Apple AirPods (3rd generation) Truly Wireless Headphones Review

The Apple AirPods 3 have a different shape from the Apple AirPods (2nd generation) Truly Wireless and Apple AirPods (1st generation) Truly Wireless. Like the Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless, the stems are shorter. The buds are also bigger and are more angled downwards. Still, they have the same smooth plastic casing and brushed aluminum accents. They only come in white.

The Apple AirPods 3rd generation are decently comfortable headphones. The buds are bulkier than previous models, which can hurt your inner ear after a while. The stem also sits at more of an angle compared to the 2nd generation. However, like other one-size-fits-all earbuds such as the Nothing Ear (stick) Truly Wireless, whether you prefer them to the previous generations of AirPods or not depends on the size and shape of your ears. Online reports from users are mixed about how comfortable they are. Still, they're light and don't enter your ear canal very deeply.

The Apple AirPods Gen 3 have a limited control scheme, but it's easy to use. Similar to the Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless, each stem has a 'force sensor,' a small indented surface that you squeeze to register a command. Your audio pauses automatically when you take one earbud out and starts playing again when you put it back in. It also pauses when you take both earbuds out and doesn't start playing again automatically. You can disable 'Ear Detection' in Βluetooth settings if you're using an iOS device.

Every command works on either earbud, and you hear a clicking sound when you press either force sensor. There are also beeps when they connect with a device, but you don't hear any voice prompts, which is usual for Apple products. Unfortunately, they still lack a volume function and only include a way to answer and end calls if you're using an iOS device.

On either stem's force sensor:

• One press: Plays and pauses audio. If connected to an iOS device, it answers and ends a call.
• Double press: Skips the track forward. On iOS devices only, reject a call.
• Triple press: Skips the track backward.
• Press and hold: Activates Siri (doesn't work for other voice assistants).

The Apple AirPods 3 are very portable, like most in-ear headphones. The earbuds and case are small enough to easily slip into most pockets and bags.

The Apple AirPods 3rd generation have an excellent case. It's a bit bigger than the Apple AirPods (2nd generation) Truly Wireless' case and opens horizontally instead of vertically. It clicks shut securely and feels sturdy enough to protect the earbuds from being dropped or crushed, but isn't rated for water resistance. There's a small battery indicator light on its front side, and it supports wireless charging via MagSafe and Qi charging. It also has a Lightning port for its charging cable.

The Apple AirPods 3rd generation have a great build quality. The glossy plastic feels sturdy and durable, and they don't have any loose or wiggly parts. They feel like they can withstand a few accidental bumps and drops without sustaining much damage. Like the Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless, they're rated IPX4 for resistance against being splashed with water.

The Apple AirPods 3 are adequately stable headphones. They should easily stay in place when you're at your desk or out for a walk, but they may move or fall out of your ears with more exaggerated movements, like during intense workouts. Since they have a one-size-fits-all design, they aren't as stable as earbuds that come with a selection of ear tips or stability fins, like the Jaybird Vista 2 Truly Wireless or Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless. However, their wireless design means you don't need to worry about a cable snagging on something and yanking them out of your ears.

• Apple AirPods 3rd generation headphones
• Charging case
• USB-C to Lightning cable
• Manuals

The Apple AirPods 3 have an Adaptive EQ feature advertised to adjust the earbuds' sound to how they fit in your ears. However, you can't turn this feature off. Βecause of their open-back design, they struggle to reproduce the thump and rumble of low bass. The rest of the range is quite well-balanced and bright, though, with present and detailed voices and lead instruments, although some sounds are a bit harsh or piercing. Their sound is fairly well-suited for content like audiobooks or podcasts, as well as non-bass-heavy types of music like classical, but genres like EDM or hip-hop sound hollow or empty.

Unfortunately, like previous generations, they don't have any sound customization features, like a graphic EQ or presets, that you could use to tweak their sound manually.

Note: Βecause of the Adaptive EQ, which can't be switched off, our usual method for testing with sweeps didn't work. We tried testing using pink noise and with only one earbud at a time, which didn't produce consistent results. In the end, the frequency response was tested with both earbuds at once, by playing music for 30 seconds and the sweeps immediately afterward. The results varied a lot depending on the earbuds' positioning, especially as the 3rd gen also fit differently in our dummy head's ears than the 2nd gen. However, the final results match our subjective experience with the Apple AirPods 3 more closely than our Early Access results.

The Apple AirPods 3rd generation have good frequency response consistency. Their bass delivery depends on how they fit in your ears and may vary from use to use if you don't get a good fit. Ηowever, their treble delivery is more consistent than that of the Apple AirPods (2nd generation) Truly Wireless.

The Apple AirPods 3 have poor bass accuracy. Their bass response is similar to that of the Apple AirPods (2nd generation) Truly Wireless as they struggle to reproduce a thumpy and rumbly low-bass. Mixes also lack a bit of body and punch. However, the high-bass is overemphasized, which adds extra warmth and boom. These headphones also deliver bass somewhat inconsistently, so you may have a different experience depending on their fit, positioning, and seal in your ears.

The Apple AirPods 3rd generation have excellent mid accuracy. The low and mid-mids are very neutral, so vocals and lead instruments are present and accurate. A bump in the high-mid increases the clarity and intensity of these sounds. However, it shouldn't be too harsh.

The Apple AirPods 3rd generation have excellent treble accuracy. The response is flat but slightly overemphasized, so instruments and lead vocals are bright and detailed but may sometimes sound slightly harsh. Sibilants like S and T sounds may seem slightly piercing as well.

The Apple AirPods 3 have decent peaks and dips performance. There's a big peak from the mid-bass to low-mid, which adds punch and boom to mixes, but may also make them sound muddy. A dip in the mid-mid can nudge vocals and lead instruments to the back of the mix, while a peak in the high-mid makes them sound harsh. There are also peaks in the mid-treble that makes sibilant sounds like cymbals seem piercing.

The Apple AirPods 3 have a fantastic imaging performance. The group delay falls below the audibility threshold for the entire range, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. Also, the L/R drivers of our model are very well-matched in terms of amplitude, frequency, and phase response, which is important for the accurate placement of objects, like voices and instruments, in the stereo image. However, please note that these results are only valid for our unit and that your experience may vary.

The Apple AirPods 3 have a bad passive soundstage. Like most in-ear headphones, their sound doesn't interact with your outer ear, so it seems to come from inside your head rather speakers in the room around you. However, their open-back design gives them a more open and spacious soundstage than most closed-back headphones.

The Apple AirPods Gen 3 have a 'Spatial Audio' virtual surround sound feature that can help give your audio a more immersive, 3D feel. However, it's only supported on iOS 15 or later and on certain Apple devices, including iPhone 7 or later. Enabling it also turns on head tracking, which reorients the virtual soundstage when you move your head or device. You can turn Spatial Audio on or off in your iPhone's Bluetooth settings.

The Apple AirPods 3 have a good weighted harmonic distortion performance. The bump in the high treble shouldn't be audible to most people, and otherwise, all frequencies fall within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test the Apple AirPods 3. Our results are only valid when using these settings.

The Apple AirPods 3rd generation have a bad noise isolation performance. Because of their open-back design, they block out virtually no sound in the bass or mid ranges, so you aren't isolated from noises like rumbling bus and plane engines or background chatter. They also barely cut down high-pitched noises like humming A/C units. While they aren't ideal for blocking out distractions, you may appreciate this performance if you like to stay aware of your surroundings while wearing headphones.

The Apple AirPods 3 have a decent leakage performance. Their open-back design means they leak quite a bit of audio, so if you're listening to music at high volumes somewhere moderately noisy like an office, it may bother people nearby. However, the sound that escapes is mostly in the treble range, so it sounds thin.

Update 11/26/2021: Due to user interest, we have retested 'Recording Quality' and 'Noise Handling' to see if there's a difference in performance between Bluetooth AAC and SBC codecs. Our testing PC doesn't support AAC, which is the license-free standard for Apple devices. However, we conducted this microphone retest while the headphones were placed on our test head and connected to an iPhone 11, which supports AAC. To retest 'Recording Quality', we played the same 'Recorded Speech' audio clip through our test head. While Bluetooth codecs aren't the sole factor in microphone performance, using the AAC codec, the voice sounds clearer than when connected to our test PC and using SBC codec. You can hear our results here.

For 'Noise Handling', we played the 'Speech + Pink Noise' and 'Speech + Subway Noise' audio clips. Using the AAC codec, there's a noticeable improvement when it comes to blocking out pink noise from speech. The mic is also able to block more loud noise in the subway recording when connected to an iPhone versus a PC.

We have updated our review, but there hasn't been a change in the scoring of our microphone tests. To ensure comparability between different reviews, we test the mic of Bluetooth headphones using SBC codec as it's almost universally used by these devices.

The Apple AirPod 3's mic's recording quality is passable. Recorded speech is clear and full-bodied but lacks brightness and sounds closed-off. It sounds less distorted than the Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless, though.

The microphone has a sub-par noise handling performance. In moderately noisy environments, background noise is much more present and distracting than with the previous generation. With very loud background noise like a train in a subway station, your voice is barely audible but not understandable.

They're advertised to have an acoustic mesh over the mic on each earbud to help reduce wind noise during calls. We tried testing it by standing near a fan and found that it blocks out most of the wind sound, but it's still audible when someone's talking. Someone talking nearby is also still audible over the wind sound.

The Apple AirPods 3rd generation have a decent battery performance. They provide nearly seven hours of continuous use from a single charge, which is better than the previous generation and longer than the advertised six hours. However, battery performance can vary with real-life use, so your experience may vary. Also, our tests were performed without Spatial Audio enabled. Apple says they only last for five hours if you're playing Spatial Audio content.

The case stores about five additional charges. The earbuds take less than an hour to charge fully, which is quick, and Apple says a five-minute charge in the case gives them enough power for 30 minutes of playback. Like previous generations, they don't have an auto-off timer, but your audio pauses automatically when you take them out of your ears, which can help preserve battery life. You can also use one earbud while the other charges in the case. If you're looking for in-ears with a longer continuous battery life, check out the Status Between Pro True Wireless.

The Apple AirPods 3 don't have a dedicated app, but if you're using an iOS device you can access some settings in the Bluetooth menu. You can toggle ear detection and Spatial Audio on and off, choose which earbud's mic to use, and optimize battery charging. You can also enable battery optimization and turn on 'Find My Network', which offers features for finding your headphones if you misplace them. Some features, like your AirPods playing a sound when they're inside their case or marking them as lost so others can't use them, are only available for this generation when using this specific feature.

There are also some settings in the Accessibility tab on iOS devices. You can choose to 'boost' certain sounds, like vocal frequencies, to make voices over the phone or dialogue in a movie easier to understand. This feature is also supported by the 2nd generation and the Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless, though. You can also change how quickly you need to press the earbud stems to register a double or triple tap, as well as adjust how long you need to hold the sensor down for a long press. Ηowever, we don't consider these 'Accessibility' settings part of the app.

The Apple AirPods 3rd generation have adequate Bluetooth connectivity. They have an H1 chip for very easy pairing with Apple products, and they can connect with two Apple devices at once. However, they don't have multi-device pairing with other types of devices. They also have somewhat high latency with PCs, making them less than ideal for streaming video or gaming on your computer. Fortunately, it's lower with iOS and Android devices. Also, some apps seem to compensate differently for latency, meaning you may have a different experience.

The Apple AirPods 3rd generation are wireless-only headphones, and you can't use them wired. They come with a USB-C to Lightning cable for charging the case.

These headphones are fully compatible with Bluetooth-enabled PCs. However, they can't connect any other way.

The Apple AirPods 3rd generation come with a very small charging case that holds about five additional charges. It doesn't have any inputs other than a Lightning port for charging. It also supports wireless charging via Qi or MagSafe.