Apple has a peculiar genius for arriving late to a party and convincing everyone it was the host all along. It did not invent the true wireless earphone, but since 2016 it has relentlessly civilised the category, turning Bluetooth from a finicky hobby for the patient into a daily reflex for the rest of us. The original AirPods made pairing a punchline; you opened the case and they simply appeared. The first AirPods Pro in 2019 introduced active noise cancellation and a Transparency mode so uncannily natural it felt like an auditory superpower. The Pro 2 refined the formula with cleaner drivers, smarter microphones and the muscular H2 chip. Throughout these generations, Apple steadfastly refused the spec-sheet theatre common to its rivals. There was no high-resolution Bluetooth codec alphabet soup, no graphic equaliser to fiddle with. Instead, it moved critical audio features into the operating system itself, fundamentally changing our expectations. Earphones were no longer mere peripherals; they were an extension of the phone.
The Grown-Up Proposition
The AirPods Pro 3 represents the most mature expression of that philosophy to date. The proposition is deceptively simple: dramatically stronger noise cancellation, a sound profile that is wider and cleaner, a more inclusive fit with five tip sizes including a new XXS, and a robust IP57 rating for dust, sweat, and water resistance. The beamforming microphones have been improved, now working in concert with a clever Voice Isolation feature, and the battery life is a properly useful eight hours per charge, even with noise cancellation engaged. The price is a premium Rs 25,900. The central question, then, is whether these incremental, almost boringly adult improvements can triumph over the shiny new features and specification tokens brandished by competitors. The short answer is an emphatic yes, especially if your life is a blur of boarding groups, crosstown Ubers, and editors who have a preternatural gift for calling at the most inconvenient moment imaginable.
The Airport Gauntlet That Breaks Lesser Buds
My itinerary was the sort of thing that tests the limits of both technology and human optimism: New Delhi to Dubai, then onwards to San Francisco, a brief respite in Maui, back to San Francisco, a detour to Phoenix, a transatlantic hop to London, and finally, the long haul home to Delhi. This gauntlet of airports, lounges, and pressurised cabins became the ultimate proving ground. I watched Chief of War and The Morning Show on an iPad, conducted business calls from serpentine boarding queues, and listened to the entire Led Zeppelin discography, because there are moments of profound travel-induced weariness that only John Bonham’s kick drum can truly redeem. My musical odyssey continued, grazing through the intricate harmonies of The Beatles, the psychedelic wash of Tame Impala, and the complex aggression of Tool and Porcupine Tree. This sonic journey was abruptly punctuated by a thunderstorm-cancelled flight, leading to a seventeen-hour layover at SFO. It felt like a postgraduate course in airport anthropology, with my colleague providing a fascinating case study in how a labrador’s energetic spirit finally capitulates to acute sleep deprivation.
Through it all, the AirPods Pro 3 were less an accessory and more a coping mechanism. The first time I engaged the active noise cancellation in a heaving terminal, the effect was so sudden and profound it felt illicit. The world did not merely get quieter; it vanished. It was as if Apple had found a way to Thanos-snap my immediate surroundings into oblivion. The cacophony of rolling luggage, overlapping announcements, and strained conversations was replaced by a pin-drop silence so absolute that I could see people talking animatedly in front of me yet hear nothing. The sensation was surreal, momentarily disorienting, and instantly addictive.
Composed, Clean, And Confidently Tuned
When it comes to sound, the tuning is modern, confident, and composed. The bass is taut and textured, steering well clear of the rubbery, indistinct bloom that can so often muddy a busy mix. The midrange possesses a confident presence, giving vocals and guitars a satisfying bite without any hint of nasal glare. Up top, the treble is clean, extended, and refreshingly free of the splashy sibilance that can plague lesser earphones. Compared to their predecessors, the Pro 2, the stereo separation is noticeably improved, the soundstage stretches wider, and there is a greater sense of micro-detail in the decay of cymbals and the trailing edges of reverb. If you are a person who lives to tinker with sliders, Apple’s unyielding refusal to include a manual equaliser will continue to be an irritant. However, if you harbour mixed feelings about the arcane lore of audiophilia and simply desire your music to sound alive, honest, and engaging at sane volumes, you will be thoroughly delighted. Spatial Audio remains the most affordable private cinema one can own. It can still feel a touch theatrical with certain musical genres, but for prestige television, it is properly transportive. Chief of War gained a palpable sense of room depth without any gimmicky sheen, while the rapid-fire dialogue of The Morning Show remained crystal clear, even at the low volumes necessary for a late-night flight when you are trying not to be ‘that person’ with the loud laugh.
Apple AirPods Pro 3: Technical Fact Sheet
Feature
| Specification
| Model
| AirPods Pro (3rd generation)
| Price
| Rs 25,900 (India), $249 (USD)
| Chip
| Apple H3 Chip
| Audio Technology
| Custom high-excursion Apple driver, Custom high dynamic range amplifier, Adaptive EQ
| Noise Control
| Active Noise Cancellation, Adaptive Transparency, Conversation Awareness
| Microphones
| Dual beamforming microphones, Inward-facing microphone, Voice Isolation mode
| Connectivity
| Bluetooth 5.3
| Sensors
| Skin-detect sensor, Motion-detecting accelerometer, Speech-detecting accelerometer, Touch control, Heart Rate Sensor
| Durability
| IP57 dust, sweat, and water resistant (earbuds and case)
| Battery (Earbuds)
| Up to 8 hours of listening time with a single charge (with ANC on)
| Battery (Total)
| Up to 24 hours of listening time with the MagSafe Charging Case
| Case Charging
| Works with MagSafe charger, Apple Watch charger, Qi-certified chargers, or the USB-C connector
| In the Box
| AirPods Pro 3, MagSafe Charging Case (USB-C) with speaker and lanyard loop, Silicone ear tips (XXS, XS, S, M, L)
|
Mechanical Magic In A Crowded World
The active noise cancellation is the headline act, and it performs its role with breathtaking efficacy. The Pro 3’s ANC does not merely hush the outside world; it obliterates it. The omnipresent roar of a jet engine is reduced to a distant, low-tide hush. The clatter of a busy café becomes an implied texture rather than an audible distraction. The echoey chaos of San Francisco International Airport was transformed into an acoustic void that just happened to have a chronic seating shortage. When you switch to Transparency mode, it remains the undisputed class leader. Voices sound like they are coming from people in the room with you, not being piped through an over-bright public address system. A crucial note of self-preservation from someone who navigates Delhi: using full ANC on public roads is tantamount to filling out a Darwin Award application. It is simply too effective. I made a habit of enabling Transparency for jogs, and its realism very likely saved me from learning the precise stopping distance of a large SUV the hard way.
Finally, A Fit You Can Run With
I have never fully trusted previous generations of AirPods on a run; they always felt flight-worthy but jog-dicey. The Pro 3 changes this calculus entirely. A new internal geometry combined with the expanded range of five tip sizes allowed me to achieve a snug, pressure-light seal that survived frantic sprints between airport terminals, cross-terminal slaloms with luggage in tow, and humid early morning miles in Delhi. Crucially, they did not create any ache or pressure points after extended stints on a red-eye flight. Add the IP57 rating, and you have a pair of earphones that are credibly India-proofed. Sweat, drizzle, and dust are now minor environmental downgrades, not potential disasters.
One Long Stint Trumps A Bigger Tank
The true game-changer, however, is the eight hours of listening time on a single charge with ANC active. This is not just a number on a spec sheet; it is a feature that fundamentally alters your behaviour. You stop rationing podcasts for the last leg of a journey. You cease the desperate survival hack of using only the left bud to conserve power. The flight from Delhi to Dubai is covered with charge to spare, as is the remainder of your working day with occasional top-ups from the case. The case itself provides a total of 24 hours of listening time, a figure technically lower than the previous generation’s marketing number, but this is practically irrelevant. The single-charge leap is the real quality-of-life upgrade. A mere five minutes in the case yields roughly an hour of listening, and the ability to charge via MagSafe, an Apple Watch puck, or any standard Qi charger makes powering up as mindless as tapping the buds back into their magnetic home.
The Competent Understudy For Creators
The combination of dual beamforming mics, an inward-facing mic, and Apple’s clever Voice Isolation software turns loud public spaces into tolerable call booths. My editors in London heard my voice, not the collective hymn to wheeled luggage that defines the SFO soundscape. Out of a mix of boredom and necessity during my cancelled flight, I also used the AirPods as wireless microphones for a few social media reels. Were the results broadcast-grade? Certainly not. But were they surprisingly publishable for single-subject talking heads and impromptu walk-and-talk segments? Absolutely. For a content creator, they have graduated from a non-starter to a genuinely viable backup. They cannot touch a dedicated DJI or Hollyland wireless kit for range, the safety net of 32-bit float recording, wind management, or redundancy. But the panic of realising you have nothing with a clip in your bag now has a neat Plan B that lives in your pocket.
Quiet Competence In The Background
Apple continues its long-game strategy of quietly embedding health features into its wearables. The new heart-rate sensor logged my runs without the need to strap on a watch, a minimalist’s catnip. The suite of hearing tools also continues to mature, with hearing tests, noise protection alerts, conversation boosts, and various region-gated amplification features. This is Apple playing the long game, transforming AirPods into a little health companion that does important work in the background, largely forgotten.
The Walled Garden Gains A New Coat Of Paint
Within its own ecosystem, the walled garden smells of fresh paint. On an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, AirPods Pro 3 still feels less like a product and more like an integrated feature of the operating system. Pairing is a piece of one-tap theatre. The once-temperamental automatic device switching has matured into a helpful nudge rather than a jealous partner snatching audio from your laptop mid-Zoom call. Precision Finding for the case is, frankly, a public service for anyone who is ninety per cent sure they left it “on that table—no, the other table.” These flourishes matter less individually than they do in aggregate; they sand away the tiny points of friction that accumulate over a day.
Life On The Other Side Of The Wall
Pair the Pro 3 with an Android device, and you still get the fundamentals. The excellent ANC and Transparency modes work, as do the touch controls and the standard AAC and SBC Bluetooth codecs. What you do not get is the personalised spatial audio, the clever Find My party tricks, the deep OS-level controls, or access to any of the fancier codec alphabets. If you reside in Samsung’s Galaxy and live for twiddling EQ curves or crave the high bitrate of LDAC, you will find better-suited, and often cheaper, options from Sony and Sennheiser. This is not a slight against the AirPods; it is merely a reminder that their full, undeniable charm is reserved for those already living within Apple’s world.
The Rs 25,900 Question In A Crowded Market
At Rs 25,900, the price is firmly in the premium category, but we should not gasp as if seeing airport cappuccino pricing for the first time. In India, rivals like Sony’s WF-1000XM5, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, and Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 4 are frequently discounted below their sticker price, creating honest dilemmas for the discerning buyer. If your absolute priority is codec choice and granular equalisation control, those rivals can represent a smarter expenditure. But if your priorities are profound quiet, seamless integration, and the near-total absence of gremlins across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, the AirPods Pro 3 justify their tariff by stacking small, predictable wins that compound with every single day of use.
Where Apple Still Refuses To Play Ball
There are still areas where Apple refuses to budge. There is no LDAC or aptX support. There is no manual EQ. The total battery life figure on the brochure reads less heroic than last year’s model. Repairability hovers near zero, which makes budgeting for AppleCare+ a sensible precaution. If these omissions represent the hill you are willing to die on, the market is replete with alternatives that will welcome you with open arms, sliders, and acronyms. Apple’s wager is unromantic but, for most people, most of the time, correct: the seamlessness of the overall experience trumps any single specification.
An Accumulation Of Quiet Victories
Plenty of products shout about one big new idea; this one whispers about a dozen small, crucial refinements. It is the fit that does not fidget. It is the battery life that changes your habits. It is the microphones that reduce the number of times you have to apologise for background noise. It is the ANC that makes a packed airport terminal feel like a private thought. It is the Transparency mode that keeps you alive on Delhi’s unpredictable roads. And it is the suite of operating system features that ghost-ride your workflow with quiet competence. Together, these elements elevate the AirPods Pro 3 from a ‘nice update’ to the default choice for anyone whose life is lived on an iPhone and in transit.
The Default Choice, With Caveats
So, who are they for? If your phone is an iPhone and your calendar says “airport” as often as it says “home office”, these are unequivocally the in-ear headphones to beat. If your life is built around a Samsung device, your heart beats for high-resolution Bluetooth, or you have memorised the Harman target curve and want to draw your own, then by all means, look to Sony, Sennheiser, and Bose. The question, “Are they worth it?” is only boring because we pretend the answer can be found in a table of bitrates and codecs. The AirPods Pro 3 are worth it because they are less dramatic than the last generation and infinitely more dependable. They do not chase headlines; they methodically remove friction. After two weeks of planes, lounges, hotel lifts, and one desperate sprint through SFO that made me seriously question my cardiovascular health, the buds never once demanded my attention. When I needed them to perform, they did. When I did not, they vanished. And that, really, is the entire point.
Verdict — 9/10
The AirPods Pro 3 do not reinvent wireless audio; they civilise it further. They take the messy, inconvenient bits of the experience—pairing, stamina, call chaos, wind, sweat, and fit—and sand them down until you mostly forget the product is there at all, allowing you to just live your day. If the Pro 2 were like travelling with a bright, occasionally flaky friend, the Pro 3 are the unflappable companion who has quietly printed your boarding pass, already knows the location of the nearest charging point, and somehow manages to find two empty seats together on a completely full flight. For iPhone users in India, they are the new, undisputed default. Everyone else should check the usual suspects first, then come back when they realise they value silence and sanity more than sliders and acronyms.
Ratings
Category
| Rating
| Sound Quality
| 9/10
| Active Noise Cancellation
| 10/10
| Transparency Mode
| 10/10
| Fit & Comfort
| 9/10
| Battery & Charging
| 8/10
| Microphones & Calls (Creator Use)
| 8/10
| Health & Hearing Features
| 8/10
| Connectivity & Ecosystem (Apple)
| 9/10
| Connectivity (Android)
| 6/10
| Value in India
| 8/10
| Overall
| 9/10
|
|
