AirPods Pro 2nd Gen poor mic, NC, spatial, transparency

I can’t comment on the other threads regarding poorer quality when upgrading from iOS 15 to iOS 16 since I was already on 16.4 when I purchased my pair of Airpods Pro 2nd Gen, but I can definitely attest to the fact that these barely 1 week old Airpods are not playing nice with either of my iphones. Unfortunately both are running 16. NEITHER of are able to make use of the transparency, noise cancellation, or spatial audio features, and also have extremely poor microphone as if I’m very distant. Sad to say but I did buy a fake pair of AirPods 2nd Gen LONG before this new pair, and even though the listening experience was mediocre and the microphone quality was subpar, they did the job BETTER than this fancy pair of Pro 2’s lol. I feel like it’s a software issue but I’ve tried several times to factory restore the AirPods but the tutorials always say the light should turn from white to amber, then white. I never get the final white. I can literally sit there and hold the button for a minute after it turns gold and makes the three beeps. Not sure if the tutorials I’ve seen only person w to the first gen but it’s even on Apple’s site. If you guys have suggestions and/or questions I’ll be here hoping someone else might have an idea besides going to Apple. Tried too lookup updating and downgrading and stuff but Al of the sites point to a different build number. Mine is 5A377.

[Edited by Moderator]