The long-awaited refresh of Apple’s AirPods Pro is here. On Wednesday, at its “Far Out” event, the company announced a second-generation pair of the popular noise-canceling earbuds with a new H2 chip that the company promises will offer improved sound quality and twice the noise cancellation.
The new AirPods Pro also come with a new charging chase that offers Find My support and a built-in speaker so you can track them more easily (and loop where you can attach a lanyard if you want another way to carry the case around). In addition to charging it with a Lightning cable or on a Qi or MagSafe charger, you’ll also be able to charge the case on an Apple Watch charger. And Apple says the AirPods Pro have better battery: 6 hours on a single charge.
The new earbuds will cost $249, and you can order them on September 9th. They’ll be available on September 23rd. The updated AirPods Pro will also come with new extra small eartips, which could be a better fit for some ears.
Apple’s original AirPods Pro were announced not at a product event but via press release in October 2019. They went on to become immensely successful — not necessarily for their audio fidelity, which has since been lapped by Sony, Samsung, Google, and other competitors, but because they work so seamlessly with the iPhone and other Apple gadgets.
The AirPods Pro have been bested at noise cancellation at this point by the likes of Sony and Bose, but their transparency mode remains best in class even two years later.
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