The third generation of Apple’s AirPods Pro is no longer just headphones, they are a health and language toolset that fits in your ears. The new model maintains the $249 price but includes on-ear heart rate monitoring, an AI-powered live translation mode, extra-strength noise cancellation, and a redesigned fit designed to fit workouts without giving up comfort.
It’s a notable pivot. Earbuds have toyed with fitness before, but Apple is trying to make the idea of using them to work out more mainstream now by smushing health metrics together with real-time language assistance and upgraded audio hardware in a package that leans into the company’s ever-expanding smart abilities.
Heart-rate sensing in the ear
The headline health enhancement is an in-ear optical sensor that reads heart rate whether you are just hanging out or working out. The ear is a candidate location for photoplethysmography as it has more stable blood flow and less motion than the wrist, which may improve recordings during intense intervals. In practice, that could mean quick checks of heart rate are as easy as sticking in your buds before you hit the road.
Apple says AirPods Pro 3 can track heart rate, estimate calories and identify up to 50 types of workouts, with data available to be seen on iPhone. There’s also Workout Buddy, an Apple intelligence feature that provides real time audio coaching. Even though wrist wearables continue to offer superior continuous monitoring and multi-sensor metrics, ear-based heart rate fills a nice gap for people who don’t want to put on a watch for every session.
AI live translations, in your ear now
Live Translation comes courtesy of a new Apple intelligence system that transforms conversations into near-real-time translations. Tap the earbuds to initiate a translation transaction: AirPods drop the ambient noise so you can hear the translation in your own language, and you can respond orally as the iPhone displays or reads the translated text. If you and a friend are both using AirPods Pro 3, for example, you hear each other in either language of your preference.
Apple says the capability debuts in beta in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, with Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese to come. There’s a little bit of a delay while the speech is processed, and idioms and accents can still be a stumbling block for machine translation. Caveats or not, in-ear interpreting is a big advance beyond the phone-on-a-table mode that competitors have provided.
Sharper ANC, longer listening
Apple has redesigned the acoustic system with a multiport configuration that it says widens the soundstage, deepens the bass and provides more clarity to the vocals. The company further asserts 2x better active noise cancellation than AirPods Pro 2 and 4x over the original Pro. On noisy commutes or runs in gyms, that’s the difference between feeling like you’re entering the music and feeling that you’re fighting it.
Battery life gets a bump to as long as eight hours on a charge, or as long as 10 hours for hearing-aid wearers for users in Transparency mode. Apple also says that, with stronger ANC, hearing tests on-app can be more accurate, and that its Hearing Protection is now certified for the EU and UK. That push is in line with public health concerns: International health organizations have raised the alarm about rising risk for noise-induced hearing loss in cities.
Quality crafted and redesigned for movement, fit and comfort
After studying thousands of ear shapes, Apple has downsized and reshaped the earbuds so that they more closely mimic the ear canal, for as many as five silicone tip sizes. The goal is simple: stay in place through sweaty workouts, without causing pressure hot spots during long calls or airplane rides. A consistent seal doesn’t only support comfort; it’s critical for the accuracy of both ambient noise cancelation and in-ear heart-rate readings as well.
For runners, cyclists and class-goers, the secure fit, heart-rate checks and voice-based coaching could stream out friction. And maybe leave your watch behind on easy days, measure effort through the ears and let an A.I. voice in your head nudge you to go or recover.
Price stays stable as features list expands
That’s a strategic move to maintain the price point of $249. Apple is the most dominant brand in wearables, and industry trackers typically place Apple at the top in terms of shipments and revenue. By combining three health, translation and audio upgrades with no extra charge, Apple is putting the squeeze on rivals who have divided up features among different products (translation modes in phones or some earbuds and fitness sensors in niche models and premium ANC in lines-topping offerings).
Competitively, Samsung and Google have also both offered phone-assisted translation, and fitness-focused earbuds from smaller brands have dabbled in heart-rate sensors. AirPods Pro 3 stand apart by weaving those capabilities into a cohesive, ecosystem-savvy experience — one that seems less of a demo and more of a daily ritual.
The take away: AirPods Pro 3 aren’t just about sound anymore. They’re Apple’s bet on the ear as a primary computing surface and sound stage, as a listener, interpreter and measurer, on top of, above and beyond the fact that they are, from the Apple AirPods 3 to the PowerBeats Pro to the Beats Fit Pro to these AirPods Max, a great pair of noise-canceling earbuds.
