Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless Headphones Review

Updating the iconic look of their earbuds, the Apple AirPods Pro are just as sleek and minimalist as earlier models. The stems are now shorter, while the white silicone tips give them a premium look and feel.

The Apple AirPods Pro are quite comfortable for in-ear headphones. They come with three sizes of silicone tips, and don't enter too deep into the ear canal. They're very lightweight and put no pressure on your ears, meaning they're barely noticeable.

The Apple AirPods Pro's controls are mediocre. Instead of physical buttons, they have an indented 'force sensor' on each stem. Pressing the sensor doesn't provide any tactile feedback, but the earbuds do play a sound when a command is registered. The controls are straightforward: one tap to play/pause or to answer phone calls, two taps to skip a track forward, and three taps to skip a track backwards. If you hold down the controls, it will activate the ANC or Siri depending on how you configure your settings. However, it can be difficult to get the long press to work. On the upside, all the controls also work on Android devices including ANC, although you can't configure them to other virtual assistants.

Like most in-ear headphones, the Apple AirPods Pro don't trap heat inside your ears, which makes them a suitable option for sports. You won’t notice a difference in temperature when wearing them and won’t sweat more than usual.

Lightweight and smaller than previous models, the Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless are very portable. Even inside their case, they should fit into most pockets.

Their case is excellent. It's extremely small and portable, measuring only slightly larger than previous models. Like the Apple AirPods 2, it supports Qi wireless charging as well as a Lightning port. It should protect the headphones well against minor falls and scratches, but not against water damage.

The AirPods Pro have the same build quality as previous models. They have a premium feel thanks to their high-quality plastic finish and should be durable enough to withstand a few accidental drops or bumps without sustaining too much physical damage. Unlike the Apple AirPods 2 Truly Wireless 2019, Apple has rated these headphones IPX4 for water and sweat resistance, which should help them survive through tough workouts, though we don't test this.

These in-ear headphones have one of the most stable fits of any in-ears without stability fins that we've tested so far, and shouldn't fall out of your ears when working out or running. They don't move at all in your ears and don't break the seal, making them a good option for physical activity.

• Apple AirPods Pro headphones
• Charging Case
• USB C-to-lightning cable
• Three tip size options
• Manuals

The Apple AirPods Pro have a fairly neutral sound profile, although a bit on the brighter side as they lack a bit of bass, but not as much as the standard AirPods models which are open-back. Note that the Pro don't have the best frequency response consistency, so users might hear this differently.

The AirPods Pro's frequency response consistency is just okay. There's some noticeable variation throughout the range, which means people might not hear the same thing when using the same headphones, with small differences in bass and treble.

The AirPods Pro's bass performance is good. Thanks to their closed-back design, they don't have low-bass issues like the Apple AirPods 1 Truly Wireless 2017 and Apple AirPods 2 Truly Wireless 2019. However, the response is still a bit under our target curve, meaning some people might feel like they're on the bass-light side.

The AirPods Pro have a great mid-range performance. The reproduction of vocals and lead instruments is fairly well-balanced, although a bit over our target, especially in low-mid. This might sound a bit cluttered and forward, but most people won't notice this.

The AirPods Pro's treble performance is quite excellent. The response is very accurate and follows our curve well. Vocals, lead instruments, and sibilants will have the right amount of detail and brightness and will sound natural.

These headphones have a well-balanced response that doesn't have too many peaks and dips. The overemphasis in low-treble might clutter vocals a bit, but this won't be noticeable for most people.

The AirPods Pro's stereo imaging is great. The group delay graph shows it's under the audibility threshold, resulting in a tight bass and treble reproduction. The L/R drivers of our unit were also well-matched, with a slight mismatch in amplitude, but most people wouldn't notice it with real-life content as it's very minor. Note that these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

As expected of in-ears, the Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless' passive soundstage is bad. Earbuds are generally unable to create a soundstage, by design: in order to get that out-of-head, speaker-like feeling, your pinna or outer ear has to activate with different resonances. Because the AirPods Pro bypass the pinna altogether and they have a closed-back enclosure, they won't feel very open or spacious.

The AirPods Pro's weighted harmonic distortion performance is great. This results in a clean and pure audio reproduction, and the bump in the treble range shouldn't be audible for most people. There's also no big jump under heavier loads, which is good.

Update 12/04/2019: After receiving multiple reports of the ANC being worse than before after the 2B588 firmware update, we retested the Apple AirPods Pro's noise isolation performance and didn't get noticeable test result differences. Apple might have tweaked the ANC, but not enough to noticeably impact the overall performance.

The noise isolation of these headphones is impressive. They do a great job isolating the low rumble of bus or plane engines, making them good for commuting. Their mid-range performance is also great, making them excellent for blocking out ambient chatter. Their weakest isolation performance is in the treble range, though this is the least important for most situations and they still do a decent job.

Their leakage performance is very good, and much better than previous models due to their in-ear design. They leak the most sound in the treble range, meaning the leaking will be thin-sounding. It's unlikely that these headphones will bother those around you.

The Apple AirPods Pro have an integrated Bluetooth microphone.

The recording quality of the Apple AirPods Pro's microphone is passable. Speech recorded sounds very thin and muffled, though you should still be able to make out what's being said.

The noise handling of the Apple AirPods Pro's microphone is mediocre. In quiet environments you should have no problem, but in noisier situations like on busy streets or on the subway, it'll likely have a hard time separating your voice from background noise.

The Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless have a satisfactory battery life. Improving from previous models, these earbuds have just over 5 hours of charge with ANC turned on - roughly one hour more than before. The case also provides five additional charges when you're on the go. While it can take over an hour to fully charge, if you're in a hurry, just under a half hour of charging can give you about 3-4 hours of playback. When not in use, the Apple AirPods Pro go into standby mode. This can help to conserve your battery life but because the earbuds still stay on, you might want to turn them off completely if you can't charge them right away.

The Apple AirPods Pro don't really have a companion app, just a settings screen on iOS devices. They have slightly more customization options than the Apple AirPods 2 Truly Wireless 2019, with ANC and transparency mode toggle, and the ability to change long-press on each earbud to either ANC control or Siri activation. The app also allows you to do a Fit Tip Test to help find which size tips give the best fit, though we had mixed results from this. There are no customization options for Android devices. However, if you do prefer having a bit of customization, check out the Amazon Echo Buds Truly Wireless and their 3-band EQ or the Anker SoundCore Liberty Air 2 Truly Wireless with their 20 available presets.

These are Bluetooth-compatible truly wireless headphones. They use the H1 chip for Apple Devices which helps with pairing, connection strength and latency. Unfortunately, our testing dongle doesn't support Bluetooth 5.0 or interact with the H1 chip so you may experience better overall performance when paired to an Apple device. If you want more gaming-oriented truly wireless headphones for non-iOS devices, check out the Razer Hammerhead True Wireless.

These headphones are only Bluetooth compatible.

These headphones can't be used wired, which is expected with truly wireless headphones. They charge via the included USB-C to Lightning cable, but don't include a charging power brick.

These headphones are compatible with PC via Bluetooth if your PC is Bluetooth-compatible or you have the correct USB dongle. They aren't compatible with PS4.

These headphones are Bluetooth-only and aren't compatible with Xbox One.

Their charging case is very premium feeling and is rather small considering its battery capacity. It charges via Apple's Lightning port or any wireless Qi charging pad.