AirPods Pro 3 Unboxing, Setup and Review

The AirPods Pro 3 introduce significant improvements including enhanced sound quality, superior active noise cancellation, a new heart rate sensor, and extended battery life, maintaining the $249 price point.

• AirPods Pro 3 feature a new heart rate sensor for fitness tracking without an Apple Watch.

• Sound quality, active noise cancellation, and transparency mode are significantly improved with a more secure, foam-infused fit.

• Battery life is extended to 8 hours with ANC and 10 hours for accessibility features, along with enhanced live translation and improved Find My accuracy.

The AirPods Pro 3 represent a substantial upgrade over the previous model, offering a redesigned fit with foam-infused ear tips for better comfort and seal, and an H2 chipset that delivers deeper bass, clearer vocals, and a wider soundstage. Key new features include an integrated heart rate sensor for fitness tracking, significantly improved battery life, and enhanced live translation capabilities. The device also boasts better active noise cancellation and transparency mode, making it a compelling successor.

Unboxing and Design

• 00:00:05 The AirPods Pro 3, priced at $249, maintain the same cost as their predecessor but introduce several physical updates. The packaging now includes extra-extra small ear tips, expanding the available sizes. The charging case features a touch button for resetting, USB-C charging, and wireless charging support, departing from the physical button of the Pro 2. The ear tips themselves have a new foam-infused design enclosed in silicone, offering a more direct and secure fit that is not compatible with AirPods Pro 2.

New Features and Specifications

• 00:02:36 New ultra-low noise microphones and multi-port acoustic architecture contribute to deeper bass, vocal clarity, and a wide soundstage, all powered by the H2 chipset. The AirPods Pro 3 also feature IP57 dust, sweat, and water resistance. A significant addition is the heart rate sensor, which uses LEDs to pulse invisible light 256 times per second to measure heart rate for up to 50 types of workouts, integrating seamlessly with the Fitness app even without an Apple Watch.

Setup and iOS Integration

• 00:03:43 Upon connection to an iPhone, users can enable head-movement controls and heart rate tracking for workouts. The AirPods Pro 3 also offer live translation with selectable languages like French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, and a hearing test option. They integrate with iOS 26 features such as camera remote, personalized audio, adaptive audio, and a new setting to pause media when falling asleep, indicating a firmware version 8A354.

Battery Life and Accessibility

• 00:05:59 Battery life has significantly improved, offering eight hours with active noise cancellation enabled, two hours more than the AirPods Pro 2. For accessibility users utilizing the hearing aid option, battery life extends to 10 hours, a 67% increase. Voice clarity and conversation boost have also been enhanced for better accessibility, making the device more versatile for a broader range of users.

Sound Quality and Noise Cancellation

• 00:08:39 The new foam-infused ear tips and design provide a more secure and comfortable fit than the AirPods Pro 2. Sonically, the AirPods Pro 3 deliver a much fuller sound with deeper bass, more pronounced highs, and clearer mid-tones, attributed to Apple's next-generation adaptive EQ. Active noise cancellation and transparency mode are noticeably better, likely due to the improved seal and advanced microphones, with voice sounding more natural in transparency mode.