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AppleAirPods 3rd gen

In-ear
Wireless

£149View retailers

Test score

Lowest available prices

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With the AirPods 3rd Generation, Apple has refreshed the design of its wildly popular wireless headphones. The earbud stems have been shortened, they’re fitted with a supposedly improved battery and a ‘spatial audio’ feature is claimed to give an immersive, surround sound experience. With plenty of high-quality wireless earbuds on the market, can the Apple AirPods keep up with the competition? A professional listening panel gives the definitive verdict in our full Apple AirPods 3rd Gen review.

pros

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cons

What's included?

What are they?
How do they sound?
What are they like to live with?
How long does the battery last?
Is there anything else I should know?
Should I buy them?

KEY TEST RESULTS
Sound quality
Comfort

Nov 2024First reviewed by Which?
Oct 2021Released

The overall Which? test score is made up of the following star ratings, all determined by our rigorous lab tests.

How we test headphones

3 Jun 2025

Sound quality

Overall
Speech sound quality
Classical sound quality
Jazz sound quality
Rock sound quality

How we test sound quality

We rate sound quality using a professional panel of expert listeners with a range of ages and musical tastes. They listen to samples that cover a wide range of music and radio genres, giving a rating per recording and an overall verdict.

Microphone quality

How we test microphone quality

We test the quality of the speech picked up by the microphone on the product. We test it with and without background noise to come up with a verdict.

Noise cancelling

Overall
Sound leakage

How we test noise cancelling

We use an artificial ears to measure the exact sound measurements being stopped by the noise cancelling features on each pair of headphones. We will enable active noise cancelling (ANC) if the headphones have this function. This a premium function and these products monitor surrounding noise and alter the strength of noise-cancelling to combat it. Our acoustic seal test tests headphones with ANC to see how well they physically block out noise cancelling without playing any audio.

Comfort

How we test comfort

Our professional panel of listeners assess the comfort of the product.

Durability

How we test durability

Our lab professionals assess how well built the headphones are. We drop the products onto a stone floor from a height of 1.8 metres to test their robustness. We also put them through identical rain tests for five minutes to see if they are water resistant.

Battery life

How we test battery life

We play sounds continuously at a reasonable volume until the battery runs out. We replicate how you are likely to use the headphones, such as with noise cancelling enabled. Since wireless headphones are convenient, battery life doesn't affect our overall score for a pair of headphones (although anything particularly bad we'd make a Don't Buy).

General
Type	In-ear
Powered from battery	Yes
Type of battery	Lithium Ion Built in Battery
Wireless or wired	Wireless
Weight	9g
Headphone controls	Yes
L and R present	Yes
Headphones fold	No
Battery life	411 mins

Features
Noise cancelling	No
Sports headphones	Yes
Truly wireless	Yes

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AppleAirPods 3rd gen

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