EarFun Air Pro 2 Earphones Review: The New Champions

Gone are the days when audio companies released one or two earphone models a year: EarFun, an earphones company that’s been making a name for itself in recent years, now releases an updated model every few months, with the most recent technologies, and all the candy they can fit in while preserving their traditionally low pricing.

The new EarFun Air Pro 2 is the perfect example of that: the first model was released less than a year ago, and we’re already getting the second iteration.

And almost everything has been improved: these are excellent true wireless earphones, with impressive audio quality, decent battery times, new technology for noise reduction on phone calls, and – one of the best Active Noise Cancellation implementations I’ve tested at this price range.

So, was the upgrade justified, and are these now the right earphones for you? Let’s dig in deeper.

Who Are The EarFun Air Pro 2 For?

EarFun is a company that’s been around since 2018, specialising in low-cost true wireless earphones that tend to excel in the value-for-money category.

Back in January, I reviewed their first EarFun Air Pro model, which offered a long list of features and good sound quality – but was lacking in some areas.

I’m happy to say the EarFun Air Pro 2 is a major improvement on many fronts – the audio quality is even better (with the bass remaining a strong point), the touch controls work better than before, and call quality is excellent.

But the most impressive trick EarFun pulled with this model is the Active Noise Cancellation: I was never impressed with ANC on under-£100 earphones (and even £200 don’t always supply particularly good ANC).

But on the EarFun Air Pro 2, the combination of the good passive noise cancellation (with a good in-ear seal), along with the excellent active noise cancellation, really did manage to block out noises, in a much better way than similarly-priced earphones.

And yes, the price is still VERY affordable – though there are a few negatives as well, which we will go over.

Using The EarFun Air Pro 2

Size And Comfort

EarFun’s Air Pro series takes after Apple’s Air Pods when it comes to the shape. As with the first iteration, you have a short stem under the part that goes into your ear.

They look fine, but they won’t turn any heads – mostly because they look (and feel) very plasticky.

However, they’re very lightweight (53g), and are pretty comfortable in the ear. Once you push the tip into your ear, you need to swivel them a bit to get a perfect seal – it’s hard to do without accidentally pressing the touch buttons, but I got used to it.

Once they’re in, the seal is quite good, and helps block outside noises.

In the box, you get five additional (6 in total) ear tip sizes – that’s an impressive number, though the two groups of tips (called A and B) are almost identical.

I was told by EarFun that one group is smoother and the other is subangular, so they can better fit different ear canal shapes. I’ll never complain about getting TOO MANY ear tips – so if your ears have a unique shape, maybe the large selection here would be of help to you.

As expected, you also get a USB-C charging cable, and the charging case, which is quite small and also supports wireless charging (so you just place the case on a supported charger, and it starts charging).

The case is just as plasticky as the earphones themselves, and is a bit boring in design, but it does the job, and can go quite easily into a front pocket or a purse.

The touch control “buttons” are positioned right above the stem, and they’re quite good – better, in fact, than the buttons on the first Air Pro model, only requiring a very light touch (without being TOO sensitive).

The earphones have an IPX5 water and sweat resistance rating – which means you can safely use them in the rain or when working out, but you can’t fully submerge them in water – so please don’t drop them in the toilet.

And as is often the case (no pun intended), the charging case is NOT water-resistant, so be careful when you pull it out of your bag – you don’t want it to get splashed.

Pairing And Controlling The EarFun Air Pro 2

Pairing the Air Pro 2 with your phone (or other devices) is quite easy – they immediately go into pairing mode when you first open the case. And thanks in part to the Bluetooth 5.2 support, they STAY connected.

After using them for about a week, I never once encountered sudden disconnections or Bluetooth noises and crackles – even when I walked around crowded places.

The Air Pro 2 promise a maximum working range of 15 meters, and while that’s hard to test – because it depends on the type of walls and other devices around you – I had no trouble listening when the connected phone was on a different floor.

Controlling the earphones is easy, with the touch surface working just right – not too sensitive and not too hard. A tap on the left lowers the volume, a tap on the right raises the volume. Two taps start and stop the music and answer a phone call, while three taps skip a track forward or backwards.

A long tap on the left alternates between ANC / Ambient Mode / Normal Mode, and on the right activates your chosen voice assistant.

The EarFun Pro 2 also have an In-ear Detection feature, so if you take the earphone out of your ear while playing music, it will automatically stop the music. Then, when you put the earphone back in – the music starts again.

I’m not a big fan of this feature in general (I always get startled when the music starts playing on its own), and it wasn’t sensitive enough here – so it didn’t always work.

EarFun Air Pro 2 Audio Quality

As someone who tests a lot of tiny true wireless earphones, especially at the mid-price range, many of them start to sound alike at some point – because many do.

But the Air Pro 2 do manage to take things a step forward when it comes to the audio quality – and while, as always, it’s not fair to compare them to earphones that cost upwards of £200 – they still hold their own quite well.

I tested them out with ABBA’s brand new song, Don’t Shut Me Down: The lead vocals were silky and warm, with the excellent noise cancellation helping to point a spotlight at the soft vocal intro.

The rhythm section sounded lovely and well balanced, kick and bass managed not to lose depth (which sometimes happens with such small earbuds). Altogether there was good separation and the overhaul sound was rich and deep.

Moving on to Natalie Imbruglia and Torn, the lead vocals were clear and bright. The bottom end was somewhat flat, but the guitars and drums were able to make up for it.

The general sound had a natural rounded tone, and again, thanks to the noise cancellation you get to hear everything clearly even on low volume settings.

The one disappointment is that since the earphones aren’t using a Qualcomm chip, there’s no support for AptX Adaptive – an advanced audio codec that helps provide high-resolution music at very low latencies (EarFun’s other line – the “Free” earphones – do support AptX).

But then there’s the Active Noise Cancelling. As I mentioned above, I was never impressed with ANC at this price range – it’s all too often a gimmicky feature that’s tacked on just for show, and does almost nothing.

In this case, however, I was quite surprised at how good the ANC works. EarFun is calling their ANC implementation “QuietSmart 2.0”, saying it offers “Hybrid” ANC that can deal with both low-frequency noises (like the deep rumble of an aircraft or a train) and higher frequencies like train announcement voices.

When the ANC is On, it works even when you’re not listening to music – so when I first put the earbuds in my ears, during a noisy train ride, I was quite surprised at how quiet the world around me got all of a sudden, and the noisy engine transformed into a very quiet hissing sound.

The ANC here really does work best with low, constant rumbles – so it’s perfect for travelling – but it also does a fairly decent job with people who talk around you and other outdoor noises.

It’s not perfect, and some noises confuse it and manage to slip in, but it’s the best implementation I’ve experienced at this price range, helping you tune the outside noises out, and focus on the music or podcast you’re listening to.

The “Ambient” mode does the opposite – it picks up some of the sounds around you and amplifies them. So it’s useful if you’re walking near a dangerous road, or otherwise want to be aware of your surroundings while still listening to music.

As for phone calls, the EarFun Air Pro 2 use the QuietSmart technology and 6 built-in microphones to eliminate noises for the person you’re speaking with on the other end.

It works particularly well with wind, which is the ultimate phone call killer – and it gets almost eliminated here. Again, it’s not perfect, and a loud ambulance near you will still alarm the person you’re speaking with – but it’s a pretty decent implementation of this technology.

Watching Movies with The EarFun Air Pro 2

These days, many of us watch movies on our phones as much as we do on our tellies (or more) – so having earphones that make movies and TV programmes sound well is a must (and you can also connect some streaming devices that support Bluetooth – like the Amazon Fire TV – to the earphones).

A common problem when using wireless earphones to watch videos, however, is the issue of lip-syncing, since Bluetooth is notoriously laggy.

But while the Air Pro 2 don’t have a dedicated low-latency mode, their regular latency is good enough, and I faced no lag issues at all, when watching videos on a phone.

When I tested things out by watching The Matrix, the Air Pro 2’s strong bass really shined, and the sound effects really shook my body. The quiet scenes were also fine, delivering crisp sound and speech that was easy to hear and understand.

EarFun Air Pro 2 Battery Times

All the extra features in the Air Pro 2 took away some of its predecessor’s battery power – and when fully charged, you can now use the Air Pro 2 for up to 7 hours without ANC, and 6 hours with ANC (compared with 9 and 7 hours on the Air Pro 1).

The case holds additional 27 hours of power, so all in all you get 34 hours of using the earphones without looking for a power socket.

A year ago, that number would have been impressive – and while it’s still very decent, it’s a bit on the low-end these days, with earphones that can last for up to 80 hours and more (like the Lypertek Z3).

The case is charged via USB-C or with a wireless charger (though it’ll be slower that way), and also has a “Quick Charge” feature that will give you two hours of listening after just 10 minutes of keeping the earphones in the case.

Bottom Line: Are The EarFun Air Pro 2 Worth It?

The world is full of cheap (and cheerful) true wireless earphones these days. Some are decent, some are rubbish, and a select few truly shine and provide excellent value for money.

The Air Pro 2 belong to the latter group. They provide excellent sound quality, truly impressive Active Noise Cancellation, and most of the bells and whistles one could hope for these days.

They’re not the best looking earphones out there, and the battery times are only average – but for the price, these are truly the new ones to beat – at least for now.

Note: The earphones were supplied by the manufacturer for this review. As always, this did not influence my unbiased opinion of the product.