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OPINION: Particulars referring to the upcoming AirPods Professional 2 have leaked this week, teasing what’s in retailer for Apple’s next-gen in-ear ANC buds.
Whereas nearly all of the main points leaked are just like these heard beforehand, we at the moment are beginning to get a reasonably complete image as to what Apple’s second model of its high-end in-ear buds can be.
Large upgrades look set to incorporate a rejigged design, probably extra consistent with the Samsung Galaxy Buds or Beats Studio Buds model, an upgraded chip for higher connectivity and even some health monitoring expertise. All pretty welcome upgrades, I’m positive you’ll agree.
However there’s actually extra that I wish to see significantly as, if the rumoured Q3 2022 launch seems to be true, it’ll have been practically three years because the AirPods Professional have been initially launched.
I had used the AirPods Professional just about day by day since that 2019 launch, proper up till the second I used to be tempted to select up a pair of Sony’s WF-1000XM4 within the latest Black Friday gross sales. I’d been really helpful these buds from our Audio whizz (and common author of this column) Kob Monney, who awarded them an ideal 5/5 rating in his evaluation. With a hefty low cost utilized I took the plunge – assuming they’d be a little bit bit (however not an excessive amount of) higher than the AirPods Professional.
Sony WF-1000XM4
Just a few weeks on and I can’t see myself ever going again to Apple’s ANC buds. Every little thing is simply higher on the Sony’s. The sound is richer and extra immersive, the noise-cancelling is healthier at diminishing the rattle of the morning commute and the battery life far longer.
Contemplating each earbuds price roughly the identical (taking frequent gross sales and worth drops under consideration) the present AirPods Professional are one thing of a tough promote.
There are quite a few issues I would love from the next-gen AirPods Professional if they’ll dislodge the XM4’s from my ears, however the largest is an enchancment to the audio high quality.
That’s not me saying the AirPods Professional sound dangerous, as a result of they actually don’t, however the heat and the element achieved by the XM4’s are a step above. Earlier than issues like health options are added, sound high quality must be the easiest that it may be.
An up to date chip will seemingly assist with sound high quality and I’m already optimistic about massive jumps right here after spending a while with the cheaper AirPods 3. The development when it comes to sound high quality from the earlier AirPods to the AirPods 3 is monumental and this makes me suppose that an enchancment of an analogous scale is probably going for the Professional buds.
I’d additionally like Apple to implement some type of higher-res streaming assist for the subsequent AirPods Professional. Whereas Apple Music has an enormous quantity of high-res and lossless content material, these can’t be streamed to the AirPods on account of a scarcity of assist for the proper codecs. If Apple may add assist for these then that may be one other increase for audio high quality (and make Apple Music extra of a tempting selection). Many Android telephones assist higher-quality streaming over Bluetooth and it’s a characteristic lacking fully on iOS.
MagSafe charging was added on the AirPods Professional shortly after the AirPods 3 have been introduced, however other than the magnetic side, the faster wi-fi charging that made the tech fascinating on the iPhone 12 was absent. I’d wish to see some type of faster wi-fi charging added to the subsequent buds.
We additionally know the iPhone 13 can use a type of reverse wi-fi charging to juice the MagSafe Battery Pack, so with the ability to cost the AirPods by simply magnetically attaching them to the iPhone looks like it might be an awesome addition.
Lastly, I feel the AirPods Professional 2 have to take a web page from the XM4’s e book and go along with foam suggestions. The present AirPods are comfortable, however the foamy suggestions utilized by Sony really feel a lot comfier for lengthy durations and appear to do a significantly better job at staying in my ears.
There’ll seemingly be much more rumours surrounding the subsequent Apple AirPods over the approaching yr, however with these options added they may very properly be the very best wi-fi headphones round.
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