Apple AirPods Pro 3 review: Should you upgrade?

People often ask what you’d save in a fire and while I wouldn’t go as far as to say AirPods here, I’ve missed trains going back for them when I’ve left home without them. That’s because leaving them behind is always entirely accidental. They come everywhere with me, from the school run and evening dog walks, to work commutes and trips abroad. 

I’ve used the AirPods Pro 2 since they launched in 2022, first in their Lightning form and then in their USB-C form that arrived in 2023. And when I say used, I really mean it. For the occasional plane journey, I will switch to AirPods Max but the AirPods Pro are my daily headphones of choice. 

The AirPods Pro 2 have been replaced by the AirPods Pro 3 though, with new tricks and features added to the already long list of attributes offered on Apple’s premium in-ear headphones. Should you upgrade, or if you’re new to AirPods, are the AirPods Pro 3 a better buy over the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation?

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The Disconnekt Downlow

The Apple AirPods Pro 3 are a great pair of wireless earbuds. They offer excellent sound quality, fantastic noise cancellation, a comfortable fit and a superb feature set for Apple users. If you have the AirPods Pro 2, you may not need to upgrade as those are still great headphones and they will get some of the new features, like Live Translation. But if you are considering investing AirPods for the first time, the AirPods Pro 3 are a brilliant buy and one you won’t regret.

Buy for £219 on Amazon

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The reasons you should choose the Apple AirPods Pro 3

I’ll start by saying the Apple AirPods Pro 3 are an excellent pair of wireless earbuds but I will caveat that statement by adding for Apple users. I wouldn’t recommend them for Samsung Galaxy users or Google Pixel users as both those brands do their own wireless earbuds that will give you a more holistic experience with their devices than AirPods will. But, if you are baked into the Apple ecosystem, the Pro 3’s are fantastic. 

They have been redesigned compared to the AirPods Pro 2, resulting in slightly smaller earbuds overall, along with the repositioning of the sensors and the addition of a heart rate sensor at the bottom of the earbud next to the ear tip. The silicone ear tips now also include foam for a better fit and there’s an extra size option in the box with XXS, XS, S, M and L available. 

The default is medium but I switched these tips out for the small-size tips and the resulting fit is more comfortable and more secure than I got with the AirPods Pro 2. I’ve worn the AirPods Pro 3 for hours at a time since their announcement and barely noticed them. Sound quality is excellent too with great detail and clarity, as well as a healthy dose of bass. It’s hard to quantify just how much of an improvement these headphones offer over the AirPods Pro 2, but listening to one pair after the other in quick succession, I thought the AirPods Pro 3 offered a little more depth in bassier tracks. 

Active noise cancellation has been improved too and that was noticeable. I used AirPods Pro 3 whilst drying my hair with the Dyson Supersonic r and the AirPods Pro 3 did a superb job of reducing the hair dryer noise to just a hum. I also switched between the Pro 3s and the AirPods Pro 2s in a children’s soft play area on a busy Saturday afternoon and the AirPods Pro 3 made for a much more peaceful experience.

If you’re not sold on the sound quality and the great active noise cancellation though, the AirPods Pro 3 are incredibly convenient for Apple users and that alone is enough of a reason to recommend them. They come with a range of new features too, which I will talk about in a second, but automatic switching between iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch is seamless, the on-device controls are excellent and the super simple setup shouldn’t be sniffed at either. 

I also need to mention call quality because I used AirPods for a minimum of an hour of calls a day and they are brilliant. It might sound like an obvious statement to make but trust me when I say it’s not the case for all wireless headphones. Apple also improved battery life for the AirPods Pro 3. 

It claims 10 hours with ANC off, 8 hours with it on and 6.5 hours when using the heart rate monitor. For a 30 minute call, battery dropped by 7 per cent during my review period, while a 30 minute walk using the heart rate sensor saw a 4 per cent drop. Listening to music for an hour on 50 per cent volume with ANC on reduced battery by 8 per cent. If you do run out of juice, five minutes charge will give you an hour of listening time for that journey home.

What the Apple AirPods Pro 3 could do better

Before I get onto the features of AirPods Pro 3, I’m just going to mention a couple of the things I think AirPods Pro 3 could do better. Firstly, where are the colour options? The AirPods Max look great in their array of pastel shades and while I don’t expect to see purple in-ear AirPods anytime soon, I’d love at least a black option for those that are opposed to the miniature toothbrush head vibe.

There’s also no charging cable in the AirPods Pro 3 box. It’s not a huge problem as there’s a good chance you will have a USB-C charging cable lying around your home, but if you don’t then you won’t be getting one from this box. 

The ear tips aren’t the easiest to change either. There’s a knack to it, after which it is easier, but you’ll want to try and pick the right size first time. To make swapping them over a little easier, turn the ear tip inside out and grip from the bottom. You’ll feel like you are going to rip them, but I didn’t even when pulling very hard and once they are off, snapping the new size on is a much more straightforward affair.

Lastly – because honestly I don’t have a huge number of negatives for these headphones – many of the features that I’ll talk about below are locked to those that have Apple devices. Now as I said, I probably wouldn’t recommend these as highly to Android phone and tablet users or those with Windows laptops anyway, but it’s something to keep in mind because most of what I talk about next is exclusive to Apple devices.

Apple AirPods Pro 3 features

Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 offer a number of clever features from their noise cancelling modes that span Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency and Adaptive Audio, to things like Conversation Mode where they detect if you’re having a conversation and lower the audio volume. I would rather this latter mode paused audio when it comes to audiobooks and podcasts, but the feature itself is excellent on the whole.

I mentioned automatic switching between Apple devices and the simple setup already, but I also love Announce Notifications and Announce Calls which sees Siri reading out notifications or calls that come through to your iPhone or iPad so you know what’s happening without having your phone out. Being able to nod your head to accept call or shake it to reject one never gets boring either. It also wouldn’t be right not to give a quick mention to the hearing test and hearing aid features too, which while not new, are still an impressive thing to offer on earbuds.

When it comes to new features, the AirPods Pro 3 have Live Translation (though this is also supported on the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with ANC). You have to download the languages you want to use (there are only five at the moment comprising English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish), after which the processing is done on your connected iPhone (it needs to support Apple Intelligence) and doesn’t require an internet connection. 

Once setup, press both stems of your AirPods at the same time. When someone starts speaking in one of the supported five languages, you will hear the translation in English (or the language you set) in real-time in your ear, while a transcript appears on your iPhone at the same time. I tested it with my friend’s French husband and while some of his jokes did get lost in translation, the feature works well for a first stab. There’s a delay similar to what you would get with an in-person translator and it is very literal but it would definitely help you get by in a country where you can’t speak the language. When there are multiple voices, the feature still picked the dialect up but it leaned on iPhone more for the microphones and it got a little more confused.

The last thing I am going to mention is the heart rate sensor that’s built into the AirPods Pro 3. Some might think this is a little pointless but I think it’s great for those that don’t want to wear a wrist-worn wearable like Apple Watch, but still want accurate heart rate tracking and calorie counting. It gives you another option for fitness tracking at least and with the ability to track 50 workouts using AirPods, I’d say it’s a pretty decent option at that. I tested it for a couple of walking workouts and cycling and the heart rate data was on par with the chest strap I was wearing for comparison.

Should you buy the Apple AirPods Pro 3?

The Apple AirPods Pro 3 are a great pair of wireless earbuds with significant improvements over the AirPods Pro 2, but especially the original AirPods Pro. They offer excellent sound quality, fantastic noise cancellation, a comfortable fit and a superb feature set for Apple users. If you have the AirPods Pro 2, you may not need to upgrade as those are still great headphones and they will get some of the new features, like Live Translation. 

But if you are considering investing in AirPods for the first time, the AirPods Pro 3 are a brilliant buy. I wouldn’t recommend them for Android users but if you’re already in bed with the Apple ecosystem, you won’t regret buying these and like me, you won’t leave home without them.

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