Last week, Apple announced AirPods 3, and they’re now on sale and available to buy from the Apple Store and online. Today, we thought we’d round up everything you need to know about the third generation earphones.
Improved sound quality
Apple says that AirPods 3 have been built on the same sound quality that AirPods is known for, offering a new custom driver and high dynamic range amplifier which combine to offer powerful bass with crisp, clean high frequencies. The company has also covered the microphone with a new acoustic mesh that helps to reduce the sound of wind and external noises so that voices can come through more clearly when recording content or speaking to someone over the phone, and they feature AAC-ELD, a superior speech codec which allows for a full high definition voice quality, ideal for FaceTime calls and setting the AirPods apart from competitors.
Audio Sharing comes to AirPods 3
Audio Sharing is offered on the third generation, so that listeners can share their audio stream between two sets of AirPods, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max, while using iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple TV. Apple has also added a brand new skin detection sensor onto the AirPods, which will determine whether the AirPods are in your ear or in your pocket, or on the table. When they’re removed from your ear, it’ll pause playback to remove one of the common pain points, and to improve sound clarity, beamforming microphones allow the AirPods to block out ambient noise and focus on the user’s voice.
You can ask Siri to play music
Hey, Siri is, of course, offered as part of the new AirPods, and plays nicely into the new Apple Music Voice package which allows users to subscribe to a new $4.99 per month service and access millions of songs on Apple Music using their voice. It’s ideal if you’re a fan of music and want to stream away but don’t need a full $9.99 streamer package.
AirPods 3 are MagSafe-compatible
The new AirPods offer an additional hour of battery life compared with previous generations, now offering up to six hours of continuous playback and four hours of talk-time. Just five minutes of charging in the new wireless charging case (included as standard) offers about an hour of battery life, and the case offers four additional charges so that you can get up to 30 hours of total listening time before needing to re-juice. For the first time, AirPods are now part of the MagSafe ecosystem for convenient wireless charging, and the AirPods Pro’s case has also been updated to allow for MagSafe charging for the first time, which is great news.
They’re easier to find than AirPods 2
AirPods are now part of Find My, so that hundreds of millions of iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers around the world can help track them down if they were to go missing.
Are you buying a pair of AirPods? Let us know and check back soon for more.