AirPods Pro 3 Review: Better In Every Way

I'm not sure even Apple could have anticipated how big of a hit AirPods would be, but in the eight years they've been around, they've completely changed what we expect from earbuds. The AirPods Pro specifically have long been the go-to headphones for Apple users who, yes, want decent audio quality -– but more importantly, want the features that Apple offers. The AirPods Pro 3 build on that, boasting a number of new features, improving on audio, and even turning the headphones into something that could help you with your workouts.

AirPods don't exist in a vacuum, though. Yes, they lead the pack in terms of quality, but the rest of the pack continues to compete, often by directly ripping off Apple's features and design at a lower price. With features like Live Translation and a heart rate sensor, the AirPods Pro 3 continue to evolve the line -– but are they still worth the $250?

I've used every model of AirPods Pro, and have been using the AirPods Pro 2 almost every day since their release. The differences between the last generation and this generation are clear -– the AirPods Pro 3 are basically a no-brainer.

The overall design of the AirPods Pro 3 is the same as the AirPods Pro 2, but there are a few noteworthy design tweaks here — and more changes than there were in the transition from the original AirPods Pro to the second-generation model. Apple has slightly tweaked the shape of the AirPods in an effort to make them more comfortable. Apple says that it used over 10,000 ear scans and 100,000 hours of user research to develop the new design. We'll get into how comfortable they actually are later.

You can tell the difference in shape when you put the new AirPods Pro 3 side-by-side with the last-generation model. It's definitely not better or worse -– but it's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be more comfortable.

Other design tweaks relate to the new vents for bass management and soundstage, plus there are new ear tips that combine silicone with foam to make a better seal in your ears. Again, this isn't a change that really impacts how the earbuds look -– more how well they fit, and how well they create a seal in your ears. Creating an effective seal is important for ensuring good noise cancellation, and for better bass and high frequencies. And, of course, there's a new window for the heart rate monitor, which is one of the headline features of the AirPods Pro 3.

The stems still have the squeeze controls, which I think are the single best controls of any wireless earbuds. Some wireless earbuds have touch surfaces that are finicky to use or force you to push the earbuds into your ears to control them, which is uncomfortable. The squeeze controls on the AirPods Pro 3 are simple and effective. There are still touch controls on the stem, but they're triggered with swipes rather than simple touches, so they never trigger by accident. Even other earbuds with squeeze controls, like Nothing's earbuds, don't work quite as well as those on the AirPods Pro 3. The AirPods Pro 3 may offer a range of new features, but I'm glad the controls are the same.

The charging case is more or less the same too -– which is a good thing. I've reviewed hundreds of pairs of wireless earbuds, and few have a charging case as compact and well-designed as the AirPods Pro. The case is easy to fit in a pocket. It's also easy to take the earbuds out of the case to use them and put them back in when you're done. Plus, you'll still get a USB-C port on the bottom, along with support for MagSafe and charging with an Apple Watch charger. That's handy for those deeper in Apple's ecosystem.

The earbuds themselves offer IP57 water resistance, which is great news. That's up from IP54 on the AirPods Pro 2, and means that they're easily protected against sweat and rain, and should survive being dropped in a sink full of dishes or a puddle. They're definitely not designed to be used underwater -– don't submerge them intentionally — but they'll survive the kinds of water exposure you would want earbuds to survive. I do still wish Apple made another improvement in durability, though — water resistance for the charging case. Charging cases aren't often exposed to the elements like the earbuds themselves are, but I have two friends that have jumped in a pool or the ocean without remembering that their earbuds were in their pocket. Accidents happen, and it would be a shame for you to have to get new AirPods because the charging case is broken, and not the earbuds themselves.

As a whole, the AirPods Pro 3 look good, feel good, and offer good durability. They're portable, well-designed, and offer the best controls in any wireless earbuds, bar none.

Many of the changes to the AirPods Pro 3 come in the name of comfort and fit. Apple says that it used over 10,000 ear scans to tweak the shape of the AirPods Pro 3, ensuring that they fit better in more ears. That said, not only did I never have a problem with the fit of the AirPods Pro 2, but I found them to be among the most comfortable wireless earbuds out there, and found their fit to be secure enough for running and other heavy movement.

If you're used to the feel of the AirPods Pro 2, it will take a few days to get used to the feel and fit of the new model. Apple now uses foam-infused silicon ear tips instead of standard silicon tips, with the goal of creating a tighter seal for better passive isolation. They managed to achieve this — even with ANC off, you'll hear less of your environment than you did before.

For my particular ear shape, I find the AirPods Pro 3 to be about as comfortable as the AirPods Pro 2, and with an even more secure fit. They don't feel exactly the same, and at first, I worried they'd be less comfortable. They take a little more effort to lock into my ears, too. But I quickly got used to all of this, and now find them to be comfortable and secure. Still, it's worth experimenting with the ear tips that come in the box. Apple now includes five different ear tip sizes, so you can find the ones that best fit your ears. The fit test feature should help too.

The AirPods Pro 3 are packed with features. For starters, you'll get all the features from the previous-generation model. That includes Automatic Switching (which is awesome for those with multiple Apple products), Spatial Audio, head gestures, and more.

There are also improved hearing health features. Hearing health features have been huge for the AirPods, which can now actually bridge the gap for those who aren't ready to use hearing aids full time, but still suffer from hearing loss. Hearing Test, Hearing Assistance, and Hearing Protection are all here, allowing you to test the state of your hearing in a few minutes. You'll get a breakdown of the results based on frequency, and your device will then apply a profile to your system-wide Headphone Accommodations to compensate for your hearing. They'll also let you set up a Hearing Aid feature, which is kind of like an enhanced version of Transparency Mode that boosts the frequencies you struggle to hear. Last but not least is a Hearing Protection feature, which uses noise cancellation to lower the volume of loud sounds -– a feature that's even better given the improved ANC on offer by the earbuds.

Before diving into other new features, it's worth quickly mentioning the battery. The battery is improved from the previous-generation AirPods Pro 2. You now get eight hours of continuous listening with ANC on, and a total of 24 hours of listening time including the charging case. That's pretty good. Eight hours of continuous listening is on the higher end of earbud battery life, and while 24 hours with the charging case is close to the middle of the pack, it's certainly not bad -– and if the trade-off is the case's portability, I'm fine making that trade. I generally keep my AirPods Pro on a wireless charging pad on my desk when I'm not using them, so I never have an issue with battery life.

Live Translation

Of course, there are also tons of new features. For starters, there's a new Live Translation mode, which is in beta, but allows users to hear real-time translations of speech in different languages during a conversation. At launch, the feature supports English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, but more languages are set to roll out by the end of the year.

The feature worked quite well. It accurately translated speech from French into English, and it used ANC to effectively block out the real voice of the person speaking, helping eliminate distractions. It wasn't as quick as you might assume, but it was still reasonably fast, and works the same whether you're connected to the internet or not — it's completely offline.

The feature is actually designed to have a bit of a delay. Why? Well, instead of literally translating each word one at a time, which would yield results that don't really make sense, it waits for complete sentences before translating, so it can accurately translate the meaning of the sentence itself. While there is a delay, it's a shorter delay than it could have been -– the system works entirely offline, translating on your connected iPhone rather than in the cloud. That's great for privacy (though I wouldn't personally have a problem with cloud-based translations), but more importantly, it eliminates lag and means that you can use it when you're in another country and might not have cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity.

There's only one change on my wish list for this feature: the ability to give someone else one of my AirPods and initiate a two-way translation. You can use Live Translation with your iPhone to translate what you say into another language, and that works great for short conversations, like ordering food. But what if you're in a business meeting or catching up with a friend? Sure, sharing earbuds isn't the most hygienic, but it could be useful.

That's a minor issue though, and one that I only really care about in concept (since I was just reading about the new Timekettle W4 earbuds, which offer an earbud-splitting feature). I actually probably wouldn't use it, since I don't like the idea of sharing my earbuds with someone else. Sorry, friends. Buy your own AirPods. The good news is that Live Translation isn't actually an AirPods Pro 3-exclusive feature -– it's also available on AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2.

Health-tracking

The other big new feature is heart rate monitoring, which puts the AirPods Pro 3 in fitness-tracker territory. There are heart rate monitors in each AirPod, meaning you can track heart rate without needing an Apple Watch. Note, you will need to have your iPhone nearby for heart rate monitoring, but that's unsurprising -– and if you were running with an Apple Watch, you'd have a heart rate monitor on your wrist anyway.

The addition makes sense. Given how well the AirPods Pro 3 fit in the ear, they make excellent earbuds for running and working out. Why not make them even better for that purpose?

According to Apple, the heart rate monitor in the AirPods Pro 3 is a new custom sensor that pulses infrared light at 256 times per second to read heart rate. It couples with accelerometers and gyroscopes already built into the earbuds, and the end result is an incredibly accurate heart rate reading. It's worth noting that I didn't have medical equipment to test against, but DC Rainmaker, a well-known health-tracker blog, tested the AirPods Pro 3 against a range of other fitness trackers and found the heart rate monitor to be incredibly accurate -– much more accurate than the heart rate monitor found in the Powerbeats Pro 2.

If you do have an Apple Watch, Apple will use the data from both of them to get the most accurate reading, combining the data to fill in gaps from the other. AirPods can be used to track over 50 different workout types, which can be initiated in the Fitness app on an iPhone. Again, it doesn't just use the heart rate monitor -– it also leverages the accelerometer and gyroscope in your AirPods to better track some information, combining it with other data from your iPhone, like location, to track distance.

There are still some things you might want an Apple Watch for. The Apple Watch has more sensors for things like blood oxygen, ECG, and more. Also, you can't track steps with just your AirPods -– you'll still need an Apple Watch for that.

The AirPods Pro 3 can also work with Apple's Workout Buddy feature. This feature is powered by Apple Intelligence and designed to analyze your data as you work out while providing personalized motivation, spoken through your AirPods. The feature isn't exclusive to AirPods –- it works with the iPhone and Apple Watch too — but it's nice to have access to. You can opt to use Workout Buddy or not, so if you're listening to music and don't want to be interrupted, it can be disabled.

Noise cancellation is an area of major improvement for the AirPods Pro 3. Apple says that the earbuds offer 2x better noise cancellation, and that's saying a lot considering the fact that the AirPods Pro 2 already offered very good ANC. I'm not quite sure I can attest to the claims about the ANC being twice as good, but it does seem even better than before.

The earbuds were very good at blocking out low-end rumble from a plane, along with other, less consistent noise — like street noise and chatter in a busy cafe. That inconsistent noise is more difficult for wireless earbuds to block, but the AirPods Pro 3 did a good job at it.

So, is it the best noise cancellation you can get? Not quite. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) still offer slightly better ANC, but the AirPods Pro 3 are a very close second. They're better than the likes of the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds as well, which is quite an achievement given the fact that Sony's WH-1000XM6 headphones have the best ANC of any pair of over-ear headphones.

What's more, the transparent mode remains class-leading, offering a more natural sound than anything else in the world of wireless earbuds. I also really liked the Adaptive mode, which did a good job at changing depending on my environment. If transparent mode is important to you, I would argue that the AirPods Pro 3 offer the best complete package of noise modes — the equivalent mode on Bose headphones is fine at best, and the AirPods Pro 3 get pretty close when it comes to ANC.

The audio response is better on the AirPods Pro 3 too — and overall, the earbuds sound excellent. They deliver deep, impactful bass, with solid bass extension overall, which always helps. That means that you'll get a more full-sounding audio experience.

Something I was particularly impressed with, however, was the high-end response. High frequencies help make audio sound crisp and exciting, and the AirPods Pro 3 had better high-end detail than the majority of wireless earbuds out there. Cymbals offered a nice sizzle, while vocals were nice and sibilant.

The Spatial Audio experience is still next-level on AirPods compared to competitors. That's largely down to the first-party advantage that Apple has — where it can take actual Dolby Atmos mixes instead of simply spatializing a stereo mix through an algorithm that doesn't always sound great. That's not necessarily to say that I listen to many spatial mixes over simply listening to music in stereo, but I mind it less than I used to — and when it comes to things like movies and TV shows, it still works very well.

One feature AirPods are still missing is a simple way to EQ audio. Most wireless earbuds offer an EQ of some kind, and while there are ways to EQ audio through Accessibility settings, its clear Apple intends most users to simply stick with the tuning of the earbuds out of the box.

The AirPods Pro 3 represent a pretty big update for Apple's best wireless earbuds. They aren't as flashy an upgrade as the iPhone 17 models, and to be clear, if you have the AirPods Pro 2 and have no issues with them, you probably don't need to upgrade unless you really want heart rate monitoring. That's especially true given the fact that some other features, like Live Translation, are coming to the AirPods Pro 2 through software updates. Regardless, whether you're upgrading from the last-generation model or new to the AirPods Pro in general, the AirPods Pro 3 represent arguably the most complete wireless earbud package, especially for those in Apple's ecosystem.

The competition

If you're an Apple user and have the cash to spend, the AirPods Pro 3 are simply the best wireless earbuds for you. They sound great and offer very good ANC, but more importantly, they offer tons of features that Apple users can take advantage of, like Automatic Switching.

There are still plenty of competitors out there. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) still offer slightly better ANC, though the difference probably isn't worth changing your buying decision over. And others, like the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds, offer more customization.

Should I buy the AirPods Pro 3

Yes. They're excellent wireless earbuds with tons of extra features.