Received my AirPods Pro a couple of days ago and have been using them day and night since. I also have the new Bose 700's, which I've been using daily for a couple of months so I'll compare to them.
I commute each day on a noisy city bus. Sometimes there are people talking and sometimes there's nothing but the loud noises of the bus. The Bose headphones are not sweat or weatherproof, and so are not useful outside unless the skies are clear. With winter coming, the Bose also prevent wearing a winter hat, so I decided to buy the Air Pods for use in commuting and then use the Bose once I get to my desk at work.
I have never owned AirPods before. A friend at work has regular AirPods (not Pro), and the photo attached to my review shows the difference in size. These were easy to set up -- you just hold your unlocked iPhone a couple inches away from the AirPods in their charging case (with the case open). It's all seamless. They automatically showed up in my Macbook bluetooth menu once connected with the iPhone, so all I had to do was click "connect" in the bluetooth menu.
Interestingly, the play/pause squeeze of the stem doesn't seem to work for controlling the laptop -- maybe it only works for Apple Music, which I don't use so I didn't test. And the other thing different -- and worse -- than the Bose is that if I pause on the laptop and then play again on the phone, the AirPods are not automatically connected and the music came out of the phone directly. The Bose connects to two devices at once so it will play whichever one is playing sounds (which can be annoying if the phone is playing and the computer gives a notification sound or vice versa). But in order to play again on the phone, I had to go into the phone Bluetooth menu and reconnect (not re-pair, just reconnect). So my conclusion is you have to manually reconnect for device switching. You get a little alert sound when connected -- no voice, no battery status, no "connected to xxx" like the Bose does -- nothing else.
For music quality, the Bose quality is a fair amount better -- which would be expected since they are full size over the ear headphones. The AirPods Pro are still very good though, and unless you are an audiophile, you won't be disappointed.
Charging the AirPods case uses a standard iPhone/iPad lightning charger. It comes with a cable that will connect to a later model Macbook USB C port -- so USB C to lightning. If you want to use an outlet, you will need to have an existing lightning charger, which most of us have plenty of anyway. It's hard to tell when the case is completely charged. The orange light comes on but goes off after just a few seconds, instead of just staying on and changing to green once they're fully charged. The first night I got them, I charged them in the case overnight before using them. When I connected them, they said the AirPods were only 58% charged, so I'm not sure why they weren't 100% if left in there overnight.
There is a nice new longpress feature on the volume of the iPhone that appears when the AirPods are connected to the iPhone. You can control the volume (you can't control the volume right on the AirPods, which is a slight bummer but it's okay) and noise cancelling from this new interface.
There's no tapping on these AirPods -- you slightly squeeze the little stem. There is a soft click when it registers, almost like pressing a touch pad. It took a few seconds to figure out how to do it, but it's been fine since. A longer squeeze toggles between the noise cancellation modes. There's a slightly different sound for going into transparency mode and going into noise cancellation mode, but in a quiet room it's hard to tell which mode you're in, as opposed to the Bose, which literally tells you in a voice.
Transparency mode uses microphones to let in the sound around you, so that you can keep them in while still talking to people. This is how they differ from noise isolating earbuds, which block your ear from hearing anything but don't have active noise canceling. These have noise canceling I'll talk about in a minute. But there is also an "off" mode available only (that I've found) through the volume long press described above. These just put them in basic noise isolation mode -- I'm guessing similar to previous AirPods.
For noise cancellation, they are surprisingly very effective. More effective than I thought they would be. They are best at blocking out white noise -- bus engines, office sounds, fans, etc. They are good at voices if it's just people talking in a group at a normal volume. But when I walked through the busy office cafeteria at lunch time, they did not do as good of a job as the Bose at blocking out the loud talking and other uneven cafeteria noises. Interestingly, they do a great job at blocking one-off noises like a door slamming or someone dropping something. The Bose have a hard time with sounds like that for some reason. I would say they are 80-90% as effective as the full size over ear Bose overall, which is very impressive.
For comfort, obviously the Bose are better (and sound better) for hours of desk usage, and also given that the battery on the Bose is about 19 hours and these are about 4, the Bose will be what I use all day at my desk. But for moving around, walking the dogs, commuting, and portability, the AirPods are terrific and don't hurt at all or cause my ears to sweat like the Bose do after a while.
Would definitely recommend.
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Excellent all around earbuds
Received my AirPods Pro a couple of days ago and have been using them day and night since. I also have the new Bose 700's, which I've been using daily for a couple of months so I'll compare to them.I commute each day on a noisy city bus. Sometimes there are people talking and sometimes there's nothing but the loud noises of the bus. The Bose headphones are not sweat or weatherproof, and so are not useful outside unless the skies are clear. With winter coming, the Bose also prevent wearing a winter hat, so I decided to buy the Air Pods for use in commuting and then use the Bose once I get to my desk at work.I have never owned AirPods before. A friend at work has regular AirPods (not Pro), and the photo attached to my review shows the difference in size. These were easy to set up -- you just hold your unlocked iPhone a couple inches away from the AirPods in their charging case (with the case open). It's all seamless. They automatically showed up in my Macbook bluetooth menu once connected with the iPhone, so all I had to do was click "connect" in the bluetooth menu.Interestingly, the play/pause squeeze of the stem doesn't seem to work for controlling the laptop -- maybe it only works for Apple Music, which I don't use so I didn't test. And the other thing different -- and worse -- than the Bose is that if I pause on the laptop and then play again on the phone, the AirPods are not automatically connected and the music came out of the phone directly. The Bose connects to two devices at once so it will play whichever one is playing sounds (which can be annoying if the phone is playing and the computer gives a notification sound or vice versa). But in order to play again on the phone, I had to go into the phone Bluetooth menu and reconnect (not re-pair, just reconnect). So my conclusion is you have to manually reconnect for device switching. You get a little alert sound when connected -- no voice, no battery status, no "connected to xxx" like the Bose does -- nothing else.For music quality, the Bose quality is a fair amount better -- which would be expected since they are full size over the ear headphones. The AirPods Pro are still very good though, and unless you are an audiophile, you won't be disappointed.Charging the AirPods case uses a standard iPhone/iPad lightning charger. It comes with a cable that will connect to a later model Macbook USB C port -- so USB C to lightning. If you want to use an outlet, you will need to have an existing lightning charger, which most of us have plenty of anyway. It's hard to tell when the case is completely charged. The orange light comes on but goes off after just a few seconds, instead of just staying on and changing to green once they're fully charged. The first night I got them, I charged them in the case overnight before using them. When I connected them, they said the AirPods were only 58% charged, so I'm not sure why they weren't 100% if left in there overnight.There is a nice new longpress feature on the volume of the iPhone that appears when the AirPods are connected to the iPhone. You can control the volume (you can't control the volume right on the AirPods, which is a slight bummer but it's okay) and noise cancelling from this new interface.There's no tapping on these AirPods -- you slightly squeeze the little stem. There is a soft click when it registers, almost like pressing a touch pad. It took a few seconds to figure out how to do it, but it's been fine since. A longer squeeze toggles between the noise cancellation modes. There's a slightly different sound for going into transparency mode and going into noise cancellation mode, but in a quiet room it's hard to tell which mode you're in, as opposed to the Bose, which literally tells you in a voice.Transparency mode uses microphones to let in the sound around you, so that you can keep them in while still talking to people. This is how they differ from noise isolating earbuds, which block your ear from hearing anything but don't have active noise canceling. These have noise canceling I'll talk about in a minute. But there is also an "off" mode available only (that I've found) through the volume long press described above. These just put them in basic noise isolation mode -- I'm guessing similar to previous AirPods.For noise cancellation, they are surprisingly very effective. More effective than I thought they would be. They are best at blocking out white noise -- bus engines, office sounds, fans, etc. They are good at voices if it's just people talking in a group at a normal volume. But when I walked through the busy office cafeteria at lunch time, they did not do as good of a job as the Bose at blocking out the loud talking and other uneven cafeteria noises. Interestingly, they do a great job at blocking one-off noises like a door slamming or someone dropping something. The Bose have a hard time with sounds like that for some reason. I would say they are 80-90% as effective as the full size over ear Bose overall, which is very impressive.For comfort, obviously the Bose are better (and sound better) for hours of desk usage, and also given that the battery on the Bose is about 19 hours and these are about 4, the Bose will be what I use all day at my desk. But for moving around, walking the dogs, commuting, and portability, the AirPods are terrific and don't hurt at all or cause my ears to sweat like the Bose do after a while.Would definitely recommend.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2019
Received my AirPods Pro a couple of days ago and have been using them day and night since. I also have the new Bose 700's, which I've been using daily for a couple of months so I'll compare to them.
I commute each day on a noisy city bus. Sometimes there are people talking and sometimes there's nothing but the loud noises of the bus. The Bose headphones are not sweat or weatherproof, and so are not useful outside unless the skies are clear. With winter coming, the Bose also prevent wearing a winter hat, so I decided to buy the Air Pods for use in commuting and then use the Bose once I get to my desk at work.
I have never owned AirPods before. A friend at work has regular AirPods (not Pro), and the photo attached to my review shows the difference in size. These were easy to set up -- you just hold your unlocked iPhone a couple inches away from the AirPods in their charging case (with the case open). It's all seamless. They automatically showed up in my Macbook bluetooth menu once connected with the iPhone, so all I had to do was click "connect" in the bluetooth menu.
Interestingly, the play/pause squeeze of the stem doesn't seem to work for controlling the laptop -- maybe it only works for Apple Music, which I don't use so I didn't test. And the other thing different -- and worse -- than the Bose is that if I pause on the laptop and then play again on the phone, the AirPods are not automatically connected and the music came out of the phone directly. The Bose connects to two devices at once so it will play whichever one is playing sounds (which can be annoying if the phone is playing and the computer gives a notification sound or vice versa). But in order to play again on the phone, I had to go into the phone Bluetooth menu and reconnect (not re-pair, just reconnect). So my conclusion is you have to manually reconnect for device switching. You get a little alert sound when connected -- no voice, no battery status, no "connected to xxx" like the Bose does -- nothing else.
For music quality, the Bose quality is a fair amount better -- which would be expected since they are full size over the ear headphones. The AirPods Pro are still very good though, and unless you are an audiophile, you won't be disappointed.
Charging the AirPods case uses a standard iPhone/iPad lightning charger. It comes with a cable that will connect to a later model Macbook USB C port -- so USB C to lightning. If you want to use an outlet, you will need to have an existing lightning charger, which most of us have plenty of anyway. It's hard to tell when the case is completely charged. The orange light comes on but goes off after just a few seconds, instead of just staying on and changing to green once they're fully charged. The first night I got them, I charged them in the case overnight before using them. When I connected them, they said the AirPods were only 58% charged, so I'm not sure why they weren't 100% if left in there overnight.
There is a nice new longpress feature on the volume of the iPhone that appears when the AirPods are connected to the iPhone. You can control the volume (you can't control the volume right on the AirPods, which is a slight bummer but it's okay) and noise cancelling from this new interface.
There's no tapping on these AirPods -- you slightly squeeze the little stem. There is a soft click when it registers, almost like pressing a touch pad. It took a few seconds to figure out how to do it, but it's been fine since. A longer squeeze toggles between the noise cancellation modes. There's a slightly different sound for going into transparency mode and going into noise cancellation mode, but in a quiet room it's hard to tell which mode you're in, as opposed to the Bose, which literally tells you in a voice.
Transparency mode uses microphones to let in the sound around you, so that you can keep them in while still talking to people. This is how they differ from noise isolating earbuds, which block your ear from hearing anything but don't have active noise canceling. These have noise canceling I'll talk about in a minute. But there is also an "off" mode available only (that I've found) through the volume long press described above. These just put them in basic noise isolation mode -- I'm guessing similar to previous AirPods.
For noise cancellation, they are surprisingly very effective. More effective than I thought they would be. They are best at blocking out white noise -- bus engines, office sounds, fans, etc. They are good at voices if it's just people talking in a group at a normal volume. But when I walked through the busy office cafeteria at lunch time, they did not do as good of a job as the Bose at blocking out the loud talking and other uneven cafeteria noises. Interestingly, they do a great job at blocking one-off noises like a door slamming or someone dropping something. The Bose have a hard time with sounds like that for some reason. I would say they are 80-90% as effective as the full size over ear Bose overall, which is very impressive.
For comfort, obviously the Bose are better (and sound better) for hours of desk usage, and also given that the battery on the Bose is about 19 hours and these are about 4, the Bose will be what I use all day at my desk. But for moving around, walking the dogs, commuting, and portability, the AirPods are terrific and don't hurt at all or cause my ears to sweat like the Bose do after a while.
Would definitely recommend.
I commute each day on a noisy city bus. Sometimes there are people talking and sometimes there's nothing but the loud noises of the bus. The Bose headphones are not sweat or weatherproof, and so are not useful outside unless the skies are clear. With winter coming, the Bose also prevent wearing a winter hat, so I decided to buy the Air Pods for use in commuting and then use the Bose once I get to my desk at work.
I have never owned AirPods before. A friend at work has regular AirPods (not Pro), and the photo attached to my review shows the difference in size. These were easy to set up -- you just hold your unlocked iPhone a couple inches away from the AirPods in their charging case (with the case open). It's all seamless. They automatically showed up in my Macbook bluetooth menu once connected with the iPhone, so all I had to do was click "connect" in the bluetooth menu.
Interestingly, the play/pause squeeze of the stem doesn't seem to work for controlling the laptop -- maybe it only works for Apple Music, which I don't use so I didn't test. And the other thing different -- and worse -- than the Bose is that if I pause on the laptop and then play again on the phone, the AirPods are not automatically connected and the music came out of the phone directly. The Bose connects to two devices at once so it will play whichever one is playing sounds (which can be annoying if the phone is playing and the computer gives a notification sound or vice versa). But in order to play again on the phone, I had to go into the phone Bluetooth menu and reconnect (not re-pair, just reconnect). So my conclusion is you have to manually reconnect for device switching. You get a little alert sound when connected -- no voice, no battery status, no "connected to xxx" like the Bose does -- nothing else.
For music quality, the Bose quality is a fair amount better -- which would be expected since they are full size over the ear headphones. The AirPods Pro are still very good though, and unless you are an audiophile, you won't be disappointed.
Charging the AirPods case uses a standard iPhone/iPad lightning charger. It comes with a cable that will connect to a later model Macbook USB C port -- so USB C to lightning. If you want to use an outlet, you will need to have an existing lightning charger, which most of us have plenty of anyway. It's hard to tell when the case is completely charged. The orange light comes on but goes off after just a few seconds, instead of just staying on and changing to green once they're fully charged. The first night I got them, I charged them in the case overnight before using them. When I connected them, they said the AirPods were only 58% charged, so I'm not sure why they weren't 100% if left in there overnight.
There is a nice new longpress feature on the volume of the iPhone that appears when the AirPods are connected to the iPhone. You can control the volume (you can't control the volume right on the AirPods, which is a slight bummer but it's okay) and noise cancelling from this new interface.
There's no tapping on these AirPods -- you slightly squeeze the little stem. There is a soft click when it registers, almost like pressing a touch pad. It took a few seconds to figure out how to do it, but it's been fine since. A longer squeeze toggles between the noise cancellation modes. There's a slightly different sound for going into transparency mode and going into noise cancellation mode, but in a quiet room it's hard to tell which mode you're in, as opposed to the Bose, which literally tells you in a voice.
Transparency mode uses microphones to let in the sound around you, so that you can keep them in while still talking to people. This is how they differ from noise isolating earbuds, which block your ear from hearing anything but don't have active noise canceling. These have noise canceling I'll talk about in a minute. But there is also an "off" mode available only (that I've found) through the volume long press described above. These just put them in basic noise isolation mode -- I'm guessing similar to previous AirPods.
For noise cancellation, they are surprisingly very effective. More effective than I thought they would be. They are best at blocking out white noise -- bus engines, office sounds, fans, etc. They are good at voices if it's just people talking in a group at a normal volume. But when I walked through the busy office cafeteria at lunch time, they did not do as good of a job as the Bose at blocking out the loud talking and other uneven cafeteria noises. Interestingly, they do a great job at blocking one-off noises like a door slamming or someone dropping something. The Bose have a hard time with sounds like that for some reason. I would say they are 80-90% as effective as the full size over ear Bose overall, which is very impressive.
For comfort, obviously the Bose are better (and sound better) for hours of desk usage, and also given that the battery on the Bose is about 19 hours and these are about 4, the Bose will be what I use all day at my desk. But for moving around, walking the dogs, commuting, and portability, the AirPods are terrific and don't hurt at all or cause my ears to sweat like the Bose do after a while.
Would definitely recommend.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2020
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Charlie
Un regalo "De mi para mi" que vas a agradecer.
Reviewed in Mexico on November 24, 2021Gale Franey
These are REAL AirPods Pro, They Work and Sound Great!
Reviewed in Canada on December 31, 2020
Gale Franey
Reviewed in Canada on December 31, 2020
1.) The REAL AirPods Pro plastic wrapping does not have a messy seam. It is perfect with a pull tab with black arrow that can be pulled to easily remove the plastic. Some fakes have added a glued a fake tab, but it does not actually pull properly to easily open the package.
2.) When you open the box, the charging case is very neatly wrapped with a plastic wrapper that has a long horizontal gray line on the top pull tab. This wrapping comes off easily, whereas fake ones also have a similar wrapping but they do NOT have the horizontal line and are often tucked or glued in a messy way.
3.) Perhaps the easiest way to know if your AirPods Pro are REAL is that the insert that lifts out should be a hard, pressed “cardboard” molded insert, NOT plastic!! Every fake AirPods I’ve seen in YouTube videos has a “plastic” insert. The plastic insert is a clear indication of Fakes.
4.) When you lift the cardboard molded insert from the box to retrieve the extra ear tips and lightning-to USB C cord, you’ll see that the cord is perfectly aligned with the circular indentation. That is also made of hard pressed cardboard, whereas Fake ones are plastic. On the REAL Apple AirPods box, this inner insert cannot be removed. It aligns perfectly to the edges of the box, whereas with any FAKE version the inner insert can be removed, is not perfectly aligned. The fake counterfeit companies do not have the precision manufacturing equipment to make a proper box and also Apple’s precision packaging is costly so Fakes look cheap and messy when compared to REAL AirPods Pro.
5.) When you open the cardboard flap of the extra ear tips, you’ll see that the upper flap has round indentations that hold the tips securely in place. None of the fakes I’ve seen so far have these circular indentations on the inner flap that covers the ear tips.
6.) The first time you open your AirPods Pro case to pair with your iPhone, iPad or any other device, you’ll notice the light on the charging case is “white”, not green, red or orange. All the fake ones that I’ve seen in YouTube videos light up either green or orange. Also pay close attention to the Text within the pairing window that says “AirPods Pro” ... some of the fakes say “Not Your AirPods Pro”.
7.) In order to get the new AirPod firmware features you need to ensure that all your devices have been updated to the most recent iOS or OS software version. Then once you’ve paired your AirPods Pro, they also need to be updated to the most current firmware version. As of today, December 31, 2020 the most recent firmware is 3A283. I’ll explain how to update your AirPod Pro firmware in the next step:
8.) You will 100% know that your AirPods Pro are REAL if you are able to update your firmware to 3A283, which adds the new features such as Surround Sound and seamless transition between all of your Apple devices. Once you’ve paired your AirPods Pro to your device, go to your Bluetooth Settings where you’ll see your AirPods Pro listed. Click on the (i) on the right hand side, look the Firmware Version that appears in the list. Mine arrived at Version 2D27, but yours might be different. To update your firmware to the most recent version, place your AirPods in the charging case and plug in the case (or place on wireless charging pad). Open the charging case while the Airpods are inside it. Also plug in your device and keep it open. Within approximately 15 - 30 minutes, maybe longer if you have a slow internet connection, the Firmware Version should automatically update to the most current version. As of today’s date, the latest version is 3A283.
If you are able to update the AirPods Pro to Apple’s latest firmware, you can be 100% certain that your AirPods Pro are REAL. The fake AirPods Pro will NOT update to Apple’s latest firmware and will not provide Surround Sound (Spatial Audio) or any of the other newest AirPods Pro features. If you are reading this review at a future date, do a Google search to find the most recent AirPods Pro firmware number. When future firmware updates are released, there will be a new Firmware Version number. Enjoy your AirPods Pro :-)
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