Apple’s new AirPods Pro 2, revealed at its September 7 Far Out event, claimed 2x-better active noise-cancelling. Even in that busy location, their effectiveness amazed me, thanks to Apple’s H2 processor.
Apple’s silicon, which debuted with the iPhone and its own A-series CPUs, has moved to Macs and tablets using its M series processors, but the H2’s predecessor, the H1 chip in the original AirPods Pros, predates the notion of Apple Silicon (much as the original A-series did).
Now, Apple’s M1 SoC development learnings seem to inform all Apple CPUs.
Apple’s H2 CPU achieves new levels of efficiency by doubling the number of transistors to over 1 billion.
AirPods Pro 2 have a six-hour battery life (a total of 30 hours with the redesigned charging case). Turning off active noise cancellation (ANC) increases battery life to seven hours for the buds and 35 for the case.
