When I bought my AirPods a few years ago, I couldn’t believe how I ever lived without them. The only thing I wished they had was the little silicone tips that make the earbuds actually stick in your ears, because I think they’re more comfortable. It wasn’t enough to stop me from using the AirPods daily, but it was on my wish list.
So when I saw that Apple came out with the AirPods Pro, which are the noise-cancelling version of the AirPods with silicone tips, I was so excited. I tried to hold off on buying them for as long as I could, because the AirPods that I have still work perfectly fine. But with all the extra phone and video calls that I’m doing right now, both for work and for fun, it seemed like the right time to bite the bullet and buy them.
Just like the “regular” AirPods, I’ve been using them daily and don’t know how I waited this long. The noise cancelling aspect is great – it doesn’t totally block out every single sound, but it does a really great job. Even when I’m not actually listening to anything, the headphones still block out ambient noise almost completely, and people talking are really muffled. And once I’m listening to music, it’s all that I can hear! You can also turn the noise cancelling effect off/on, both by pressing on the earbuds themselves, or by the volume slider in the Control Center on your phone.
They’ve been great for all my Zoom calls, and they don’t hurt my ears even when I’m wearing them for a few hours at a time. They come with three different sizes of silicone tips, and you can go through a really short check on the phone to make sure the ones you’re using have the right seal. And just like all Apple products, I love how seamlessly they switch between devices, so I can go from using them on my laptop for a video call to using them on my phone without issues. The battery life is a little shorter than the regular AirPods, but if you’re worried about them running out in the middle of something, you can always use just one of the earbuds for a bit while you charge the other – even just 10 minutes of charging gives you another hour or so of listening.
Were they something that I absolutely needed? Probably not. But they have made my life more pleasant in the last few weeks, and I see myself using them long after the stay-at-home orders end. I already can’t wait to use them to block out my dad’s 70s music on our next family road trip!
