Whereas the Apple Watch SE 3, Series 11, and Watch Ultra 3 are pretty much internal spec bumps compared to the previous generations of those respective smartwatches, the AirPods Pro 3 wireless earbuds are actually reengineered inside and out, but you’ll have to look closely to spot the changes. The charging case also ditches its physical pairing button.
After Tuesday’s “Awe Dropping” Apple Event, where Tim Cook and company announced the remarkably thin iPhone Air, feature-stuffed iPhone 17 Pros, and the aforementioned trio of Apple Watches, I had some personal time to experience the AirPods Pro 3. These are the replacements for the AirPods Pro 2 introduced in 2022 (and then upgraded with USB-C in 2023). So we’re talking about a new version for Apple’s three-year-old wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC).
You can read all the techie detail about how Apple reengineered the drivers and acoustics and all that stuff here or on Apple’s product page. We also wrote up a helpful comparison on how the AirPods Pro 3 compare to the AirPods Pro 2. What neither can tell you is what it’s like to wear the AirPods Pro 3 in your ears and try out the new Live Translation feature and the built-in heart rate sensor. That’s my job, so let’s get to it.
As with my other hands-on, these are merely first impressions. I had about 45 minutes to try the AirPods Pro 3 out. At first glance, the AirPods Pro 3 in their charging case don’t look new at all. There were rumors that the case would get smaller, but the case is about the same size as the one for AirPods Pro 2. Flipping the case over to the back, you’ll notice there’s no more pairing button. Apple removed it and replaced it with an invisible touch-sensitive one on the front. Press and hold it for two seconds to put the AirPods Pro 3 into pairing mode, and then press and hold longer to do a factory reset. The charging light LED is still present.
The AirPods Pro 3 earbuds themselves are subtly different and designed for better comfort. First, there’s now an extra size for eartips in the box—XXS—for a total of five. Second, the bowl of the buds is more compact. And third, the eartips fit tighter to the buds. Together, these changes all help situate each bud deeper and more snug inside of your ears. One side effect is that the stems seem to stick out more. I immediately noticed this for some reason. I don’t know; I’m very sensitive to how things stuck inside my ears look. Needless to say, the AirPods Pro 3 fit very comfortably in my ears, and although I’ve never had problems with the AirPods Pro 2 buds falling out, I did shake my head, and the AirPods Pro 3 buds felt quite secure.
Sound-wise, Apple says it’s improved the quality, especially with active noise cancellation performance. I listened to a few songs on Apple Music, including some recent favorites on repeat, like “Dive” by Olivia Dean and “Euphoria” by Keshi, and they sounded very clear with clean and deep bass, and crisp vocals. Apple had four HomePods simulating various environmental noises, like the hum of an airplane and a noisy street. I immediately noticed the stronger ANC in reducing the background noise. Apple says that it’s increased ANC by 2x on AirPods Pro 3 compared to AirPods Pro 2, and by 4x compared to AirPods Pro and AirPods 4 with ANC. That’s impressive, and I look forward to testing how the ANC holds up in the real world. Simulations, after all, aren’t always representative of real life.
Live Translation Demo
Now let’s talk about the live translation and heart rate sensor because, as our senior reporter James Pero said, AirPods Pro 3 is clearly Apple dipping its toes into transforming the wireless earbuds into much more than a gadget for listening to music.
In a demo, Apple had a person on hand to speak Portuguese while the AirPods Pro 3 in my ears translated what he was saying into English. Live Translation is activated by using a Siri shortcut (Apple mapped it to an Action button on an iPhone 17 Pro demo unit) or by pressing and holding the stems of both AirPods Pro 3 buds. ANC kicks into gear to isolate the speaker’s voice, and then the translation begins. You can also pull open your paired iPhone to see the transcribed translations within the Translate app. Now, I don’t speak Portuguese, and neither did any of the other media in my hands-on group, so I can’t say with what accuracy the translations were. But I do have experience using the Translate app on iPhone for Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and French translations. It’s good, but not as accurate as Google Translate, especially for tonal languages like Mandarin. I will say that the live translations were nearly instant; the buds do use beamforming tech to home in on the voice of a person who’s directly in front of you, and some languages may require a few more seconds to get the correct context for a translation, but it seemed to work.
The fine print for AirPods Pro 3 (if you’re getting them for Sept. 19) is that the Live Translation feature is launching in beta and is limited to five languages (English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish) at first. Apple says Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese (simplified) will be available by the end of the year.
On the bright side, Live Translation is not exclusive to the AirPods Pro 3. The feature is also coming to AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with ANC—the requirements being wireless earbuds with an H2 chip and ANC.
Heart Rate Tracking Demo
Now, let’s talk about the heart rate sensor. This is not the same tech that Beats uses in its Powerbeats Pro 2 fitness buds, but Apple’s own sensor is based on tech from over a decade’s worth of learnings from the Apple Watch’s heart rate sensor. Ripped from Apple’s own press release, AirPods Pro 3 uses a “custom photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that shines invisible infrared light pulsed at 256 times per second to measure light absorption in blood flow.”
I got a brief look at how the heart rate sensor integrates with the Fitness app for workouts. Worth noting, my heart rate in the video below is quite high from having little sleep, getting up at 5 a.m., and hopping in an Uber, and then Caltrain, and then Uber again to get to Apple Park. Oh, and then running around Apple Park for several hours, being extremely caffeinated from too many espresso shots, and Cupertino being extremely warm. That being said, I can’t say how accurate the heart rate sensor in the AirPods Pro 3 is compared to an Apple Watch. I’ll have to compare that when I get a pair of the ANC buds in for review.
Just got to try the AirPods Pro 3 and its new real-time, in-ear heart rate sensor with an outdoor walk workout. Here’s a video of my heart rate being monitored in the Fitness app on iPhone 17 Pro #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/uQcEw8GKeq
— Ray Wong (@raywongy) September 10, 2025
At $249, the AirPods Pro 3 seem to be a worthwhile upgrade over the AirPods Pro 2 if everything like the 2x ANC checks out. And if they’re anything like the AirPods Pro 2, Apple will likely support them with new features for several years. I’ll have more to share when I review them soon, but I’m not seeing any steps backward for now.
