Audio review
AirPods Pro 2 Review: Three Labs, Three Different Battery Numbers
Measured runtime came in at 5 hours 43, 6 hours 03 and 8 and a half hours depending on who ran the test. The noise cancelling has a hole in it at 1kHz that only one of them looked for.
By Paulo GerchonPublished 2 min read
Illustration, not a photo — we don’t have a licensed image of this product yet.
Apple
Apple AirPods Pro 2
Good · researched from 5 sources
Still the easiest recommendation for anyone inside the Apple ecosystem, mostly on comfort and call quality rather than raw cancelling. Look elsewhere if you want an equaliser you control or a codec better than AAC.
- Buy if
- iPhone owners who want cancelling that needs no configuration · Anyone taking a lot of calls, where they measured best · All-day wear, where comfort scored highest
- Skip if
- Android users, who lose most of the features and the better codecs · Exercise, where Headphones Addict found them working loose · Listeners who want to tune the sound themselves
We don’t list prices, because Amazon’s change hourly.
The hole in the cancelling
Most reviews give noise cancelling one number. Headphones Addict published a curve, and the curve tells a different story than the average does.
At 100Hz they measured 28.6 dB and at 200Hz 29.4 dB, which agrees closely with TechGearLab's 28.9 dB in the low and mid bands. Then at 1kHz it falls to 14.1 dB. Their overall average lands at 19.24 dBA.
One kilohertz is where speech lives. That is consistent with what people actually report about these: aeroplane and train noise disappears, and the colleague talking two desks away does not.
TechGearLab's mid-band figure and Headphones Addict's 1kHz figure are not really in conflict, because a band average and a single-frequency point measure different things. The point is that the single number everybody quotes hides the shape.
Three labs, three batteries
SoundGuys measured 5 hours 43 minutes with cancelling on. Headphones Addict got 6 hours 3 minutes. TechGearLab got 8.5 hours.
That is a three-hour spread on the same product, and it is wider than anything we have seen across the other headphones on this site.
Volume is almost certainly the cause, since none of the three states a precise test level. What you can take from it is that Apple's six-hour claim is defensible, that two of three labs landed within twenty minutes of it, and that you should plan around six rather than eight.
What they are unambiguously best at
Calls. TechGearLab scored call quality 9.0, their highest category, describing voices staying clear while surrounding chaos falls away.
That is worth weighing against the Sony and Bose over-ears we have covered, where Bose scored 6.1 for calls and Sony 9.0. If your headphones double as your conference call kit, these and the Sony are the two that hold up.
SoundGuys is less generous, finding the microphone dropping out completely in office conditions and voices very hard to hear in wind. Both can be true: good on a quiet call, poor in a noisy one.
Comfort, with an asterisk
TechGearLab scored comfort 8.5 and wore them up to eight hours, reporting they stayed put no matter how hard they tried to shake them loose.
Headphones Addict rated fit 4 out of 5 and found precisely the opposite on movement, saying they lose grip after a few head shakes and are not suitable for exercise.
Ear shape explains that better than either lab being wrong. Silicone tips seal well in some ears and slide in others, and SoundGuys notes the tips get slick with sweat, which pushes the same way.
The Android question answers itself
SBC and AAC only, most features locked to iOS, and Headphones Addict noting the best of them need iOS 17 or later.
Buy these because you own an iPhone. On anything else you are paying an Apple price for ordinary earbuds.
How it scored
The overall 7.5 is the weighted average of these five criteria — we never adjust it by hand.
Noise cancelling
TechGearLab measured 28.9 dB in the low and mid bands. Headphones Addict found 28.6 dB at 100Hz but only 14.1 dB at 1kHz, averaging 19.24 dBA overall.
Value
TechGearLab scored them 80 overall and called them the only personal audio an Apple user needs, while listing the price as a criticism.
Build quality
IP54 on buds and case per SoundGuys. Headphones Addict notes the shiny housing scratches and that the buds lose grip after a few head shakes.
Ease of use
TechGearLab scored app features 6.9. Both they and SoundGuys flag that there is no manual EQ without a third-party app.
Comfort and fit
TechGearLab scored comfort 8.5 and wore them for eight hours. Headphones Addict rated fit 4 out of 5 but found them unsuitable for exercise.
Pros and cons
What we liked
- TechGearLab measured 28.9 dB of attenuation in the low and mid bands
- Call quality scored 9.0 by TechGearLab, the highest of their categories
- Comfortable enough that TechGearLab wore them eight hours at a stretch
- Five minutes of charging returns about an hour of playback
- IP54 on both the buds and the case, which many rivals do not offer
What we didn’t
- Headphones Addict measured attenuation dropping to 14.1 dB at 1kHz, right where voices sit
- Measured battery life ranges from 5 hours 43 to 8.5 hours across three labs
- No manual equaliser without installing a third-party app
- SoundGuys found the microphone dropping out entirely in office noise and wind
- Only SBC and AAC, so Android users lose the better codecs
Specifications
| Noise cancelling | 28.9 dB low and mid per TechGearLab; 19.24 dBA average per Headphones Addict |
|---|---|
| Attenuation dip | 14.1 dB at 1kHz per Headphones Addict |
| Battery, ANC on | 5 h 43 per SoundGuys; 6 h 03 per Headphones Addict; 8.5 h per TechGearLab |
| Case | About 24 extra hours per SoundGuys |
| Quick charge | 5 minutes for about 60 minutes of playback |
| Weight | 5 g per earbud per SoundGuys |
| Codecs | SBC and AAC only |
| Bluetooth | 5.3 |
| Water resistance | IP54 buds and case per SoundGuys |
How we researched this
We have not had this unit on the bench. This review synthesises the manufacturer’s published specifications, independent measurements and owner reports listed below. Every figure on this page comes from one of those sources rather than our own measurement.
5
sources reviewed
Three labs, three different battery results and two different pictures of the noise cancelling, which is why this review reports ranges rather than single figures. TechGearLab and Headphones Addict both publish per-frequency attenuation, and it is Headphones Addict's 1kHz measurement that reveals the dip a single overall number hides. SoundGuys contributed the codec, weight, water resistance and microphone findings. We have not tried to reconcile the battery numbers because the test volume is not stated precisely enough in any of them to explain the gap.
What we read
Common questions
How good is the noise cancelling on the AirPods Pro 2?
What is the real battery life?
Are they good for the gym?
Can I adjust the sound?
Do they work with Android?
The bottom line on the Apple AirPods Pro 2
Still the easiest recommendation for anyone inside the Apple ecosystem, mostly on comfort and call quality rather than raw cancelling. Look elsewhere if you want an equaliser you control or a codec better than AAC.
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