As expected, at its big event today Apple made the AirPods Pro 3 official. These come with better bass and a wider soundstage, as well as twice the ANC performance of the AirPods Pro 2 thanks to the use of new foam ear tips (in five sizes) and improved tech. In fact, Apple boasts that they have the best ANC of any in-ear wireless headphones. And you get 8 hours of music listening on one charge with ANC on, 33% more than in the AirPods Pro 2.
The transparency mode should sound more natural, and battery life is up to 10 hours in this mode. The Hearing Aid feature is now available in the UK and EU, following certification in those regions. Conversation Boost is now automatic for Hearing Aid users in louder environments like restaurants, adding “powerful amplification with background noise reduction”, Apple says.
The AirPods Pro 3 have a built-in heart rate monitor to track over 50 workout types in the Fitness app on iOS. You also get access to Apple’s Workout Buddy even if all you have is an iPhone and the AirPods Pro 3. This uses your workout data and history to generate personalized, motivational insights during your sessions. Fitness+ users get real-time performance metrics directly on their iPhone, like heart rate, calories burned, progress on their Move ring, and the Burn Bar.
There’s a new design that should fit more people’s ears, based on over 10,000 ear scans with more than 100,000 hours of user research. The internal architecture was reengineered to make each earbud smaller, and the external geometry of the ear tip was aligned to the center of the body for increased stability. The earbuds are IP57 rated for dust and water resistance.
AirPods Pro 3 have a built-in translation feature, powered by Apple Intelligence. You can just talk naturally in your language and what you say will be translated into your interlocutor’s language if they also happen to have a pair of AirPods Pro 3.
If they don’t, you can use your iPhone as a horizontal display, showing the live transcription of what you’re saying in the other person’s preferred language. And when they respond, what they say is automatically translated into your language and spoken into your AirPods.
Live Translation is also available on AirPods 4 with ANC and AirPods Pro 2 with the latest firmware, when paired to an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone running iOS 26 and later. It supports English (UK and US), French, German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish for now. Later this year, support for Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) is coming.
The AirPods Pro 3 are available to pre-order today for $249, in the US and 50 other countries or regions, and will become available on September 19.