When Apple walked up to me and said, "Hello, the new AirPods Pro 3 is fit
better, sound better, last for 2 hours longer with active noise cancellation."
I said, "You had me at fit better, sound
better, last 2 hours longer, and have better noise cancellation." I didn't
really care about the Hello. But what I did care about was getting my hands on
the AirPods Pro 3s immediately because if these are anywhere near as good as
Apple claims they are, I am so excited to replace my daily driver AirPods Pro
2s with these. Where the hell's the charging cable?
Seriously, they don't ship it with a charging cable anymore.
Not even a charging C. I mean, first
they took my wall wart, then they took my stickers. Now I don't even get a
cable. Damn it, Apple. Oh, shoot. There
was one accessory I just got rid of. That's what you get. They now have five
sizes of ear tips, including a new double extra small, which is going to be
perfect for kids. Now, these are one thing that I am both excited about and
apprehensive of because Apple claims that their new sort of hybrid material
design with a combination of silicone flanges like you have in the old ones
and included foam makes these better for
passive noise isolation, which is probably a big part of where their
better active noise cancellation comes from. The problem is that my experience
with foam based ear tips has been that they are extremely low durability. And
that has already been an ongoing problem for me. I've had to buy a couple of
packs of these for my AirPods Pro 2os. And I've been informed by the Labs team
that one of ours already broke during our testing. One of the large ones. It
doesn't look very broken. Maybe you can Oh, it's broken.
That was quick. With that said, according to the lab's team, the foam
does work and they do seal way better.
Let's take a look at the case. My understanding is that it hasn't really
changed much in terms of features, but oh my god, is it ever bigger? Did they
Did they talk about this? I wouldn't say it's huge, but like what the heck. For
those wondering, by the way, I was painting with some very aggressive
solvent based paints and um my AirPods
Pro 2 case fused to the liner of my pants. They claim 24 hours of total
active noise cancellation listening using the battery that's included in the
case, but I didn't want it to be bigger at that cost. Dude, I'm so disappointed
with the size. Now I've got to check. Is it going to fit in my my AirPods pocket?
Okay, it still fits really easily. I'm probably just being a little whiner.
They're not that much bigger. And at least they are contoured so they slide
in and out nicely. In terms of features, we're not really giving up anything else
either, though. They still have Mag Safe charging just like the old one. They
still have a speaker just like the old one, making it much easier to find these
things when they're missing. They've got USBC charging, and they've actually got
upgraded UWB connectivity, so you can track them down using the Find My app
with more granularity from farther away. Oh, they significantly changed the
ergonomics of them.
I loved the AirPods Pro 2. They were perfect for me.
They are different,
but probably not worse. Oh, wow. The top
down, you can really see the difference in profile. See that? That is a very,
very different orientation. In terms of physical features on the earbuds
themselves, we've still got these squeezable stems that now, in addition
to all the other things they can do like activate Siri or pause and play or skip
tracks, um, can be used to take a picture or start video recording. And
apparently the mics on these are badass.
Not only do they offer great performance in challenging environments thanks to
beam forming, but they also can record
audio separately from the Bluetooth connection to the phone. So if you're
like shooting something on your iPhone or whatever, anecdotally, some folks
have been saying that they just don't worry too much about it if they forget
their like standalone microphone. They sound that good. Haven't tried them yet
myself, but lots of other great features from the AirPods Pro 2os make their way
into the AirPods Pro 3s, but better. And I got to say, the fact that so many of
these features do overlap between the two is a testament to how well Apple
sometimes supports their older products. Since this product launched, they've
added hearing aid functionality. They've added their hearing protection functionality. In addition to being able
to create a customized sound profile for you based on using your iPhone camera to
get the shape of your head, they have microphones inside them that are
continuously tracking how well they're sealed in your ears so that they can
fine-tune the sound to make sure that you get a consistent listening
experience. All right, how do they fit though?
Very, very well. But the big test for me is always how well can I sleep in them
because I do sleep using my AirPods Pro Twos almost every night. Can I get a
pillow while he's fetching a pillow? Very first impressions.
A and C. Very little of the displeasing pressure.
Although I got to say it does seem like a little
more than the twos. No, I might just have a headache today.
>> Okay. >> Yeah, I think that's okay. Oh, perfect.
Okay, lying down test.
They're still pretty darn good, but if they had just done them in the same body
as last time, I probably would be a little bit happier. Are the other
upgrades worth it, though? Because I'm not even done yet. Apple is offering IP
water resistance certification, IP57 to
be precise, meaning they should be extremely water and sweat resistant. And
for the first time ever, these AirPods Pro 3's feature a heart rate sensor,
making them a great workout companion for folks who don't like wearing a watch
or can't wear a watch during their workouts. I think they support cycling,
jogging, and hit. Let's pair them. As
always, it should be as simple as opening up your AirPods near your iPhone.
Place both AirPods in your ears. gently adjust the angle and rotation of each
AirPod to get the best comfort. According to the lab, these have
excellent consistency from insertion to insertion. So, that's something, but um
their positivity kind of ended there with respect to the measurements. We'll
get to those later. The transparency mode is supposed to be more natural
sounding than ever before. Oh, I would say my voice sounds significantly more
natural. I can still definitely tell I'm in transparency mode, but you guys want to hit me with some talking.
>> Can you tell us about our sponsor? >> Oh, right, our sponsor.
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it'll look deliciously crispy at a 2560 by 720 resolution and a 60 Hz refresh
rate. Check it out today using our link in the description. >> Huh, that's actually pretty good. It's
still a little off. It's still a little like uncanny valley, but it's um
it's better. >> Oh my god, the A&C is freaking nuts.
>> They hadn't actually talked when I had the&C on yet. Okay, conversation boost
apparently doesn't work like that. So, so there's that. But holy balls.
I've talked about this on WAN Show, but never in a video before. One of the
things that I use my AirPods Pros for is
to just kind of tone things down a
little bit. Whether that's at like a way too loud performance or whether that's
in an extremely overwhelming social environment. Um, this is the first time
that I've ever felt like, you know what, Apple, I need to be able to fine-tune
this because I've gone from not being
overwhelmed to lonely.
I feel like I'm the only person in the universe right now. It's so
isolated and quiet. It's like putting these on and turning on the ANC is kind
of like the moment in a film when they cut between, you know, the astronauts on
the space station who are having a lively conversation and there's background music to like the guy who's
outside in the vacuum of space pounding on the window to let him in and no one
can hear him because no sound transmission or whatever and they like intentionally just cut to nothing. It's
like gone. Camera remote.
Yeah. Okay. I want to try this. Hold on. Hold on. I'm getting distracted. Okay.
So, can I just hold it? Cuz that would be way better if I could just hold it.
Did that take a picture? No. Like, can I just Can I just trick it and make it
think it's in my ear? >> Oh, it's a timer.
Okay, Apple. Just friendly suggestion.
If I could just not bother with the timer and then if I didn't have to trick
it by covering the sensors, like if I could just hold it like this and just
press it, that would be super cool. But, as you can see, now I have to hold it
like this so that it thinks it's in my ears. then I can do it. Very cool
feature though. I used the remote functionality of my S Pen on my Note 9
tons. You could just hold it and then just click the button and then
or you could put it somewhere and then you could go get into the picture and and trigger it. Very cool. Since I'm in
here, this will be a perfect opportunity to try out the microphones.
Okay. Okay. I figured it out. It's This is heinous. You're going to hate this.
>> Okay, so go to camera app.
Switch to video and then open control center by swiping
down from the upper right. Tap camera controls at the top. Then under audio
and video, tap input and select.
Okay, this is great because every single time
from now on that someone tells me Apple software is so intuitive, I am going to
show them this. That is how you change the microphone in
the camera app from the onboard bike to the one you're wearing in your ears.
Unreal.
Unreal. Cuz why would it be here, you know, in a
settings menu? Why would it be here in this settings menu? No, no, no, no, no,
no. That is
That is actually insane. It's a special menu that only shows up when you have
the camera open and you open the control center.
Completely unhinged, Apple.
Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
Never tell me that Apple's software is
intuitive. Their complete unwillingness to do something obvious just because
it's how everybody else does it is mindblowing sometimes.
Anyway, let's try out this microphone.
Hey there, how you doing? I'm just trying out my new AirPods. I wear
AirPods because I don't want people to have to look at my wrist or feel around
in my pockets to know how much I love Apple. I want it to be the first thing
they see about me.
They don't sound that great, but I'm actually kind of wondering if that's
that the AirPods don't sound that great. I shouldn't have peaked at the frequency
response graphs. >> I'm just trying out my new AirPods.
The mic's really good. That makes me deeply worried about these because my
voice sounded so freaking bassy.
I do not have a bassy voice.
Oh no, I can't put this off anymore. It's time to listen to them.
They sound like why
the AirPods Pro 2Os were already V-shaped,
which is to say that they were boosted in the high-end and boosted in the low
end. I don't even mind a bit of overdone
bass as long as it's reasonably tight.
The Beats acquisition was for the brand name, not the sound signature.
You did not adequately warn me, DMS.
>> Every day I wake up and this is my nightmare. >> You told me they were a bit worse. You
didn't tell me they were that much worse.
We're going to try the personalized audio profile thing. Maybe
it'll sound like less crap.
Come on, Apple. You got You guys seriously have some of the most talented
audio engineers in the entire bloody world. Like the fact that the iPhone
speakers and the fact that MacBook speakers sound as good as they do is a
modern marvel. Okay, why did you do
this? It had to be on purpose. Like, it
can't be a skill issue. They took the one product of theirs that I
legitimately don't just like that I love
it. I shouldn't need a funky workaround to get EQ. Where the hell is the AirPods
menu?
Where the This had a link to the menu like 10 seconds ago, didn't it? What is
going on right now? >> I'm trying to get to the AirPods menu.
>> There it is. >> Holy Apple, because I can't start
the tuning while I have them in my ears. So, I thought maybe I'd start it with
them not in my ears. Yeah. Okay. I'm working on it.
Holy. So, they have to be not in my ears, but
not in the case.
You're better than this, Apple. I know that you don't like what I have to say.
But I do think that it probably wouldn't kill you to listen to media that are not
all all the time. That's bad. That's just
objectively bad. What just happened there? Fix it. Like, just fix it now.
Don't put it off. Just fix it immediately. Dude, I'm so upset that
they sound so bad. I was really looking
forward to these. I could have gotten over how they feel.
Let's make sure that my fit is good while we're at it. Even just from their
little test audio track, I can already tell they still sound like trash.
>> How's the transparency, though? >> Good. We're speaking.
>> Yay. >> Can you hear me? >> Yeah, I can actually make you guys out pretty good. I don't even think I have
the automatic conversation thing on, so the transparency is really good, which
honestly just makes me more upset right now because
I I don't want to listen to music on these. Oh yeah, we can try the live
translation feature. That's pretty cool. Uh, do we have someone who speaks
another language handy? >> Speak some French. >> You speak what? >> Some French.
>> You speak some French? No, you don't. Hello, cheese eater.
>> Oh, bonjour.
Come on.
>> Uh,
bonjour. Jake
said cheater. I said cheese eater. Um
I don't hear anything if that's Well, my
intention was to do a full review of these on the LT channel anyway. So I
guess for the unboxing we don't need to figure out how this works. But like
intuitive means easy to figure out.
This is not intuitive. Any option that I
might wish to change that is grayed out is not intuitive. I'm sure there's
another place to change that, but intuitive would allow me to change it
here, too, because I obviously came looking for it here, which you
acknowledge I might do by putting this here in the settings menu for
conversation. >> How are you?
>> What time is it? >> Apparently, they're supposed to sound
better for you over time, though, with AI or some,
right? Yeah, I know. I know that's the look DMS has g me. Another thing that's
supposed to make them sound better is if you listen at a much higher volume so
the frequency response gets better above about 80%. Although that would be deeply
uncomfortable for me to listen to them at. That's that's way too loud.
Subscribe to ShortCircuit and also subscribe to Linus Tech Tips because
I'll be daily driving these for better or for worse over the next little bit and I'll definitely have some more
thoughts. Maybe I'll get used to the difference in audio quality. Maybe the heart rate sensor will win me over. If
you're watching this a little bit later, by the way, we're going to have a pinned comment down below with the full Labs
report on these as well, so you can get all of the empirical data down there.
It's so hard to have energy to outro the video in a fun, enthusiastic way after
listening to these.