TL;DR: AirPods Pro 3 are peak Apple: better fit, richer sound, next-level ANC, heart rate monitoring, and live translation. Case battery life drops, but the buds themselves last longer. If you’re buying today, these are the best earbuds you can get.AirPods Pro 3 vs AirPods Pro 2 Review: Should You Upgrade or Hold the Line?

There’s a certain kind of cultural inevitability about AirPods at this point. They’re not just gadgets, they’re fashion accessories, status symbols, and invisible life tools rolled into one. When Apple announced the AirPods Pro 3, I didn’t feel like I was watching a revolution—no one gasped in the keynote, no jaws dropped—but it wasn’t routine either. It was Apple flexing in the most Apple way possible: taking what was already the best-selling, most recognizable earbuds on the planet, and making them just that little bit better. Subtle, refined, almost invisible. Until you use them, and you realize they’ve leveled up again.

The AirPods Pro 2 were my gold standard. They did almost everything right: strong ANC, adaptive audio magic, solid fit, and the kind of Apple integration that makes Android users roll their eyes but secretly want in. But after weeks of swapping between the Pro 2 and the Pro 3, I’ve come to the conclusion that Apple has nudged the AirPods Pro into a new category. Not just earbuds, but wearables. Not just headphones, but daily-life prosthetics. The Pro 3 aren’t revolutionary on paper, but in practice they feel like the most significant upgrade Apple has pushed in this line since 2019.

Let’s start with fit—because fit is everything. My ears have always been traitorous; the Pro 2 never quite sat right. Every smile or laugh, every jaw movement threatened to knock them loose. Enter the Pro 3: same iconic stemmed look, but redesigned geometry. The stem now angles slightly forward, hugging the canal more naturally. The ear tips? Foam-infused silicone, not mushy like the aftermarket foam hacks I tried before, but structured and easy to clean. They mold to my ears without collapsing. And this time, Apple added a fifth tip size—XXS—for people whose ears are Hobbit-sized. For me, the change is huge. I can finally laugh without worrying my earbuds are plotting an escape. That’s not just comfort, that’s peace of mind.

Noise cancellation is where the Pro 3 flex hardest. Apple claims “2x better ANC” than the Pro 2, which smells like marketing math. But the difference is undeniable in real life. On a subway, the Pro 2 reduced clatter to a hum; the Pro 3 erased it almost entirely. At a café, the Pro 2 dulled background chatter; the Pro 3 killed it. In my home office, with my kids yelling at YouTube videos in the next room, the Pro 3 turned chaos into silence. The ANC here isn’t just an upgrade—it feels like a superpower. Transparency mode got sharper too. Voices sound unfiltered, natural, less robotic. And Adaptive Transparency, which lowers sudden loud noises like sirens, still works beautifully, but faster. If ANC and Transparency are the two halves of the AirPods magic trick, the Pro 3 deliver the most seamless illusion yet.

Sound quality is richer, more spacious. Apple stuck with the H2 chip from the Pro 2, but re-engineered the acoustic chambers. The bass has more presence, mids are clearer, vocals cut through sharper. I blasted Hamilton, and suddenly the chorus spread across an invisible stage, each voice distinct. Then I queued up Explosions in the Sky, and it felt like the guitars had inflated to fill the air around me. Spatial Audio is still the party trick that wows casuals, but it’s also improved—more definition, better placement. Still, the elephant in the room: no lossless. The H2 chip could handle it, Apple Music already streams it, but Bluetooth bottlenecks keep it out of reach. Audiophiles will grumble, and they’re right. My hunch? Apple is saving lossless for a future H3 chip.

But the Pro 3 aren’t just about sound. They’re about health. For the first time, AirPods are wearables. Apple tucked in a custom photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that tracks heart rate using invisible infrared light at 256 samples per second. Data goes straight into Health and Fitness, and if you’ve also got an Apple Watch, the system dynamically decides which sensor is more accurate in the moment. Running? The Watch wins. Lifting weights with bent wrists? The AirPods take over. This is subtle but brilliant. Suddenly, AirPods aren’t just about listening. They’re about knowing you. Imagine where this goes in the future: stress monitoring, hydration, oxygen levels. Your ears are loaded with blood vessels, and the AirPods sit there all day, perfectly positioned. This is Apple’s quietest play yet into the health space, and it’s genius.

Then there’s Live Translation—the sci-fi feature. With a double-stem hold, you can converse with someone in another language, and your iPhone spits the translated words into your ears. Right now it supports five languages: English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish. It’s not perfect—lag creeps in, and noisy environments confuse it—but when it works, it’s magical. I tested it with a Spanish-speaking barista, and the conversation flowed enough to order, joke, and smile. For travelers, this could be game-changing. And Apple didn’t even lock it to the Pro 3—it’s also coming to the Pro 2. That generosity alone is unusual, and it signals that Apple sees AirPods as communication devices, not just earbuds.

Battery is a mixed bag. The earbuds themselves now last eight hours with ANC on, up from six on the Pro 2. That’s huge. But the case? It’s worse. The Pro 2 case gave you 24 hours of extra juice; the Pro 3 case only adds 16. Total drops from 30 to 24 hours. Why? The redesigned bud angle made the case taller and less spacious. For me, the trade-off is worth it—single-session endurance matters more than total capacity. But for road warriors, it’s a regression. The consolation prize: the case now has Ultra Wideband for pinpoint Find My tracking, and the built-in speaker remains a serotonin hit every time it chirps back at me from the couch cushions.

So where do I land? The AirPods Pro 3 are Apple at its most refined, a generational leap that feels subtle until you live with them day to day. They don’t reinvent the category, but they sand down the rough edges and add flourishes that make the whole experience smoother, richer, more futuristic. The fit is better and finally trustworthy, the ANC stronger to the point of making the world melt away, and the soundstage more spacious. The heart rate sensor isn’t just a gimmick—it nudges AirPods into the wearables space. Live Translation feels like a science fiction feature sneaking into real life. The case battery life is a stumble, sure, but nowhere near enough to outweigh the upgrades elsewhere. If you already own the Pro 2, you’ll still be fine—but the Pro 3 make a strong case for upgrading anyway. For anyone new, or anyone on the fence, these aren’t just the pinnacle of Apple’s earbuds—they’re the kind of upgrade you’ll actually notice every single day.

Final Verdict:

AirPods Pro 3 aren’t just the best earbuds Apple has ever made—they’re the most Apple earbuds Apple has ever made. Subtle, seamless, quietly transformative. They’re not just about music anymore. They’re health devices, language bridges, sanctuaries of silence. If you’re in the ecosystem, there’s nothing better.