AirPods Pro 3

AirPods Pro 3

Today the AirPods Pro 3 were announced by Apple in their keynote for the iPhone event, Awe Dropping.

The new AirPods have Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) that is twice as good as the AirPods Pro 2, and four times better than the original AirPods Pro. What that means for real world use, we won’t know until their release date on Friday 19th of September. I’ll be there in the morning, picking up my pair.

Apple also showed off a neat trick that Google seems to have been advertising for years now: live translation. This will allow you to listen to someone speaking in another language, and have their volume dipped slightly to allow you to hear the translation right in your ears. Just like you had your very own UN translator talking to you. Your replies will then show as text on your iPhone for the other person to read, or if they have their own AirPods (Pro 2 or latest AirPods 4 as well), they will hear your words translated for them.

The new Pros also have increased their ear tip selection to five different sizes and have provided IP57 (high dust and water protection), but they still aren’t submersible. There is also a heart rate monitor built in, better than the one in the recent Powerbeats Pro 2 it seems. These will allow you to have a workout monitored with your iPhone, negating the requirement for an Apple Watch.

Battery life is also improved, from 5 hours to 8 with ANC on (10 if you just have transparency mode).

These look to be a nice improvement over the AirPods Pro 2 that were released three years ago now, and the price remains the same at $AU429.