“World’s best” Active Noise Cancellation, Live Translation, next-gen sound design – and everything else you need to know

Yesterday saw the latest Apple Event from the California tech giant, and among a host of exciting new announcements – including the iPhone 17, all-new and ultra-thin iPhone Air and upgraded Apple Watch models – was the unveiling of its AirPods Pro 3.

The latest generation of its massively popular in-ear headphones, AirPods Pro 3 bring a plethora of new features, including “world’s best” in-ear Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) – removing up to 2x more noise than the previous generation – as well as improved sound quality, fit and battery life, heart rate sensing and even Live Translation.

The latter – powered by Apple Intelligence – helps users have face-to-face conversations even if they don’t speak the same language as one another.

“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,” says 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.”

Those are the new features of AirPods Pro 3 at a glance, but let’s dive in a little further to take a more granular look at the improvements.

“World’s best” Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)

Sure, ANC is a pretty common feature on earbud headphones these days, but what makes it the “world’s best” – as Apple promise – on AirPods Pro 3 are both ultra-low-noise microphones and advanced computational audio, paired with new foam-infused ear tips for greater passive noise isolation. In fact, these buds offer 2x more noise cancellation than the previous AirPods Pro model, and up to 4x more than the original AirPods Pro.

Improved sound design

Apple says AirPods Pro 3 deliver an “exceptional” spatial listening experience, with next-generation Adaptive EQ, which transforms the bass response, widens the soundstage and brings “vivid” vocal clarity across music, shows and calls.

Upgraded fit courtesy of a new in-ear design

AirPods Pro 3 are said to be the “most secure and best-fitting AirPods ever”, courtesy of over 10,000 ear scans and more than 100,000 hours of user research. The internal architecture has been re-engineered to make each bud smaller, while the external geometry of each tip has been aligned to the centre of the body for increased stability.

Additionally, the ear tips now come in five sizes – including a new XXS size – and AirPods Pro 3 are designed for improved durability with IP57 sweat and water resistance.

Live Translation powered by Apple Intelligence

In what could be the most useful upgrade with AirPods Pro 3, they now come with Live Translation, enabling users to have conversations in real time with people who don’t speak the same language.

Powered by computational audio and Apple Intelligence, Live Translation is designed to help people “easily connect”, and there’s even an option to use an iPhone as a horizontal display, which shows a live transcription of what the other person is saying in their preferred language.

At launch, Live Translation is available in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, with four more languages – Italian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (simplified) – coming by the end of the year.

Upgrades to health monitoring

AirPods Pro 3 feature Apple’s smallest custom-built photoplethysmography (PPG) heart rate sensor – which shines invisible infrared light 256 times per second to measure light absorption in blood flow. It all sounds very sci-fi, but what does it actually mean?

Well, combined with sensor fusion from the AirPods Pro 3 accelerometers, gyroscope and GPS, users can more closely than ever track their heart rate, calories burned and earn rewards in the Fitness app.

Additionally, AirPods Pro 3 bring Hearing Protection to EU and UK users, following certification in these regions. Conversation Boost is now automatic, hearing-impaired users powerful amplification combined with background noise reduction.

Pricing and availability

Priced at $249.99, AirPods Pro 3 available now for pre-order, and will begin shipping 19 September.

For more information, head to Apple.

Sam is the Associate News Editor for Guitar.com and MusicTech. Thoroughly immersed in music culture for the majority of his life, Sam has played guitar for 20 years, studied music technology and production at university, and also written for the likes of MusicRadar, Guitar World, Total Guitar and Metal Hammer.