

But I had to push the volume up to about 85% to hear some of the finer details and to get the extra bass kick on the Bose. The AirPods Pro 2 sound excellent, but there's something about the tonal balance of the Bose that I liked a little better at times - there's a bit more warmth and naturalness to it - and the bass has a bit more oomph. I compared them to the new Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2. For me, I found they played plenty loud at about 65% to 70% volume. One of the more impressive things about the buds is how loud they play. A quick five-minute charge gives you about an hour's worth of battery life. Those numbers go up to seven hours and 35 hours total with the noise canceling off. But I figured Apple would stick with its tried-and-true design and focus on making improvements to the areas that had the most room for improvement, such as sound quality, noise-canceling performance and battery life, which is now up to six hours from about four-and-a-half hours with noise canceling on and an extra four charges in the charging case (30 hours total). Some people were hoping for shorter stems and perhaps some new color options or even better water resistance - yes, they're still IPX4 splash-proof.

The original AirPods Pro were compact and lightweight and fit a lot of people's ears really well, so I can't fault that decision. This is one of those situations where Apple hasn't really done anything to change the size and shape of the buds or significantly alter their physical appearance. Read more: Best Wireless Earbuds for 2022 Apple AirPods Pro 2 design: Small changes
