All upgrades seem to check (so far)

While the Apple Watch SE 3, the series 11 and Watch Ultra 3 are roughly internal specification bumps compared to the previous generations of these respective intelligent watches, the Airpod Pro 3 wireless headphones are actually reintd inside and outside, but you will have to carefully seek to locate changes. The load case also abandons its physical matching button.

After the Apple “Awe Dropping” event on Tuesday, where Tim Cook and Company announced the remarkably thin air of the iPhone, advantages stuffed on the iPhone 17 and the aforementioned trio of Apple Watches, I had personal time to discover the Airpods Pro 3. These are replacements for AirPod Pro 2 introduced in 2022 (then upgraded with USB-C in 2023). So we are talking about a new version for the three -year Apple wireless headphones with active noise cancellation (ANC).

You can read all the details of the technicians on how Apple has redesigned drivers and acoustics and all that here or on the Apple product page. We have also written a useful comparison on how AirPods Pro 3 compare itself to the AirPods Pro 2. What cannot tell you is what the AirPods Pro 3 in your ears and try the new live translation function and the integrated heart rate sensor. It’s my job, so let’s go.

As with my other practices, these are just first impressions. I had about 45 minutes to try the AirPods Pro 3 Out. At first glance, the AirPods Pro 3 in their charge case do not look new at all. There were rumors according to which the case would become smaller, but the case is roughly the same size as that of AirPods Pro 2.. Turn the housing at the back, you will notice that there is no longer a pairing button. Apple removed it and replaced it with an invisible sensitive to the front touch. Press and hold it for two seconds to put the Pro 3 airpods in twinning mode, then press and hold longer to reset factory. The LED of load light is always present.

The AirPods Pro 3 headphones themselves are subtly different and designed for better comfort. First of all, there is now an additional size for ear strands in the box – XXS – for a total of five. Second, the buds of the buds is more compact. And thirdly, the top top cling to the buds. Together, these changes all help locate each deeper and more comfortable bud inside your ears. A side effect is that the stems seem to exceed more. I immediately noticed this for any reason. I don’t know; I am very sensitive to the appearance of things inside my ears. Needless to say, the AirPods Pro 3 adapt very comfortably in my ears, and although I have never had problems with the Airpod Pro 2 buds which fall, I shook my head and the Airpod Pro 3 buds felt fairly safe.

In terms of sound, Apple says that this has improved quality, in particular with the performance of the cancellation of active noise. I listened to a few songs on Apple Music, including recent favorites in rehearsal, like “Dive” by Olivia Dean and “Euphoria” from Keshi, and they seemed very clear with clean and deep bass and clear voices. Apple had four HomePods simulating various environmental noises, such as the buzzing of an airplane and a noisy street. I immediately noticed the strongest in the ANC to reduce background noise. Apple says that it increased ancient 2x on AirPods Pro 3 compared to AirPods Pro 2, and by 4x compared to AirPods Pro and Airpods 4 with ANC. It’s impressive and I can’t wait to test how the ANC holds in the real world. Simulations, after all, are not always representative of real life.

Live translation demo

Now let’s talk about the live translation and the heart rate sensor because, as our main journalist James Pero said, AirPods Pro 3 is clearly soaking his toes by transforming wireless headphones into much more than a gadget to listen to music.

In a demo, Apple had a person at hand to talk about the Portuguese while the AirPods Pro 3 in my ears translated what he said in English. Live translation is activated using a SIRI shortcut (Apple has cartoed it on an action button on an iPhone 17 pro demonstration unit) or by holding and holding the stems of the two Old AirPods Bourgeons. ENGIE to isolate the voice of the speaker, then the translation begins. You can also open your paired iPhone to see the transcribed translations in the Translate application. Now, I am not talking about Portuguese, and none of the other media in my practical group, so I cannot say with the precision of translations. But I have experience using the translate application on iPhone for Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and French translations of Mandarin. It’s good, but not as precise as Google Translate, especially for tonal languages ​​like Mandarin. I would say that live translations were almost instantaneous; The buds use beam training technology at home on the voice of a person who is directly in front of you, and some languages ​​may require a few more seconds to obtain the correct context for a translation, but that seemed to work.

The prohibition for Airpod Pro 3 (if you get them for September 19) is that the live translation function is launched in beta and is limited to five languages ​​(English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish) at the start. Apple says that the Italian, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin Chinese (simplified) will be available by the end of the year.

On the right side, the live translation is not exclusive to the AirPods Pro 3. The functionality also arrives at AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with ANC – the requirements being wireless headphones with an H2 and ANC chip.

Heart frequency monitoring demo

Now let’s talk about the heart rate sensor. It is not the same technology that beats uses in its PowerBeats Pro 2 fitness buds, but the Apple sensor is technology of more than a decade of learning from Apple Watch’s heart rate sensor. Rippled from the Apple press release, AirPods Pro 3 uses a “Personalized Photoplethysmography Sensor (PPG) which shines the invisible infrared light pulsed at 256 times per second to measure the absorption of light in the blood flow.”

I had a brief overview of how the heart rate sensor integrates into the fitness application for training. It should be noted that my heart rate in the video below is quite high to take little sleep, to get up at 5 am, to jump in a Uber, then from Caltrain, then to Uber again to go to Apple Park. Oh, then run around Apple Park for several hours, extremely caught from too many espresso shots, and Cupertino being extremely hot. That being said, I cannot say how the heart rate sensor in the AirPod Pro 3 is compared to an Apple Watch. I will have to compare this when I have a pair of old buds for examination.

I have just tried the AirPods Pro 3 and its new intra-ear-in-auricular heart rate sensor with outdoor walking training. Here is a video of my monitored heart rate in the fitness application on iPhone 17 Pro #Appleevent pic.twitter.com/uqcew8gkeq

– Ray Wong (@Raywongy) September 10, 2025

At $ 249, the AirPods Pro 3 seems to be an interesting upgrade on AirPods Pro 2 if just like the 2X ANC checks. And if they are something like AirPods Pro 2, Apple will probably support them with new features for several years. I will have any more to share when I will revise them soon, but I do not see no step back for the moment.