Apple AirPods Pro (1. generation) with Wireless charging case (2019)

These essentially are a perfect complement if you have an iPhone and even the Apple Watch. The H1 chip makes pairing absolutely effortless. Open the charging case and your phone detects them immediately. That’s what will lure many iPhone users towards any Airpods is the the convenience factor and that so called Apple ecosystem where everything works so seamlessly together.Sound quality is well balanced within the highs and mids with good separation of the instruments. It’s not heavy on bass if that’s your thing. What makes the sound great at least over the wired EarPods is how they generate a much better seal so you’re able to immerse more with your music. I’ve found having ANC on or off made no real difference to the quality in audio but I think this will be different for each person. I usually keep ANC on because it’s not that much of a drain on the battery with it activated.ANC itself is very good for a set of earbuds. You do notice how it drowns out any background noise. In my testing I found them to be as good as my Sony WH-1000MX3 though I’m sure on a plane the headphones would do a much better job.Comfort is surprisingly quite amazing. Usually when company’s flaunt a feature I’m dubious (like their ear fit test) but the way this has been designed to let air pass through the ear canal does make these very comfortable. That is provided that fit your ears because everyone is different. For me they were an excellent fit and I usually struggle with any ear phone/bud design. I can easily have these in my ears for 5 hours and would not suffer from ear fatigue.Because they are IPX4 water resistant I have used these for running and cycling. Running is great and this is again down to the little ear fatigue. I’m not going to use these whilst on a long run as I’d rather refrain from sweating buckets all over them so unfortunately cannot say how good of a fit they are when sweat does drip down to your ears. Cycling with these are ok. Problem is you hear a lot of the wind going at certain speeds so it’s not all that ideal but will do the job.Battery life with noise cancellation I’ve averaged around 5 hours which is pretty good for a small device with ANC on. Transparency mode is solid if you need to hear your own voice but that’s about it. I tried using this when speaking to someone at the counter and couldn’t hear him so ended up taking them out. I would probably need to do more testing with TM though.One last thing that’s really good is how the ear tips have a mesh at the bottom which is really smart as this stops any of that unwanted ear wax/gunk from landing onto the speakers themselves. This is a nice touch and something that I think all ear tips should have.It can’t be all good though so here are some minor annoyances I’ve noticed. First is definitely not being able to control the volume. It’s been like that since the first AirPods but surely this can easily be implemented. A lot of tech reviewers believe it’s because Apple want you to use Siri and if that’s the case that’s just plain stupid. If you have an Apple Watch then sure it’s manageable but if you go for a run then for some people it’s just easier if the volume was available to control on the device.Next is definitely customisation both from controls and sound. Sound is great as alluded to but it would be nice to tweak the settings to fine tune to my own particular tastes. Not being able to adjust what each press does it a bit of a letdown. There’s 2 buds which should mean plenty of options but the fact they both the left and right so the exact same thing is a missed opportunity. The only thing you can change is the long press between Siri and ANC/TM. I personally would prefer to have the left earbud go back a track when double tapping and the right earbud skip forward then having both of them do the same thing.I’ve only recently noticed this but I don’t believe there’s anyway to check the battery percentage without checking on your phone. It does make a small chiming noise when it’s down to 10% but would be nice if I can see how much there is by pressing one of the stems.Overall these are great wireless earbuds and I would recommend to anyone with an iPhone. You can use these for android but then there are better earbuds on the market since you lose a few features. The minor annoyances do not outweigh the benefits and this is one of Apples finer products. The only thing is if you buy it, you’ll find yourself more sucked into that ecosystem...

Sound Quality: These don't sound bad by any means. I will say that, the wired earbuds do sound better. Yes they might not have the special features like: 'Spatial Audio', 'Noise Cancellation', & the 'Transparency mode' but, they do sound a little better as far as bass goes. Like I said, they do have nice bass and I'm not saying that they sound bad, because they don't. I'm very judgy when it comes to sound quality and I do like things with a lot of bass so, take that with a pinch of salt. They also have around the same loudness as the normal wired earbuds. If not, maybe the Airpods are a little louder.Special Features: The noise cancellation is amazing! I was blown away with these. I use the 'Sennheiser GSP 300' when I'm using my PC. They have noise cancellation, but these are way, way better. I can still hear the fans on my PC when using those headphones (with no sound playing through them) but, with the Airpods Pro's, I couldn't hear them at all. When outside with these and the noise cancellation is enabled, it does cut out a lot of the sound. You still hear the higher pitched sounds, but it cancells out most things. I've heard on reviews that others say that the noise cancellation isn't anywhere near as good as what is offered on a top of the range pair of headphones. I've not been able to compair that as I don't own a high end pair of headphones, so I can't comment. I just thought I'd point that out just in case people were expecting the noise cancellation to block out every little sound. The transparency mode works like a charm! When enabled, it sounds like you have nothing in your ears, it just sounds like how it would without them in. I've not tried the 'Spatial Audio'. I have however heard that it is very immersiveStaying In My Ears: These Airpods stay in my ears a lot longer than the normal wired earbuds ever did. When working out, the wired earbuds would slide out a little and sometimes fall out which was frustrating. Due to the new design of these Airpods Pro's with the new silicone ear tips, they don't even slide out my ears to the point where I'd lose sound quality and/or fall out as much. The only time that of these Airpods did fall out of my ears is when doing pushups, it's always the left one. The right Airpod doesn't move, Weird, I know. Don't let that put you off though, that's just something to do with my ears. Other than that, doing any other workout/general everyday use such as walking around, sitting and listening to music, they've never fallen out.Bluetooth Connection: I've not had any connection issues with these Airpods. If you were worrying about these disconnecting a lot/having your music, movie, video play through your phone/connected device randomly, don't. Even if they did lose connection from your phone, the sound would pause if the connection was lost anyway. (On YouTube at least).Overall: I think that these Airpods are great and anyone who does purchase, won't be disappointed. The special features such as the transparency and the noise cancellation modes are brilliant! They're really nice for listening to music on full blast. They won't slide out of your ears, and they're comfortable. I'm happy with my purchase and don't have anything to complain about. Great product!