AirPods Pro 3 Review: The $120 Over AirPods 5 Buys Hearing And Heart Rate

White AirPods Pro 3 on a white background: both earbuds lifted out of the open charging case, silicone tips toward the viewer and L and R printed on the stems, with a green status light on the case front

Product image supplied by the brand

In this guide

THE SHORT VERSION

Apple sells the AirPods Pro 3 in one configuration at $249: white, with a MagSafe charging case that accepts a USB-C cable, a Qi pad, a MagSafe puck or an Apple Watch charger, and five sizes of silicone tip in the box, XXS through L. Each earbud weighs 5.55 grams and the case 43.99 grams, and both carry an IP57 rating against dust, sweat and water. Neither a USB-C cable nor a power adapter is included, so the first purchase after the earbuds may be a cable.

Two things separate this pair from the AirPods 5 that cost $120 less at Apple. One is a sensor: heart rate, taken during workouts by light pulses Apple describes at 256 a second. The other is a set of hearing features — a hearing test, a hearing-aid mode that holds FDA authorization, and hearing protection with a published exposure limit. Both depend on a compatible iPhone or iPad, so a phone running Android gets the earbuds without the health features, and the hearing-aid mode is not offered everywhere Apple sells the hardware.

Our verdict

Buy the AirPods Pro 3 when the hearing test, the hearing-aid mode and workout heart rate are the point, and buy them at Amazon's $234 rather than Apple's $249. For noise cancelling alone, the $129 AirPods 5 cost less.

A good fit for: iPhone owners who want one pair of earbuds for commuting, workouts and a hearing check, and who will use the heart-rate data in the Fitness app.
We would skip it if: Anyone on Android, anyone who only wants noise cancelling, and anyone who will not buy without a published talk-time figure.

Reasons to consider it

Active Noise Cancellation runs 8 hours on a charge and 24 with the case, measured under Apple's test at 50% volume
A heart-rate sensor for workouts, a hearing test and an FDA-authorized hearing-aid mode are built into the earbuds rather than sold alongside them
IP57 dust, sweat and water resistance on both the earbuds and the case, rated under IEC 60529

The compromises

Neither a charging cable nor a power adapter ships with them, and the five tip sizes are a $9.99 purchase in single-size two-packs when one goes missing
The hearing features need an iPhone or iPad on iOS 18 or later and are limited to people 18 and over, and Apple's availability list omits Canada and China for the hearing-aid mode
Apple publishes no talk-time figure for a pair aimed partly at calls

What we have not verified: Apple publishes no talk-time figure and no accuracy figure for the heart-rate sensor, and the hearing-aid mode's regional list can change, so call endurance and the workout readings rest on Apple's descriptions rather than on numbers.

The things in this guide

A closer look at the products, who they may suit, and what to check before buying.

Apple's earbuds with a hearing test and a heart-rate sensor, $234 at Amazon and sold without a charging cable

AirPods Pro 3

Apple charges $249 for a single white configuration with the MagSafe case, and the identical pair costs $234 from Amazon directly: 8 hours of listening with Active Noise Cancellation and 24 with the case, IP57 on both pieces, five tip sizes, and an FDA-authorized hearing-aid mode alongside a workout heart-rate sensor. A $9.99 two-pack replaces a lost tip, and AppleCare+ at $19.99 a year covers accidental damage at $29 a repair.

Before you buy: The hearing features need an iPhone or iPad on iOS 18 or later, are meant for people 18 and over with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss, and the aid is absent from Apple's list for Canada and China. Apple publishes no talk time, there is no cable either, and the return windows are 14 days at Apple and 15 at Amazon.

$234 at Amazon $249 at Apple

Price checked October 4, 2026. Retailer prices can change.

What the $249 pair contains

Battery depends on what you switch on. Apple rates one charge at 8 hours of listening with Active Noise Cancellation running, 7.5 hours with Spatial Audio and head tracking, 6.5 hours with heart-rate sensing during a workout, and 10 hours in Transparency mode with the hearing-aid feature active. Put them back in the case and the ANC figure becomes 24 hours; five minutes in the case returns about an hour. The test behind those numbers runs at 50% volume until the first earbud stops playing, which matters if you listen loud.

Talk time is missing from the spec sheet, so anyone who spends an hour a day on calls has no Apple number to plan against. The rest of the hardware reads: the H2 chip, Bluetooth 5.3, a case with a speaker for Find My and a lanyard loop, and IP57 on both pieces — with Apple's own caveat that dust and water resistance are not permanent conditions.

Apple's noise-cancelling multipliers and the baselines behind them

Apple's pages carry three multipliers, each against a different reference. The Pro 3 remove up to 2x more noise than the AirPods Pro 2, up to 3x more than the AirPods 5, and up to 4x more than the original AirPods Pro and the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. Apple also rates the AirPods 5 at up to 1.5x more than the AirPods 4 with ANC, and the published figures do not reconcile: 3x and 1.5x multiply to 4.5x between the Pro 3 and the AirPods 4 ANC, where Apple prints 4x for that same pair.

The world's-best evaluation was run in July 2025 under IEC 60268-24 against best-selling wireless in-ear headphones rather than a named model, using an iPhone 16 with prerelease AirPods firmware and iOS 26. Read the numbers as Apple's own measurements against its earlier products under one lab's conditions: quieter commuting is the reasonable expectation, and a specific decibel difference at home is not something these figures establish.

The hearing test and the authorized hearing-aid mode

The hearing pair is why this model costs $120 more than the AirPods 5. Apple's footnote restricts the hearing test and the hearing-aid mode to AirPods Pro 2 and later on current firmware, paired with a compatible iPhone or iPad on iOS 18 or later, and calls them intended for adults 18 and over with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss. The FDA authorized the Hearing Aid Feature on September 12, 2024 as the first over-the-counter hearing-aid software device, granted under the classification air-conduction hearing aid software.

Where you live decides whether you can use it. Apple's availability page warns that some hearing-health features are not offered in every region: the hearing-aid list includes the US, the UK, Germany, Japan, Australia and Brazil, and omits Canada and China. Hearing Protection, a separate feature, has its own limits: Apple's support article rules it out for impulse sounds such as gunfire or fireworks and for sustained sound above 110 dBA, and the earbuds have to be charged for it to run.

Heart rate in an earbud, and what the number needs

The heart-rate sensor is a workout feature, not an all-day one. Apple scopes it to the Fitness app and compatible third-party apps on an iPhone running iOS 26 or later, describes LEDs pulsing invisible light 256 times a second, and lists support across up to 50 workout types. Turning it on costs battery: the single-charge rating falls from 8 hours to 6.5 with heart-rate sensing during a workout.

Apple publishes no accuracy figure against a chest strap, and an optical sensor in an ear measures something different from the electrical signal an ECG app records. Apple places the reading in the Fitness app and compatible third-party workout apps, as an input for training effort rather than a clinical measurement.

Tips, battery service and the $19.99 a year

The five tip sizes ship once. Replacements come as single-size two-packs at $9.99 from Apple, so losing one size means a $9.99 order. Apple's warranty runs twelve months from purchase and covers manufacturing defects in the earbuds and the Apple-branded accessories in the box; a drop and a battery that simply wears down sit outside it, and any repair and the parts in it stay guaranteed for 90 days or the balance of that year, whichever is longer.

AppleCare+ for the pair is $19.99 a year or $1.99 a month and adds unlimited accidental-damage repairs at $29 each, a battery replacement when capacity falls below 80%, and express replacement. Uncovered, the pair falls under Apple's published out-of-warranty estimates: $49 for battery service, $89 for a damaged or lost earbud or a damaged case, and $99 for a lost case, with the final fee fixed after inspection. Apple's return window is 14 days and Amazon's is 15, both with free return shipping.

AirPods 5 at $129, Pro 3 at $249, Max 2 at $549

Apple's US earbud shelf is four products now. The AirPods 5 is $129 with a USB-C case and $149 with a wireless charging case; the AirPods Pro 3 is $249; the AirPods Max 2 is $549. The AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 buy pages redirect to the AirPods 5, though Apple's comparison page still prints the older models as columns.

The $120 between the AirPods 5 and the Pro 3 is not a battery purchase. Apple rates the AirPods 5 at up to 4 hours with ANC on, or 5 with the wireless charging case, against 8 for the Pro 3 — a real gap, but not the reason to spend nearly double. The reason is the sensor package: heart rate, the hearing test, the hearing-aid mode, and the acoustic seal test that tells you which of five tip sizes fits. If none of that is on your list, the $129 pair does the work for about half.

How we put this together

Built from the product pages and listings below, without test scores or results we have not measured. Specifications and prices change, so check the original page for the exact model, current price, delivery, and returns.

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