I’ve been using Apple’s AirPods Pro since they launched in 2019. The original buds have been retired – an annoying crackle developed in one, making it unusable – but the second generation have been going strong for the past three years.
They fit well, they mostly stay in my ears and the active noise cancelling has been a commuting godsend. Add in some decent battery life and good audio, and you have a winning product.
But three years on, it was time for an update. The AirPods Pro 3 are the result, which brings all the things you liked about the original buds and a few you may never have used – active noise cancelling, spatial awareness, conversational awareness to dip your audio – with some new technology wrapped inside.
Apple has changed a few things about the latest version, but at first glance these will seem little different from the ear buds that have become a favourite with Apple users. The design looks largely the same, and they use the same H2 chip. But as soon as you put them in your ears, you will notice the difference. Apple has altered the design of the AirPods slightly to make them more compact and ultimately fit better.
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That won’t be the case for everyone, though. The new design hugs my ears better than any AirPods Pro that came before, and they feel more secure, but others who tried the ear buds felt they protruded more from their ears.
The ear tips have also been changed. Not only has Apple added more sizes – they now range from XXS to large – but they are also foam-infused to make them fit better. If you had problems with the buds eventually working loose, this should solve that issue.
I found high-intensity exercise such as HITT sessions and circuit training sometimes caused the AirPods 2 to loosen a little over time, but they rarely fell out altogether. The new tips definitely feel more secure, though, and they have the added benefit of blocking out more noise than the previous generation. And that is before the active noise cancelling kicks in.
Apple says it is twice as good at noise cancelling as the AirPods Pro 2 and four times better than the original AirPods Pro. If you are still on Apple’s original ear buds, you should notice the upgrade.
The buds now come with heart rate monitoring during workouts, which is handy for those of us who like to monitor this kind of thing but also forget to charge watches and fitness trackers until it is too late. This can be integrated into third-party apps too, but, as the feature doesn’t work like a standard heart rate monitor, it has to be enabled by app developers.
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One of the most exciting things about the buds was the language translation feature. Imagine the possibilities while travelling – pop the buds in your ears and Apple’s software would translate conversations in different languages as you spoke. It was the future we were promised, minus the flying car outside your front door.
Translation currently supports a handful of languages – English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese – that you download so you can translate offline. Once you’ve done that, you start live translation mode by pressing and holding both stems of the AirPods simultaneously.
EU users, however, are out of luck for now. Apple has held back the feature from customers with accounts registered in the region, citing the Digital Markets Act and the interoperability requirements of the EU’s rules on Big Tech. It should come soon, but there is no firm date as of the time of writing. The only way to access it is through an account for one of the supported regions – currently the US.
The good
The new ear tips block out a lot more noise than the silicone version, and they feel less likely to work loose. They stayed put even during the most strenuous workouts, and the addition of the extra tip sizes is welcome.
Audio is still as you would expect – good all round – though a custom EQ would be welcome for those who want more control.
The integrated heart rate monitor feature is useful, especially if you don’t already own a smartwatch or tracker, though you can disable it if you don’t need it.
The bad
No live translation for the European Union yet.
The fit won’t work for everyone, and the aforementioned lack of a custom EQ will irritate some users, though in-app audio settings can solve at least part of that.
The rest
Although the ear buds themselves have a longer battery life – eight hours with ANC enabled versus six hours for the AirPods Pro 2 – overall battery life when the case is taken into account is lower at 24 hours compared with 30 hours for the AirPods Pro 2.
While the H2 chip inside the ear buds is the same generation as the previous buds, the case gets an updated ultra-wideband chip, making it easier to track down the case when it goes AWOL.
The dust- and water-resistance rating of the AirPods Pro 3 has been bumped up to IP57.
The verdict
A good upgrade for Apple users, although the new fit may not suit everyone.
