We’re just hours away from the biggest tech event on the 2025 calendar – the iPhone 17 launch. But in true “one more thing” Apple fashion, we can expect more than just the iPhone 17 handsets to show up on stage today. Also rumored to be in the spotlight are the AirPods Pro 3, Apple’s next generation of flagship wireless earbuds.
The AirPods Pro 2 launched in 2022 (albeit were softly updated with USB-C a year later), so it’s high time an all-new Pro model surfaced in the fast-moving headphones market, and according to the latest leaks that time could well be nigh.
Exciting eh, Apple fans? You would think so. After all, the leap from the first-gen to second-gen model was pretty significant, taking ANC and sound quality to new heights, extending battery life, and introducing on-bud volume control among other neat additions.
Our AirPods Pro 3 rumor round-up certainly contains all manner of exciting anticipated features, from a heart-rate and temperature sensor (as seen on the Apple-owned Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 sport earbuds) to a charging case with a touchscreen, and an embedded camera to facilitate real-time hand gestures.
The possibility of a new H3 processing chip has been floated, while improved ANC and audio quality tend to be easy predictions based on Apple’s history of evolutionary product leaps.
Is Apple saving the biggest upgrades for yet another Pro in 2026?
The thing is, the latest leaks – just days old – suggest these new and exciting possible features, and even audio and noise-canceling upgrades, may not be part and parcel of any AirPods Pro 3 launched today, but instead of another Pro model launched next year. Hmm.
I first got wind of this potential two-pronged Pro release earlier in the week when respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo posted on X that ‘Apple is expected to launch AirPods Pro 3 in 2[0]25, while a more significant hardware upgrade with the IR camera-equipped model is anticipated in 2026’.
And now another Apple analyst heavyweight, Mark Gurman, has chimed in on the social media platform to temper my expectations. While he predicts the Pro 3 will arrive today with a heart-rate monitor, plus a ‘revamped charging case’ and an ‘improved design for better fit’, he doesn’t expect ‘major audio/ANC improvements’. There’s no mention of any built-in cameras either, or anything else for that matter.
Sure, despite their age, the AirPods Pro 2 remain the best wireless earbuds for Apple users, but the competition that has come to challenge them since their arrival has raised the bar for both audio and noise-canceling quality. I’m talking about buds like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2 and Sony WF-1000XM5. For Apple not to push those aspects on in a new Pro 3 this year, then, would be a major let-down.
Left in the dust?
Considering Sony is rumored to release what I would safely bet on being even better-performing flagship earbuds than its current XM5, the WF-1000XM6, very soon, any AirPods Pro 3 lacking meaningful performance upgrades would inevitably find themselves left in the dust of new class leaders before long.
With such rumors of a higher-end Pro landing in 2026 increasingly rife, would it not be tempting to skip this 2025 Pro 3, or at least delay a new AirPods purchase until both models have launched to weigh up their features and cost discrepancies?
Will the rumored addition of a heart-rate monitor for increased health features, plus fit and charging case tweaks, really be enough to tempt Pro 2 owners to upgrade? (Not least when the Pro 2 will allegedly get new iOS 26 features such as Live Translation.) Maybe they will, and Apple could of course have other tricks up its sleeve for this year’s Pro 3 that have evaded even the most reliable online leakers (it wouldn’t be the first time!).
Ultimately, though, if improvements in sound and ANC aren’t on the menu, as Gurman predicts, I for one will be very disappointed. If the next-gen AirPods do transpire today, let’s hope they are indeed worthy of a next-gen ‘Pro 3’ name.
