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Apple’s newest AirPods Pro are great. They have excellent sound quality, up to twice the noise cancellation of the previous-generation Pros, and even include a built-in heart rate sensor. Those features don’t come cheap, though. Like most brand-new Apple products, they’re expensive, and typically fetch $249 at any store you choose to buy them from.
While they’re certainly pricey, I don’t think the MSRP is unwarranted. $249 has always been the price for a new pair of AirPods Pro, and this third generation adds new features without raising the cost. Because they’re so new, this price tag has never come down, meaning even during big shopping holidays like October Prime Day, you were still spending $249.
I assumed that’d be the case come Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but I was wrong. Stores like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart currently have the earbuds discounted by 12%, $29.01 off. It’s not the biggest early Black Friday deal, but it is notable. If these were already on your radar, why not save nearly $30?
As previously mentioned, Apple advertises up to twice the noise cancellation over the AirPods Pro 2, but also up to four times the noise cancellation of the original AirPods Pro, as well as the AirPods 4 with Noise Cancellation. These are also the most water- and dust-resistant Pros, with an IP57 rating, up from the IP54 rating of the AirPods Pro 2.
You also won’t need to charge these as much as the previous generation Pros. Apple advertises eight hours of listening time on a single charge, as opposed to the six hours of listening time on the AirPods Pro 2. That said, it seems that extra noise cancellation takes a bit of a toll on power: The AirPods Pro 3 are rated for 24 hours of Active Noise Cancellation use, while the second-gen Pros can run for 30 hours.
Don’t count out the AirPods Pro 2
To that point, the existence of the AirPods Pro 3 doesn’t make the AirPods Pro 2 obsolete. In fact, for anyone who doesn’t mind missing out on things like the extra noise cancellation or the heart rate sensor, the second-gen Pros are still an excellent purchase, as they sport many of the same features as the newest model. They sound great, use the same H2 chip as the third-gen Pros, and come with Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency Mode, and Conversation Awareness, which automatically lowers your audio playback when the AirPods sense you’re speaking to someone. Both Pros also have Apple’s new Live Translation feature as well, which lets you talk to someone who speaks a language you don’t understand: Your AirPods will translate their words live, so you can hear what they’re saying in your target language.
The best part about the AirPods Pro 2, however? The price. You’ll regularly find these earbuds on sale across stores. Right now, the best price I’m seeing is at Walmart, which is selling these for $139. For a pair of earbuds that originally retailed for $249, that’s a fantastic deal. These prices fluctuate, of course: Amazon has the second-gen pros for $208.99 as of this article. But if you don’t need the latest and greatest AirPods Pro, and you find the AirPods Pro 2 for a price like Walmart, I’d strongly consider them.
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