Apple AirPods Pro: review, price and specification – Intras & Headphones

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Nearly three years after their arrival on the market, the notoriety of classic AirPods among the general public remains unrivaled in the field of headphones true wireless. It must be admitted, however, that this popularity only serves to equalize the disdain accorded to them by the most demanding consumers, who reproach them – and rightly so – with just passable sound performances and a very perfectible musicality. This finding, the AirPods Pro intend to make it obsolete, proposing not only an active noise reduction, but also an audio restitution ambitions very much revised upwards.

AirPods Pro are commercially available since October 31, 2019, at a price of € 279.

The build quality of the AirPods Pro is extremely similar to that of the original AirPods, that is, excellent. The charging case and the headphones themselves use the brilliant white plastic that is Apple's signature and well-known: apart from a small tendency to grip the micro-scratches, it should withstand assaults of time.

On the assembly side, the almost irreparable character of AirPods Pro is already documented, but it's really the lot of almost all headphones true wireless of the market – which does not prevent this finding from being deplorable. But we can at least note that here, the abundant use of adhesive materials has the benefit of providing a water resistance meeting the IPX4 certification; the headphones can not accompany us during our swimming sessions, but we can at least wear them in the rain without endangering their proper functioning.

The comfort, meanwhile, is completely reviewed. The AirPods Pro are abandoning the "one size fits all" approach of their elders, and come with silicone tips of three different sizes. However, the AirPods Pro do not become so real intra-auricular: their tips are just land on the entrance of the ear canal, and not fit into it. They are in this sense closer to Bose QC20 or QC30 than Sony WF-1000XM3, for example. This non-intrusive side is obviously a major advantage for comfort, especially since the maintenance is also absolutely excellent – even better than that of the original AirPods.

It should be noted, however, that while this is valid for the vast majority of people we have been able to try the headphones, it is not universal. We have been faced with a few rare cases of users failing to correctly position them in their ears, often because of conch too small to fully house the body of the headphones. It is unfortunately inevitable: the huge variety of ear morphologies in humans makes it impossible to design headphones with irreproachable comfort for everyone.

Like the second-generation AirPods released early 2019, the AirPods Pro integrate the Apple H1 chip, allowing a very deep integration with the ecosystem of the brand. Especially fast pairing works as well as the first day: just open the headphone case near your iPhone, press the "connect" button on the interface that has just appeared automatically … and here are your new headphones already associated not only with your phone, but also with your Apple Watch, iPad and Mac. Therefore, whatever device you are using, just open the audio menu or AirPlay of the device to select the AirPods Pro as output device, without ever having to disconnect or reconnect manually. What happiness!

It is also possible to connect the AirPods Pro to a non-Apple device, but it goes without saying that the experience is then much less satisfactory. We not only lose the benefit of multi-device use, but also simply access to headphone settings … and for good reason: these are housed directly in the "Bluetooth" menu of iOS ( version 13.2 or later only). From here, we can of course activate or deactivate the noise reduction or the transparency mode – but unfortunately we can not adjust the intensity of the noise reduction, unlike the Sony WF-1000XM3, for example – or change the assigning a long press on the control button.

Because indeed, the controls of AirPods Pro no longer activate by tapping the headphones, but by pinching their rod, thanks to the presence of a force sensor. When handling, a small click sound indicates the proper consideration of the support; without reaching the natural of a haptic feedback, the trick is surprisingly effective, and allows this interface to be almost as enjoyable to use as a physical button. The long press can optionally control the activation of the noise reduction or the call of Siri, while the brief presses are used to control the reading: simple support for reading / pause, double for the next track, triple for the previous track. Like almost always on headphones true wireless, only missing the volume setting. For this, you must either call on Siri, or use the buttons of his iPhone … or the crown of his Apple Watch!

Anyway, it remains eminently positive to note that the AirPods Pro have largely got rid of the dependence on Siri suffered by the original AirPods. The voice assistant of Apple has indeed been much too little improved in 3 years: the relevance of the answers it provides to our requests is always random, sometimes varying completely according to whether it is in one way or another. It is also very unfortunate that Apple has not found it necessary to teach it to control the noise reduction of AirPod Pro …

On top of that, the AirPods Pro are obviously equipped with proximity sensors. They allow you to automatically pause when you remove a headset, but that's not all: by default, the transparency mode is also automatically activated on the other earpiece, avoiding the unpleasant sensation that comes from the fact of 'hear the outside world only with one ear. The kind of little attention that does not change life, but that contributes to the real pleasure of using these headphones everyday.

The autonomy of the AirPods Pro is consistent with the promise of Apple, and very similar to that of the classic AirPods: compared to the 5 hours of endurance of the latter, we are located either very slightly below with noise reduction activated (4 h 30 min), slightly above without the reduction (5 h 30 min). The storage case adds to that a little less than 4 full additional charges. Note that this box is compatible with wireless charging via the Qi standard.

The diffusion latency is about 160 ms; a very good value for headphones true wireless, but still noticeable when it translates into a shift sound / image when viewing a video. It is rare that we suffer this inconvenience, since with most applications on iOS and Mac (including of course system applications), this offset is compensated automatically during playback.

Finally, let us end by evoking the quality of voice recording … which unfortunately proves to be a small disappointment, being significantly less effective than those of conventional AirPods, especially in the erasure of external noise. Is this a consequence of the shorter stem of the AirPods, which would prevent the microphones to perform such effective spatial filtering? Impossible to be sure, but still it can be damaging, especially when you want to use the voice command "Dis Siri": as long as you're in a subway a little noisy, he it becomes necessary to utter the voice more than reason to make itself understood by the assistant, and thus to attract the exasperated looks of other travelers. It remains certainly well above the average headphones true wirelessbut we still hoped better.

Examples of quiet indoor voice capture, and on the sidewalk of a noisy street with windy weather. Signal normalized to -1 dBFS.

It is not surprising to see the AirPods Pro confirm Apple's expertise in the user experience. On the other hand, let's face it, we really did not expect them at this level of audio delivery, far from being satisfied with the union minimum that we paid for the original AirPods.

In terms of overall balance to start, the AirPods Pro are placed among the headphones true wireless the most adroit to have gone through our measurement lab. They offer a very warm color reproduction, as shown by the penchant for low frequencies, but also a regularity simply impossible to take in default. No excess or deficit is heard across the spectrum, the transparency of the signal produced is assured in all circumstances.

What else to say about the audio services of the AirPods Pro? We must admit it, we feel all the trouble in the world to find the verve about them. Reason to that: the newborns of Apple have in fact for more beautiful quality … the fact to have no real defect. In addition to the balance of the frequency response, all criteria taken one by one, there is almost always at least one other model of headphones true wireless doing better than them. The precision of midrange and treble? It does not rise to the level of the Sony WF-1000XM3 – but remains of a level very sufficient to ensure a perfectly natural voice rendering, and a completely satisfactory sound stage clarity, even on the densest songs. The reactivity of low frequencies? We have already heard better, especially on the side of the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless, a little more punchy and dynamic – but the AirPods Pro still provide transients of sufficient clarity so that we never feel any lack of sitting or deep.

All in all, the sound reproduction of the AirPods Pro does not really excel in anything, but provides solid and assured work in everything. It does not have the richness that one would need for an analytical listening by which one would like to perceive all the micro-details of his music; but it has the cleanliness, liveliness and versatility that will make it easy for anyone, even the most discerning user, to listen to any music without missing a beat. . Basically, this is exactly what we expect from a nomadic product like this one. An expectation that very few competitors can boast of satisfying so fully.

Added to this is an active noise reduction with an absolutely staggering efficiency. Let's put it very simply: At the time of this Review, the AirPods Pro are positioning themselves with the Sony WF-1000XM3 as the only two models of headphones true wireless market to offer a truly convincing noise reduction – and even significantly more than that. They reduce with disconcerting ease the sounds of the engine of a car, the rolling of a train, or even conversations taking place in a car. open space animated. Only the slight loss of effectiveness of the insulation in the treble should be noted, which makes that some hissing or whistling noises can reach our eardrums with a power a little higher than what one would have obtained with a big helmet with bow. They must still have some advantages for them.

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