So you’re all probably well aware that we blame Apple for the death of the headphone jack (and still consider it a capitalist and unnecessary move). But for all the hate we give Apple’s killing of the headphone jack in the iPhone 7, we can’t deny that it’s original intentions worked. It killed wired headphones, and pushed Airpods into popularity to the point where they (and multiple other wireless earphone competitors) are the new normal for many western customers. And now the AirPods have finally gotten their newer, more impressive little brother : The AirPods Pro.

The AirPods Pro seem to deal with a lot of the faults of the original AirPods right out of the box. For starters, the quality of the original AirPods………wasn’t great. Now that may come as a surprised to a lot of you, especially considering that these things cost USD $180 and up , but the AirPods were never meant to be high quality wireless devices anyway, that’s what the Apple-owned Beats devices are for. Instead, the AirPods were essentially meant to replace your wired earphones and add a few Siri features along with some Apple ecosystem perks like instant pairing. Still not worth 180 bucks for you? Yeah that’s what we thought too, but the AirPods Pro at least come with a few more features and improvements. For starters, already love the new improved design. The silicone/rubber tips are much better at fitting multiple ear sizes than the original “hard” AirPods’ design and depending on who you ask , are more comfortable too. Next up is the feature most Gym nuts, probably care about ; sweat and water resistance, which makes these much better for a workout and comparable to their sister brand Powerbeats Pro. In fact the AirPods Pro seem to borrow a lot of Beats features, including their new active noise cancellation feature which they take from the Beats Solo headphones. This allows the earphones to have their new “Transparency mode” , which with one tap allows them to let in some outside noise so you  can hear whats going on beyond your music, then go back into listening as soon as you’re done. It’s another take on blending noise cancellation and situational awareness, and of course we wouldn’t mind seeing how it compares to the competition being offered by Samsung, Sony, Amazon, Google and even Microsoft .

The feature  I’m most interested in however, is the “force sensor” that will essentially detect taps on the earphones to allow interactions such as playing/pausing music, Siri integrations and the aforementioned transparency mode. Now this approach of tapping wireless earphones has been around for a while, and multiple different wireless earphones have their own unique gestures and tricks that come through these taps. The only problem however, is size. Even with your current, normal sized wired earphones , try doing a swiping gesture or double tap without thinking about it too much. Made the earphones fall out? You aren’t the only one. In fact , the size of most earphones has made these features a bit of a pain point for many users, while companies like Microsoft and Sony have just made their wireless earphones much larger than conventional earphones, with touchpads made just for those taps and swiping gestures becoming a lot easier to do. Apple’s take however is that their new “force touch” feature will deal with this and hence not need larger touchpads, but of course this is something that remains yet to be seen.

Either way, Apple has made its move, and wireless earphones are a growing point of contention in the world of tech. Whether they will continue to be is up for debate, especially as a lot of these devices are ridiculously priced in my opinion(USD 250 in the case of the AirPods Pro), but of course this is something we shall see with time. And something we can’t wait to see back here.

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