The AirPods Pro 3 are the successors to one of the most popular pieces of audio equipment in the world. The previous generation AirPods Pro 2 came to be known for their audio quality, noise cancellation, and an incredible feature set, including being able to be used as medical-grade hearing aids, all while providing excellent integration within Apple’s ecosystem of devices.
With this new model, Apple is claiming a 2x improvement in active noise cancellation over the AirPods Pro 2, which is apparently good enough for the title of the world’s best in-ear active noise cancellation. There are new foam-infused ear tips that come in five sizes, improved audio quality, heart rate monitoring, an IP57 rating, more precise Find My, and a new Live Translation feature. Meanwhile, you still get things like adaptive EQ, personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking, automatic conversation boost, hearing aid functionality, and hearing protection features carried over from the previous generation. And to top it all off, the battery life goes from 6 hours to 8 hours of continuous use.
That’s a lot of stuff to go through, so without wasting any more time, let’s get into it.
Design
The AirPods Pro 3 have roughly the same overall design that we have been seeing since the days of the EarPods. It’s an iconic, easily recognizable shape, and if you’ve grown tired of it, then know that it’s probably not going away any time soon.
For the third-generation Pro model, Apple has tweaked aspects of the earbuds that sit inside your ears. For starters, the ear tip angle has been shifted to be more perpendicular to the rest of the earbud than before. The ear tips also jut out more than before, thanks to a longer flange, resulting in a deeper insertion point. Finally, the bulbous portion of the earbuds is also smaller this generation. Apple claims this has been done to make the earbuds more comfortable for more people, and to also make them sit more securely during workouts.
The AirPods Pro 3 come with a brand new set of ear tips. There are now five instead of four pairs, as a new XXS size has been added. I can’t imagine many adults needing this, and this may have been done for the sake of the children getting these from their especially affluent parents.
The second new thing about the ear tips this generation is that they have foam inserts. Now, normally, you’d either see silicone or foam being used for the ear tip design, and each has its pros and cons. Apple has chosen to combine both of them, and the foam is inserted into the thickest portion of the ear tips that sit inside your ears. Since it’s on the inside, you don’t get to see the foam, which also means it won’t degrade over time as quickly as pure foam tips do. Apple claims this was done to improve the noise cancellation performance.
The rest of the earbud design isn’t too different from the other recent AirPods models. If you were to have these in your ears, no one would be able to tell them apart from the previous generation AirPods Pro models.
As before, the AirPods Pro 3 come only in white. It does strike me as interesting that while all of Apple’s other Pro products use a dark color scheme (you’ll find that even the websites of these Pro products use a black background), the AirPods Pro have stuck to the same white as the other non-Max AirPods. It’s also a strangely blindingly bright shade of white; you can keep these earbuds on any other white material you can find, and the earbuds will always be whiter. On my complexion, it looks like I’m wearing a pair of reflectors to alert nearby traffic to my presence.
Will it hurt Apple to offer the AirPods Pro 3 in more colors? Not in terms of sales. But it’s also very Apple-like to protect the image of a product over anything else. And if you bring in fewer sales as a result, so be it. The AirPods Pro 3 are burdened with the inheritance of this iconic shape and color, so they are white. And white must they always be.
Moving on to the equally white new charging case, there are some minor visual changes here. The new case is slightly larger than before. We are talking about a 2mm increase in both width and height. While not insignificant, how readily you’ll notice this without the new one and the old one being side by side is questionable. The thickness is the same, so the new case doesn’t protrude out of your pockets any more than the previous one did.
On the other hand, the new case is 6.8g lighter, and that is because it now has a smaller internal battery.
The new case loses the physical pairing button of the previous models. Now, you have to double-tap on the front of the case right below the surprisingly bright LED. It still has a speaker that makes various sounds to alert you of things like low battery, charging, and when you’re trying to locate it in between your couch cushions. The case also features wireless charging and supports MagSafe, Apple Watch, and Qi-certified chargers.
Like the earbuds, the case has a very glossy finish that looks like new for precisely seven seconds after you pull it out of the box. Following that, it will be covered in either dust, smudges, scratches, or all of the above. The white does hide them to some extent, but you know they are there, and aside from getting a case for the case, there’s not much you can do about it.
As before, the lid is rather short but opens easily, even with one hand. However, I found it a bit of a struggle to pull the earbuds out if my fingers or the earbuds themselves were even slightly greasy. I’m not even talking about trying to pull the earbuds out with greasy fingers in the middle of a meal; this is just normal skin oil that anyone not living in a cold, dry environment has, which makes it rather annoying to pull the earbuds out, as the shape that sticks out from the case is very slippery. Eventually, I learned to stop trying to pinch them out with two fingers and just push them upwards using just the thumb, which causes them to slide out easily.
One major upgrade this year for the AirPods Pro 3 (and AirPods in general) is the IP57 rating. Both the earbuds and the case are now sweat and water-resistant. Having once found myself in the pouring rain while using them, I can confirm that this claim is accurate.
One final bit of discussion regarding the design is the repairability aspect of the earbuds. The AirPods Pro 3 are not repairable, much like the models that came before them. This has been a longstanding complaint with the product from a company that has, in recent years, made several strides in improving its environmental impact. The AirPods Pro 3 are, for all intents and purposes, disposable by design. Once the batteries inside the earbuds or the case die, there is nothing you or anyone else can do about the product other than send it in for recycling.
To be clear, this problem is not exclusive to the AirPods Pro 3, AirPods, or Apple in general. Almost all the other earbuds we test here have the same problem. However, most such products probably sell as much in their entire lifetime as the AirPods sell in a month, and Apple’s AirPods division alone brings in more revenue than the entirety of Spotify, so clearly they all don’t share the same amount of responsibility towards the environment. Apple seems aware of its impact when it decides to drop chargers and USB cables from packaging (the AirPods Pro 3 don’t come with either of those), and efforts have been made to make the iPhones more repairable. Yet, the most popular pair of headphones in the world remains as disposable as ever. They cannot and should not continue in good conscience.
Comfort
Comfort is as important as sound quality for any pair of headphones, and there’s a lot to talk about with the AirPods Pro 3.
Apple made the conscious decision to switch to tips with foam inserts, with the reasoning being to improve noise-cancelling performance. However, this has resulted in a marked reduction in the comfort levels when wearing these earbuds.
Foam ear tips are a common sight when purchasing premium or sometimes even some affordable IEMs. The advantage of foam is that once it’s compressed and inserted into the ear canal, it can expand and morph to the shape of your ear, resulting in a near-perfect seal that typical silicone ear tips cannot offer. The downside of this is that the ever-expanding foam tends to put pressure on the walls of the ear canal, so a lot of people, myself included, find them uncomfortable, to the point where we’d take the hit to the seal and use the alternative silicone tips.
The tips that Apple is using with the AirPods Pro 3 aren’t entirely made out of foam, but the foam inserts inside the silicone make them behave similarly. You need to twist them in your ears every time you insert them, a process that, by itself, puts some stress on your ears. Then the foam slowly expands over time and completes the seal. At this stage, I can constantly feel the presence of the ear tips inside my ears, and they don’t quite just disappear as typical silicone tips do. Over time, this leads to noticeable fatigue that would prevent me from using them for more than a couple of hours.
I tried going down a size from the default medium tips, something I rarely need to do, and I could feel a marked improvement in comfort. However, this was only because the smaller tips no longer create a perfect seal in my ears, and I could hear more noise seeping in with the ANC disabled. So I either had to pick between comfort and better ANC.
The AirPods Pro 3 sit securely enough in my ears, at least for the first hour or so. However, as with other foam ear tips, there is a tendency to slowly start sliding out of the ear after a while as the foam keeps expanding. I’m not sure I’d trust these for workouts, and would recommend either the Powerbeats Pro 2 or the Powerbeats Fit instead.
Like the previous generation models, the AirPods Pro 3 use a proprietary locking mechanism for the ear tips, which, by the way, I found rather frustrating as it was surprisingly difficult to get the tips off. You need a good amount of force to pull the ear tip out, but you have neither the leverage nor the friction for it. The only way to get around it was to grab the earbud in one hand and then use a dry cloth to get some friction on the ear tip before yanking it out.
Anyway, the proprietary mechanism means you can’t just slide on any old pair of ear tips onto the AirPods Pro 3. However, the fantastic thing about Apple products is that there is an entire ecosystem of third-party products built around them that forms overnight. I can already see a whole bunch of cheap replacement silicone tips for these earbuds on Amazon, and more should pop up eventually. They will likely affect the noise isolation, but at least the comfort would be solid.
While it’s not ideal that you have to spend more money to make the product you just spent $250 on usable for you, it is better than having to return the product that you otherwise love for this one specific flaw. Or having to live with the discomfort that you will feel if you choose to keep it. I think I’d just spend that $10 or so on those replacement tips.
Software and features
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of the software, it’s important to note that, unlike the Beats products, Apple still designs the AirPods to be used with its own devices. This includes the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and the Vision Pro headset. You can pair them with non-Apple devices, and they will have basic functionality such as audio, calls, and ANC. But you lose out on a lot of other features that you have paid good money for, as well as get worse performance for things like the microphone quality, and so, for that reason, I do not recommend buying the AirPods Pro 3 (or any AirPods, for that matter) for use with non-Apple devices. As such, this review only focuses on using the AirPods Pro 3 with Apple devices, specifically an iPhone 15 Pro and a 2024 Mac mini.
The AirPods Pro 3 make your job easy from the get-go, with the now widely copied easy pairing method of just opening the case next to your phone and getting a prompt to pair it. After that, there is also no expectation to install a specific app, as all functionality is baked into the OS. This is especially wonderful on the Mac, as audio products from other brands usually don’t offer desktop apps, but the AirPods (and Beats products) offer full functionality and native integration.
As before, you access these functions within the respective Settings app of your platform. On iOS, the option appears right at the top, but for some reason, it’s buried down a bit on macOS. I feel like this definitely needs to be fixed, as I can guarantee there are Mac users out there who do not know they can access all the functions of their paired AirPods if they just scroll down in the Settings app (or click the Sound option in the menu bar). There’s no point redesigning your entire desktop UI to match the mobile one to appeal to the lowest common denominator if you’re going to have differences like these anyway.
iOS settings
Once in the AirPods menu, you will find the laundry list of options and features available to tinker with. The insane part is that this isn’t even the entire list of things you can do, as many other options are either buried in the Accessibility menu or inside the Control Center. It’s only when you go through the user guide that you realize just how many features Apple has packed into these things.
Just to give some idea, here are some of the things the AirPods Pro 3 can do aside from basic things like the ANC. There is a personalized volume feature, which can adjust the volume gradually based on your ambient noise levels. The conversation awareness feature automatically turns down the music volume and enables transparency mode if it detects that you are speaking. The loud sound reduction feature will tone down particularly loud noises nearby when using transparency mode. You can also adjust just how much external noise comes in with the adaptive audio slider.
The personalized Spatial Audio feature can scan your ear and head shape using the IR camera on iPhone X and above models and generate an HRTF profile to create a more accurate soundscape for spatial audio playback. The earbuds can pause music if they detect you have fallen asleep. You can choose to accept or reject calls simply by shaking your head. The Find My feature will let you pinpoint the exact location of the earbuds around you using an iPhone and the Find My app. The app will also alert you if you leave your earbuds behind.
macOS settings
You can share the audio from the same source to two pairs of AirPods or Beats using the Share Audio feature. So you can, for example, have two pairs of AirPods Pro 3 paired to the same Apple TV, and both people can listen to the audio at the same time.
If you live in one of the many countries that support the Hearing Health features, you can use the AirPods Pro 3 as a hearing aid. You can also take a hearing test in the app to see if you have hearing loss in one or both of your ears. The Live Listen feature uses the microphone on your paired iPhone to transmit the audio to your earbuds, so you can hear what the phone is hearing even if it’s away from you. The Sound Recognition feature will alert you if there are specific sounds nearby, like from certain alarms, animals, children, or someone calling your name.
Honestly, I could go on for several more paragraphs, and that would only cover features that aren’t even exclusive to the new AirPods Pro 3. Speaking of which, I should probably get into those.
New for this year is Live Translation, a feature still marked as beta in the app. The gist of it is that you download the language packs that both you and the foreign language speaker are going to use, and once you enable the feature, the earbuds will play the translated audio in your ears.
Live Translation
Currently, the feature only supports six languages, two of which are English. I couldn’t find any native language speaker who spoke in one of the non-English languages, so I had to rely on videos to test the feature. I tried both slow and some fast-paced speech and found the translation to come in a bit slow, as it needs to listen to the entire sentence before it can start translating. It can also skip over some parts at times if the person is speaking fast. I found that I usually got the gist of what was being spoken; however, the delay made the exchange feel unnatural.
I’m sure the feature will get more reliable and quicker in the future, hopefully with more languages. It might actually be worth using then, but right now, I’m not sure if I’d use it in real-world scenarios in front of people who may not know about it or have the patience to deal with it.
Another new feature is heart rate tracking. Apple introduced this earlier with the Powerbeats Pro 2, and it’s now making its debut on the AirPods. The sensor on the AirPods Pro 3 is smaller than on the Powerbeats Pro 2, the smallest for an Apple device, in fact, and also emits light that isn’t visible, unlike the green LEDs on the Powerbeats Pro 2.
The functionality is different and better implemented than on the Beats model. While the Powerbeats Pro 2 could only let you see the heart rate data when you started a workout in one of the compatible apps, the AirPods Pro 3 data can be viewed in the Health app even if you aren’t actively in a workout. The AirPods Pro 3 can track several workouts on their own and act as a makeshift fitness tracker, if you don’t have one already. What they cannot do is pair with treadmills and other exercise machines that can display your stats like the Powerbeats Pro 2.
Workouts and heart rate tracking
For those who don’t wear a watch or a fitness tracker, this basic tracking functionality on the AirPods Pro 3 should be more than sufficient for all the common exercises. However, the AirPods Pro 3 do not track your stats outside of workouts, and are easily surpassed by even basic fitness trackers for things like tracking sleep and blood oxygen, which these simply do not do. My suggestion would still be to get a basic fitness tracker if you’re serious about tracking your health and fitness journey, but if you just want to know how many steps you took and the number of calories burned on your morning walk, then the AirPods Pro 3 should do fine.
Performance
Audio quality
Now that we have all the basics covered, let’s talk about how the AirPods Pro 3 perform, starting with their audio quality. Apple claims it has improved the audio quality on this model, with improved bass response, vocal clarity, and sound staging.
The AirPods Pro 3 have a prominent V-shaped frequency response, which is a departure from the previous generation models that favored a more neutral-leaning tuning.
Starting with the bass response, the AirPods Pro 3 have a rather substantial sub-bass response that catches you off guard the first time you encounter it. These are properly bassy-sounding earbuds, which wasn’t the case with previous generations. The bass boost is more targeted towards the lower registers, so the upper-bass and lower-mid regions don’t have a boominess to them, which is appreciated. However, the sub-bass energy can still tend to dominate the lower half of the frequency range.
On the other end of the frequency spectrum is the treble response, which sees similarly elevated levels of energy as the low-end. The upper treble generally sees a slight downward slope as you go into the ultrasonic range, as that is agreed upon to be a more pleasant listening experience. However, the AirPods Pro 3 throw caution to the wind and decide that you are, in fact, going to get all of that treble thrown at you.
The result of this is treble that can often seem piercing and uncomfortably shrill. There is simply far too much sizzle and shimmer in the upper registers to make brighter recordings sound enjoyable, and most just end up being rather painful to listen to.
In the midst of all of this is the mid-range, which is honestly unremarkable. While not flawed by any means, it is simply overshadowed by both the bass and the treble range, resulting in it being more of a background character rather than what should ideally be the driving force in any well-balanced tuning.
I found the overall tuning of the AirPods Pro 3 to be garish and fatiguing to listen to. Apple’s tunings in the past always took a measured approach with a neutral slant, which was especially appreciated on the Pro models. The AirPods Pro 3 feel less pro and more mainstream. This may be a result of the AirPods Pro now being the generally preferred model among average buyers, and Apple deciding it needs to account for their tastes, which have been built on a foundation of cheap earbuds rather than audiophile headphones. Or perhaps the company is leaning into its newfound appreciation towards fitness users, and tuning the sound more towards the average gym playlist rather than something you’d listen to while lounging at home. Whatever the reasoning might be, the tuning feels subjectively and objectively worse than before.
Apple doesn’t offer a traditional system-wide EQ on any of its platforms, which feels like a missed opportunity. You get presets on iOS that can change the sound of the Music app, and if you use Spotify, then you can use its EQ, but if your music app of choice doesn’t offer one, then you’re out of luck. The Mac version of Apple Music does have a proper custom EQ, but again, it’s limited to just that app.
Apple also uses Adaptive EQ, which seems to have received an upgrade for AirPods Pro 3. This feature constantly monitors the sound you hear using the internal microphones and adjusts the tuning to account for changes to the fit and ear shape. It solves one of the biggest limitations of standard wired and most wireless headphones, which is that different people can often hear the same set differently due to differences in how their ears and heads are shaped. Adaptive EQ ensures everyone hears the same sound as the system constantly monitors the feedback and keeps tuning it until it matches its reference curve.
What this feature also does is ensure the overall sound remains consistent even at lower volume levels. Usually, we hear less of some parts of the sound, such as the low-frequency notes, as we go down in volume, but on the AirPods Pro 3, the system ensures the bass is increased every time you go down a notch on the volume scale to account for that.
I’ve experienced this feature on other products in the past, and I’ve chosen to disable it wherever possible. If I’m listening at a low volume, I generally am not intending to party quietly while focusing on whatever it is that caused me to lower the volume. It’s also something I do when I don’t want to tire my ears out on long listening sessions. But on the AirPods Pro 3, even at lower volume levels, I can hear the sub bass growling in my ears, as it has likely reached comical levels compared to the rest of the frequency spectrum to account for the loss in overall amplitude. This makes it difficult to just relax with the AirPods Pro 3 or focus on something else as the sound is constantly seeking your attention, even at low volumes. And there’s no way to disable this feature, either.
On a technical level, I did not find the AirPods Pro 3 to be too impressive, either. The much vaunted soundstage did not come through in my testing, and the sound was still relatively shallow in the overall space it creates around you. The imaging was decent, however, and I could feel a reasonable degree of separation between the various sounds in the mix.
The level of detail in the sound was also underwhelming. At this point, it’s fair to say that this is down to the company sticking to AAC as its main codec for most of its products. The only exception to this is the Apple Vision Pro, which uses a bespoke low-latency lossless codec over a custom wireless connection that doesn’t use Bluetooth. It seems this connection only works over short distances that would typically exist between a VR headset and your headphones, and Apple hasn’t figured out how to enable it over distances you normally use your phone or your computer. Still, it could come up with an alternative for those devices or just use one of the several already on the market. There is no reason why a $250 pair of earbuds should still be using a three-decade-old codec in 2025.
Noise cancellation
The AirPods Pro 3 have outstanding noise cancellation. All the discomfort you feel with the new ear tips finally pays off, as they passively block a lot of ambient high-frequency noise even before the ANC kicks in.
And what an ANC it is. One of the most surreal things I’ve felt is the AirPods Pro 3 ANC kicking in. You’d think at some point it would stop, but it just keeps going, blocking more and more noise with every passing millisecond until you barely hear anything around you anymore.
This is definitely one of those things that you need to experience firsthand. Walking outside, you can sometimes feel the thrum of a passing truck’s engine in your body, but your ears aren’t picking up on any of it. Sharper, louder sounds like car horns may still filter in to some extent, but they are so much quieter than what they’d normally be.
This is quite simply a world-class noise cancellation experience, perhaps only beaten by bigger, full-sized headphones, only because they can physically cover your entire outer ear. Whether it passes Apple’s 2x claim compared to the previous generation model, I do not know. But it is truly exceptional in action, and is the single biggest reason to purchase this product.
Not to be outdone by its silencing counterpart, the transparency mode on the AirPods Pro 3 is equally laudable. This is easily the most natural-sounding transparency mode I’ve heard, to the point where there is almost no difference between using it and not having anything in your ears.
The adaptive mode is a clever feature; it acts as a halfway step between the transparency mode and noise cancellation. It lets some of the ambient noise in while simultaneously reducing the louder noises nearby. It’s great for being aware of your surroundings while not being overwhelmed or distracted by them.
Apple also deserves credit for what it does with its ANC and transparency modes. Being able to use your AirPods Pro 3 as a near medical-grade hearing aid is incredible, and shows just how much confidence the company has in its features, and of course, how well they work. There’s actually a massive number of accessibility features available for the AirPods Pro 3, and although many of them are spread out or buried a bit in the settings, I’m glad they exist to enable those not blessed with perfect hearing to be able to listen to the world around them.
Microphone
The AirPods Pro 3 have excellent microphone quality that far exceeds typical Bluetooth standards. Voices have sublime clarity that matches or exceeds most wired headsets. If you make a lot of voice or video calls, this is the next best thing to getting a dedicated microphone.
Apple is likely using a custom protocol here, as you can have both high-quality microphone and headphone audio working at the same time without compromising one or the other. This means you can use the earbuds while gaming and get high-quality game audio while simultaneously using voice comms.
You can also use the earbuds as a microphone for the camera while recording video. However, the audio is recorded in mono, while the iPhones can now do stereo recording using onboard mics, so unless you’re recording yourself speaking for the video, it’s probably best to just use the mics on the phone.
Latency
The AirPods Pro 3 have good latency performance. Apple does not make any claims regarding the latency performance, but I did not face any latency issues in any of the apps I tried. Both iOS and macOS can also go into a low-latency audio mode when a game is launched, which should further cut down on latency for gaming.
Connectivity
The AirPods Pro 3 had excellent connectivity performance during testing. One of the advantages of using a low complexity codec like AAC is that you get a great range and also a very stable connection all the time.
The AirPods Pro 3 don’t support multi-device pairing in the traditional sense, the way we find on other non-Apple-made Bluetooth products. You pair the earbuds with one of your Apple devices, and they become available on all others using the same Apple account. Whenever you start playback on one device, the earbuds automatically switch to that device as the source. If you are playing on a Mac and start something on the iPhone, the earbuds instantly switch over.
This entire system works so seamlessly and reliably that you don’t really miss multi-device pairing. In fact, it’s better than multi-device pairing since it works with more than two devices.
Battery life
The AirPods Pro 3 have a claimed battery life of 8 hours of continuous use, which is up from 6 hours on the AirPods Pro 2. However, the battery inside the case is smaller, which has resulted in the total playback time going down to 24 hours from 30 hours. This means you only get three full charges with the AirPods Pro 3 from the case, whereas you got five on the AirPods Pro 2.
At this point, I’d usually be rattling off the battery life numbers. However, as mentioned in previous reviews, it’s difficult to test continuous playback with ANC on earbuds like the AirPods Pro 3 that require contact with the skin to enable their ANC, and it’s not practical to go 8 straight hours of listening to audio, even for the sake of science. So, usually, I provide the ANC off numbers, but Apple doesn’t provide any ANC off numbers for reference, making the testing pointless.
What followed was a very unscientific test that ended up measuring the time every time the earbuds were in use to compare against the total 24-hour figure that included the case time. This resulted in about 24.5 hours of playback, which is a bit higher than claimed.
The longer continuous playback time on the earbuds is great for those wanting to use them on long flights. It’s especially impressive how long the earbuds last when you consider the many things they are doing every time they are on. However, the shorter overall time means you will be plugging in the case more often than you would with the AirPods Pro 2. You can cut down on some of the work by using a wireless charger, but regardless of which method you use, you will be putting more wear and tear on this battery than you would have with the AirPods Pro 2.
Conclusion
The AirPods Pro 3 are a highly accomplished pair of earbuds that are actually great value for money, which seems like an odd thing to say about a $250 pair of earbuds from Apple. You get best-in-class noise cancellation and transparency modes with an astonishing range of hearing health and accessibility features in tow, excellent microphone quality, workout tracking with heart rate monitoring, and good battery life. Not to mention the flawless integration with the rest of the Apple ecosystem that no other company’s product can offer.
Where the AirPods Pro 3 stumble is in comfort, as Apple has chosen to prioritize noise cancellation with its new foam insert tips. Adding to the discomfort is the new audio tuning that is harsh, boorish, and unbecoming of a product of this pedigree.
Comfort and sound quality are the two main pillars of any pair of headphones, and everything else is secondary. So it’s unfortunate that the AirPods Pro 3 chose to fall short in these critical aspects while excelling in everything else.
The good thing is that both are also subjective, so I would implore prospective buyers to try these earbuds for a while before they place their orders. If you can listen to them for an hour without discomfort or dissatisfaction, then there’s a pair of AirPods Pro 3 out there with your name on it. Just make sure to get it engraved before checking out.
