 Now Apple already refreshed the AirPods earlier this year, but only with an extra hour of talk time and a wireless charging case accessory. And in our review, we asked Apple to address some of the other annoyances that we have with their original iconic design. And believe it or not guys, Apple actually listened to us. I mean, obviously they couldn't admit something like that publicly, imagine the scandal, but Tim, I see you watching out there. You wanna learn about our sponsor. If you're looking to get more performance, treat yourself to GeForce this holiday season with an Origin PC powered by GeForce RTX graphics. Check it out at the link below to learn more. Let's start with the biggest change. Apple makes in-ears now, eliminating one of the best non-ear canal invading options on the market. Well, I mean, actually it's not eliminated. You can still buy the non-pro AirPods on Apple's website, but then you'd be walking around with visibly old AirPods, which pretty much defeats the purpose, doesn't it? You don't wanna look like a commoner, do you? Actually, no, you don't. Because this change in design means that the sound quality of the AirPods Pro is greatly improved now that the earbud can form a proper seal with the ear. It's unclear whether the better audio is mostly due to that seal or the updated speaker design, but regardless, the new AirPods Pro has fuller mids and more bass, all without being overpowering. Overall, I'd say they sound about as good as some of the other wireless earpods that we, earpods? This is what happens when I can't hear myself talk. I put these in. Overall, they sound about as good as some of the other wireless earpods we, well, that clearly wasn't the problem. Overall, they sound about as good as some of the other wireless earbuds we had on hand, although you can really notice a difference when comparing the AirPods Pros directly with audiophile options like the Sennheiser Momentums. Interestingly, Apple's own Powerbeats Pro appear to have less punch in the mids and lows than the new AirPods Pro, which could be part of why the Powerbeats Pros have dropped from $249 to $200 on the Apple Store. Swapping quickly back and forth between the AirPods Pros and the Galaxy Buds though, thanks to Android 10's awesome new Bluetooth output switching feature, we'd say the audio quality was honestly a bit of a toss-up. So then, why are we so positive about this? How does Apple justify the AirPods Pros being $120 more? Well, part of the answer is that the AirPods Pro have active noise cancellation, a new feature that Apple invented just for this product. Sorry, no, that's been a thing for a long time, but you wouldn't actually guess it based on Apple's marketing, which calls the AirPods Pro a new class of headphones. In case you're not in the loop, headphones with ANC use outward-facing microphones to detect consistent external sounds like background noise. They then create an equal and opposite audio signal, which cancels out the first one. It usually works great in environments that are noisy in a consistent way, like the cabin of an aircraft, but when it comes to unpredictable, punctuated sounds like human voices, it tends to struggle. Where Apple says that they've innovated is by also equipping the AirPods Pro with inward-facing microphones to detect sound inside your ear canal to ensure that the active noise cancellation is working correctly. Apparently, the AirPods Pro sample audio 200 times per second and then adjust the ANC so you're only hearing what you're supposed to hear. Now, granted, to my knowledge, there's only one other pair of in-ear wireless earbuds on the market with active noise cancellation, and that's the Sony WF-1000MX3s. So while the AirPods Pros may not be breaking entirely new ground, they're certainly entering a somewhat exclusive club and probably introducing this concept to millions of consumers for the first time. So is it any good? Well, for a first effort, I will say, actually, you know what? Forget it. Not just for a first effort. The ANC on the AirPods Pros is pretty fantastic. It activates as soon as you put them in, even if you haven't paired them to anything yet, and hearing the sound of the world just kind of get sucked away is always cool. It's like those scenes in movies where the protagonist realizes something totally crazy, like, wait, this is an Apple product that I like. Now, of course, this feeling is similar to the effect that you'll have heard if you've used full-size headphones with ANC before, but it's also different in a way that's kind of hard to describe. Like there's something special about having that ANC effect while only feeling a small pressure in your ear canals instead of a giant clamp on your head. I also found that the brain pressure sensation that some people describe feeling while using noise cancellation was very subtle on these compared to many of the over ears that I've used in the past, perhaps due to Apple's included pressure equalization vents. Another huge plus for the AirPods Pro is comfort. Many wireless earbuds, including Apple's own PowerBeats Pro, use hooks, braces, and rubber doohickeys in order to secure themselves in place, leaving you feeling like there's a small creature kind of holding onto the side of your head for dear life. But the AirPods Pro, much like their non-in-ear cousins, almost seems just kind of rest or float in your ear. It's hard to say whether it's the extraordinarily lightweight, the excellent force distribution, or even just the shorter stems, but the experience overall is kind of magical. On that subject, while many wireless earbuds allow users to tap on them or slide on them for controlling their music, the AirPods Pro have a new control method. You pinch the force sensor in the AirPods stem once, short, or long, twice, or three times, with the default being a long press for transparency mode, but that can be reconfigured to some in Siri if you're not comfortable with being like, hey, Siri, to no one when you're walking around in public. You can also turn ANC features off altogether by long pressing on the volume slider, but not on the AirPods Pros, but rather in the iOS control center. There's no such option on Android, I'm afraid. And there are a handful of other Android pleb inconveniences, including no first-party battery life reporting or support for remapping the force sensors to summon Google Assistant. Fortunately though, for us plebs, Android is infinitely customizable, and there's an app for that. And honestly, we think there's a good reason to go through the hassle of tracking down an app. The AirPods Pro give up nothing of the everyday usability of the regular AirPods, though with that said, ANC does cut your per charge listening time down by half an hour, and they otherwise improve on them in every way. And while you could say, well, the case is bigger, and that kind of sucks, I actually disagree. I recently started daily driving Powerbeats Pros when the Galaxy Fold seduced me over to the no headphone jack side, and I really liked everything about them, except that the case was simply not pocketable. So it was always inconvenient to get them. I had to go and grab my backpack. The AirPods Pros by contrast, yeah, they're bigger than the AirPods, but they easily fit not just in your pocket, but in that small extra pocket that keeps them from bumping or scratching your phone or getting scratched by your keys. So they're bigger, but they're just as compact as a rolled up pair of wired earphones anyway. And wireless charging feels pretty much like chucking my earphones onto my nightstand. So this size has made the transition a lot easier. If I had to make a decision based on price though, well, the Galaxy Buds are similar sounding and just over a hundred bucks if you can live with some audio latency issues. And the Anchor Sound Core Liberty 2 Pros are a better sounding option for a hundred dollars less if you can live without ANC or social status. And that's kind of it in a nutshell. I could recommend a dozen other things, but every single one of them would have a caveat. My opinion, these are hands down, the most refined combination of sound quality, comfort and ease of use. And they are absolutely my go-tos at this point. Even if that's only because dbrand paid for them for me. Just like they paid for this message from our sponsor, dbrand. dbrand is your source for awesome textured vinyl skins. They're available for laptops, phones, tablets, consoles, controllers, even AirPods cases and more. They're made from high quality 3M vinyl that's true texture. Their patented adhesive is guaranteed to leave no residue on your shiny eye device if you want to change the skin. Their uncompromising precision in cutting the vinyl ensures a factory fit for your device. And they not only look great, but they also protect your stuff against incidental scuffs and scratches. Their customer service robots are easy to work with and their products are both affordable and available worldwide. So check out the link to dbrand in the video description. These things really are great. Speaking of great, if you think our videos are great, you should watch one of our other videos. Oh yeah, where we rounded up a bunch of cheaper earphones. Check out that one. Cause yeah, not everyone can afford this. Thank you dbrand.