First, please comment if you have any questions and I would love to respond to help!I had the AirPods Pro Gen1 prior to these, but the new AirPods blew them out of the water. The added ear tips make customability even better especially for small ears like mine.The Active Noise Cancellation is clearly superior to the first generation and the addition of Adaptive audio is super cool and very useful.The battery is even better than I was expecting. The AirPods charge super fast in the case, and the case charging itself is also super fast. The USB-C cord is a very nice addition especially with the new, more common, USB-C charging block. The new Apple Braided USB-C cord is also a small but nice touch.I personally do not use the ring on the side, but I imagine many people may find it useful. The addition of the Find My capabilities with both the case and the AirPods themselves is beyond helpful because I always seem to misplace them. Small bonus, every time you charge the case or the AirPods, the case sounds off a little chime to let you know that they are charging or if the battery is low.As an owner of the AirPods Max and a former owner of the AirPods Pro gen 1, I would 100% recommend this new generation. The noise cancellation is superior to the gen 1, but slightly behind the Maxes because they are in-ear instead of over-ear. If you want the maxes, I would get them, but it depends on your activities. I have noticed recently how good the sound quality is. It’s stunning. Sometimes I still prefer my Maxes for certain listening experiences or if I’m heavily invested in a movie or I have a long flight, but the quality on the 2nd gen pros is so crisp. Some pitches you can notice are superior to that of the Maxes. In terms of listen, Maxes win, but it’s so damn close. AirPods Pro are ideal because they are small, discrete, and light weight. You can slip them in your pocket or place just one in your ear. They are also very useful and comfortable to use while working out, as opposed to the maxes.The AirPods are quite durable too. If my first pair is any indication to this pair, then I promise you, they can take a beating. After 4 years of having the first gen AirPods Pro, I have thrown them around, dropped them hundreds of times and they often got small scratches, but only chipped once or twice after higher falls on super hard surfaces. But they worked every single time.Long story short, if you’re on the fence, get them. They are super great for travel, workouts/runs, house chores, and all activities in general.Hope you find this helpful, if you have any questions please comment them! Read more

I’ve tried several hearing aid substitutes over the years, my past favorite being the now unavailable Bose Hearphones and costing $500. Rather than just a sound amplifier, these had several functions allowing you to filter and focus sounds in various ways and for various situations. They were pretty good.But now Apple has added some great features to their AirPods 2—features that function like far more expensive hearing aids and at less than half the price of the Bose product. I’ve owned these for a month or so and am now just getting the hang of how to use them. If there is a downside to these earbuds it is the rather deep and confusing tech included in them (or, at least confusing for a grandfatherly type like me). Once they are Bluetooth connected to your iPhone (They connect very easily with the button on the front of the EarPod’s charging case.) they should automatically connect every time you put them in your ears. You will then be able to access all the functions by tapping the “settings” app on your phone. You will find a heading near the top of the list just below the box with your name and iCloud options. Tapping on this will allow you to drill down through several pages of options. There are a lot of options there and it can be confusing, but experimenting with the various functions will help you figure out their purpose.The key here is to drill down to find the hearing test. This will quickly test for hearing loss by leading you through a series of tones of varying in pitch and volume. The end result will be an audiogram that can be used to program your EarPods as hearing aids. As stated before, it took me several weeks to find and activate this feature, but when I did a whole new experience dawned. Just be patient and search around for this function. It works very well.Of course, these things also serve as EarPods to listen to music or podcasts. (May I recommend “Pat Gray Unleashed!” if your bent is conservative commentary and just plain fooling around). The quality of sound is phenomenal and the buds are more comfortable than most to keep in your ears for an extended time. To control the volume for this function you can TRY to use the external control buttons located on those silly looking stems that hang out of your ears (good luck) OR just open the “Control Center” page (slide one finger upward on your iPhone screen to access this page) where you’ll find the volume slider. If your EarPods are connected and in your ears you’ll see the slider is marked as controlling the AirPods.I really like these things now that I’m a little more familiar with them. The quality and value are exquisite. If I discover more, I’ll edit this comment.4 MONTHS LATER: Apple has improved the controls for these in their latest iOS update. The functions I had to dig around to find are now more easily accessed. Getting to the hearing test is now fairly straight forward. Read more