Apple AirPods Pro

Description

Apple AirPods Pro 

The king of true wireless earbuds (for Apple device owners)

Apple's original AirPods helped popularise the 'true wireless' style of in-ear headphones, and the Pro model takes that original design up another level. They're more compact and sleek, feature rubberised tips for a tighter and more secure in-ear fit (and, ultimately, better sound) and have active built-in noise cancelling.

The AirPod Pros have are slightly bigger in the 'bud' part of the earphone than their regular counterparts, but conversely have a much smaller stem, which makes them a little more discrete when in the ear, and also a fair bit lighter – enough that it's easy to forget you're wearing them. And like their siblings, the AirPods Pro are well-built, with a tough metal chassis and a glossy white finish that's both durable and hard-wearing. They can take a lot of punishment, relatively speaking, and come away unscathed.

Acoustically, the Pros provide a particularly punchy midrange that Apple's tuned to sound great with mainstream music, with particularly rich bass and nice clear vocals. Fans of pop, rock, electro and hip-hop will all find pleasing results with their favourite genre here, although the AirPods Pro do stumble a bit when it comes to detail and separation – that is, being able to hear subtleties in the audio, and clearly distinguish between different instruments.

Apple's added active noise cancellation to the AirPods Pro, which can be switched on or off by squeezing either bud's stem, and uses a pair of microphones in each bud to analyse and block our environmental sounds. As you'd expect, this works particularly well for droning background noises, like you'll hear on a train or plane, but it's also quite good at mitigating other unwanted noise, such as external music or the sounds of vehicles when you're out on the street. Alternatively, you can turn on the 'transparency' mode to have external sounds passed through, and it's even possible to have conversations with others without removing your buds.

Despite their more compact size, the AirPod Pros provide 5 hours battery life per charge (and about 30 minutes less with noise cancelling switched on), and the case holds another 24 hours – enough for a week's use for most people.

Score: 4.5/5

Verdict: While they're not quite the best true wireless earphones on the market, the AirPod Pros are a great buy for Apple fans in particular.

Here's some more information about this product

• The Apple AirPods Pro Headphones was added to the Head Phones category in December 2020.

• The lowest price GetPrice has found for the Apple AirPods Pro Headphones in Australia is $299.99 from Kogan.com.

• Other merchants who stock it are Kogan.com, Dick Smith, Catch, Amazon AU, JB HI-FI, Mighty Ape, mwave, Scorptec Computers.

• GetPrice provides impartial price comparison information to help you get the best deals year-round and Australia-wide.