In January 2022, Apple's official website launched a special AirPodsPro headset for the Year of the Tiger, the headset packaging and charging compartment part of the special engraving of the Year of the Tiger, the price is the same as the standard version of 1999 yuan, and the Special Edition of the Year of the Tiger additionally gives away the zodiac red envelope, which is very in line with the traditional Chinese Spring Festival atmosphere. So is the special AirPods Pro in the Year of the Tiger worth entering at the original price on the official website? We purchased one at our own expense, and after two weeks of in-depth experience, we brought you this hands-on review.
The redesigned little tiger is still quite cute
Different from the regular model, the Special AirPodsPro of the Year of the Tiger has a tiger head engraved logo on the front of the charging compartment near the indicator light, unlike last year's Special Year of the Ox, this year's Tiger Head logo is newly designed by Apple, and there is an extra tiger head hat on the ordinary tiger emoji, which has a Chinese style element.
Special AirPods Pro for the Year of the Tiger
However, it is a pity that when Apple launched the Special AirPods Pro for the Year of the Ox last year, the red logo with a generally high user voice was still not realized on this year's Special Model of the Year of the Tiger, and still used the overall gray and white color, which may be considering the overall look and feel problem. However, it is gratifying that the current purchase of the special AirPodsPro for the Year of the Tiger in the official channels (Apple Store, online official website, Tmall flagship store) will be accompanied by a complete set of zodiac commemorative red envelopes.
Apple Zodiac Red Packets
The twelve red envelopes correspond to the twelve zodiac signs in traditional Chinese culture, and each zodiac sign wears a tiger head hat, and the sense of ceremony is full. The accompanying zodiac red envelope should also be the first time that Apple has launched a peripheral product of traditional Chinese culture, which can show that Apple also attaches great importance to users in the domestic market.
There is no difference in hardware from the Standard Edition
In addition to the appearance of the tiger year special model in addition to the design of an additional logo, in the rest of the parameter configuration and the standard version and no difference, if the difference is hard to say, compared with the first purchase of AirPods Pro more than a MagSafe wireless magnetic charging function. The AirPods Pro currently on sale on the official website all support MagSafe wireless magnetic charging. Avoid the embarrassment of putting it on the wireless charger before and not being charged in the right position.
In addition, compared to the first AirPods Pro, the current AirPods Pro supports a new spatial audio and positioning search function. The search function is similar to AirTag, we will not dwell on it here, let's briefly talk about the spatial audio of AirPods Pro.
In fact, space audio is not a new thing, before Apple officially launched space audio, Sony had the concept of "360-degree immersive audio". The name sounds powerful, but it's actually just a gyroscope in the headset to detect the movement of the user's head, and then make your ears feel the sound coming from all directions according to the algorithm. The algorithm is not original to Apple, but is derived by optimizing The Algorithm of Dolby Atmos. It sounds complicated, but to put it bluntly, spatial audio can bring you the Dolby Atmos experience in the theater through headphones.
Wear experience from AirPods2 to AirPodsPro
I've always used the AirPods2 as my commuter headphones, and although I've received some other brands of noise-cancelling headphones, for me to use the iPhone as the main device every day, the AirPods2 is the best choice in the Apple ecosystem. In addition to buying a special model for the Year of the Tiger in order to cater to the atmosphere of the Year of the Tiger, the other point is that my AirPods2 has some differences in battery life.
From AirPods2 to AirPodsPro, the most intuitive experience is that noise reduction can greatly enhance happiness for commuting and office environments. Whether it is for the noise of different frequencies in the subway car or the tapping and conversation of the keyboard in the office, it can have a large degree of noise reduction effect. In terms of sound quality, it is still tri-frequency balanced, but it is also thanks to the noise reduction function, and it seems that AirPodsPro is also slightly better in terms of sound quality.
Of course, there are also many slot points. First of all, for the problem of ear swelling and pain that has been circulating on the Internet for a long time, I did not appear, but for personal "oil ear" reasons, I may have the problem of headphones falling off when I use the official matching earbuds. So I purchased a third-party sponge earbud, and the situation was effectively alleviated. In addition, compared to The AirPods2, AirPodsPro's ability to pick up sounds during calls has regressed, but it is still to an acceptable degree.
A few final words
Friends who see here should have a basic understanding of the special AirPods Pro of the Year of the Tiger, but compared to the standard version currently on sale, there is more than one More Year of the Tiger engraved logo, saying that it is actually more reluctant to change the skin. However, compared with the standard version of the official website, there is no change in price, and there is an additional set of red envelope gifts, so in summary:
1. For friends who use themselves, you can choose a third-party e-commerce platform (such as JD.com) to buy the standard version at a discounted price, and you can basically enjoy a discount of about 500 yuan;
2. For friends who want to commemorate the Year of the Tiger (such as the Year of the Lord), it is still very memorable to buy at the original price through official channels;
3. For friends who want to use AirPodsPro as a gift, the special AirPodsPro of the Year of the Tiger is definitely the best choice at present, not only has the Year of the Tiger logo, but also a whole set of red envelopes, full of ceremony.
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