Apple AirPods Pro

Before getting into the review, I want to give you my background story. I'm more of a casual listener and by no means I consider myself an audiophile. I used Airpods first gen for quite some time and I really enjoyed them. As they began to age, I started looking for a replacement. I was torn between getting Airpods 2nd gen, or spending a bit more and getting Airpods pro. After watching several reviewers saying the pros sound considerably better than Airpods gen 2, I was finally convinced to give these a shot, mainly because I've never used noise cancelling ear buds before and was curious to try them out. Having said that, let's dive into the review. I will it break down into five categories: (Design, comfort, sound quality, features and battery life) Design: Airpods pro are a pair of good looking ear buds. I never thought original Airpods looked bad, but Airpods pro definitely look much better. I definitely appreciated the shorter stem. No complaints here. Comfort: Airpods pro come with replaceable silicon ear tips in three different sizes (S, M, L), whereas original Airpods come with plastic ear buds. Many people praised the new ear tips because they were more comfortable and would not fall off their ears as regular Airpods did; However, my experience was quite the opposite. Even after trying all three ear tips, Airpods pro felt uncomfortable after wearing them for a while. Also, they would not fit in my ear as well as regular Airpods, which caused them to constantly fall off. I could use regular Airpods for hours without feeling any discomfort, plus they would never fall off. Long story short, original Airpods have a better fit for me and are more comfortable to wear than Airpods pro. Sound Quality: I had big expectations about the sound quality from these earbuds. Airpods gen 1 had excellent sound and I had no complaints. However from the moment I first used Airpods pro, I immediately noticed they don't sound that great. I feel Airpods 1 had a crisp and bright sound, but Airpods pro lacked brightness and sounded a bit "dull". After doing some research online I found out you can go to settings > accessibility > Headphones accommodations and tweak the sound to make it brighter. To be honest this helped a bit, but I still was not satisfied with the sound quality. On top of that Airpods 1 had a small hole at the upper part of each earbud which added bass to the sound. For some reason, that hole is no longer included with Airpods pro, which causes them to sound less bassy. This is a subtle change not a lot of people talk about, but it's something that really bothered me. Features: The two main features advertised with the Airpods pro are Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode, both of which worked really well. I tried noise cancelling while commuting on the bus and the subway and it does an amazing job at blocking most of the outside noise. You can still hear some loud noises, but those are muted significantly. As for Transparency mode, it amplifies outside noise so you can be aware of your surroundings while listening to music. This was quite helpful while I was walking on the street and did not want to be completely isolated from the outside world. Overall I'd say these two features are a solid 10/10 Battery life: On paper Airpods pro have less battery life than Airpods 2 (4.5 hours of playback time on Airpods pro, vs 5 hours on Airpods 2). Nevertheless, this was never a problem for me. I never got to completely kill the battery. The earbuds also charge really fast when you put them inside the case. In short, I would not say battery life is not an issue with Airpods pro. In conclusion, I was quite disappointed with Airpods pro. Although I was highly satisfied the Noise Cancelling feature, sound quality was not what I expected. Besides, they were not as comfortable as I thought and they would fall off my ears easily. I ended up selling the Airpods pro and I will order a pair of Airpods 2. At the end of the day using headphones is a very subjective experience. Maybe you'll pick them up and like them more than I did. I definitely suggest trying them out first if you can. If you enjoy Airpods pro's sound quality and you find them comfortable, I'd say go for these instead of Airpods 2 (Prime Day is coming up soon. I bet Airpods pro will be on sale at a much lower price). For me, I will be sticking with good ol' Airpods 2 for the time being.