A Much Better Fit
With its original AirPods, Apple aimed for a “one-size fits all” design, but sadly there were those of us for whom they just didn’t work. For example, as much as I really wanted to like the standard AirPods — I bought them not once, but twice — they just never properly fit my cavernous ears, making even passive noise isolation a non-starter. After walking down the street and pushing them back into my ears every 30 seconds, I had no choice but to give up and return them both times.
The good news is that Apple’s AirPods Pro are the answer to this problem. Not only is there a new in-ear design with proper silicone ear tips, but Apple includes three different sizes in the package and even goes so far as to offer a new “Ear Tip Fit Test” feature that promises to tell you if you’re wearing the optimal size of ear tips.
The AirPods Pro come with the “medium” size of tips pre-attached, which I actually found provided a pretty reasonable fit — already significantly better for me than Apple’s standard AirPods. After running Apple’s Ear Tip Fit Test, however, it suggested that I try the larger size. This turned out to be even better — the in-ear seal was more snug and provided improved sound and noise isolation overall.
While I probably could have identified this by trial-and-error, it was nice to have the extra confirmation that I was wearing the right ear tips. If you’re the sort of person who struggles with this kind of a decision, Apple’s fit test is an especially great feature.
Apple doesn’t offer up the Ear Tip Fit Test automatically, so you’ll have to go and find it — it’s in the settings for the AirPods Pro which can be accessed by going into Settings->Bluetooth and tapping the “i” beside your AirPods once they’ve been paired.