Trying out new AirPods Pro 2 Mic Noise Cancelling

[Beau10]

I'm on the latest iOS 18.0 beta release. Just got a notice on my iPhone this morning that my AirPods were upgraded with some of the new advertised features, including improved mic noise cancelling and head motions to cancel calls.

Just tried out an informal test - turning on a blender within a few feet of the device, walking away up to about 20 feet, recording to my voice app. It seems somewhat improved... I can sorta make out what was being said, but it's highly compressed/garbled. But full cut outs of my voice aren't happening, which has been an issue in the past when ambient noise gets up into the 90+ dB area.

Compared to my Shokz Opencomm 2 it's still night and day though. In the same scenario there is barely any impact to voice clarity. Slightly compressed with just a hint of garbling. I think the physics of having a close mic boom are hard to overcome. If I were to give a rating, the AP2 would get a 3, the Shokz an 8.

So I won't be switching to using the AirPods for work calls when out and about anytime soon. I only really use them for normal phone calls in that capacity, and I think to that end, at least they'll be usable in more situations.

I could totally be imagining the improvement though. Not remotely scientific and the last blender test I did like this was over a year ago with a different blender in a different environment. Curious to hear others' experiences as this feature is rolled out.

 

[ukms]

I'm on the latest iOS 18.0 beta release. Just got a notice on my iPhone this morning that my AirPods were upgraded with some of the new advertised features, including improved mic noise cancelling and head motions to cancel calls.

Just tried out an informal test - turning on a blender within a few feet of the device, walking away up to about 20 feet, recording to my voice app. It seems somewhat improved... I can sorta make out what was being said, but it's highly compressed/garbled. But full cut outs of my voice aren't happening, which has been an issue in the past when ambient noise gets up into the 90+ dB area.

Compared to my Shokz Opencomm 2 it's still night and day though. In the same scenario there is barely any impact to voice clarity. Slightly compressed with just a hint of garbling. I think the physics of having a close mic boom are hard to overcome. If I were to give a rating, the AP2 would get a 3, the Shokz an 8.

So I won't be switching to using the AirPods for work calls when out and about anytime soon. I only really use them for normal phone calls in that capacity, and I think to that end, at least they'll be usable in more situations.

I could totally be imagining the improvement though. Not remotely scientific and the last blender test I did like this was over a year ago with a different blender in a different environment. Curious to hear others' experiences as this feature is rolled out.

To be fair ….. you are comparing oranges with bananas. Not really a true comparison of similar products.

 

[Beau10]

To be fair ….. you are comparing oranges with bananas. Not really a true comparison of similar products.

I'm trying to give an impression of an improvement for the AP2 for this specific feature. This isn't a review of it against the OC2, that's just used as a yardstick as I use it in this capacity on a daily basis. As clearly stated, it's unreasonable to expect similar performance against a device with a boom mic.

I'm really just kicking this thread off as I'd like to hear others' impressions.

 

[ukms]

I'm trying to give an impression of an improvement for the AP2 for this specific feature. This isn't a review of it against the OC2, that's just used as a yardstick as I use it in this capacity on a daily basis. As clearly stated, it's unreasonable to expect similar performance against a device with a boom mic.

OK …. Got it now I’ve re read 😁

 

[raythompsontn]

I have used the AirPods in very noisy environments, mainly sporting events. The noise cancelling is quite good and in adaptive mode I can still hear people talk.

On a recent trip to Europe (10 hours each direction) I took both my Bose noise cancelling headphones and the AirPods Pro. On the trip over the AirPods battery ran out after about 5 hours. I was able to recharge in the case for about 30 minutes to allow me to finish the trip. On the return trip my Bose lasted the entire journey. Apple needs to dramatically improve the battery life.

With the hearing aid function around the corner it will interesting to see how well the devices perform. Battery life is critical. I wear hearing aids (high end expensive devices) and the rechargeable battery lasts 18+ hours, recharges in 4 hours. I don't want hearing aids I have to recharge every 6 hours. When I had replaceable battery powered hearing aids the batteries lasted 2.5 days on average.

 

[Beau10]

I have used the AirPods in very noisy environments, mainly sporting events. The noise cancelling is quite good and in adaptive mode I can still hear people talk.

To be clear, I'm specifically talking about improved microphone performance in noisy environments which is one of the features Apple has touted as seeing an improvement, or at least offloaded to the firmware of the AP2. There's no advertised NC updates for the speakers this time around.

I'd really like to hear from people who have confirmed update of the feature on their device and what their impressions are.

 

[ignaciobarrena]

Do you need to enable any settings? When you are on a call, if you open the Control Centre you'll see a few mic voice isolation settings, but they were already present in past iOS versions.

 

[Beau10]

Do you need to enable any settings? When you are on a call, if you open the Control Centre you'll see a few mic voice isolation settings, but they were already present in past iOS versions.

I've done a few more tests, both with/without isolation (not sure where to find this on iPhone, using my laptop in this case). It doesn't really seem to make a difference in this particular test, but I imagine it will for things like crowd/city noises to better pick out your voice. This is with the firmware that was just released today btw.

The one thing though is it does seem to do well, even next to a very loud blender, to not have cut outs or leak the fact that there is a loud blender actually there. I can just barely hear what I'm saying. 20 feet or so away it fairs quite a bit better though still very compressed.

I guess the good news is as long as the other person has some sort of noise cancelling headset you'll be able to have a conversation where you're somewhat understandable in moderately extreme conditions.