Mic has changed... 😲 iOS 17 AirPods Pro 2 Features Review
With iOS17, the AirPods Pro 2 gets new features, features like Adaptive Mode, Conversation Awareness, Personalized volume and press to mute calls. Note that this is only when you use a device with iOS 17, or if you’re on Mac, MacOS Sonoma. So if you’re on Android or PC, some of the features covered here are not going to work.
Also it needs to be an AirPods Pro Gen 2, running the latest firmware, which at the time of this video is Firmware 6A301. (The one I’m using is the Lightning connector version, but if I do manage to snag the one with USB-C, there will be a a comparison.)
Adaptive Mode
Adaptive Mode is a special transparency feature that can be activated from AirPods settings, from the Control Center, or from the stem controls on the earbuds. Think of it as a hearing assistant, giving you clear transparency, while filtering out loud noises depending on the environment. In other words, it’s a very advanced form of hearing protection.
If you use it in quiet situations it’s not going to be very different from the usual Transparency, but outdoors, it reacts more aggressively to constant noises as if it’s a blend of active noise canceling and transparency. I like this feature better than the usual transparency mode, to be honest.
Conversation Awareness
Conversation Awareness is very similar to Sony’s Speak -to-Chat. If you’re playing music, it ramps down the volume, and kicks in transparency so you can have a conversation. And it does that quickly, kicks in about one second after you start speaking, and deactivates in about 5 seconds if you’re not saying anything. I would prefer to have the option to have it stay for either 15 or 30 seconds instead of 5, because it wouldn’t be much of a conversation if the ANC or the music kicks back in the middle of my friend telling me what a wonderful person I am.
Personalized volume
Personalized volume changes the audio’s volume depending on environment loudness. It’s not something I use with ANC because it’s always quiet, so the volume doesn’t change, but in transparency mode or ANC off, I can tell that the volume ramps up when it’s noisy, and ramps back down when it gets quieter outside. The ramping up and down is a little slow, but I can see why. I mean, it’ll be annoying if the volume goes up and down with brief loud noises.
Press to mute
Press to mute calls can be activated in AirPods settings. Pretty straightforward, press the stem once or twice to mute. It’s up to you to set it in AirPods Settings whether you prefer pressing once or twice.
Call Quality
Speaking of calls, in my previous video covering the new AirPods Pro 2 firmware, I showed that the mic’s background noise suppression is terrible after the update, but this seems to only apply to voice recorder apps, which is how I’ve been testing these mics in a controlled environment, using the app to record my voice.
I do that because the result is often very close or identical to actual phone call quality, so I thought, maybe that was the actual mic quality during phone calls.
But because I needed to know for sure, with zero assumptions, that mic pickup is really that bad in noisy situations, I went to my favorite restaurant McDonald’s, and tested the AirPods Pro 2’s call quality using Telegram on three separate devices. An iPhone running iOS 17, an iPhone on iOS 16, and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra which is an Android device, just to see if it will better or worse on Android.
Turns out that the results were pretty good. Background noise was quite suppressed on all three devices, and my voice was quite clear. Listen to the samples here.
This shows that the AirPods Pro 2 is no longer suppressing noise on its own like before, it’s depending on the app instead, so if you’re using your usual calling apps like Telegram, Whatsapp, Discord, or Facetime, there’s not going to be an issue because all of these apps have background suppression.
But if you’re using a sound recorder app, or you’re recording a video on Android devices using earbuds, the AirPods Pro 2 won’t be able to handle background noise on its own, you’ll have to use other earbuds.
Anyway, that’s all I have for the AirPods’ iOS17 features. If you’d like to check the latest prices and availability of the AirPods Pro 2, I’ve included links to their Amazon page below.
Amazon
AirPods Pro 2 - https://amzn.to/3VbAmsW
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