Features, Specs, Price, Is It Worth It?

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Apple‘s latest earbuds are here with the AirPods Pro 3 officially released on September 19. The iconic white wireless buds may look (almost) the same on the outside, but they’ve received a pretty major makeover when it comes to its internal features.

But are the new AirPods worth buying? And are they that different from previous generations? Read on for our hands-on review of Apple’s latest wireless earbuds release.

We got our hands on the AirPods Pro 3 a few weeks ago and have been putting them straight to work — literally. We typically keep our earbuds on all day at work, if not for taking calls then for listening to a playlist or podcast. And just as expected, the new AirPods offer great sound quality, with well-balanced audio — no matter the genre — and crisper details pulled out from each track. Compared to the previous AirPods models, the sound in the Pro 3 feels a little bit bolder and punchier, though we have to admit we didn’t here a drastic difference. Still, songs fill the entire space around you, as if you’re in a listening room or studio and not well, sitting at your desk or couch. Apple says that’s thanks to a new acoustic housing that better supports spatial audio (basically a fancy way of describing theater-like sound with music “floating” around you rather than directly at you). Apple has always been consistent with its audio quality so it’s no surprise that it remains strong here.

The most noticeable improvement is the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) technology. The noise cancellation feature is better than ever and Apple says the new AirPods remove two-times more unwanted noise than the AirPods Pro 2 and four-times more noise removed compared to the original AirPods Pro. They’re not kidding: listening to music in the airport lounge the other day, we almost missed our boarding announcement because we were so immersed (note to self: you can always switch between modes).

We typically use our AirPods out of the office too, especially when we’re out for a run. The gummy ear-tips help the AirPods Pro stay in our ears better than the regular AirPods, and the new earbuds now come with five different eartip sizes to help you perfect your fit. Somewhat strangely, we found the small eartips worked best for our left ear but we sized up to a medium eartip for our right ear. Either way, the earbuds feel totally secure and comfortable, even when we were moving around.

With less comfortable earbuds, we often find ourselves removing them in between use cases, but we tried keeping the AirPods Pro 3 on throughout our workday, and after finding the right “foam-infused” eartips for our ear size, the buds weren’t distracting or uncomfortable to leave on. The foam tips also add as an extra layer of “insulation” so to speak, for passive noise cancellation.

The best new features though aren’t instantly tangible. For starters, the AirPods Pro 3 now have a built-in heart rate sensor that lets you track your heart rate and calories whether for day-to-day activities or up to 50 different workouts. Apple’s Hearing Aid features, meantime, can now automatically reduce background noise and boost voices, so your conversations come in clearer (say, when you’re using the earbuds on a call).

One of the coolest new features is Apple’s Live Translation tool, which lets you converse with others in a different language with a live translation either on your iPhone or translated directly into your AirPods. Pretty cool right? We tested this out with a friend who spoke Spanish and we found that it was pretty intuitive. With the active noise cancellation mode turned on, the earbuds were also able to lower the volume of the person speaking (in the foreign language) and boost the English translation in our ears.

Apple currently supports Live Translation on the new AirPods for English, French, Spanish, German and Portuguese. The company says Italian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese will be coming to the platform by the end of the year. Just note: to use Live Translation, you need to open up your iPhone settings to download the language the other person is speaking and the language you’d like to translate it to. You’ll also need to be using a new or updated iPhone.

You’ll be pleased to know that battery life is strong: Apple says you can up to 10 hours on a single charge with transparency mode and up to eight hours with ANC turned on. The 8-10 hours range is in line with our testing, but it helps to have the included wireless charging case handy just in case.

Overall, Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 are workhorse earbuds that really do it all. In our opinion, these are some of the best earbuds you can buy online right now, whether you’re using them for music, work, health and fitness, travel or all of the above. You’ll find yourself reaching for them basically every day, making them worth the pick up. Speaking of which: you can get them on Amazon now for $249 here.