AirPods Pro 3 review: Apple's best-sounding and best-fitting AirPods yet
The AirPods Pro 3 feel more secure in my ears, sound better and last longer than the three-year-old AirPods Pro 2. This is going to be the easy recommendation in a while.
🏆 Rating: 5/5
🥇 Editor’s Choice
✅ Pros
👂 AirPods Pro 3 fit much better thanks to ear tips made of silicone and new foam
🔇 2x the Active Noise Canceling (ANC) of the AirPods Pro 2 (and 4x AirPods Pro 1)
🔋 8-hour battery life with ANC turned on can last most flights uninterrupted
💬 Live Translate is effective and accurate in five languages (soon to be nine)
❤️ Heart rate monitor built into the earbuds for use during workouts
🦻 Doubles as an affordable hearing aid like AirPods Pro 2 (worth highlighting again)
💦 IP57 dust and water resistance make them sweatproof
📆 It’s been three years since the AirPods Pro 2
❌ Cons
💰 You may be tempted to spend less than $250 elsewhere for fewer features
🤔 AirPods Pro 2 are still a good value
Let’s start our AirPods Pro 3 review with a little inside baseball to prove how good the new AirPods Pro 3 are: The Shortcut straddles the line between publication (on Substack) and influencer (on social media) – we have 1M subscribers and followers backing our website. But we’re not made up of influencers who love everything from Apple and automatically rubber-stamp an Editor’s Choice Award on every gadget from the company. Case in point: our AirPods 4 with ANC review (3.5/5) noted that last year’s $179 earbuds were good, but not the best value vs its AirPods Pro 2, which are often on sale for $199 or less at Amazon.
So, our giving the AirPods Pro 3 a perfect 5/5 review score and an Editor’s Choice Award should give you a sense of how much we truly recommend these earbuds. Apple doubled down on active noise canceling (ANC) that’s twice as effective as the AirPods Pro 2 and offers a better fit with memory-foam-infused silicon eartips. Apple’s more secure seal and improved noise-canceling microphones work hand-in-hand, ear-to-ear, for crisper audio and less outside distraction. These are the best-fitting and best-sounding AirPods yet.
Full AirPods Pro 3 review
👂 The perfect fit. You know that feeling that your earbuds are going to pop out, and you need to adjust them every so often? That hasn’t happened to me with the AirPods Pro 3. The combination of silicone eartips with new memory foam material means these buds conform to your ear a lot better than before. You don’t need to wad up the foam eartips like the Sony WF-1000XM5, and there’s more sound isolation than with just silicone earbuds. They’re somewhere in between the Sony Inzone E9 in-ear earbuds we just tested and the AirPods Pro 2.
🔇 2x the ANC effectiveness. The tighter seal of the ear tips and redesigned noise-canceling mics work twice as hard to block out unwanted noise. I felt properly isolated, even during the slow parts of songs or quiet moments in a podcast.
🦻 Hearing aid enhanced. Apple’s clinical-grade hearing aid update for the AirPods Pro 2 isn’t even a year old, but it’s even better on the AirPods Pro 3. It benefits from better voice clarity in Conversion Boost and offers 67% more battery life in transparency mode.
🗣️Transparency mode boost. Apple’s superb ANC makes its transparency and adaptive transparency modes even more meaningful. The difference between the two (toggled in the Settings, Control Center, or pinching down on the stem) is even more apparent now, and voices in transparency modes sound even more natural than they did on my AirPods Pro 2.
✈️ Flight friendly. With the AirPods Pro 3, you won’t hear the hum of an airplane, nor will you fear these earbuds falling out mid-flight between the seats. We’ve all been there. That noise isolation and peace of mind combo makes it easier to fall asleep on a long-haul flight. Which brings me to my next point…
🔋 8-hour battery life. Apple is touting eight-hour battery life with ANC turned on, up from six hours on the AirPods Pro 2, or 10 hours in transparency mode.
⚡ MagSafe case. With the case, you’re getting a total of 24 hours, which is more than enough for most trips. USB-C and wireless charging are now standard on the case.
💬 Live Translate is your travel buddy. I’ve tested live translation modes in other earbuds and… they’re good. AirPods Pro 3 take things to the next level with more accurate results, clearer audio, and the use of ANC to ensure you don’t hear both the foreign language speaker and the translated audio at the same volume. It makes conversations more natural.
🔙 Use AirPods Pro 2 or an iPhone. If the person you’re speaking to doesn’t have AirPods Pro 3, you’re not out of luck. Apple’s Live Translate works with the AirPods Pro 2 via iOS 26, and there’s a companion screen via the Translate app to watch the conversation unfold.
🔜 More languages to come. Right now, Live Translate mode supports English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. By the end of the year, Apple is promising four more languages: Italian, Japanese, Korean, and simplified Chinese.
💦 Don’t sweat it… or do. With an IP57 rating, Apple made its latest AirPods Pro more dust and sweat-proof than the AirPods Pro 2 (IPX4). That means your AirPods are going to last through your most brutal workouts – and maybe a Gatorade shower if you’re the coach of a winning sports team.
❤️ I heart the heart-rate sensor. I’ll admit, at first, I didn’t get why anyone would want to measure their heart rate with the AirPods Pro 3 when Apple sells the Apple Watch that does the same thing. But then I learned that not every activity (cycling or weightlifting) or person (someone with a tattoo) gets an accurate reading, and the combination of the two will take the best measurement. Combined with the new customizable workout menu in the Apple Fitness app, this feature makes a lot more sense now than it did a week ago.
📆 It’s been 84 years. OK, maybe not as long as the popular Titanic meme describes, but it’s been three years since the Apple AirPods Pro 2 launched. I have zero regrets buying them on day one, and they were worth every penny. This might have been a different take if Apple had launched new Pro-level buds on an annual basis. If Apple’s release cadence remains the same between now and the inevitable AirPods Pro 4, you’ll get a lot of use out of these, so I recommend getting them now.
Should you buy the AirPods Pro 3?
Yes, if…
✅ You yearn for AirPods with Apple’s most secure and satisfying fit
✅ You need the best noise-canceling tech for travel or loud environments
✅ You’re a jetsetter who wants ANC mode with eight-hour battery life
✅ Your AirPods Pro 1 or Pro 2 battery life is waning anyway
No, if…
❌ You just bought the AirPods Pro 2 and can’t take them back (they’re still very good)
❌ You have an Android phone (try the more Android-tailored Samsung Galaxy Buds 3, Google Pixel Buds Pro 2, Bose QC Ultra II)
Does live translation work by itself without iOS 26? I’m on iOS 18 I don’t want to upgrade just yet. iOS 26 looks hideous and there’s plenty of bugs I’m sure.