Apple AirPods Pro 3 review: Why would you buy anything else? (Updated)

Note: This review was first published on 15 September 2025 and was updated on 25 September 2025 with battery life findings.

The wait for new flagship-class earbuds from Apple has been long. But now that it’s out, its specifications and list of features suggest that the wait has been worth it. The new AirPods Pro 3 improve on their predecessors in almost every way. Let’s cut to the chase: If you own an iPhone and you are looking to buy earbuds, go ahead and order the new AirPods Pro 3. You will not be disappointed. These are, hands down and by a long margin, the best earbuds you can get for the iPhone. Now, if you feel like you need more convincing, read on.

Design & fit

Visually, the new AirPods Pro 3 look just like their predecessor. The earbuds and charging case are roughly the same shape and size. However, Apple has tweaked the shape slightly, and ear tips have been redesigned to include foam within for better fit and passive noise isolation.

I found the new buds to fit even more snugly. As a result, the passive noise isolation is better. Of course, fit is a personal thing, and your mileage could vary. However, to help customers get the right fit, Apple provides four additional pairs of tips: XXS, XS, S, and L. M is installed by default, and it works well for me.

Apart from fit, the AirPods Pro 3 boast better resistance to water and dust. The IP rating is now IP57 – up from IP54 (find out what these mean). Controls are still the same; you squeeze on the stem to control playback and swipe up and down to adjust volume.

ANC, Transparency mode, Mic performance

Apple claims the AirPods Pro 3 cancel twice as much noise as its predecessor and four times as much as the original AirPods Pro. While I can’t verify the specificity of these claims, these are hands down the best ANC I’ve experienced in any earbuds. When they are in my ears, I can barely hear anything around me. I can’t even hear the hairdryer when my wife is drying her hair next to me. It’s unbelievably good, and I think they are a step up from even Bose and Sony. I can’t wait to take them on my next flight to see how they perform in the air.

The out-of-this-world ANC extends to its mic performance, too. Even in front of a fan, I was able to capture a surprisingly clean voice recording. It’s one of the best-performing mics I’ve seen in any earbuds.

As you’d expect, the AirPods Pro 3 have a fantastic ambient sound mode that sounds natural and life-like – almost freakishly so. It sounds as if you aren’t wearing anything in your ears. And they get even better if you use the Hearing Health feature and set them up as hearing aids. In the mode, they help accentuate the frequencies you have trouble hearing, and it feels like you have heightened hearing. You can read my experience of using the Hearing Health feature here.

Heart rate sensor & activity tracking

One of the most interesting things about the AirPods Pro 3 is its new heart rate sensor, which can be used to track your workouts – even if you don’t have an Apple Watch. To be clear, Apple isn’t the first to include heart rate sensors in earbuds, but at least the implementation in the AirPods Pro 3 is commendable.

I did my usual morning exercise with the earbuds alone, and its reading was similar to what I typically get with my Apple Watch. I’ll need more time to test this feature, but so far, it looks like it’s working as advertised. The only thing I’ll say about it is that you’ll need to glance at your phone to see your progress, which can be quite inconvenient. More importantly, it introduces workout tracking to customers who don’t own an Apple Watch.

Speaking of workouts, the AirPods Pro 3 can be used to track over 50 workout types on its own without the Apple Watch. The list is long, so I won’t include it here, but it includes popular workouts like indoor and outdoor walks, indoor and outdoor runs, cycling, skating, elliptical, stairs, hiking, yoga, and more.

Live translation (still in beta)

Arguably, the most exciting feature of the AirPods Pro 3 is Live Translation, though, to be clear, it isn’t exclusive to Apple’s latest earbuds. Live Translation will also work on the second-generation AirPods Pro and AirPods 4 as long as it’s paired with an iPhone running Apple Intelligence.

The setup was buggy. It kept prompting me to download languages even though I already had them. Though, to be fair, Apple did state that this feature is still in beta. Crucially, it worked as Apple intended. I would hear the translation moments after, and I can speak and use my phone to show my translated response.

However, I will point out that there’s a bit of a wait before the AirPods Pro 3 provides you with the translation. Sadly, I can’t attest to the accuracy of the translation since it currently only works with languages that I’m not familiar with. Currently, this feature supports French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. There are plans to add Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese by the end of the year. I’m curious to see how this would work in the real world. Hopefully, Japanese gets added to the language roster by the end of the year, because I’m heading there this December.

Sound quality

As usual, Apple is coy about the specifics of the AirPods Pro 3’s driver configuration. It would only say it features a custom-designed high-excursion dynamic driver and that it uses a new architecture to manage air flow to the driver. Apple says this “transforms the bass response” and “widens the soundstage”.

To my ears, the bass response is now more dynamic and punchy. It’s also tighter, and therefore bleeds less conspicuously into the mids. There are subtle changes to the rest of the frequency response. The treble is tamer – less crispy and sibilant – but still uneven. The mids are more forward-sounding and thicker. This means the AirPods Pro 3’s sound signature is less V-shaped than its predecessor, and slightly more even. As someone who prefers a more balanced sound signature, I welcome this change.

The soundstage has improved slightly. It’s less stuck in the head than its predecessor, but I hesitate to call it open-sounding since there are rivals that sound more expansive. One area that the AirPods Pro has improved more noticeably is its detail retrieval and resolution. This is great because I thought this was the second-generation AirPods Pro’s biggest weakness. The AirPods Pro 3 sound noticeably more detailed. There’s a texture to the sound that was missing in its predecessor.

Overall, I consider the AirPods Pro 3 to be both objectively and subjectively better sounding than its predecessor. It sounds more detailed, the bass response is tighter and punchier, and its tonality is more balanced. For my tastes, earbuds like the JBL Tour Pro 3 and Technics EAH-AZ100 sound better, but there’s no question that the AirPods Pro 3 are now a top-tier earbud insofar as sound quality is concerned. This is something I couldn’t say of its predecessor.

Battery life (Updated)

Apple says the AirPods Pro 3 will last up to 8 hours now on a single charge for music listening with ANC, and up to 10 hours in Transparency mode with Hearing Aid activated. These are significant improvements over the second-generation AirPods Pro. The 2nd-gen AirPods Pro lasted up to 6 hours for both music listening and in Transparency mode with Hearing Aid activated.

However, I must point out that overall battery life is actually down from 30 hours to 24 hours. Though Apple didn’t say why, the only logical explanation is that the new charging case has a smaller battery. This is backed up by the fact that it weighs less than its predecessor’s charging case. Though the drop in total battery life is disappointing, 24 hours is still enough to get you through a long-haul flight. The case can be juiced up in a few ways: via USB-C, using a Qi-certified wireless charging, a MagSafe charger, or the Apple Watch charging puck.

Apple’s battery life claims are spot on. The AirPods Pro 3 easily lasted an entire day of work, and with some charge to spare. This is great for users who rely on them as hearing aids. However, because the charging case now provides less charge, I find that I have to charge the case more often. I couldn’t make it through the week without charging the case at least once. With the AirPods Pro 2, I would usually only charge the earbuds and case together on weekends. So it’s a case of you win some, you lose some.

Final thoughts

If it isn’t obvious by now, the third-generation AirPods Pro are the best earbuds you can buy for your iPhone. It does so many things well, and its wealth of features surpasses its rivals. Its ANC is phenomenal, and its Transparency mode remains peerless. Not only that, its sound quality has improved, it lasts longer on a single charge, and it now has heart rate sensors to track your workouts. And if you have multiple Apple devices, the auto-switching feature remains a godsend and lets you connect to your devices quickly and seamlessly. Live Translation is promising, and I can see it being handy on travels. But since it’s still in beta, I’d reserve final judgment until it’s ready.

The cherry on top of the cake is that it is reasonably priced. At S$349, it isn’t what I’d call affordable, but at least it’s priced around the same as flagship earbuds from Bose, Google, JBL, and Samsung. It’s also less expensive than the Technics EAH-AZ100. Interestingly, it’s also slightly less than the launch price of its predecessor.

My sole gripe is that lossless audio support is only available with the Apple Vision Pro and not with other Apple devices. I’m aware of the technical difficulties of transmitting lossless audio and how the perceived improvement in audio quality might be marginal, but as a “Pro” device, I expect the very best that Apple has to offer.

Previous AirPods Pros were good, but fell slightly short of being truly great. This newest version fixes that. The AirPods Pro 3 are superlative earbuds for any iPhone user and thoroughly worthy of our Editor’s Choice award.

Note: You can find the AirPods Pro 3 on Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, and the Apple Online Store.

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