Headphones and earbuds · Apple
Owners keep the AirPods 3 for noise cancellation that quiets a trip or a commute, and accept sound that some find only adequate next to what the buds do for silence.
Owners are divided on noise cancellation, but the side that praises it praises it hard: one owner tested them against Sony and Bose on a trip, returned both, and kept the AirPods because the cancellation was the best of the three. Another describes a child putting them in and the world going quiet.
The same theme cuts the other way for a smaller group. One owner found the cancellation no better than four-year-old Galaxy Buds at a much higher price, and another found it could not touch early morning train announcements without a second pair of headphones over the top.
Pick up to three. You get a page with just those, side by side, on the subjects owners raised.
What lasts for the people who keep them is the quiet. The owner who compared three brands on one trip settled on these because the cancellation mattered more to him than the sound, and that is the trade several owners keep making: sound that one owner calls very good and another calls so-so, in exchange for cancellation that works when they need it. One owner coming from these to a newer pair missed how the AirPods 3 handled treble and bass, which suggests the tuning grows on some people.
Sound is where opinions split evenly. Some owners are happy with the bass and clarity. Others find it ordinary, or moved back to wired EarPods and did not miss anything. Fit comes up too, though from only a few owners: two say the buds do not stay in or feel uncomfortable, one finds the foam-backed tip snug. That is too few accounts to judge, so treat it as something to test on your own ears.
One owner reports an older AirPods pair losing its ability to hold a charge, and that battery worry is part of why they went back to wired EarPods. Nobody in these accounts reports the AirPods 3 themselves failing, and one owner who has washed EarPods in a jeans pocket several times notes they kept working, which says more about the wired pair than this one.
The long-term accounts here are thin. Eighteen owners raised recurring themes, and almost all of them are about how the buds sound and cancel noise, not about how they hold up after a year or two. There is no clear picture yet of battery decline, case wear, or connection trouble on this model. If you own a pair and have lived with it a while, that is the gap.
Nothing with a clear majority yet. Owners who raised these subjects were split, or too few to judge.
Nothing has a clear majority against it yet. Counted from the owners who raised each subject, not from everyone. A subject is judged once at least 4 owners raise it.
The same owner, asked again at each point. Fills in as owners answer.
More in headphones and earbuds: Sennheiser M4, Apple AirPods 4, Apple AirPods Pro.
Public discussions we read and summarised in our own words. Nothing here was submitted to Still Kicks.
Counted from public accounts by people who said they own it, and summarised by Still Kicks in its own words. Not a manufacturer claim, a lab test or an estimate.
Nothing here asks for anything about you unless you write to us.