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The third generation of the Apple AirPods is also the first with active noise cancellation. The price keeps going up, but the AirPods Pro also now feature interchangeable eartips and a revised charging case that will let you enjoy music or phone calls for up to 24 hours. Not only that, but the charging case itself supports Qi wireless charging too, for maximal convenience.
But is it worth the money, and how well do the Apple AirPods Pro integrate with the Apple ecosystem? Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ checks them out and finds that they're actually terrific, beautifully integrated into the iOS and Mac experience, and even feature some slick new controls on the connected devices too. Even with that, though, the AirPods Pro aren't for everyone, as Dave highlights in this review video.
Check them out on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2KsvCfJ
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Are these the best wireless earbuds for your iPhone
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Let's check them out. Dave Taylor here, and I'm looking at these
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These are the new Apple AirPods Pro, and I just want to start out up front
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They're really, really nice. Apple's done a really spectacular job with this engineering
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But let's talk about them. So, Bluetooth 5.0 powered by the H-1 chip, which means it's the 6.4
0:29
same chip that you're going to find in some of their beats products, but it gives them all sorts
0:35
of capabilities, most notably active noise cancellation. So each one of these ear pods, and you'll
0:41
notice that they're shorter and definitely have a different design to the previous generation of
0:46
AirPods, but each one of them has two microphones, one that is facing into your ear and another one
0:53
that is actually facing outward. And they use both of those, and they say they sample 200 times a second
1:00
to actually engage and work that active noise cancellation. And I will say it's pretty spectacular
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It works really well. In fact, when you just put them in, suddenly you realize that there it goes
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all the background noise, it's all gone. And what's cool is that they also, it's designed so that you have lots and lots of control on your iPhone
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Now, actually on any Apple product, because since it's clear, cloud base, once you pair them with one of your products, all your other products actually know
1:35
about it, very cool. So my Apple TV, I can use these to listen to TV. How cool is that, right? So same
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with my MacBook Pro. I can use these. I didn't have to pair them again. I didn't have to do that
1:46
sort of Bluetooth shuffle. Very nice. Now, one of the really cool things about it is that when you're
1:53
actually in the control center, let me show you this, when you're in control center, you can tap and hold on the
1:59
volume bar and now you get to the AirPods Pro control where you can change your active noise
2:06
canceling settings. Now transparency is interesting because transparency basically lets you hear everything
2:13
around you but the way these are designed, this is pretty important. They're designed where they
2:18
actually have an air channels. Now the air channels do two things. Number one, they keep the air pressure
2:25
inside your ear the same as the outside. So if you've used earbuds before and you get this sort of suction or vacuum effect or something
2:35
it's quite uncomfortable. These don't have that because they're actually the air is flowing back and forth
2:41
But it also means that in transparency mode, it can use the microphones to add the environmental
2:48
noise or ambient noise back to the mix. So it's not exactly like taking them out, but it's pretty close
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you can definitely have a conversation with someone without having to fiddle with your
2:59
earbuds at all. So that's really nice too. So the biggest difference, the biggest change
3:05
is ear tips comes with three sizes of ear tips and they pretty easy to put on There we go And so I always just automatically go to the largest but this is probably good time to look at the box It comes with three different sizes
3:22
Now, one of the things I've noticed is people complain that it doesn't come with a charging cable
3:27
Let's look in the box and see what that is the case. So it comes with some instructions and a warranty
3:34
No Apple sticker. Sorry. Here's some more instructions on how to use it and all the nifty features
3:40
and then you pulled a little holder out and pay attention because here are your different sizes of ear tips in this interesting little case
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Apple does, they must just have full-time engineers working on their case design
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It's pretty cool. So here's the other size ear tips. One of them just fell on the floor
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So it goes. But easy to work with, super easy to change sizes
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But not only that, but look what else is in the case
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Yes, it comes with a charging cable and it's not only a charging cable, it's USBC to lightning
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Because on the back of the charging case, actually I'm sorry on the bottom of the charging case, is a lightning connector
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So, super easy to work with. Now, what was it sitting on? What's this
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This is an otterbox wireless charging unit. So if I put these on the charging unit, then the light will come on
4:37
and the unit is actually charging wirelessly. Yes, like the very latest generation of regular AirPods
4:44
the AirPods Pro do wireless charging, which is a perfect segue into talking about batteries
4:51
So you can listen to somewhere between four and a half and five hours of music or talk
4:57
with a single charge in the earbuds, and then the case is good for five more charges
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That's why it's kind of big, but basically this gives you 24 hours of listening
5:10
And if you have active noise canceling and everything, it's going to eat up a little more battery life
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because there's actually a processor involved so there's actually work the earbuds need to do
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So if you want to have maximum battery life, then turn all that off
5:25
but then you lose a lot of the coolness of this. Now, there are also IPX4 sweat and water resistant
5:31
which means you can't wear them swimming. I mean, seriously, they can float away anyway
5:36
But if you're sweaty and it's a workout, you're fine. It's not going to be a problem
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Now, I doubt the cases, and no company talks about whether their case is waterproof or even has an IP rating
5:48
So be careful with that. You can't just drop this in the pool and say, everything will be fine
5:53
I mean, maybe it would. I don't know. But maybe not. Let's see what else we can talk about
5:58
So the STEM, the design is a little different. In previous generations, you would tap on the earbud to get things to happen
6:06
And I think people must have complained a lot about where do I tap, how do I orient my finger
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So what they've done instead is that the stem, it's a shorter stem, but it actually has a click button
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And so you can sort of feel it or hear it when you have it in your ear
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And that gives you what they call a force sensor. It gives you a lot of controls
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In fact here a little cheat sheet of single double triple tap all these different things you can do Now it also the case that Siri is always listening So you don even have to do anything or tap anything
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You can just say, hey, Siri, and then you can do things like pause music. So all of that's really handy
6:46
Now, right now, my phone is doing that, because I don't have these in
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But I think that's an interesting feature. You can turn it off. In fact, let's look real quick
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Under the Bluetooth settings on the phone, there's a lot of different things. things you can do, one of which is you can actually have it do its own fit test for the
7:04
ear tips. I was surprised when I ran mine. It said, you might want to try a different size
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Since these are the largest, unless an aftermarket company comes out with XL, have big ears
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can't help it. Then this is the best I'm going to get. And honestly, my experience with these
7:21
my audio experience is fantastic. But I just want to go through all the specs, and then we'll
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talk about the audio. So let's see what else we can talk about. Five times
7:29
charging from case. One cool thing is that if you drop them in, give them five minutes in the
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case and that'll give you an hour of additional listening. So there's a really fast charge thing
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going on here, which is great. They also have something called audio sharing, which is interesting
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So with these, you can actually not only use these, but you can pair another pair of AirPods or AirPods
7:52
Pro and then two people can, with both ears, listen to the same music source. That's obviously
7:59
great if you're sharing a movie on your computer on an airplane or something like that
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But it's a useful feature. I don't know that I'll use it very much because I feel like sort of the point of these sort
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of devices is to have your own private listening space, which gets us to the sound
8:17
And I just want to say, let this charge a little bit, I just want to say they sound spectacular
8:23
They really sound nice. I was very impressed. not just because finally AirPods have active noise cancellation
8:31
but because the sound reproduction is really good. Now, as with any of these sort of devices
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the better the fit in your ear, the more ability you have to get that full range of audio
8:43
But I found that there was very a precise cleanness about it
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though they don't get monster loud. I also found that when I was in a noisy environment
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like a coffee shop or something, I did have to turn them up to probably at least 75
8:56
volume to get any good feel for the music in a quieter environment that might be less of an issue
9:04
But if you're the kind of person that wants your, you know, thrash metal at super maximum ear bleeding
9:09
volume, these might not be the earbuds for you. But if you're looking for something where you're going to get just a really nice reproduction
9:16
and a good sound stage and a good clarity to the music where the highs aren't tiny and they
9:23
don't make you cringe and you can actually hear the baseline as such, These are very, very nice
9:29
I think Apple's done a really spectacular job with these. And as always, with Apple products, people give them a lot of grief, but boy, they engineer the heck out of these things
9:39
These really are just looking at the problem in a different way, from how they integrate with your phone
9:45
to the fact that you can remotely turn on and off the active noise cancellation or you can just click and you got it turned off you know so you can talk to someone and then click you back on It all remarkably easy
9:58
The battery life is terrific. There's nothing to complain about with four and a half to five hours on the earbuds themselves and then five more charges out of the case
10:07
You know, is the case bigger? It's actually not a lot bigger
10:11
The difference is that the previous generation AirPods were more oriented this way, and this is now
10:16
oriented this way. It's probably a little fatter and maybe a little bit heavier, but that's really
10:22
pretty negligible. Which brings us to the final piece, which is the price. Now, before I get to
10:28
the price, I'm going to ask if you can subscribe to my channel. Really appreciate it. And give me some
10:34
feedback. What else do you wish I would have talked about? Oh, and that reminds me, these are
10:38
fantastic for phone calls. I love one of the main reasons I use AirPods is because it's great for
10:44
phone calls and I use them all the time and these do even better because that active noise canceling
10:49
means I can actually make a phone call in a noisy environment and it helps my sound to them
10:56
but it definitely helps their sound to me. So, you know, the whole audio quality is great. They are
11:02
incredibly tiny latency. So if you want to watch a movie or something, like I said, there's no
11:08
out of sync issues or anything. Really, really well done, Apple. So, okay
11:14
I sort of squeeze that all in at the end. So these are the Apple AirPods Pro available in 197 different shades of pure white
11:22
I lie. They come in white and white and white. There were rumors they were going to come in different colors, but as of yet, that is not a reality
11:30
I wish they did. I know Apple likes its white products, but I wish they could even just have colors that match their iPhone line or something
11:38
Wouldn't that be cool? So instead you get aftermarket stuff. Not as good
11:42
Oh, anyway, these are the Apple AirPods Pro strong thumbs up. Real big endorsement
11:51
These are really great. My kids absolutely want to steal these from me, but they're $249 at Amazon.com and Apple.com and elsewhere
12:01
so they're pretty spendy. Now, shop around a little bit because there are a number of companies offering a $10 to $15 off, including Amazon right now
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And since we are coming up to the holiday shopping season, for those of you watching this as I post it
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then I suspect this is going to be a hot item for Black Friday, too. So keep your eyes open
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You never know what you can find. Really, I'm a fan. I'm going back to them
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So I'm going to go back to my music, which means, give me a second
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And by the way, do you notice how I take them out? This is one of those things you want to figure out if you own these is just pull them forward
12:38
and it works a whole lot better than trying to pull them straight out. And with that, I will catch you in my next video
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