Airpods v1 V Airpods v2 V Airpods Pro

Hardware
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I had a set of the original Airpods until quite recently. I’d had to swap both Earbuds for replacements (Apple replaced one for free as the battery was poor, and I paid to replace the other)

I recently bought v2 of the standard Airpods as I lost the charging case for the first set somewhere on the way to work. The v2 impressed me no end with the speed of pairing and moving between devices, even after switching off the automatic pairing.

But a couple of weeks ago, I got the opportunity (Due to my daughter buying an ipad for university) to pick up a set of Airpods Pro for £90. I’d always shied away from full price Airpods Pro due to failing in the past to get along with the in ear component on other sets from other manufacturers, but for £90 I was willing to have a go. I have to say that I’m very impressed.
The switching is even faster than the Airpods v2 and the sound is so much better. Spacial audio is worthwhile and the battery life is better than I expected.
Cons are that I wish there was still the double tap to start/stop rather than the squeeze, and the fit in my ear is far better on the right than on the left, but I may Viticci them at some point.

I’m still not sure I’d pay full price for them on the expectation that like the standard airpods, they’ll only last a couple of years, but I’m enjoying my cut price deal.

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2

I love my AirPods Pro (and my AirPods Max), but to be honest, if they would put the features of the Pro into the “normal” model without the silicon tips (even though the noise cancellation wouldn’t be as effective), I would probably get them. For casual wear, the older ones actually stayed in better for me. Weird.

3

So here’s an odd thing that I just experienced: I got the AirPods Pro in March 2019, when they were still a fairly new product. The ear fit test never worked for me, especially in my right ear, but since I use them only for running that didn’t really bother me.

Just this week I had them replaced because the developed the “clicking problem” that the first Pros were susceptible to. To my pleasant surprise, the ear fit test works perfectly now and device switching is much faster and less finicky. As far as I’m aware, these are still first generation Pros (there is no second generation yet, right?), but Apple must have tweaked something in the ones being produced now.

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