This week Apple showed us the AirPods 3 and… they look exactly like what we expected. All the rumors were true. The new AirPods look a lot like AirPods Pro without the silicone tips. They feature a shorter stem than the previous generation AirPods, and a more contoured earpiece, to hopefully stay in your ear better. I know I had difficulty with the original AirPods staying in my ears, so the AirPods Pro were a necessity. I think I have weird ears, but it seems every reviewer says that. Perhaps the AirPods were the weird ones all along. Hopefully the new ones don’t leave so many people self-conscious about their ears.
Apple’s new AirPods come with a few welcome surprises, and one not-so-welcome one: the price tag.
New Features, New Price
The new AirPods 3 fit an extra hour of listening time with just the earbuds. That can take you to 6 hours of listening outside of the charging case. With the case, that translates to a total of 30 hours of listening time, 6 hours longer than even the AirPods Pro. That’s likely enough for an entire weekend of heavy listening. When you go to charge them, you can do so with a MagSafe charger. Yes, just like the one you use on your iPhone. While the AirPods 2 had a wireless charging case, as did the AirPods Pro, the new AirPods 3 come with a case that will also magnetically align to the coil thanks to MagSafe. Interestingly, though Apple didn’t mention it, the AirPods Pro also now have a MagSafe charging case. It’s a small upgrade to ensure the AirPods Pro don’t fall behind a lower-tier model.
Outside of charging, the AirPods 3 feature a new high dynamic range and high-excursion driver, improving sound quality with an adaptive EQ. This listens to the music as you’re listening to it, ensuring that it sounds just as it was intended for your ears specifically. Along with that, Apple also added spatial audio with head tracking. Those are features that were previously only on the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max. It creates a 3D sound stage for your music, and even allows you to turn your head and experience the sensation of surround sound for music and video content supporting Dolby 5.1 and Dolby Atmos.
The stem is force sensitive, like the AirPods Pro. No more double tapping to do actions, instead you’ll squeeze the stem. Just like previous AirPods models, it’ll detect when you remove your headphones too, so it can pause. And, of course, there’s still “Hey Siri” support. In fact, it uses the same H1 processor as the AirPods 2 and AirPods Pro.
Like the AirPods Pro, the new AirPods feature water resistance. If the fit has improved enough over the original AirPods, you may actually want to wear these while exercising. They’ll resist sweat too.
Finally, there’s that new price. While the AirPods 2 were (and still are) $129, the new AirPods 3 are $179. $50 more than the AirPods 2 and $70 less than the AirPods Pro. Is it worth the price? I never found the sound quality of the original AirPods to be quite worth the price. You were always paying for the ecosystem, just being able to open your AirPods and use them on any device. Still, $179 for headphones that don’t even feature active noise cancellation? That may be a bit steep for most people. While the sound quality has improved, it’s still a bit high for what you’re getting. The base AirPods 2 are just $129, and may be worth the “downgrade” for many buyers. The previous AirPods 2 with wireless charging case, before the discount, were $159, so the AirPods 3 are more expensive regardless.
The new AirPods sit in a sort of middle ground, between budget and premium. Yet they carry the price tag of more premium headphones. We’ll have to wait until they get in more reviewers’ hands to see if they’re worth it. You can find the AirPods available for preorder now on Apple’s website. They’ll be out next week, October 26th.