AirPods Pro 3 First Look

AirPods Pro 3:

Hi everyone, and AirPods Pro 3 have been out for over 5 months at this point. We’ve used them just about every single day since they released. So, we thought we’d talk about everything from durability and sound quality to how they’ve changed over time and the things we like and don’t like about them.

Design:

Now, when it comes to the AirPods themselves, they’ve changed a little bit as far as the form factor and the case. The case itself is fairly familiar, but it no longer has the button on the back. We actually prefer the button. We know it takes away moving parts, but on the AirPods Pro 2, for example, you have a physical button here, and we prefer that overall. The overall design of them is great.

Comfort:

We’ll talk about the battery in a little bit. We find them fairly comfortable, but the comfort is okay compared to AirPods Pro 2. Because we have the new tip on the end here that has this foam that’s infused, it pushes against your inner ear or your inner ear canal.

And what it does is create a better seal. The problem with that is you feel more pressure there. So, compared to AirPods Pro 2, we actually find them a little less comfortable, but you do gain some noise cancellation thanks to these AirPod tips. So, if we take them off here, we also find they stay on a little bit better.

We’ve actually had the AirPods Pro 2 tip come off in our ear. These haven’t done that. And you’ll see the tip itself has foam infused right here at the edge, and it pushes back into your ear canal. So, that’s something again; it creates a great seal, but also creates an issue as far as pressure goes.

So, you definitely know they’re there a little bit more than you would with the AirPods Pro 2 or especially those that sit outside your ear canal, like AirPods 3 or AirPods 4. Also, the way this fits in our ear is just about perfect. We know that’s not true for everyone, but the overall design is just very comfortable in our ears.

We have no issues with it whatsoever. And that part, we have really found no problem with other than the pressure in the ear canal. Now, connectivity has been pretty good, especially with the most recent firmware updates to not only the AirPods, but also updates with Mac OS 26.3, for example. Before that version, we had issues connecting to it.

So, for example, if we connect to our iPhone currently, this iPhone’s on iOS 26.4 betas, but if we go into settings, you’ll see they’re connected very fast. We go in here, and this is not on the current beta, so we’re using the public version or the public release, which is version 8b34. Currently, with this version on the AirPods Pro 3, again, no issues whatsoever as far as connectivity.

Before this, we had some issues when we were using the Mac. Sometimes they would sort of degrade in overall quality and then just start to disconnect and reconnect. We’ve had zero issues since we’ve had the most recent updates with Mac OS 26.3, iOS 26.3, and the updates on the Apple TV and Vision Pro. So, pretty happy to report they’re much better now. Early on, we did have some issues with them.

Sound Quality:

When it comes to overall sound quality, this is a bit more subjective. Where the AirPods Pro 3 have a different sound profile than what we have with the AirPods Pro 2. If you prefer the sound of the AirPods Pro 2, you probably won’t like the sound of the AirPods Pro 3.

They have a little bit different sound. We prefer the sound of the AirPods Pro 3 with a little bit more bass. Some of the mids can be muted a little bit, but we think they’ve fixed that just a little with the overall firmware updates. We do find the sound to be quite good. We can go back and forth between them and enjoy them equally, but they definitely have a different sound. So, if you’re happy with AirPods Pro 2, it’s hard to justify upgrading if you’re really happy with them.

Noise Cancellation:

So, the sound is great for me, but when it comes to noise cancellation, we find them to be definitely better than AirPods Pro 2. We use these while mowing the lawn, for example, and you can barely hear the lawn mower.

On a riding lawn mower, we’ll just drive while we’re using it for music. We make sure that our decibel levels are under 80, usually around 75, using the noise feature here. So, if we place them in our ears. So, with transparency on, maybe we can play some music here while we’re playing music. If we just pull down here, you can actually see the noise profile if you use this control center widget.

So, you’ll see here if we keep it below the warning area, we can still hear the music just fine and barely hear the lawn mower at all. So, when we’re using these while on a flight, it’s equally true. They really mute out the noise from the cabin. You do hear a few things, but for the most part, it silences most of that noise.

You can barely hear the engines whatsoever or anything like that. If you’re sitting directly over the wing or maybe directly behind them, where the engines are, you may hear them a little bit more. Just depends on where you’re placed, but for the most part, they definitely cancel out more noise than AirPods Pro 2 do, thanks to the stronger seal here and then some upgraded internals with the chipset.

Transparency, Adaptive, and Head Tracking:

Transparency is also quite good. We were just using it while showing you the music and the decibel level. We have no issue with that whatsoever. We typically don’t use adaptive mode. And the reason for that is I want it to either be cancelled or be transparent. We really don’t want in between.

We just want it to basically cancel the noise. And then when we don’t want it to cancel the noise, we want to hear what’s around us. So, we typically just sort of switch between those modes. Instead of transparency, we’ll switch to noise cancellation. We never use adaptive because of that, but you do have that option.

Head tracking is good, but if you are using it in a lawnmower, for example, and you place your phone maybe in a storage area in that or in your pocket, sometimes if you move your head, it seems to be off a bit. We typically don’t like head tracking while we’re doing tasks outside, but when you’re sitting around in front of your computer listening to music or on your iPhone, it works just fine.

We don’t use conversational awareness either, but that is a nice option to have. Again, something that we just don’t prefer. But depending on where you are is going to depend on which option you want to use.

Battery Life:

When it comes to battery life, it is about the same as AirPods Pro 2, maybe five or six hours with regular use. We use them all day, all the time. However, the case is one of our complaints. We feel like we’re constantly charging this case, and it does typically have a smaller battery than the AirPods Pro 2 case. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s definitely something we’ve noticed that’s different between the two of them. So, if you want better battery life with the case overall, we would stick with the AirPods Pro 2, but the AirPods Pro 3, of course, can charge in the case like this and seem to last.

You’ll just find that you’re charging the case more often than you typically will. If you make a habit of maybe placing it on a wireless charger or possibly plugging it in every couple of days, it usually won’t be a problem. But again, we find that we charge it more often.

Health:

With AirPods Pro 3, we also have the heart rate monitor, and that’s helpful if you don’t want to maybe bring your Apple Watch with you on a workout. You can use your iPhone to measure that, and just use this for steps, and then use your AirPods for your heart rate. So, that’s definitely helpful. If you’re using your AirPods and your Apple Watch at the same time, it will take the best of both of those.

So, it will work in combination and then take that information. We think it’s a nice feature to have, especially if you don’t want to use your Apple Watch or maybe you’re using a third-party watch in the future, or you just don’t like to wear a watch at all.

Future AirPods:

When it comes to future AirPods, supposedly, we’re going to get AirPods with cameras in them to see around us. Now, this would be maybe along the lines of visual intelligence, or to go along with possible glasses in the near future, and give us some idea of our surroundings. So, it could communicate that back using Apple intelligence. What we would use that for specifically, we don’t really know.

We’ll have to wait and see if Apple actually releases them. But if they do release a new pair of AirPods, we would be more excited for a higher-end model that’s been rumored. A higher-end version may have multiple drivers to have better sound separation, things like that, or stage separation. Anything that would improve the sound would be great.

The sound is okay, but it’s not as high quality as maybe true lossless headphones that are higher priced. So, that’s our only downside to these, other than them feeling a little bit less comfortable when they’re in your ear.

Should You Buy AirPods Pro 3?

Now, if you’re wondering if you should pick up AirPods Pro 3 or upgrade to them, it really depends on what you’re looking for. For example, if you have AirPods Pro 2, you really like the sound profile, you’re happy with the noise cancellation, we don’t really see a reason to upgrade. The AirPods Pro 3 definitely have that different sound profile we mentioned earlier, where we have more pronounced bass, a little bit more treble, but less mids.

That’s going to be a disadvantage for you if you prefer more mids in your music. So, it really is subjective to what you like, but also, noise cancellation is definitely better on the AirPods Pro 3. So, again, it really depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re currently happy with AirPods Pro 2, we see no reason to upgrade unless you really want that noise cancellation difference.

Of course, when it comes to future features, you’re probably not going to get many feature upgrades with AirPods Pro 2, but you may get a few here and there.

iOS 27 and future features:

Of course, when it comes to future features, you’re probably not going to get many feature upgrades with AirPods Pro 2, but you may get a few here and there.

Of course, when it comes to future features, you’re probably not going to get many feature upgrades with AirPods Pro 2, but you may get a few here and there. iOS 27 may offer a few different features we’re not expecting, and maybe that will carry over to accessibility features as well, but again, we just don’t know what to expect with that.

Durability:

Now, finally, when it comes to durability, we find that they’re fairly durable. Even if you put them through the washer, we haven’t had an issue there, but if you take a look at the case, it scratches badly. So, you may want to consider a case over this case if that’s something that bothers you. We just sort of see it as patina.
We’ve used them regularly, but it is scratched all over the place. And that’s pretty typical with AirPods cases. So, it’s hard to see in this lighting, but it’s definitely scratched to the point where it’s almost a matte finish in person. But that’s not something that concerns us. They seem to be durable.

Even if they fall on the ground, as long as you don’t lose them, they seem to function properly. We heard of one person who had to replace them, but Apple’s pretty good about that if you do have some issues.

What AirPods Do You Use?

So hopefully that helped you decide whether or not you should pick up AirPods Pro 3.
If you pick these up, let me know if you like them more than AirPods Pro 2 or if you find them less comfortable, as we do. And if you enjoyed, as always. We’ll see you next time.
Till then, Stay Healthy, Stay Safe. Bye.