thanks to the skin-detect sensor, music won’t resume when you place the buds in your pocket; they must touch your skin. We’re happy to see a return of this sensor from the AirPods (3rd generation) and Beats Fit Pro.

The main app for the AirPods Pro is the iOS/iPadOS Settings app, and you’ll need an Apple device to receive firmware updates. While Android device owners can connect to the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) and listen to music or make calls, they won’t be able to use the features detailed here.

You can access a handful of things from the Settings app, like the previously mentioned ear tip fit test. Once you confirm your selected ear tips, it’s time to rename your AirPods, select your listening mode (ANC on/off, Transparency on/off), and customize the tap-and-hold function of each earbud. You can even go so far as to dictate whether the left or right bud’s microphones are used for phone calls. We recommend leaving it set to “Automatically Switch AirPods.”

The AirPods Pro (2nd generation) also supports Audio Sharing from an iPhone. You can use your iPhone to stream audio to two separate Apple headsets. To do so, you need to open the Control Center, and tap the media player to enlarge it. From there, you can choose to stream audio to your AirPods and a friend’s.

When you first pair your AirPods Pro (2nd generation) to your iPhone, a pop-up prompt will appear asking you to set up personalized Spatial Audio. This process requires using your iPhone’s TrueDepth camera to create a custom sound profile based on your head and ears. If Apple’s process sounds familiar that’s because it’s very similar to how Sony 360 Reality Audio optimization works. Apple’s personalized profile then syncs across your devices, so you only need to make it once. Current AirPods Pro (1st gen) owners will be happy to know that personalized Spatial Audio works with the older earbuds too. You only need an iPhone running iOS 16 or later.

Spatial Audio and head tracking work with specific media, and during FaceTime group calls. Ideally, this is supposed to emulate how a group conversation sounds in real life, but if I find it disorienting.

Bluetooth 5.3 keeps the Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) connected to your device. You can choose from the SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs. When streaming AAC audio from an iOS device, you’ll enjoy reliable, high-quality and low-latency audio. While Android supports AAC, its performance is historically variable on Android. The H2 chip supports what Apple calls “high bandwidth connectivity,” suggesting that the sound quality is getting closer to lossless but isn’t quite there yet.

How long does the Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) battery last?

According to our battery testing, the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) standalone battery life is 5 hours, 43 minutes with ANC on, falling just short of Apple’s official 6-hour battery specification with ANC on. The charging case provides an extra 24 hours of listening time, or 19 hours, 30 minutes of talk time. When it’s time to recharge, you have a few options. You can charge the case wirelessly atop a Qi, MagSafe, or Apple Watch charging mat, and you’ll need a Lightning cable for wired charging.

While this is typical battery performance for truly wireless earphones, remember that battery cells degrade over time. Apple tries to slow down battery death with a battery optimization feature; your iPhone will learn your listening habits and only charge the earbuds to 80%, reaching 100% right before it anticipates you’ll use them. While this is a step in the right direction, your AirPods can only last so long when you use them regularly. Every charge and deplete cycle reduces the life of the Li-ion battery cells, and wireless charging further hastens battery breakdown. No pair of wireless earbuds is truly sustainable, so you’ll need a pair of eco-friendly headphones.

The AirPods Pro (2nd generation) noise canceling is better than before, with a performance that places it right alongside the other titans of ANC on the market. Only instead of over-ear headphones, these buds just sit inside your ear. Though the isolation is nothing to write home about, the ANC will destroy between 20-30dB of outside noise, depending on the frequency. That’s a respectable result for ANC earbuds, and this product should be well suited for commutes, air travel, or casual listening in a noisy environment.

Remember, to get your AirPods Pro (2nd generation) ANC to reflect the chart above, you need to get a proper fit. This requires you to take a moment and play with the four ear tip sizes that Apple provides. Don’t be worried if you need to use one size for one ear and a different size for your other ear as this is quite common. This small step will ensure you get the best isolation from your earbuds, allowing optimal noise cancellation.

How does Transparency mode work on the new AirPods Pro?

Apple’s new Adaptive Transparency relies on the H2 chip to minimize the intensity of loud, unpredictable sounds like passing sirens or construction. With Adaptive Transparency mode enabled, I can walk past construction sites and heavily trafficked areas while remaining aware. Unlike when I enable transparent listening on the Nothing Ear 1, the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) renders abrupt, loud sounds audible but not painful.

In short, the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) sounds great and will make most music sound good as long as you have a good fit. Through the bass and mids, the AirPods Pro (2nd gen) closely follows our house curve and only makes significant deviations above 8kHz. Most listeners won’t be too bothered by the relative under-emphasis (compared to our house curve) in the uppermost octave. Harmonic detail may be harder to hear during particularly busy segments in your favorite tracks, but we prefer this to the alternative.

The AirPods Pro (2nd generation) uses the always-enabled Adaptive EQ feature to account for how the earbuds fit in your ear and your precise ear shape. Inward-facing microphones monitor what you hear in real-time and adjust the low and mid frequencies accordingly—yielding consistent sounding audio playback anytime you use the AirPods Pro.

The song Why by Dominic Fike never fails to get me dancing, and the AirPods Pro reproduces the song’s bassline perfectly in line with my expectations. During the first chorus, I can hear the beat without issue, even amid the loudly mixed cymbal hits. At 0:42, I can distinctly hear the timbre of Fike’s voice change while he sings the phrase, “… my latest lines.”

While the lows and mids sound as expected through the AirPods Pro (2nd generation), the quieter upper octave is noticeable only when I strain to hear it. Take Harry Styles’ song As It Was, which I’m deeply familiar with: here, the cymbal hits are quieter than I anticipate at 0:58 due to this under-emphasis. Styles’ vocals sound great here though, as do the guitar parts through the verses—but it’s not perfect. In truth, this may go unnoticed, but it might be noticeable if you’ve got a keen ear.

The microphone array sounds quite good under ideal conditions, but when background noise comes into play, sound quality declines. When the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) tries to reject unpredictable background noise, as heard in our “Office conditions” sample below, the voice can drop out completely. You can hear this at 0:16, when the recording of Sara’s voice relays the phrase, “Say it slowly but make it ring clear,” and the words “ring clear” become inaudible. In our “Windy conditions” microphone sample, voices are very hard to hear.

Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

Editor’s note: Our standardized test setup plays back pre-recorded phrases from a calibrated artificial mouth in our test chamber, either with or without simulated background noises, simulated reverberant spaces, or artificial wind. This means that samples from every product can be directly compared, which makes it far easier to make meaningful comparisons between products in terms of the raw speech quality or the product’s ability to reject noise. While this setup is consistent, it’s unable to allow the earbuds to detect speech as they would in the real world (using vibrations), so you’re likely to experience something different than our demos above.

iPhone owners who need a new set of earbuds should grab the AirPods Pro (2nd generation). The newest AirPods Pro performs better than the first version, and the two headsets share a $249 USD original price. Anyone starting from scratch will get a lot of mileage out of the AirPods Pro (2nd generation), and the improved ANC makes this set of AirPods a joy to use when you’re a mile high. But if you have the first-gen AirPods Pro, you may not need to upgrade.

While Apple’s U1 and H2 chips bring new and improved features to your ears, the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) doesn’t render the first-gen obsolete (despite Apple discontinuing the first-gen AirPods Pro). To save a buck and get most of the features discussed in our review, we’ll push you to the original AirPods Pro.

You can find the AirPods Pro (1st generation) for on the product’s website. Buying the older model opens the door to plenty of cool Apple features like personalized Spatial Audio and battery optimization. True, the AirPods Pro noise canceling is better than before, but there are still some better noise canceling earbuds.

The first and second-generation AirPods Pro are nearly indistinguishable from one another. The main differences between the two generations lie under the hood. Noise canceling is better on the newer headset, thanks to the H2 chip; the old model houses the older H1 chip. With the latest model, you get a new “high-excursion Apple driver” for improved sound quality. Charging cases differ between the two models: only the new case is water resistant and has a built-in speaker and U1 chip for locating.

Even though the AirPods Max is a much different form factor from the true wireless AirPods Pro, there are some similarities and differences to note if you’re stuck between the two. To see how both compare, check out our AirPods Pro (2nd generation) vs AirPods Max article. You can pick up the AirPods Max for $424.99 at Amazon.

Athletes will find the Beats Fit Pro works better for their needs, while listeners looking for a pair of everyday earbuds will gravitate toward the AirPods Pro (2nd generation). Stabilizing ear wings make the Fit Pro a great pair of earbuds, but I find the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) is more comfortable for hours at a time. Price is another factor, with the AirPods Pro costing $50 USD more than the Fit Pro ($159 at Amazon). When you buy the Fit Pro, you also get a pair of earbuds that works nearly as well on Android as it does on iOS, but when you buy any set of AirPods, you’re locked into Apple’s ecosystem.

You get many of the same features between the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) and Beats Fit Pro, including personalized Spatial Audio, so long as your device runs iOS 16 or later. Both earbuds have skin-detect sensors and an IPX4 rating, but only the second-gen AirPods Pro case has an IPX4 rating too. You can’t go wrong with either pair of earbuds, but if you refuse to spend more than $200 USD on wireless earbuds, the Fit Pro fits the bill.

What should you get instead of the Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation)?

After all this, you might realize you don’t want the latest AirPods Pro. Lucky for you, we’re living through a golden age of wireless earbuds, and you have plenty of AirPods Pro alternatives.

Sony’s WF-1000XM4 is among our favorite noise canceling wireless earphones for its stellar ANC, comfortable fit, durable build quality, and OS-agnostic mobile app. The WF-1000XM4 is about $30 USD more expensive than the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) and currently costs $278 at Amazon, but it often goes on promotion too. If you want a more anonymous-looking earphone from Sony, look into the Sony LinkBuds S, which you can get for $148 at Amazon.

On May 17, 2023, Apple released the Beats Studio Buds Plus for $169 USD. These translucent earbuds harken back to the ’90s, and promise better ANC and mic quality than the original Studio Buds. What we love about the Studio Buds series is how it works seamlessly on Android and iOS. With the new Plus variant, you can access Google’s Find My Device app, which is great for Android phone owners. If you hop between operating systems, the Studio Buds Plus could be more appealing than the AirPods Pro (2nd generation).

Android phone owners who want access to features like Google Translate right in their ears can pick up the Google Pixel Buds Pro. These earphones cost $199 at Amazon and compare well against the Sony WF-1000XM4. Google’s ANC is surprisingly effective; like Apple, the Pixel Buds Pro buds and case are water resistant. Unlike Apple’s earbuds, however, you get Bluetooth multipoint, making the Pixel Buds Pro a proper headset for work.

For the best from Samsung, grab the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. These earbuds have some of the best ANC we’ve tested and can block out plenty of low-frequency noise. Listeners who travel for work, or just to work, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro will put your mind at ease. The default sound quality is a bit more bass-heavy than our ideal curve, but only by about 5dB. For $179 at Amazon, you’ll have a hard time finding a more feature-packed pair of buds—even if a handful of those features are relegated to Samsung’s ecosystem. We compare the AirPods Pro (2nd gen) to the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro in our versus article.