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Apple just revealed which AirPods model sells the best, and it surprised us
At their September 9 event, Apple unveiled updates to its entire AirPods lineup. This includes the all-new AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. There was also some minor feature updates to the AirPods Max, and new hearing health functionality for the AirPods Pro 2. While those upgrades captured all the headlines, there was a single sentence in the middle of the presentation that grabbed my attention more than any other. For the first time, Apple revealed which of its AirPods models sell the best, and it certainly wasn’t the one that I was expecting.
Which are the most popular AirPods?
At the 32:53 mark of the September 9 Apple Event, after covering all the updates to AirPods 4 and AirPods Max, we hear “let’s talk about our most popular, and the single best-selling headphone in the world, AirPods Pro”. Despite being newer and more expensive than the regular AirPods, the AirPods Pro have surpassed them in popularity. The standard AirPods launched on September 7, 2016, and were the product that kickstarted the true wireless earbud mania in the audio market. On the other hand, the first generation AirPods Pro didn’t come to market until October 28, 2019. In the subsequent years and generations of each product, it has become clear that the Pro model reigns supreme.
We’ve seen third-party studies posit that AirPods Pro are the top-selling headphones in the world, but this is the first time we have direct confirmation from Apple. While Apple won’t release exact sales numbers for each AirPods model, we now at least know that the AirPods Pro are the most popular version of AirPods that they sell.
Why are AirPods Pro so popular?
While I may be surprised that the more expensive AirPods Pro are outselling their cheaper siblings, I can’t say I’m disappointed. In fact, I’m ecstatic that people are purchasing what are clearly the best AirPods for most people. The AirPods Pro (and AirPods Pro 2) have a clear edge over the standard AirPods regarding fit, comfort, and noise canceling. The reasoning is due to the inclusion of different sizes of silicon ear tips on the AirPods Pro compared to the complete lack of ear tips on the standard AirPods. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – your earbud fit matters.
If you have the “right” shape of ears, you might be able to get a comfortable fit with the standard AirPods, but you still won’t have a tight seal to protect your ears from outside noise. If you use AirPods in loud environments and crank up the volume of the music to compensate, you put your ears at risk of permanent hearing loss. As someone who lives in a noisy city, I much prefer using the AirPods Pro instead of the standard AirPods.
AirPods Pro 2 vs AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation
You might be thinking, what about the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation? Don’t those solve a lot of the prior issues with the standard AirPods? We’ve yet to put the AirPods 4 through our testing lab, but we aren’t optimistic. Without different sizes of ear tips, there’s no way to ensure that the AirPods 4 will fit properly in your ears. They have a new shape that Apple promises will be more comfortable for more people, but we’re still talking about a one-size-fits-all approach here.
Similarly, you can’t achieve proper ANC without first creating a tight seal in the ear canal – nobody has accomplished that feat yet. We’ve seen other attempts at an open earbud design with ANC, such as the Samsung Galaxy Buds3. While the noise canceling did help to block some noise, it was barely noticeable. Our testing shows that the Galaxy Buds3 only reduce the loudness of external noise by an average of 35%. This is minuscule compared to proper noise canceling earbuds like the AirPods Pro 2, which block out an average of 83% of external noise.
The AirPods 4 are only better than the AirPods Pro 2 for those who strongly dislike inserting anything into their ear canal. For the vast majority of people, the AirPods Pro 2 are clearly the better option.