In brief: As AirPods comprise a growing portion of Apple's sales, a new hardware revision of the company's premium earbuds became one of the main centerpieces during this year's autumn conference. The AirPods Pro 3 feature enhanced noise cancellation, longer battery life, and new hardware to improve health and fitness tracking.
Pre-orders are now open for the AirPods Pro 3. At $249, the same price as the prior model, Apple's new flagship earbuds will be available on Friday, September 19.
Although Apple didn't upgrade from the H2 processor used in the AirPods Pro 2 and standard AirPods 4, the AirPods Pro 3 feature a new external design to improve comfort and fitness functionality. The new shape is designed to fit more users' ears, and the company introduced a new "XXS" fifth size for the silicone ear tips.
The new heart rate sensor is likely the most ambitious addition. It uses a photoplethysmography sensor to pulse infrared light into the user's ear 256 times per second, measuring light absorption and blood flow.
A new workout program combines the resulting data with information from accelerometers, GPS, and Apple Intelligence on the iPhone. To make the new AirPods better suited for workouts, the dust, sweat, and water resistance have been upgraded from IP54 to IP57.
Furthermore, Active Noise Cancellation on the AirPods Pro 3 filters out twice as much sound as the prior model and four times as much as the original AirPods Pro, enhancing personalized spatial audio and conversation awareness features. The improvement also allows users to take the hearing aid test in a wider variety of noisy environments.
Battery life has also been improved by around 25 percent for general use and 67 percent for hearing aid mode. One charge should enable approximately eight hours of music listening or 10 hours of hearing assistance. The new MagSafe charger, now featuring the U2 processor, allows up to 24 hours of listening time.
When Apple releases iOS 26 on September 15, it will introduce live audio translation for the AirPods Pro 2 and 3. Conversation participants without those models can still receive translations through the iPhone's translation app. At launch, live translation will support English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (likely Mandarin) will arrive before the end of this year.
Apple AirPods Pro 3 arrive with heart rate sensor and improved noise cancellation
