Crystal Cox/Business Insider
- Apple's AirPods Pro improve on the regular model in important ways, by adding features like noise cancellation, sweat and water resistance, and ear tips in different sizes.
- The sound quality has also gotten an upgrade, although they still don't sound quite as rich and vibrant as Sony's wireless earbuds.
- Still, that's a trade-off that may be worth the convenience that comes with AirPods' tight integration with the iPhone's software. And with the AirPods Pro, there are even fewer such compromises now that they support noise cancellation.
- The ease and simplicity of connecting your AirPods Pro with your iPhone is still one of its standout features. But it would be useful to see Apple extend this to the Mac too.
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Apple's AirPods have been a runaway success since their 2016 launch, with estimates from Counterpoint Research indicating that Apple owns the majority of the wireless earbud industry.
On Wednesday, Apple finally launched the true successor to the original AirPods - the AirPods Pro. The new $250 headphones offer critical features that Apple's headphones were previously missing, like noise cancellation, sweat and water resistance, and ear tips in different sizes.
They're on store shelves now, and are being offered right alongside the standard, non-Pro second-generation AirPods that Apple launched earlier this year. Those AirPods are certainly better than the first-generation model that first launched in 2016, but still lack the new stuff that makes the AirPods Pro so great.
I've been using the AirPods Pro for the past several days, and it's clear that they're a major improvement over the original. The noise cancellation alone makes the AirPods Pro worth considering for those thinking about upgrading the first-generation AirPods they've been hanging on to. The sound quality has also gotten an upgrade, making them stronger competitors to rivals like Sony, and a compelling choice over the slightly cheaper Beats Powerbeats Pro.
Here's a closer look at what it's been like to use them.
