AirPods Pro vs AirPods 2 - Real Differences after 1 week!

I've been using the AirPod Pros every day for the last week, and I have to say that yes these are legitimately really good, but they aren't perfect and they do have some downsides compared to regular AirPods. I'll let you know exactly what those are, along with who should upgrade and who shouldn't. Let's start out with the biggest concerns that I had. When Apple released the original AirPods they basically freed me from the biggest downsides of earphones. I love using AirPods since their separate pod design not only allows me to just put in one bud without it being pulled down a cable or anything else, but also the fact that it doesn't plug my ear so I can be aware of my environment. And then come the new AirPods Pros. I was worried that I would lose the awareness due to the seal, but Apple has done some sort of magic with ambient mode, and with the Pros I can actually hear my environment better. Now yes I have used similar features with other headphones, but they usually are just a bit off or sound fake and digital. Nothing that I've heard have come close to the natural accurate quality of the Pros ambient mode. A big part of this could definitely be Apple's pressure equalizing vent. This thing is crazy. A big reason why I don't often use my galaxy buds is that like most in-ear earbuds, they cause pressure in your ear when you insert them which makes them a little less comfortable. But like most people I don't complain about this because that is the norm with this style but at the same time not having that pressure is something I love about the regular AirPods. And Apple figured out how to get the best of both worlds with the Pros. It's actually kinda weird. You put them in, your ear gets plugged as normal, but about 2 seconds later you feel that pressure go away. Wow. With that said, one thing I've found in the last week is that for long listening sessions, even with this new ambient mode, the pressure valve, and no plastic tip going into your ear, they are not as comfortable as the regular AirPods for very long listening sessions, but still much more comfortable than other earbuds like the Galaxy Buds or Powerbeats Pros. Now onto battery life, and it is fantastic. I was a bit worried based on Apple's lower rating based on half volume playback, but in my experience it actually seemed better than my fresh pair of AirPods 2. Searching online I found the Soundguides review where they got about an extra hour of battery life with the Pros at about 75 decibels, and that was actually with noise cancellation turned on. I fix found that the Pro's battery is almost twice as big as the regular's so that makes sense. Onto the charging case, it now has two battery cells instead of one, and of course it is slightly larger. I do have a few pair of tighter jeans, and with those, the Pro's larger case was more noticeable in my pocket, not a huge difference but it is something worth mentioning. Next comes the controls. I've never loved the tapping that was required before but it did work, and now having to grab and press a little stem sounded a bit weird at first but after about a week, I like it way more. As soon as you press, there is a little audible click telling you that your interaction was registered, and now that I'm used to it, it feels way better than tapping on the pod, and it also allows for more options as well. Now onto audio quality, I've heard everything from it sounds about the same to wow these sound way better, and I'm on the latter end, but it really matters what and where you're listening. Listening to podcasts and audiobooks has the least amount of quality difference since both can reproduce voices quite well, but what does help a ton is the noise cancellation, especially if you're listening at lower volumes or in loud environments. The first audio comparison I did was with a pretty bassy song on YouTube, and I didn't notice that much of a difference. I then listened to some EDM, rock, and classical which really showed the difference. The more complex the track, the more that the pros shine, and along with that, the higher quality the audio, the bigger the difference. I started a title trial and compared with some master files, and man there is a massive difference there. But like I said, if you listen to simple bass heavy tracks, especially in compressed formats, you're not going to notice that big of a difference. Overall, they sound very good and balanced without too much exaggeration, and flatter than the highly praised and often compared Sony WF-1000XM3's, as you can see by the sound guy's test, but it still offers a nice rich sound that most people will enjoy. Another concern that I had was loudness. I absolutely love how loud the AirPods can get, which they kinda have to in order to drown out other sounds, whereas the sealed Galaxy Buds are often too quiet, especially when you have tracks that are not normalized properly and that does become an issue. The first bassy track that I compared with sounded a fair bit quieter with the pros, so I was worried, but listening to better quality content, the volume seemed about the same, and then playing master tracks on title resulted in the pros being louder than the AirPods. The only way this makes sense is that the pros have inward facing mics that will equalize the audio specifically for your ears as well as limit distortion, meaning that low quality songs were likely tuned down to limit distortion, but high quality tracks are allowed to play louder. I can't prove this, but everything else points to this conclusion, and with good quality audio, loudness is not a problem. The last thing I want to cover is noise cancellation. There are only a few times that I grab other headphones instead of AirPods, and that's mostly when I need to block out noise. With the pros, I won't have to look elsewhere or bring two pairs of headphones to get noise cancellation when I go on trips. They aren't as good as the over ear 1000MX3's or XM3's but they do sound about on par to the N60 AKG's that I have that I would often take with me to supplement the AirPods. The active noise cancellation is more than good enough, so now I can just travel with the AirPods and not have to take other headphones with me. So overall, what did I learn in the last week? Well, first off, Apple has a clear winner on their hands. With good audio, they sound fantastic, the battery life is great, comfort is class leading, handling is improved, and noise cancellation is good enough to replace dedicated headphones. I also learned that if you listen to low quality audio, especially with those that don't have a lot of things going on as far as instruments and sounds, the audio quality difference isn't huge and you shouldn't upgrade just for that. Comfort is good, but if you wear regular AirPods and they fit well, and you use them for very long periods of time, they are still slightly more comfortable due to not having anything that goes into your ear canal. If you're on the fence deciding if it is worth the extra money when buying or upgrading, I would say for most, it definitely is. Thank you guys for watching, if you want to see our full review of the AirPods Pro you can click right over there. We also have another comparison coming up with the Galaxy Buds and the Echo Buds that come in for just $129 so make sure you subscribe by clicking that little circle above and enabling notifications down below. This has been Max with Max Tech and I'll see you in the next video.