AirPods Pro 3 review: A significant update to Apple’s best earbuds

If you’re not already wearing a pair of AirPods all day, Apple’s latest suite of features may convince you to do so. The company’s latest model, the AirPods Pro 3 ($249), is Apple’s most comprehensive update to its best set of earbuds. Flashy new features like Live Translation and heart-rate sensing will garner the bulk of the attention, but upgrades to active noise cancellation (ANC) and a significant boost in sound quality shouldn’t be overlooked. And with a notable improvement in battery life, the company now provides enough power for you to use these AirPods for an entire work day. Importantly, Apple managed to do all this without raising the price.

The AirPods Pro 3 also carry many of the same features that made the AirPods Pro 2 such a compelling option for iPhone users. Those include the robust hearing health tools, hands-free access to Siri, gesture-based notification interactions, audio sharing with another set of AirPods, simplified setup and more.

Since I’ve gone over all of these at length before, and because there’s a long list of updates on the AirPods Pro 3, I’ve chosen to focus primarily on the new tools in this review. But you shouldn’t overlook the exhaustive set of features that the AirPods Pro have amassed over the years, especially when you consider how Apple continues to find new ways to deploy its H2 chip.

Design changes on the AirPods Pro 3

With a cursory glance, you likely won’t notice the design changes on the AirPods Pro 3. The company altered the shape of these smaller earbuds to align with the geometry of the ear canal for a more comfortable and secure fit. Of course, you’ll also notice the newly installed heart-rate sensor upon closer inspection, covering a previously blank surface of the AirPods Pro 2. Once you remove the new foam-infused ear tips from the latest model though, you’ll see the most obvious variation between the second- and third-generation versions.

On the AirPods Pro 2, the grille protecting the driver sat flush with the surface of the main housing. Now, it’s extended out from the rest of the earbud, with a nozzle-like component similar to what much of the competition uses. Apple also revised the angle of the drivers, so sound beams more directly into your ears rather than bouncing as much off of the sides. As such, a side-by-side comparison of the AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods Pro 2 will show you that the ear tips are pointing in slightly different directions.

There are also some visual differences on the AirPods Pro 3’s charging case. Like it did for the AirPods 4 last year, Apple has removed the Bluetooth pairing button entirely. You’ll now double tap on the front of the case near the LED to activate that function while the AirPods Pro are in their case. Additionally, just like AirPods 4, the LED is now hidden, so you don’t see the dot when it’s not illuminated. It’s a small thing, but as I noticed on last year’s models, it makes the surface of the case look cleaner.

A quick word about fit

Thanks to the AirPods Pro 3’s revised curves and foam-filled ear tips, Apple is calling this model the “best-fitting AirPods ever.” While I do think that’s true, I also believe that the new fit will take some getting used to — especially if you’ve worn the AirPods Pro 2 before.

First, the new tips feel very different and seal off your ear canal in a more complete way than the Pro 2’s silicone-only tips. If you’ve used foam ear tips before, you know they provide better passive noise isolation than their silicone counterparts, and that remains true here. In fact, you may need to go down a size to find the most comfortable fit with the AirPods Pro 3. For example, I typically wear medium ear tips, but those felt too tight here. After swapping them out for the small ones, I began to understand why Apple won’t stop bragging about the updated fit.

Upgraded ANC and its impact on other features

Across the first two generations of the AirPods Pro, Apple had already made big strides in active noise cancellation. But with the AirPods Pro 3, the company ramped up its efforts several notches. Ultra-low-noise microphones combine with advanced computational audio to silence even more background noise. The new foam-infused ear tips play a major role here too, since they offer increased passive noise isolation. This trio of improvements allowed Apple to cover more of the noise spectrum, including higher frequencies like human voices.

In the last week, there have been several times when I had the AirPods Pro 3 in and I couldn’t hear someone talking right next to me. In fact, Apple says the latest model cancels twice as much noise as the AirPods Pro 2 and four times more than the original AirPods Pro. Obviously, I don’t have a way to quantify that, but I can tell you the ANC performance on this new model was noticeably stronger than before.

The improved seal the AirPods Pro 3’s ear tips offer helps make Apple’s ANC setup more precise. This allows the active noise cancellation system to be the foundation for several of the company’s other features like the Hearing Test, Live Translation and more. For the Hearing Test, you can now be in slightly louder environments without Siri asking you to relocate to a quieter place. And with Live Translation, ANC will lower the voice of the person you’re speaking to so you can focus on Siri playing the role of interpreter.

Live Translation on the AirPods Pro 3

At WWDC, Apple announced that Live Translation would be coming to Phone, FaceTime and Messages in iOS 26. There was no mention then that it would come to AirPods. Skip ahead to the iPhone 17 event and Live Translation was easily one of the most exciting new features announced for the AirPods Pro 3, because it will allow the wearer to translate in-person conversations with Apple’s earbuds.

Google has been offering real-time translation on Pixel Buds for years, so Apple is very late to the game here. However, the AirPods Pro 3 uses its H2 chip in different ways, and now combines Voice Isolation, ANC and the beamforming mics to enable Live Translation. What’s more, you can activate it on the earbuds themselves (press and hold on both stems), ask Siri to start it or set the iPhone’s Action Button to carry out the task.

When Live Translation begins, ANC kicks in to muffle environmental noise and to reduce the volume of the person you’re speaking to. Both are done so you can clearly hear Siri’s translation through your AirPods. Siri will warn you when ambient sound levels are too high, asking you to move to a quieter spot so that it can hear the speaker better.

Live Translation worked well, at least for my Spanish-to-English and French-to-English tests. Plus, a real-time transcription is visible in the Translate app so you can show it to the person you’re chatting with — an element that’ll be useful for international travel. Just know that if you’re looking at your phone too, you’ll see the translation there before the audio comes through your AirPods. This isn’t surprising since the processing is being done by the connected iPhone, but seeing the English version right before I heard it was slightly confusing.

You will need to enable Apple Intelligence on a compatible iPhone for Live Translation to work. The tool leverages Apple’s AI to translate the meanings of phrases so that sentences have the proper context. The feature will also be available on any AirPods that have the H2 chip inside, which includes the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with ANC. You’ll have to download the different language models before you get started, too. Apple explains that the downloads would be required for offline use, but Siri prompted me to do so to use Live Translation even when I was was connected. Lastly, only five languages are supported at launch: English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Apple says Italian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (simplified) are coming later this year.

Heart-rate tracking finally arrives

After initially debuting heart-rate sensing capabilities on the Powerbeats Pro 2, Apple is now bringing it to the AirPods Pro 3. Like with the Powerbeats model, heart rate data from the AirPods can be accessed by Apple’s own Fitness app in addition to other workout apps like Nike Run Club, Runna, Ladder and Peloton. Basically, if an app works with the Powerbeats Pro 2, it should work with the AirPods Pro 3, and it should do so by the time those earbuds ship. As always, I expect even more integrations will be announced in the future, so don’t panic if your go-to app has worked with Apple gear in the past but doesn’t yet support the AirPods Pro 3.

I exclusively tested the new heart-rate sensing tech on the AirPods Pro 3 with Apple’s Fitness app. I’m an Apple Watch owner and that’s where the bulk of my stats already reside. Speaking of the Watch, you don’t have to worry about conflicting streams of heart rate info if you’re using it as well as the AirPods Pro 3 during a workout. Apple explained that its devices will work together to provide multiple streams of data for better coverage of your activity. What’s more, if you don’t wear your Apple Watch during a session, the Fitness app will use data gathered from the AirPods Pro 3 to still log your stats for your Move, Exercise and Stand rings.

During this review, I used the AirPods Pro 3 to monitor my heart rate primarily during outdoor walks. The earbuds actually support 50 different workouts in the Fitness app though, with HIIT, yoga and paddling among the available options. You can even track a session at the archery range.

You’ll see live heart rate metrics on the workout screen alongside stats like time and distance, and your average heart rate will be displayed in the workout summary when you’re done. Heart rate info is also displayed with Live Activities on the lock screen and is a tap away on the icon in the Dynamic Island. So far, I haven’t encountered any issues leaving my Watch at home and relying solely on the AirPods Pro 3. The earbuds provided a constant stream of data to the Fitness app.

The AirPods Pro 3’s sound quality

The improvement to sound quality on the AirPods Pro 3 isn’t exclusively due to its new drivers/transducers. Although those components were revised this generation, Apple’s biggest strides in the audio department are also thanks to increased air flow inside the earbuds. The company developed a new multiport acoustic architecture for better control of the air that delivers sounds into the ear. This allowed Apple to significantly improve bass response while providing a wider soundstage and increased vocal clarity.

With all of that air to move around, Apple had to tweak its drivers for the task, but also make sure its tuning covered all the needed frequencies adequately. But those transducers remain the same size as the AirPods Pro 2. As I mentioned, Apple also reconfigured their angle so they now beam sound more directly into the ear canal. You might recall that an angular adjustment was also part of the company’s strategy for improving audio quality on the AirPods 4.

The improvement you hear first will depend on the style of music you choose. Pick something with big, bombastic drums like Deftones’ “my mind is a mountain” and you’ll immediately notice the warmer, boomier bass. Opt for a track like Hayley Williams’ “True Believer” and your initial impression will likely be the enhanced vocal quality. And if you go for a song like Sleep Token’s “Dangerous” that’s more atmospheric, you’ll get a great sense of the expanded soundstage.

Oftentimes audio companies make claims about sound quality improvements that don’t translate to what I actually hear. With the AirPods Pro 3, all of Apple’s proclamations not only hold true but are obvious, observable improvements.

Call quality and voice performance

Apple’s best-in-class transparency mode has been one of my favorite things about AirPods for years. No other company manages to handle ambient sound in a way that’s so clear it’s almost as if you aren’t wearing earbuds at all. With the AirPods Pro 3, Apple says it took things even further, making your voice and the voices of those around you sound “more natural and vibrant.” The company points specifically to Hearing Aid and Live Translation as areas where this fine-tuned transparency mode will help, but it will also be a boost to voice and video calls, too.

Since Apple does such a good job of feeding your voice back through the AirPods Pro 3 and other transparency-enabled AirPods models, you never feel the need to talk louder to hear yourself on calls. It lets you relax and speak normally, and makes a day’s worth of Zoom calls much less exhausting.

The AirPods Pro 3 support Apple’s newly introduced studio-quality voice recording as well. Arriving with iOS 26, the feature allows you to capture higher-quality vocal clips in apps like Camera, Voice Memos, Messages, FaceTime and any CallKit-enabled software. And when you’re recording video with an iPhone, you can now quickly select AirPods as the main audio source. The earbuds can act as a lavalier microphone with voice pickup that’s closer to your mouth.

The AirPods Pro 3’s battery life

Even with all of the new features, Apple still managed to extend the AirPods Pro’s battery life. With ANC enabled, you can now expect up to eight hours of use on a charge — two hours longer than the AirPods Pro 2. This means you could be able to wear the new model for a full day of work without having to charge them. Additionally, Apple says that if you’re using transparency mode with the Hearing Aid feature, AirPods Pro 3 will last up to 10 hours.

So far, I have no reason to think Apple has overstated battery life on the AirPods Pro 3. I haven’t conducted a straight battery rundown test yet as I’ve been focused on trying all of the new features at various times over the last few days. I will update this review later this week with the results of my battery test though.

If you find the promised eight hours still isn’t enough, a five-minute rest in the case will be enough to give you an hour of use. That’s long enough to get you through a quick workout or a call when you need to keep things hands-free. There is an important caveat with the case though. Despite the extended use time on the earbuds themselves, the total battery life including the case is reduced to 24 hours from the previous 30. There’s also a new ultra wideband chip (U2) in the charging case that Apple says has increased the distance for Precision Find My by one and a half times compared to the previous version.

The competition

Since the “regular” AirPods now offer ANC, Apple’s primary competition for the AirPods Pro 3 comes from within its own product lineup. The AirPods 4 with ANC offer an open-type fit even though they have impressive noise-blocking abilities, so they may be more comfortable for those who don’t like buds sticking into their ear canals. You’ll get Live Translation there too, but you won’t be able to access heart-rate tracking and Apple’s suite of hearing health tools. That might not matter to those who want to save some money though, as the AirPods 4 with ANC are $179 versus $249 for the AirPods Pro 3.

All AirPods are really a conduit for Apple’s ecosystem, so if you don’t mind missing some iPhone integrations and special features, there are worthwhile alternatives. Sony’s WF-1000XM5 remains a jack of all trades, offering a set of features that perhaps only Apple can rival. The difference being that Sony’s tools will work with both iOS and Android, of course. The second-gen Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are your best bet for pure noise-canceling abilities, and if you demand pristine sound, consider Noble Audio’s FoKus Rex5.

Wrap-up

The AirPods Pro 3 is the biggest update to Apple’s earbuds lineup in years. The sum of the company’s upgrades here are more significant than the choice to finally bring ANC to the “regular” AirPods last year. The combination of more precise ANC, improved sound quality, heart-rate tracking, Live Translation and longer battery life is a lot to explore. And that’s not even counting the redesign and new ear tips that offer a more secure fit, two items that directly address one of the main criticisms of previous AirPods models.

If recent history is any indication, the company will continue to add new features to this third-generation version. I highly doubt that Apple is finished exploiting the power of the H2 chip, so it's just getting started with what the AirPods Pro 3 can do.