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I love the Apple AirPods Pro 2 USB-C. To my mind, they’re quite simply the best headphones I’ve ever used. Not the best when it comes to audio quality or the most efficient when it comes to noise cancellation but they’re absolutely the best all-rounders: the most fully featured, the most convenient and most comfortable.
At their normal price of £230, they’re usually pretty good value, too, but at the Black Friday deal price of £179 – a rare chunky discount on a current Apple product – they’re a stupendously fabulous bargain.
Why are they so good? Here are a few of my favourite things about the Apple AirPods Pro 2 USB-C:
1. Find My support means they are impossible to lose
I take my headphones everywhere with me. I use them to listen to music at my desk and participate in video calls, tune in to podcasts on my commute and (very occasionally) the cricket when I’m out on my long Sunday run.
That means I’m always leaving headphones everywhere – and forgetting where I put them. With the Find My feature on my iPhone and the ultrawideband chip inside the AirPods Pro, I can relocate them in an instant, down to the nearest centimetre pretty much – something that I’m sure has saved me so much time over the years.
2. Not the best, but still very impressive sound quality
I’m a bit of a stickler for audio quality so I’ve spent more than I care to think about over the years on hi-fi gear, headphones, amps and speakers – and no, the AirPods Pro 2 USB-C are not the best I’ve plugged in my ears when it comes to sound quality. However, they do a very good job with a broad variety of content. Whether that be podcasts, quiet classical recitals, raucous metal or thumping drum and bass they very rarely leave me wanting more.
3. Comfort and convenience in spades
On the rare occasion I think I’d rather don a pair of over-ear headphones for a bit of extra clarity or weight at the bottom end, I remind myself how much more comfortable the AirPods Pro 2 USB-C are when compared with bulky sweaty headphones that clamp on your ears and wrap around the top of your head.
I’ve always found it incredibly easy to get the perfect fit with Apple’s AirPods Pro – not something I can say for every pair of wireless earbuds I’ve tried – and the vented design means there’s none of that microphonic effect that amplifies your breathing or eating.
Plus, when I’ve finished with them I can pop them away in their charging case and stick them in my pocket. I don’t have to hang them around my neck or have them taking up space in my bag.
4. Seamless pairing across multiple Apple devices
One of the neatest things about the AirPods Pro 2, in fact any AirPods headphones, is that once you’ve paired them with one of your Apple devices – your iPhone 16, for instance, that pairing information is then stored in iCloud and made available to the rest of your Apple devices.
In addition to that, they’re among the easiest headphones to pair of any I’ve ever come across. On first use, all you have to do is bring them near your iPhone and a pairing window appears on screen automatically – a couple of clicks later and you’re ready to go.
5. Noise cancelling that’s not the best, but still super effective
I’ve heard better noise cancelling than you get with the AirPods Pro 2 USB-C, which is probably due to the lack of passive attenuation, but none more flexible or whose transparency modes are more effective.
I’ve worn these headphones on flights, the London Underground, and quieter office environments and have never been disappointed in the amount of rumble and general hubbub they get rid of.
Better still is the AirPods Pro 2 USB-C’s incredible adaptive transparency mode. This allows you to listen to and stay aware of what’s going on in the outside world – and it’s good to the point where you forget you’re wearing earbuds at all – but, when things get too loud, the mode adapts, tuning out the loudest of audio while keeping everything in balance.
I find this perfect for use on noisy public transport like London’s Tube system, where you may want to listen out for announcements, but don’t want to be deafened by the 90dBA-plus screech of wheels on track.
In short, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 USB-C are the real deal. They sound great. They’re incredibly comfortable, the noise cancellation is effective and the transparency mode is even more effective. At the current price of £179 I think they’re an outright bargain, and if you own an iPhone you owe it to yourself to own a pair.
