AirPods Pro 3 Rumored to Feature 'Much Better' Active Noise Cancellation

[Jashar7]

AP2 Pros are practically dead (battery exhausted). With the ongoing rumors of new APPros incoming, I decided to try bridging the gap with one of MANY high-rated (thousands of positive reviews) cheapie ENC sets on Amazon. I expected a noticeable drop in sound quality that did NOT manifest. In fact, these sound BETTER to my good ears than the old APP. I expected battery life to be terrible and/or longevity to be terrible. Nope and Nope (so far, coming up on 6 month with them now).

End result: I see no reason for me to ever pay $17X or more for something that about $20-$40 can mostly approximate in the key variables that really count. If you haven't tried a high-rated "cheapie" set, I challenge anyone to give one a try and hear for yourself. Even if these turn out to last only a year- which frankly I'm doubting based on experience so far- vs. approx. 2 years for the APP, I can buy about 7 sets of these for the sale price of 1 set of APP.

And before the defenders jump in on E(NC) vs. A, there's plenty of ANC ones too for much less than $17X. Do a search, read reviews and optionally hear for yourself. The extra money you keep in

The ANC in my AirPods Pro 2 is non-existant after nearly 2 years. There is no audible difference between transparency and ANC. I hope it lasts for the lifetime of the product with the next version.

The ANC in my AirPods Pro 2 is non-existant after nearly 2 years. There is no audible difference between transparency and ANC. I hope it lasts for the lifetime of the product with the next version.

That doesn’t sound normal at all did you drop them or anything cause I own a pair since November 2022 and I’ve had 0 issues till now and I use them all day long.

 

[roar08]

Likely max life 3 years. 100= million going to landfill every year. Yikes.

Part of this is consumer education and responsibility. I can only speak for where I live, but if products are designed and manufactured to be recyclable, it's easy for consumers to take them somewhere to do it. I've taken a number of old pieces of hardware to Apple stores for recycling.

 

[roar08]

The ANC in my AirPods Pro 2 is non-existant after nearly 2 years. There is no audible difference between transparency and ANC. I hope it lasts for the lifetime of the product with the next version.

I've had mine for several years and the ANC is still great.

 

[needsomecoffee]

Apple offers a free recycling program that will take AirPods back. The neodymium and other rare earth elements in the speaker magnets are fairly valuable. Some of it will still wind up in a landfill but the batteries, magnets, circuit boards/chips will get recycled.

Honestly... Apple Greenwashing in full effect. Again, Tim & Co. only need to add an OPTIONAL set of products that feature sustained, long-term use via parts replacability. Framework and Fairphone have PROVEN this can be done, and there is a market for it. Apple -- despite its vast, vast cash resources -- choses to ignore this real solution to minimizing resource usage. Instead its PR team Greenwashes the Apple brand. Sorry, sometime I just get SO angry re: how efffectively Apple has brainwashed folks.

 

[ApAx]

The ANC in my AirPods Pro 2 is non-existant after nearly 2 years. There is no audible difference between transparency and ANC. I hope it lasts for the lifetime of the product with the next version.

Same here. I can hear the quiet speech of my cubicle mates with ANC on. My first gen airpod pros had better anc by this point

 

[roar08]

My AP2 Pros are practically dead (battery exhausted). With the ongoing rumors of new APPros incoming, I decided to try bridging the gap with one of MANY high-rated (thousands of positive reviews) cheapie ENC sets on Amazon. I expected a noticeable drop in sound quality that did NOT manifest. In fact, these sound BETTER to my good ears than the old APP. I expected battery life to be terrible and/or longevity to be terrible and/or microphone quality to be crap. Nope and Nope and Nope (so far, coming up on 7 months with them now). They are already USB-C and come with a very handy battery storage LED so that I easily know when to charge them vs. when I can go with existing charge and thus stretch the time between battery-wearing charge cycles. They auto-connect to my iDevice faster than I can get both in my ears.

End result: I see no reason for me to ever pay $17X or more for something that about $20-$40 can mostly approximate in the key variables that really count. If you haven't tried a high-rated "cheapie" set, I challenge anyone to give one a try and hear for yourself. Even if these turn out to last only a year- which frankly I'm doubting based on experience so far- vs. approx. 2 years for the APP, I can buy about SEVEN sets of these for the "on-sale" price of 1 set of APP.

And before the defenders jump in on E(NC) vs. A, there's plenty of ANC ones too for much less than $17X. Do a search, read reviews and optionally hear for yourself. Any extra money one keeps in their pocket can go towards other Apple goodies.

That's pretty cool! Do they have they have customizable gestures? How did you sync the case with Find My? Can you use gestures to activate Siri? Was it super easy to pair them with your Apple Watch so you can leave your phone behind? Let us know!

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

You know how the AirPods 4 are rumoured to have ANC but not in-ear tips? Doesn't that mean the ANC is going to be rubbish? Perform worse than the Pro 2's or even the Pro 1's?

Silicon tips cost like 12¢ per unit shipped. Apple needs every penny for "another record quarter...". Why care about customers when there's always "another record..." to be spun?

Besides, you will like what they serve up. All will like what they serve. All are to defend whatever they serve up as "best ever." Resistance is futile.

 

[ab2c4]

I have the first gen airpod pro's and while the sound quality is ok for music, I hope its much better for the airpod pro 3. I only use my airpods pro's for music listening so I don't care about any other features.

 

[nocho]

Despite Apple’s claim the original AirPods Pro has much better noise cancellation than the AirPods Pro 2. I still own both. Transparency is better on the original too.

 

[Ramchi]

Sorry, I have just now bought Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro 3 ! These ear phones are so expensive that we can’t replace them frequently. My last Air Pod (Many years back) didn’t last one year due to poor battery after that I stopped my experiments with Air Pods since it was way too expensive. My Samsung Buds Pro 2 already serving me well beyond 1 1/2 years.

 

[SactoGuy18]

You know how the AirPods 4 are rumoured to have ANC but not in-ear tips? Doesn't that mean the ANC is going to be rubbish? Perform worse than the Pro 2's or even the Pro 1's?

I think there will be two AirPods 4 versions. One will be a replacement for both the low-end AirPods and AirPods 3, and one that will function like the Beats Studio Buds+, an IEM design with the same level of ANC as the Studio Buds+.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

That's pretty cool! Do they have they have customizable gestures? How did you sync the case with Find My? Can you use gestures to activate Siri? Was it super easy to pair them with your Apple Watch so you can leave your phone behind? Let us know!

I don't care about customizable gestures... but if that matters to others, pay up for Apples version. I do care about great sound and- subjectively- these sound better to my ears. The basic touch-based controls are built in (tap to..., etc).

They do not have "find my" but at $20-$30, I can lose SEVEN pair before the loss of one pair of Apples with "find my" may save me money by being able to find them again. I've never lost a pair of any of these, so "find my" is not an important feature to me (though I would care more about it if I opted to pay $17X for a new pair again).

Siri is on the device with me so I easily use it there.

I own no Apple Watch but these easily pair with my iDevice and they seem to auto-connect faster than my APP2s when I want to use them. And yes, just about all of my phone call conversations are using them with seemingly no loss in microphone quality for the person on the other end... or speaker quality as I hear them.

Again, I'm MOSTLY an Apple guy and went into these with BAD expectations as it seems there is no way that about $20-$30 = $17X. However,

• I don't hear a difference. I actually think these sound BETTER than my APP2s.
• Microphones seems as good if not better.
• The ENC works well enough on long flights (I don't really notice a difference vs. APP2).
• The added feature of the at-a-glance LED battery reading is a huge advantage IMO, likely to make the useful life of these last much longer than APP2 did.
• Longer on-board battery storage means they go a longer time between needing access to a socket to recharge.

After that, I start caring much less about other features & benefits... but to each his own of course.

 

[Justin Cymbal]

I’m definitely going to get the new AirPods Pro once Apple releases them

That would be great for Apple to make the noise cancellation even better than it currently is, on the next generation version as I use my AirPods Pro on the plane when I travel and being able to cancel out the surrounding noise even more would be awesome

I currently have the latest AirPods Pro that came out last September and I was able to get them on sale (from Amazon) for only $199.99 within a week of them being released:

Deals: New AirPods Pro 2 With USB-C Already on Sale for $199.99 ($49 Off)

Apple's new AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C/MagSafe Charging Case haven't even launched yet, and Amazon already has a $49 discount on the...

www.macrumors.com

Hopefully Apple keeps the price the same (at $249) and I hope that Amazon has a similar sale when the new AirPods Pro come out so that I can possibly get them for $199.99 soon after Apple makes them available for sale

 

[cocky jeremy]

Sadly no, but with all the enviro-bluster that comes from Apple one can dream can't one?

I'm sure mother nature does not approve of AirPods.

View attachment 2409859

God, I hope they don't do more of those stupid skits. So cringe, and a total waste of time. No one cares, just get to the products.

 

[cicalinarrot]

No replaceable batteries? Hard pass.

I'd love the EU to ban all products with batteries that can't be user replaced.
Until that happens, Apple will never give up 2/3 years planned obsolescence for a niche product (niche compared to iPhones and services). Airpods sales would probably drop -80%.

 

[MrMojo1]

APP original- ANC was good until the updates nuked it; many articles were written about it including here in MR.

APP2 - ANC is ‘better’, updates haven’t affected the features, yet (?)
Battery life relatively the same when it should be better/longer

APP3 - to be determined.
- Hopefully the features are ‘much’ better and battery life increases.
- Please switch eartips over to foam for better comfort & seal!
- Add a button to the case for manual updates instead of the OTA updates.

 

[cmChimera]

They mean Airpods Max. Manifest it into existence.

 

[roar08]

I don't care about customizable gestures... but if that matters to others, then pay up for Apples version. I do care about great sound and- subjectively- these sound better to my ears.

I don't think they have "find my" but at $20-$30, I can lose SEVEN pair before the loss of one pair of Apples with "find my" may save me money by being able to find them again. I've never lost a pair of any of these, so "find my" is not an important feature to me (though I would care more about it if I opted to pay $17X for a new pair again).

Siri is on the device with me so I easily use it there.

I own no Apple Watch but these easily to pair with my iDevice and they seem to auto-connect faster than my APP2s when I want to use them. And yes, just about all of my phone call conversations are using them with seemingly no loss in microphone quality for the person on the other end... or speaker quality as I hear them.

$20-30 x 17 = $340 - $510. Who's paying this for AirPod Pros?

 

[pp_amorim]

Airpods are pathetic. I replaced mine with a $200 planar chi-fi and I don't regret at all. The "handy" part of being a bluetooth device has no value to me as I don't need to keep charging and waiting it to connect it all the time.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

$20-30 x 17 = $340 - $510. Who's paying this for AirPod Pros?

This particular set is $21 right now on Amazon. And the number was SEVEN, not 17. $21 times 7 = $147. Apple retail is $249. I've seen sales of APP2 down to $169. Right now on Apple's website, APP2 can be had for $41.50/month for 6 months... or one could buy 2 pair of these (for 1 of those payments) and own them outright

The $17X references were "fill in any number for X" for those who got them on sale at $169 (thus $170) vs. maybe $179. Some have probably seen a rare sale a bit better than that. Others have paid a bit more than that. Apple is offering them for $249 right now on their own website. The "deals roundup" offers provided by this website shows current "sale" prices.

$249/$21 = about 11 pair of these cheapies.

 

[AppleInLVX]

As long as they keep the stem design it’ll be of no use because the things just won’t stay put for me. I’ll keep my Jabra Elete buds for as long as I can. They go no where. So sad there won’t be more. 😕

 

[MaximizedAction]

Will they finally make them allergen free?
I’ve been wanting these since gen 1 but would not want disgusting reactions in my ear.
Here’s hoping

 

[pp_amorim]

My AP2 Pros are practically dead (battery exhausted). With the ongoing rumors of new APPros incoming, I decided to try bridging the gap with one of MANY high-rated (thousands of positive reviews) cheapie ENC sets on Amazon. I expected a noticeable drop in sound quality that did NOT manifest. In fact, these sound BETTER to my good ears than the old APP. I expected battery life to be terrible and/or longevity to be terrible and/or microphone quality to be crap. Nope and Nope and Nope (so far, coming up on 7 months with them now). They are already USB-C and come with a very handy battery storage LED so that I easily know when to charge them vs. when I can go with existing charge and thus stretch the time between battery-wearing charge cycles. They auto-connect to my iDevice faster than I can get both in my ears.

End result: I see no reason for me to ever pay $17X or more for something that about $20-$40 can mostly approximate in the key variables that really count. If you haven't tried a high-rated "cheapie" set, I challenge anyone to give one a try and hear for yourself. Even if these turn out to last only a year- which frankly I'm doubting based on experience so far- vs. approx. 2 years for the APP, I can buy about SEVEN sets of these for the "on-sale" price of 1 set of APP.

And before the defenders jump in on E(NC) vs. A, there's plenty of ANC ones too for much less than $17X. Do a search, read reviews and optionally hear for yourself. Any extra money one keeps in their pocket can go towards other Apple goodies.

Because Airpods are scam since day 1. They are made to not last and fail on the very next opportunity.

 

[wlossw]

No replaceable batteries? Hard pass.

the battery service life is so bad on all of the apple true wireless sets I have owned, i must be on my 6th pair since the og airpods, and have only upgraded because they wont last for a decent walk after a year or so. now i buy wired headphones and a bluetooth dongle.

replaceable batteries? thats a reason to come back.

 

[pp_amorim]

That doesn’t sound normal at all did you drop them or anything cause I own a pair since November 2022 and I’ve had 0 issues till now and I use them all day long.

My ANC on gen 1 and 2 are broken too. Luckly I didn't pay for those (gift).