My Favorite Amazon Buy of the Day: AirPods Pro 3
The latest AirPods Pro are a significant upgrade over the first-generation earbuds. The third (and newest) generation comes with over-the-air (OTA) updates, which are also available for the AirPods Pro 2 , but given that the second and third generations are currently priced the same, why not opt for the newer version? The AirPods Pro 3 have been reduced to $199 (the original price was $249.99), and this price was briefly reduced in December during the holiday sales—this is the lowest price to date, according to price tracking tools .
The AirPods Pro 3 improve on an already excellent premium headphone lineup by adding new features (like a heart rate sensor) without increasing the suggested retail price. You’ll get personalized spatial sound (allowing you to hear sounds that seem to come from different directions when you move your head) and the ability to use head gestures to ask Siri “yes” or “no” (this also works for answering or rejecting calls). Apple added real-time translation to both the second- and third-generation AirPods Pro with the release of iOS 26 earlier this year. You’ll also get features like Conversation Awareness, which lowers the music volume when your AirPods detect you’re talking to someone; Transparency Mode, which lets you better hear your surroundings without removing your AirPods; and Adaptive Sound, which combines active noise cancellation with Transparency Mode to adjust the level of active noise cancellation based on the ambient noise.
Since these are in-ear headphones (as opposed to regular earbuds like the AirPods 4), the active noise cancellation (ANC) system is significantly better, as it naturally blocks out noise thanks to the tight seal. However, the ANC technology itself has also improved, as has the sound quality thanks to the new H3 chip, as PCMag detailed in its ” benchmark ” review, calling them the best earbuds money can buy. Depending on usage, you can expect approximately eight hours of battery life from a single charging case, with an additional 24 hours.