2025
Almost three years after Apple introduced the original AirPods Pro 2 (updated with USB-C in 2023) with category-defining sound quality and active noise cancellation (ANC), I can safely say that just about every company making ANC wireless earbuds has caught up or surpassed them, and often with buds that are sold for less than $250. Basic wireless earbuds features—good audio, good ANC, and good battery life—are table stakes, and each of these is improved on AirPods Pro 3. Apple’s third-gen ANC wireless earbuds are an excellent gen-over-gen upgrade and an even bigger leap if you’re coming from first-gen AirPods Pro.
But what’s more interesting is seeing how Apple transforms the AirPods Pro 3 into a health and fitness-centric wearable and a vessel for AI features like Live Translation. To borrow a quote that’s often misattributed to Wayne Gretzky, AirPods Pro 3 “skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.”
AirPods Pro 3 Apple's third-gen ANC wireless earbuds improve all the basics and lay the foundation for going beyond audio with health and AI features. See at Amazon Pros Even better fit
Even better fit Terrific sound
Terrific sound Improved ANC
Improved ANC Longer single-charge battery life
Longer single-charge battery life Simultaneous heart rate tracking and music
Simultaneous heart rate tracking and music On-device Live Translation works
On-device Live Translation works IP57 rating Cons Less total battery life with case
Less total battery life with case Heart rate tracking only works with Fitness app
Heart rate tracking only works with Fitness app Live Translation only supports five (six if you count UK English) languages at launch
Design and comfort
I’ve never had complaints about the comfort and fit of AirPods Pro 2, so I was skeptical whether I’d feel any difference with AirPods Pro 3, which feature smaller buds with a more angled design, and foam-infused eartips. I’ve been using AirPods Pros almost daily since the originals came out in 2019, so I have a pretty good idea when the little white pieces of plastic that I stuff into my ears feel off—in a good way. AirPods Pro 3 sit deeper in my ears (your ears might be different), and the stems are just slightly farther away. I’ve been using the preinstalled medium-sized eartips on AirPods Pro 2 without issues, but just to see whether I’d get more noise passive noise cancellation from the new foam-infused eartips, I tried the small size tips, and lo and behold, they seemed to block out just a bit more environmental noise. So definitely try a size down if you’re feeling like ANC could be better. Apple also includes an XXS size eartip (for a total of five sizes) this time around. (There’s no USB-C cable in the box anymore, though, but who doesn’t have a dozen of them lying around?)
See AirPods Pro 3 at Amazon
There are other subtle external changes, too. The inner vent is smaller; the outer vents are larger; and there’s one more covering the heart rate sensor next to the eartip. The buds are also rated IP57 sweat- and water-resistant, which means they can be immersed in up to 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes and can survive heavier rain and dusty conditions. AirPods Pro 2 are only IPX4-rated, which is good for only splashes, and light rain and sweat.
The charging case is largely the same, save for some small tweaks. Most people won’t notice this (I almost didn’t), but the case is a teensy bit larger in all directions. Apple told me that the redesigned geometry of the buds required a slightly bigger case to ensure they’d slip in with the same satisfying clicks and snaps. Loose-fitting cases for older AirPods Pro should still be compatible with the AirPods Pro 3, but the ones that are snug might not, and you may need a new case. I don’t do cases for my AirPods, so I’m fine sticking a cute keychain on the cases’ built-in lanyard loop. The case also no longer has a physical button on the backside. Matching the AirPods 4 (with and without ANC), the AirPods Pro 3 case has a touch-sensitive button just below the battery indicator LED. Double-tapping it puts the wireless earbuds into pairing mode, and double-tapping it three times factory resets it.
Sound quality and active noise cancellation
Like any tech company, Apple takes every opportunity to boast about how it reengineered its products to offer even better this or that. For AirPods Pro 3, Apple says the wireless earbuds use a “new multiport acoustic architecture” for better sound across all frequencies—highs, mids, and lows. I’ll leave the scientific tests to the audiophiles at SoundGuys and RTings, but to a regular Joe like myself, they sound virtually the same compared to AirPods Pro 2. That’s not a knock—AirPods Pro 2 sound great—but we’ve reached a ceiling for sound quality in wireless earbuds. If there’s any discernible difference, it’s that the lows are just a bit cleaner, especially if you’re using the AirPods Pro 3 in motion like running. Many of the bass-heavy tracks in the Power Hour playlist on Spotify sounded deeper with less distortion, and vocals sounded just a smidge clearer. I thought some of my favorite new songs from Linkin Park’s latest album, “From Zero,” including “Stained” and “IGYEIH,” would sound miles better, but alas, they sound about the same. There wasn’t much that Apple needed to improve in terms of sound quality, so I’m not surprised at all that any audible differences are minor. I’m fine with not messing with the already great sound. It’s better than Apple forcing some kinda AI enhancement to remaster songs for the modern age and potentially ruining them.
Transparency mode is also more natural-sounding. Compared to other similar modes on other wireless earbuds that I’ve tried, like the Pixel Buds 2 Pro, Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, and Nothing Ear, I’ve always found Transparency mode on AirPods Pro 2 to sound the cleanest. Background noise is blended with music in such a way that it doesn’t sound like a synthetic mode with tinniness or reverb that I’ve noticed on other wireless earbuds. On AirPods Pro 3, I could hear voices and ambient sounds mix more seamlessly with my music. It’s subtle, but very nice!
ANC is a different story. Apple says it improved active noise cancellation by two times compared to AirPods Pro 2, and by four times compared to the first-gen AirPods Pro and AirPods 4 with ANC, which have the same level of noise cancellation. I don’t have the tools to measure and verify that ANC claim, so again, I’ll let the audio experts tackle that, but I can tell you the ANC (with the best-fitting eartip for my ears) is noticeably stronger in blocking out background noise. As I type this, I can’t hear the whir of the Dyson Airblade fan from 10 feet across the room or even the battery-powered pocket fan on my desk. I didn’t hear my cat, Kiwi, meowing like a maniac earlier when it was her dinner time. Outside, on the subway, the screeches and rumblings of the train were more drowned out compared to my AirPods Pro 2; I felt less irritated not having to hear a guy singing bad karaoke for two stops. All of this is to say, the ANC on AirPods Pro 3 is indeed better than on any other AirPods. Is it the best there is in any wireless earbuds? Better than the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (2nd Gen) that my colleague James Pero says have “amazing ANC” and are best in class? Probably not—AirPods Pro 3 don’t completely eliminate external sound—but they’re gonna be more than enough for most people. Crank the volume up past 50% when you’re listening to music, and you’re gonna hear less environmental noise.
Heart rate tracking
The biggest new addition in AirPods Pro 3 is the heart rate sensor. If you don’t have an Apple Watch, you can use it to track your heart rate and calories while using the Fitness app. The Beats Powerbeats Pro 2, released in February, were Apple’s first pair of wireless earbuds with a built-in heart rate sensor, but they fell short of being useful because you couldn’t simultaneously track your heart rate and listen to music. Many reviewers also found the heart rate readings to be inaccurate compared to an Apple Watch, chest strap, or even smart rings like Oura.
Apple confirmed to Gizmodo that the heart rate sensor inside AirPods Pro 3 is completely different technology compared to the Powerbeats Pro 2 and wasn’t based on it. Weird, how Beats is owned by Apple, but developed its own inferior tech. You’d think there would be more synergy between the two companies internally.
Either way, I’m happy to report that you can listen to music and get a real-time heart rate reading while using the AirPods Pro 3. I didn’t have a chest strap monitor to compare the AirPods Pro 3 with, but there’s a low deviation between the heart rate sensor in the wireless earbuds compared to an Apple Watch Series 9 and Series 10. Before, during, and after three outdoor walks and two 2-mile runs, I did back-to-back checks on the heart rate readings between the three wearables and found there was generally a beats per minute (bpm) difference between 1 and 5. Sometimes the AirPods Pro 3 and Apple Watches recorded the exact same heart rate. This heart rate variability is considered normal; anything higher than 5 bpm would have been reason to worry about the accuracy of the sensor in the AirPods Pro 3. Of course, there’s always going to be some difference when you’re measuring heart rate in your ear versus on your wrist or chest. There’s also the matter of making sure the heart rate sensor on the AirPods Pro 3 is properly covered by your ear’s front flap, or tragus. A poor fit could result in inaccurate heart rate readings, so keep that in mind.
You’re probably thinking: if you have an iPhone, then you probably have an Apple Watch, so why would you need a heart rate sensor in AirPods Pro 3 as a duplicative feature? First, not everyone who has an iPhone owns an Apple Watch. Not everyone wants a smartwatch, though the new $250 Apple Watch SE 3 is going to be a value that’s too good for fence-sitters to refuse. Second, the heart rate sensor in the AirPods Pro 3 is just a single stream of heart rate data. Apple says that, combined with an Apple Watch, you’ll get multiple readings and the Health and Fitness apps will log whichever is the more accurate one. It’s not an average of multiple connected heart rate sensors, Apple says. I pressed the company on what exactly “more accurate” means, but it seems it’s keeping that info secret, only stating that the activity and calorie tracking reading is determined based on an AI model that was trained from over 50 million hours of data from its Apple Heart and Movement Study.
See AirPods Pro 3 at Amazon
Live Translation
Companies have been trying to figure out how to shove real-time translations into wireless earbuds for years. Google first attempted live translations with its original Pixel Buds in 2017. To review them, I brought in two professional interpreters who had translated for UN conferences to help me test the accuracy and speed of Google Translate running on the Pixel Buds paired to a Pixel 2 XL. The results were not unexpected: the Pixel Buds were no replacements for live translations from humans. The live translation feature was convenient and helpful in a pinch, but clearly too literal in translations, and often incorrectly translated certain words or phrases. The professional interpreters were able to translate five times faster than waiting for Google to beam the translations from the cloud. Eight years later, Apple may have cracked it.
Live Translation on AirPods Pro 3 is the same feature, but it actually (mostly) works—in near real-time—from what I could gather. The number of supported languages at launch is short—English (UK), English (U.S.), French, German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Spain)—but Apple says it plans to add Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese (Simplified) by the end of the year. As somebody who’s been learning Mandarin Chinese and starting on Japanese, I was bummed I couldn’t try out either. I’ll have to revisit Live Translation when those languages are added.
I tested Live Translation in Spanish and French, though in most cases the Spanish was of the Mexican variety. Turning on Live Translation is easy, and there are several ways to do so. You can squeeze the stems of both buds, and your iPhone will launch the Translate app. You don’t need to have the app open, but you’ll get live transcriptions for both the language that is being translated and the one you’re translating into. You can use a Siri Shortcut and map it to the Action button on a supported iPhone. Or you can simply say, “Siri, start Live Translation.” I found this to be the worst of the three ways, with the voice assistant constantly translating “live translation” into a language after the command. Siri also repeatedly got confused about where the start and end of a sentence I asked to be translated were. Clearly, Siri is still not as intelligent as it could and should be. Google’s Gemini seems to misunderstand me a lot less on the Pixel 10 and Galaxy Z Fold 7.
I first tested translating Spanish with my friend Christian, who speaks it as her first language. We had a brief conversation about what types of food and activities there are to do in my neighborhood. She said the translations were about 95% accurate. There were some instances where the AirPods Pro 3 microphones failed to pick up on a few words that both of us said. For example, I tacked on “Thanks, honey” at the end of the convo, and the buds just didn’t hear that part. I don’t know if I spoke too quickly or too softly or what. It’s not a dealbreaker unless you’re mentioning something really important.
In classic Apple style, Live Translation has its nice attention to detail. When activated, ANC turns on and the beamforming mics in AirPods Pro 3 kick in to isolate the voice of the speaker directly in front of you so you can focus on what they’re saying. If the other person is wearing AirPods Pro 3 (or Pro 2 or AirPods 4 with ANC), they’ll get the same experience.
Then, I tried Live Translation with a fruit stand seller speaking Mexican Spanish, while Christian monitored the live transcriptions on my iPhone. I asked, “Can I get some fresh orange juice?” and the AirPods Pro 3 read back (and transcribed in the app), “¿Puedo conseguir un zuma de naranja fresco?” Christian told me that while that was correct because Live Translation was translating English to Spanish (Spain), she would have gone with “jugo” for juice instead of “zuma,” which is more common in conversational Spanish. Maybe one day, Apple Translate and Live Translation on AirPods Pro will be able to automatically detect accents and regional vocabulary, and personalize translations to them. For now, Live Translation seems to work mostly as advertised.
The best part of Live Translation is that it all works on-device—no internet connection is required. I tested it with the Wi-Fi turned off, and translations worked just as quickly. Of course, you will need to download the languages to your iPhone, so you will eat up some storage, but also your conversations (audio and transcriptions) are never saved on the device or anywhere in iCloud or the cloud, and Apple promises that it doesn’t use any Live Translation data for training its AI models. That’s a relief, because I don’t need Apple or any AI knowing the very stupid conversations I like having with my international friends.
Another fun way I found to use Live Translation was while watching YouTube videos. I loaded up a video from a Spanish-speaker and turned the volume loud enough for the AirPods Pro 3 to pick up the audio and translate it back in real-time. All of a sudden, videos in Spanish became more accessible without having to glance down at the bottom of the screen and potentially missing what was happening. I compared the voice translations coming through the buds and the Translate app to the on-screen subtitles and auto-dubbed version from YouTube, and they seemed to track closely. AI voice translations are rapidly breaking down language barriers for video content, and I’m all for enabling more people to view and connect with videos regardless of their native tongue. What I’m not sure about just yet is using AI to deepfake or reproduce a person’s voice (and sometimes even sync it to lip movements). Google’s Pixel 10 phones have a feature called Voice Translate that does real-time voice translations (also on-device) during phone calls, but it clones your voice with near pitch-perfect tones and inflections. It’s cool, creepy, and a month after reviewing the devices, I’m still not sure whether it’s necessary. Google frames Voice Translate as “hear the voices you love, not a robot,” but this is going to be something consumers will decide whether it goes too far. Fortunately, you don’t need to worry about deepfaked voices with AirPods Pro 3 and Live Translation—you get two female voices and a male one to choose from.
Battery life
There are two ways to look at battery life for wireless earbuds: you can get longer battery life from a single charge for the buds and fewer hours total with the charging case, or less continuous listening time with the buds and more total hours with the charging case. On AirPods Pro 2, the buds could last up to 6 hours with ANC and get up to 30 hours total with the case—that’s five additional charges. On AirPods Pro 3, Apple bumped up the buds an extra 2 hours to 8 hours on a single charge, but reduced the total amount of battery with the case to 24 hours—so you only get two extra charges.
That’s an upgrade if you prefer more continuous listening time, like for a long-haul flight. But it’s a downgrade if you want more battery life on the go. This split between continuous listening battery life and total battery life with the case is equal to Sony’s WF-1000XM5 wireless earbuds. Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) get up to 6 hours with ANC and only 24 hours total with the case.
This change may mean trips to the outlet sooner than before. I really wish Apple had sped up the fast charging. A 5-minute charge still provides only 1 hour of listening time, just like on AirPods Pro 2.
Still great for audio, but the future is health and AI
There are some other features that are nice, like the ability to press the stem of a bud to click the shutter when you’ve got the Camera app open; good if you’re a vlogger or want to snap a photo with your iPhone propped up from afar. AirPods Pro 3 also have a newer Ultrawide band chip inside the charging case that lets you find them using Precision Find My from 1.5x farther away, according to Apple. I’ve maybe used Precision Find My only a handful of times with my AirPods Pro 2, so it’s not a big addition for me, but if you’re always misplacing your wireless earbuds, it could come in handy.
Apple is also doing more for hearing health and assistance, with the hearing test that you can take during setup for the AirPods Pro 3 now being scientifically validated.
Combined with the upgraded basics for sound, ANC, battery life, and durability, AirPods Pro 3 are an even better wireless earbuds package than the AirPods Pro 2. The price is still the same $250 MSRP, but if the deep sales on AirPods Pro 2 in the past years are any indication, AirPods Pro 3 may drop to $200 or $150 this holiday season. Yes, there are probably better-value ANC wireless earbuds out there, but they’re not buds that are designed to pair and switch seamlessly between Apple devices. Nor will other wireless earbuds have the same tight integration with Apple services, like the heart rate tracking and Live Translation that are only possible with iPhone and the Fitness app. If you’ve got an Android phone, you’ll get all the better core wireless earbuds features, but you won’t get the health and AI stuff, and that’s where the puck is going. With AirPods Pro 3, you’re getting a front-row seat to where things are headed. I would bet money that once Apple gets its Apple Intelligence-powered Siri back on track, that’s when we’ll really see AI in AirPods open new doors.
See AirPods Pro 3 at Amazon