Wasn’t there an injunction, unwritten or otherwise, years ago that Apple products rarely went on sale? It was allegedly (and believably) to reinforce the idea of Apple products being luxury products, a superior brand of devices on the level of Jaguar or Porsche, which wouldn’t stoop to the level of those “other brands” with their constant sales. How Chevrolet of them.
And now look at where Apple is today. They love their sales. As a deals post writer, I have to keep abreast every day of the gear sales in the tech sphere. I see this one a lot: “Apple AirPods Pro 2 on Sale for $50 Off!” Sometimes a bit more, like $65 off.
And you know what? They’re always about that price. Having tracked the price of these (admittedly excellent) noise-canceling earbuds for the past few years, their price fluctuates a bit but not all that much.
You should still buy them, because honestly, they’re great.
still my favorite earbuds
The AirPods Pro 2s block out more sound than I’d expect, given that they’re earbuds and not over-the-ear headphones, which block out more noise but are also more cumbersome to carry and feel less comfortable (in my experience) for long listening periods.
It’s because of their active noise cancelation, which uses software to detect and then cancel out incoming sound waves. Those are the layman’s terms for a complicated piece of engineering. On subway rides and airliner flights, I use them to block out the oppressive whoosh of train tracks and jet engines, and it turns them into soft white noise.
You can turn the active noise cancelation off to preserve battery life, if you like. There’s also a transparency mode that amplifies ambient noises slightly, so you can listen to your music or podcast while still being able to hear people around you if they speak, much more easily than if you had passive, low-tech earbuds jammed in your ear canals.
I’m never without them at the gym, either. They fit in my ears snuggly enough when I’m running on the treadmill and lifting weights at the squat rack, although if you plan to box with earbuds or do a lot of exercises that involve being on your back, you’ll have to press them into your ears regularly to keep them from falling out.
That’s their main downside. If that sounds like your workout, you’ll be happier with the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2, which share much of the same internal hardware and software, including the active noise cancelation. Unlike the AirPods, they never fell off my ear, no matter how many times I lay on my back for bench presses or boxed the heavy bag.
Their price rarely rises above $199. And even when it does, it’s for the briefest of periods, a day or two at most, just in advance of a major sales holiday so that Apple can cut the price back down and retailers will say, “Look! We just slashed the price by $50!”
But should you buy them if you’re looking for a pair of noise-canceling earbuds, especially if you use an Apple device that makes pairing so easy it’s an afterthought? Yes, for sure.
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