The new AirPods 3 and AirPods Pro may look similar but they have several different features that warrant the discrepancy in their price tags.
Once upon a time, the gap between the AirPods vs AirPods Pro was massive. The latter had noise cancellation, water-resistance, custom eartips, adaptive EQ, wider soundstage and support for spatial audio, while the former did not. The arrival of the AirPods 3, however, fixes nearly all of those problems and puts the two models at a more even parity. That said, instead of a nearly a dozen differences between the two, we’re only down to just four – which means that the decision can ultimately be made a lot faster than before, especially if price and active noise cancellation are still your main concern. The choice will still be different for everyone. But, to help you understand which model is right for you, we’ve broken down the key differences below. The main reason you’d opt for the AirPods Pro over the AirPods 3 is that the Pro have built-in active noise cancellation. That allows you to take them out into the world and not be disturbed by outside noise. They’re our preferred travel companions for that reason, and work wonders on your commute when you just need to zone out for a while. Now, even if you don’t opt for the powerful active noise cancellation option, the basic AirPods will give you some level of what we call passive noise isolation that comes from the buds blocking some part of the ear canal.
