Apple's Best AirPods Are on Sale for 38% Off Black Friday
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Apple's AirPods Pro is one of a million Black Friday products on sale this year. If you're interested in the best tech on sale today, see our best Black Friday tech deals page for a broader view of all the best discounts you can get right now. Prices are accurate as of the time of writing, but you can expect them to fluctuate and inventory to sell out, so you may not want to hesitate if you see a sale that grabs you.
There are a lot of earbuds to choose from, but if you're as entrenched in the Apple ecosystem as I am, AirPods just make sense. The second-gen AirPods Pro are especially great, albeit a bit expensive. When they drop in price like they have for Black Friday, it's a fantastic opportunity to buy them.
Currently, Amazon has AirPods Pro 2 available for 38% off, dropping them to $153.99 from $249. That's a sizable deal, but it's not quite as much of a price drop as Amazon implies. These AirPods tend to hover around $199 on Amazon, sometimes dipping below that price. That being said, they haven't been this cheap since Prime Day.
Apple might slap its "Pro" moniker on most product categories these days, but AirPods Pro at least come with a lot of features to live up to the name. For one, AirPods Pro come with excellent noise cancellation. Although, honestly, the in-ear seal from the silicone tips blocks out enough background noise that I hardly ever turn on Noise Control. In fact, because the seal is so good, you also get Transparency Mode, an option that pumps in the sounds around you, so you can be aware of your surroundings—or even have a conversation with your earbuds in.
Speaking of conversations, one excellent feature exclusive to the second-gen Pros is Conversation Awareness: When you start talking while listening to something, your AirPods turn down the volume and boost the voices of the people you're talking to. When everyone stops speaking, your AirPods return to normal. It's great. Another automatic feature is "Adaptive Audio" (previously Adaptive Transparency) which can reduce any sound above 85 dB, while maintaining other sounds at the typical volume. That way, you can follow a conversation or even watch a TV show with your AirPods in, but if an ambulance races by you, its sirens will seem to be a very tolerable 85 dB. You'd think you'd get these two features on AirPods Max, Apple's flagship over-the-ear headphones, but you don't: You need the second-gen Pros for that.
Like all AirPods, the Pros easily jump among all your connected Apple devices. You could be watching 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 switch to your AirPods too, which I frequently do, since I prefer the experience to my soundbar.
While all these features are awesome, what it really comes down to for me is sound quality: The Pros just sound great, especially for such low-profile earbuds. And because they block out 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 pause my music with my old AirPods whenever a loud truck or bus would drive past me on a walk. That's not a problem with the Pros.
Last but certainly not least, you can now use these AirPods as hearing aids. That isn't marketing nonsense from Apple, either: The FDA cleared these earbuds to be used as hearing aids. Not a bad perk for $153.99.