Introducing AirPods Pro 3, the ultimate audio experience
Introducing AirPods Pro 3, the ultimate audio experience
AirPods Pro 3 feature a new design with incredible sound quality, the world’s best in-ear Active Noise Cancellation, exceptional in-ear fit and stability, heart rate sensing during workouts, and extended battery life
Apple have announced AirPods Pro 3, taking the most popular headphones in the world to an entirely new level. AirPods Pro 3 deliver unbelievable sound quality and the world’s best in-ear Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) — removing up to 2x more noise than the previous-generation AirPods Pro, and 4x more than the original AirPods Pro. The updated design helps AirPods Pro 3 fit even better, providing greater in-ear stability during activities such as running, HIIT, yoga, and more. For the first time, users can utilise AirPods Pro 3 to measure heart rate and track over 50 workout types with the new experience in the Fitness app on iPhone. Live Translation is also available on AirPods, making face-to-face conversations easier by helping users connect even if they don’t speak the same language.
AirPods Pro 3 can be pre-ordered today, with availability beginning Friday, September 19.
“With AirPods Pro 3, the most popular headphones take a massive leap forward, providing fantastic sound quality and the world’s best ANC of any in-ear wireless headphones,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “Combined with an improved fit that provides greater stability for even more people, heart rate sensing, extended battery life, and Live Translation enabled by Apple Intelligence, AirPods Pro 3 take personal audio to the next level.”
World’s Best Active Noise Cancellation
AirPods Pro 3 feature a new multi-port acoustic architecture that precisely controls the airflow carrying sound into the ear, helping deliver an exceptional spatial listening experience. With next-generation Adaptive EQ, the new architecture transforms the bass response and widens the soundstage. Hence, users hear every instrument, and it brings vivid vocal clarity to higher frequencies across music, shows, and calls. With a more personalised Transparency, a user’s own voice — and the people speaking to them — sounds more natural than ever, helping them stay connected to their surroundings without missing a beat.
AirPods Pro 3 also deliver the world’s best ANC of any in-ear wireless headphones.1 This is made possible with ultra-low noise microphones and advanced computational audio combined with new foam-infused ear tips for greater passive noise isolation. AirPods Pro 3 deliver a dramatically more immersive listening experience, whether users are in transit, at the office, or winding down at home, offering ANC that’s up to 2x more effective than AirPods Pro 2, with 4x more noise removed compared to the original AirPods Pro. In addition, while listening to music with ANC enabled, AirPods Pro 3 now provide up to eight hours of music playback — a 33 per cent increase over the previous generation.
New In-Ear Design Fits More People than Ever
Utilising over 10,000 ear scans with more than 100,000 hours of user research, AirPods Pro 3 are the most secure and best-fitting AirPods ever. To deliver this improved fit to even more people, the internal architecture was entirely re-engineered to make each AirPod smaller. At the same time, the external geometry of the ear tip was aligned to the centre of the body for increased stability — a design informed by an unparalleled dataset of more than 300 million points. And with new foam-infused ear tips that now come in five sizes — including a new XXS size — AirPods Pro 3 deliver an exceptional in-ear fit. Designed for increased durability with an IP57 rating for sweat and water resistance, AirPods Pro 3 are built to handle challenging workouts and unpredictable weather conditions.
Workout-Ready Performance
More people exercise with AirPods Pro than any other headphones in the world, and AirPods Pro 3 take workouts to the next level with Apple’s smallest custom-built heart rate sensor and integrated workout experience. The AirPods Pro 3 introduce a custom photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that emits invisible infrared light, pulsed at 256 times per second, to measure light absorption in blood flow. Combined with sensor fusion from the AirPods Pro accelerometers, gyroscope, GPS, and a new on-device AI model on iPhone, users can start up to 50 different workout types, track their heart rate and calories burned, close their Move ring, and earn awards in the Fitness app. With just AirPods Pro 3 and iPhone, users will also have access to Workout Buddy, a first-of-its-kind fitness experience powered by Apple Intelligence that incorporates a user’s workout data and their fitness history to generate personalised, motivational insights during their session.2
For added motivation, Apple Fitness+ users with AirPods Pro 3 can now view real-time performance metrics directly onscreen,3 such as heart rate, calories burned, progress on their Move ring, and the Burn Bar.4
Live Translation Comes to AirPods
With AirPods Pro 3, Live Translation is enabled for in-person communication across select languages. It is available in beta 5. This transformational, hands-free capability is powered by computational audio and Apple Intelligence to help people easily connect — whether they’re travelling to a new place, collaborating at work or school, or simply catching up with the people who matter most.6 When enabled, Live Translation helps users understand another language and communicate with others by speaking naturally with AirPods. To interact with someone who doesn’t have this hands-free capability, there’s an option to use iPhone as a horizontal display, showing the live transcription of what the user is saying in the other person’s preferred language. When the other person responds, their speech is translated into the user’s preferred language with AirPods.
It’s even more helpful for more extended conversations when both users are wearing their own AirPods with Live Translation enabled from their iPhone. ANC on AirPods reduces the volume of the other person speaking, making it easier to focus on the translation while staying connected during the interaction.
Live Translation on AirPods is available in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, and will be expanded to four additional languages by the end of the year: Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (Simplified).
AirPods Pro 3 and the Environment
Apple 2030 is the company’s ambitious plan to achieve carbon neutrality across its entire footprint by the end of this decade, focusing on reducing product emissions from its three most significant sources: materials, electricity, and transportation. AirPods Pro 3 are made with 40 per cent recycled content, including 100 per cent recycled cobalt in the battery and 65 per cent recycled plastic in the case. They are manufactured using 40 per cent renewable electricity, such as wind and solar, throughout the supply chain. AirPods Pro 3 are designed to last, while meeting Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency and safe chemistry. The paper packaging is 100% fibre-based and can be easily recycled.
Pricing and Availability
- Customers in the U.S. and more than 50 other countries and regions can pre-order AirPods Pro 3 today, with availability in stores beginning Friday, September 19.
- AirPods Pro 3 start at £219.
- For full feature functionality, use AirPods Pro 3 paired with an Apple device running the latest operating system software.
- New subscribers may get Apple Music and Apple Fitness+ free for three months with the purchase of AirPods Pro 3. See apple.com/promo for details.
- AppleCare delivers exceptional service and support, with flexible options for Apple users. Customers can choose AppleCare+ to cover their new headphones, or in the U.S., AppleCare One to protect multiple products in a straightforward plan. Both plans include coverage for accidents like drops and spills, theft and loss protection on eligible products, battery replacement service, and 24/7 support from Apple Experts. For more information, visit apple.com/applecare.
- Live Translation may not be available in all regions or languages. For feature and language availability, system requirements, and more, visit support.apple.com/en-us/121115.
About Apple Apple revolutionised personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple’s six software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, iCloud, and Apple TV+. Apple’s more than 150,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth and to leaving the world better than we found it.
- Testing conducted by Apple in July 2025 using AirPods Pro 3 paired with iPhone 16 with prerelease AirPods firmware and iOS 26. Noise reduction was tested in accordance with IEC 60268-24. Comparison made against the best-selling wireless in-ear headphones commercially available at the time of testing. Performance depends on device settings, environment, and many other factors.
- Requires an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone nearby and Bluetooth headphones with device and Siri language set to English. Apple Intelligence is available in beta. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. For feature and language availability and system requirements, see support.apple.com/en-us/121115.
- Heart rate sensing with AirPods Pro 3 and Powerbeats Pro 2 during workouts is available in the Fitness app on iPhone with iOS 26, iPad with iPadOS 26, and Apple TV with tvOS 26 when also paired with iPhone or Apple Watch. Apple Fitness+ requires a subscription.
- The Burn Bar is available on Fitness+ HIIT, Cycling, Kickboxing, Treadmill, and Rowing workouts.
- Live Translation with AirPods works on AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation and AirPods Pro 2 and later with the latest firmware when paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone running iOS 26 and later. Supports English (UK, U.S.), French (France), German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Spain). Later this year, Live Translation on AirPods and in Phone and FaceTime will add language support for Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified). Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. For more information, see Feature Availability.
- Apple Intelligence is available in beta with support for these languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, and Chinese (simplified). Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. For feature and language availability and system requirements, see support.apple.com/en-us/121115.
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Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: joanne@theappwhisperer.com
