My Favorite AirPods Are at Their Lowest Price Ever Ahead of Prime Day
As someone who has bought into the Apple ecosystem, my obvious choice is the AirPods. But it’s not just because I’m a fan (although I definitely am): AirPods, especially the AirPods Pro 2 , are fantastic headphones for many reasons. And while they’re usually a bit pricey, Amazon is currently selling them for a very reasonable $159.99, down from $249.99 as part of its early Prime Day sale.
Apple may have slapped its “Pro” moniker on most product categories lately, but the AirPods Pro at least come with plenty of features to live up to the name. They may not be for “pros,” but you get features that other AirPods models don’t.
First off, the AirPods Pro come with excellent noise cancellation. Although, to be fair, the tightness of the silicone tips blocks out enough background noise that I almost never turn on the Noise Control feature. In fact, because the seal is so good, you also get Transparency Mode, an option that pumps up the sounds around you so you can be aware of what’s going on around you — or even have a conversation without taking your earbuds off.
Speaking of conversations, one of the cool features exclusive to the second-generation Pro is Conversation Awareness: When you start talking while listening to something, your AirPods will lower the volume and boost the voices of the people you’re talking to. When everyone stops talking, your AirPods go back to normal. That’s great. Another automatic feature is Adaptive Audio (formerly Adaptive Transparency), which can reduce any sound above 85 dB while keeping other sounds at a typical volume. So you can follow a conversation or even watch a TV show with your AirPods, but if an ambulance drives past you, its sirens will seem like a perfectly tolerable 85 dB. You might think you’d get these two features on the AirPods Max, Apple’s flagship over-ear headphones, but you won’t: You need the second-generation Pros for that.
Like all AirPods, the Pros seamlessly switch between all your connected Apple devices. You can watch a video on your Mac, then take a call on your iPhone and start chatting through your AirPods. If you have an Apple TV, you can also switch to your AirPods, which I often do because I like that experience better than my soundbar.
While all of these features are great, for me it all comes down to sound quality: The Pros are simply amazing, especially for such low-profile headphones. And because they block so much sound on their own, I feel like I can appreciate the quality of the music I’m listening to in a variety of situations. I used to find myself pausing music on my old AirPods when a loud truck or bus passed me. That’s not an issue with the Pros.
Plus, now that it’s FDA-approved , you can evenuse these AirPods as hearing aids . Not a bad perk for $160.
More Prime Day Deals on AirPods
That’s not to say the other AirPods are bad choices: If you don’t like the Pro’s snug fit, you might prefer the more traditional fit of the AirPods 4. They’re on sale for $148.99 just before Prime Day, or $99 if you opt for the non-noise-canceling version. There’s also a discount on the USB-C AirPods Max , which are down from $549 to $449.99. I love my AirPods Max, but they’re hard to recommend given their ridiculously high MSRP. These are a little easier to swallow now, especially since they now deliver lossless audio over wired connections.