Our Verdict
The AirPods 3 offer a lot of added economic value : longer barrage liveliness , improved speech sound and Spatial Audio . The high cost is worth it .
Best Prices Today: Apple AirPods (3rd gen, 2021, MagSafe)
Last night , and after more than two and a half years of waiting , Apple finally announced the launch of thethird - gen AirPods .
Many of the upgrades in the new earbuds were leaked in advance , but there were a duad of surprises : one is that , contrary to expectations , Apple is maintain thesecond - gen AirPodsin its intersection portfolio and continue to sell them alongside the raw fashion model . The AirPods 3 may be best viewed , in fact , as a kind of midway dot between the entering - level AirPods 2 and the costlierAirPods Pro .
In this equivalence review we ’re going to concenter on the two cheaper options in Apple ’s earbud static . Are the novel AirPods 3 worth the extra £ 50/$50 , or should you hold open money and clean up the AirPod 2 from 2019 ?
Once you ’ve made your determination , check our roundup of thebest AirPods dealsfor the lowest price on every mannequin .
Prices & where to buy
Here are the cost of Apple ’s AirPods parentage - up , as of October 2021 :
You ’ll feel the lowest prices on the 2nd - gen AirPods in our automated mesa ( Prices for the 3rd - gen are at the top of this article ):
Design & build
Leaked images of the novel AirPods 3 have been circulating for months , and it was no surprise when Apple revealed that their intention is close to that of the AirPods Pro : shorter stems , contoured conformation , even the charging caseful seem like the one you get with the Pros . Only the silicone polymer ear tips failed to make the require head trip from received to Pro AirPods .
The AirPods 2 , meanwhile , have slightly longer halt and headphone , work like the normal EarPods .
The AirPods 3 may be pop among users whose original AirPods were too small and always return out of their ear , yet who find the AirPods Pro too expensive .
Battery performance
One of the big pace forward in the AirPods 3 is in stamp battery performance . Somehow , Apple has grapple to cajole improved longevity from the battery in a smaller earbud : the AirPods 3 fling better ( claimed ) battery biography than both the AirPods 2 and AirPods Pro !
We will of course have to test this out , but Apple very seldom overdo itself in such areas , and it ’s an impressive title .
The new earbuds can last up to six hours on one flush , compared to five hours for the previous model . In plus , the AirPods 3 are good for up to four hours of earphone call , compare to three for the AirPods 2 .
A fully institutionalize MagSafe fount ( bundled with the AirPods 3 ) will give you – via multiple grammatical case charges – enough juice for 30 hour of euphony playback altogether , equate to 24 for the AirPods 2 and their case . The Modern AirPods can also extradite up to 20 hours of talk prison term on one commission of the case , compared to only 18 for the AirPods 2 , even though their typeface is larger .
The MagSafe send case that come with the AirPods 3 .
ostensibly , the new AirPods can handle a kind of emergency quick charging like an Apple Pencil or the AirPods Pro – five minute in the font is enough for one 60 minutes of music playback or one 60 minutes of public lecture time . The AirPods 2 have to stay in the case for longer for emergency charging , although 15 minutes of such charging will be enough for three hr of euphony playback .
The much more rich battery alone makes the extra £ 50/$50 for the new coevals of AirPods worthwhile .
Audio quality
bombardment performance stats are interesting , but in world you buy wireless earphone for the euphony .
The AirPods 3 also surpass their predecessor in the audio department : the fresh twist keep going the 3D Spatial Audio tech from Apple , and the maker has also build in new technologies so that adaptive EQ , better bass part and greater dynamic grasp are possible . We ’re already curious to listen to the new earbuds , but it ’s fairly safe to seize that the AirPods 3 will go significantly well than the AirPods 2 .
Other details
The AirPods 3 are now splash- and water - resistant , with anIP ratingof IPX4 : that means you may utilise them without hesitation during sports and in the pelting . ( But not amply underwater . )
Thanks to a raw sensor , which by the way is also not found in the AirPods Pro , the AirPods 3 can distinguish importantly more gestures on the stem than their forerunner . In addition to the received duple - tap , there are also single - pat , triple - tap and jam - and - hold .
The third contemporaries has also been return an extra inward - facing microphone , which is credibly all-important for adaptive EQ .
Verdict
For only £ 50/$50 more , the AirPods 3 offer a lot of add value : in addition to significantly long battery life , the sound has improved and Apple ’s fresh mid - range headphone can even provide Spatial Audio . The higher price is definitely worth it .
This article originally appeared onMacwelt . version ( usingDeepL ) and additional reportage by David Price .
