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It’s genuinely a shame that role-playing game The Outer Worlds 2 developer Obsidian Entertainment operates under the current Microsoft umbrella. This is a company that, in the past couple of years alone, has laid off an unimaginable number of workers, dramatically raised prices on its hardware and subscription models, and completed one of the most costly acquisitions in the medium’s history. That's all on top of cancelling a slew of games and shuttering studios.

It’s precisely this kind of overbearing capitalist mindset that The Outer Worlds 2 has a bone to pick with, and it’s left me with some pretty complicated feelings. On the one hand, the game’s critique of late-stage capitalism is scathing and steeped in the developer’s trademark wit. On the other, I can’t help but feel it all rings a little hollow when the target of said critiques is also the one funding and publishing The Outer Worlds 2.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Xbox Series X, PC
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X, Series S, PC
Release date: October 29, 2025

Ultimately, Obsidian itself deserves praise for crafting yet another brilliant choice-driven role-playing game (RPG). Like Fallout: New Vegas, Pentiment, and Avowed before it, The Outer Worlds 2 provides an absorbing world to explore, chock-full of interesting characters and quests, and countless opportunities to make the most of your chosen build.

Skills in The Outer Worlds 2 aren’t just for bypassing doors or clearing speech checks; like in many of the best RPGs, some can genuinely open up the game in meaningful ways. The Observation skill, for example, is one I can’t do without. Especially not after it guided me to a secret room that revealed a quest to win the favor of a lucrative black market vendor. Even weapon-based skills like Guns or Science! (yes, that is how it’s formatted) are good for more than just shooting, and can be used to intimidate characters during dialog.

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

One of my favorite things about The Outer Worlds 2, then, is that you actually won’t be able to solve every problem, bypass every lock in a single playthrough. You will have times where an NPC isn’t swayed by your charms, and then stumble upon a quest or avenue of progression that suits your skill set to a tee. It's an ever-so-satisfying gameplay experience.

This interplay between success and failure isn’t quite a perfect balance, however; across my playthrough, I did find that some skills and traits barred progress more than others (for example, Engineering is used to get past jammed doors much more frequently than the Hack or Lockpicking skills are in their respective fields).

There are also some pacing issues through the mid-game, especially as quests tend to stack up on themselves and enemies start having tedious amounts of health to all but the most gun-slinging of character builds.

Minor issues aside, I won’t soon forget my time in the hyper-capitalist nightmare that is the Arcadia system, and chances are I’ll be diving back in again with a completely different approach and ending in mind.

Shoot the moon

(Image credit: Microsoft)

In terms of background, The Outer Worlds 2 gives you a bit more to work with compared to its prequel, with your character being an established and respected agent of the Earth Directorate - a sort of task force that prides itself on the very idealistic and somewhat fantastical notion of bringing peace to the galaxy. Turns out, the Earth Directorate might not be very good at their jobs, though.

The opening mission, an infiltration of a space station run by a cultish sect known as the Protectorate, goes horribly wrong when a fellow agent double-crosses us, detonating the station and killing everyone on board save for ourselves and a previously injured squad member by the name of Niles Ibara.

Ten years on, you’re woken from an extended hibernation period by Niles, who informs you that the detonation has caused a rift in the fabric of space that threatens to destroy the entire system in an undetermined amount of time. It’s a race against the clock to track down the double-crossing agent and save the system of Arcadia from a grisly fate.

Your quest for justice (whatever form that may take based on your own choices throughout the game) isn’t one you’ll emerge from without someone’s blood on your hands. Like it or not, you will often have to side with one or two dubious factions in order to get your way. That could be the previously established Protectorate, or Auntie’s Choice - a mega corporation that’s the result of a hostile merger of the first game’s Auntie Cleo’s and Spacer’s Choice companies.

You won’t always like who you’re choosing to work for, but there is at least a good variety of dialog flavor to have your character respond in a way that suits your desired personality - whether that be good-natured or unfathomably cruel, or everything in between.

Choices, so many choices

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Like its prequel, The Outer Worlds 2’s explorable planets are smaller, individual biomes, as opposed to having one larger map a la Fallout: New Vegas. For this game, it’s an approach that really works. Each of the main planets has its own central conflict, even if most offer a general theme of Auntie’s Choice and the Protectorate battling it out for control.

Best bit

(Image credit: Microsoft)

The Outer Worlds 2 puts player choice first and foremost, in both build variety and choice-based decision making. The game is designed in a way that means you never quite know when your character’s particular skill set will come in handy, making exploration and experimentation almost always enjoyable.

Each map is smattered with characters to meet, side quests to take on, buildings to explore, and no shortage of secrets to unearth. Exploration really is the focal point of progress in The Outer Worlds 2. Combat is, of course, one way of getting things done. And in terms of feel and feedback, it’s a huge improvement over the first game, with satisfying gun play and plenty of weapon types - from stealthy knives and silenced pistols to ammo-hungry SMGs and energy weapons.

Personally, I preferred a more low-key approach to progressing through the game’s main missions. Problems can be solved with combat, sure, but as the game went on, a frustrating tendency to pad out enemy health bars often made such encounters a tedious affair.

As a result, I rolled a charismatic character able to pass speech checks to bypass combat wherever possible. Some points in Sneak and Observation also helped in stealthily getting through busy areas and finding secret routes. You absolutely can play a passive character in The Outer Worlds 2, and you’re more often than not rewarded for doing so.

(Image credit: Obsidian)

One piece of advice I have would be to think very carefully about your specializations while initially creating your character. Get comfortable with the idea that many choices and solutions will be locked off to you, as a trade-off for excelling in two or three areas instead. You’ll have one chance to respec after the tutorial section, but beyond that, no such option exists.

I like this change overall. Not being able to respec on a whim meant that I had to approach most scenarios with my chosen skill sets in mind. For me, this largely meant that going guns blazing was simply off the table. On the other hand, I can see indecisive players - or those who like to take a flexible approach based on the situation - may struggle with this. I certainly restarted the game a handful of times until I settled on skills that satisfied my preferences.

One returning feature from the first game that I really enjoy, though, is flaws. These are reactive, passive effects that you can accrue, and they’re essentially the game’s way of adding additional challenge to your playstyle. Flaws pop up if you adopt a certain way of playing enough. One is based on a hoarder mentality, lowering vendor prices but also reducing money you earn from selling.

Another flaw plays on indecisiveness, letting you only increase the level of skills with zero points, or ones you have the lowest total in, the upside being you’ll get one extra skill point to spend at each level up. Flaws are optional, but if you accept them, they’re with you for good, so think carefully about how useful you think they’ll be in the long run.

Horizon point

(Image credit: Microsoft)

I did find that The Outer Worlds 2 started to lose its luster as the campaign went on. It’s not the longest RPG out there, coming in at around 40-50 hours, but it’s definitely one that started to feel a bit formulaic. There’s only so many firefights to endure, air ducts to crawl through, or terminals to hack before the game starts to feel like it’s shown its entire hand. And it does so long before credits roll. It remains an enjoyable game throughout, but I definitely had the most fun solving the problems in the first major biome when it still felt fresh and vast.

That repetition does tend to hurt the game’s overall pacing, too. There are some nice surprises here and there; recruiting new companions for your squad is often something you’ll just stumble upon, rather than being outright told where you can pick them up. And digging into the depths of an installation or base to uncover a cool weapon or decision-making opportunity is always a satisfying reward. But such moments felt few and far between in the midst of trudging from township to outpost, ticking off various elements of busy work in the hopes of expanding my choices for the main quest.

What I can’t fault The Outer Worlds 2 on is its gorgeous visual style. It’s something I found really impressive about Avowed, and it’s much the same case here. Outdoor environments are awash with color and interesting landmarks, while interiors often feel cold and oppressive in the best way possible. While the soundtrack didn’t do much to move me, I did often find myself taking in the impressive amount of environmental detail on offer.

It’s a winner on the performance front, too, and I noticed only a handful of dips at 60fps across both Xbox Series X and PC. Load times can be uncomfortably long on occasion (exacerbated by reloading quick saves to try out alternate routes), but by and large the game’s performance is acceptable.

Should you play The Outer Worlds 2?

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)Play it if...

You want a massive Obsidian RPG to get stuck into
Obsidian remains one of the most talented developers in the business when it comes to level design, top-quality writing, and consequential decision-making. This is an unpredictable sci-fi adventure that - despite some pacing shortcomings - delivers a top-notch immersive experience. Definitely one of the best Xbox Series X games in recent years.

You want to think outside the box
If you enjoy solving problems in RPGs that don’t end in bloody shootouts, The Outer Worlds 2 is for you. Whether it’s through hacking, stealth, uncovering secrets, or convincing characters through charm and wit alone, there are plenty of opportunities to do so in this game.

You loved The Outer Worlds
The Outer Worlds 2 is a significantly better game than its prequel in almost every aspect. Gameplay options are much more robust, and there are always several ways of solving even the most basic quests. It builds upon everything the first game did well, and then some.

Don't play it if...

You don’t want to be locked into any given playstyle
The lack of a respec option past the intro means you need to pick a handful of skills to specialize in and stick with them. Spreading your skills too thin means you won’t be able to meet high skill check requirements later in the game. If you’re not keen on potentially being locked out of certain options, segments, or endings based on your choices, it might not be the game for you.

Accessibility

As is the case with many Xbox Game Studios titles, The Outer Worlds 2 offers a solid amount of accessibility options for gamers of all stripes. For starters, you can adjust motion blur and field of view to a granular degree, as well as apply subtitles to general, background, and audio log speech.

There are also two motion sickness modes for reducing on-screen motions to varying degrees. You can also adjust overall text size and HUD scaling, as well as apply colors and outlines to subtitles and their backgrounds.

How I reviewed The Outer Worlds 2

I played The Outer Worlds 2 for 40 hours across both my Xbox Series X Digital Edition and my gaming PC. I was able to transfer my save across both versions thanks to Xbox’s handy Play Anywhere feature. During my playthrough, I opted for a character capable of hacking and uncovering secrets via the Observation skill, with some points in Speech and Guns to get myself out of tight situations in a pinch.

I primarily played on console using the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro Xbox controller, on an LG CX OLED TV display. My audio device of choice here was the RIG R5 Spear Pro, a multiplatform wired gaming headset that delivered exceptional, immersive audio during my playthrough.

First reviewed October 2025

The Outer Worlds 2 is an enjoyable sci-fi adventure that nails its role-playing aspects, albeit with some drawbacks.

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Apple AirPods Pro 3: Two-minute review

Apple's AirPods Pro 3 are doubtless the biggest earbuds release of the year – figuratively and in terms of the furore surrounding them, that is, rather than physically (they're nice and small, as it happens). They're still ice-white only, and they'll still prefer an iPhone, iPad or MacBook over an Android device any day of the week – yes, they'll work with Android, but you'll miss even some of the more commonplace perks if using them this way, such as device switching and a quick way of checking the battery.

So know this: I wrote the bulk of this review while using the AirPods Pro 3 with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, otherwise known as the oldest iPhone that is still able to support Apple Intelligence. Why is that important? Because without it you'd miss key perks such as Live Translation (one of the headline features) and personalized fitness insights, for example.

This time around you get five ear tips in the box, although Apple has performed some wizardry with the shape of the driver housing, so they should slip right into your ear and stay there without too much fuss – at least they did for me, and for several others on the TechRadar team. Are these some of the best earbuds on the market for fit and novel features (I will mention heart-rate monitoring; I will also go into Live Translation at length, later) then, as well as claiming the best in-ear active noise cancellation? Oh, without a doubt.

These particular AirPods have very few snafus, but it's my job to mention the small issues I had. My AirPods Pro 3 review sample has refused to acknowledge the existence of the iPhone 12 Pro Max I've tried to pair them with several times, on the grounds that said phone is a non-Apple Intelligence option, and performing a reset is now quite a bit more fiddly than it was previously. This is because the button on the back of the case is now gone. Instead, you have to double-tap the front of the case to do a factory reset, but without touching the front of the case while flipping the lid. If that sounds tricky, it is.

Also, there's still a slight stamina niggle for me. Don't get me wrong: Apple has improved the battery life here, claiming up to eight hours from the earbuds with ANC on, which is up from six hours for the AirPods Pro 2. But this, of course, is without Spatial Audio, heart-rate monitoring and a few other bells and whistles deployed (which you may not have checked before leaving the house, because without a dedicated app to click, some of these toggles feel buried away in your phone's settings). I found the battery life a bit lower than that in real life, at around 5.5 hours in my testing, so it's fine, rather than fantastic.

All of this aside, the AirPods Pro 3's sound is both zealous and head-turning (especially with dynamic head-tracking on), bringing your music to your ears with panache and, hang it all, joy. And let me be clear: these ice-white buds can do this thanks largely to the neatest near-silent ANC performance I've ever experienced using an iPhone source device. And that's worth this kind of money for your next long-haul flight – or heck, even your commute, as far as I'm concerned.

Apple AirPods Pro 3 review: Price and release date

(Image credit: Future)

• Released on September 9, 2025
• Priced $249 / £219 / AU$429
• Available in white or… white again

Both the inaugural AirPods Pro and the follow-up AirPods Pro 2 were priced at $249 / £249 / AU$399 when they first appeared, so the fact that AirPods Pro 3 came with a $249 price tag when they hit shelves on September 19 come as a surprise to nobody.

What is a touch odd is the quoted pricing in other regions, because the AirPods Pro 3 are priced £219 in the UK (I double-checked so you don't have to) and AU$429. So, while they're £30 cheaper in the UK, they're AU$30 more expensive in Australia. I don't make the rules…

On the one hand, plenty of the best wireless earbuds have risen in price in the last few years in line with inflation, but the fact that Apple made a point of hanging on at the same price as the original AirPods Pro from 2019 – in the US at least – and even reduced them in the UK, is quite surprising.

And the huge news is that because of this pricing, Apple's flagship earbuds might actually come in at the lower end of the premium earbuds market, depending on region. I know!

What of direct competition at this level? Their rivals are perhaps most pressingly the older AirPods Pro 2, which can now be yours for around $160 / £170 / AU$350, the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 (which are a fair bit pricier, at $399 / £349 / AU$599), the Technics EAH-AZ100 which are $299 / £259 / AU$478 or perhaps the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) for $299 / £299 / AU$450.

So you see, Apple has actually gone quite aggressive with the pricing here, when you look at it like that.

Apple AirPods Pro 3 review: Specs

Drivers

'Custom high-excursion' Apple driver with new multiport acoustic architecture and revised driver angle

Active noise cancellation

Yes

Battery life

8 hours (buds, ANC on); 6.5 hours (buds, heart rate sensor on); 24 hours (case)

Weight

5.6g (buds); 44g (case)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.3 (H2 chip)

Waterproofing

IP57

AirPods Pro 3 are on the right (AirPods Pro 2 on the left) (Image credit: Future)Apple AirPods Pro 3 review: Features

• Live Translation is really fun (once set up)
• Heart-rate monitoring
• Your fitness app may not support HRM natively

There are plenty of features here to get through, but I want to start on the one no other AirPods are getting any time soon: heart-rate monitoring. Simply by wearing them, that extra black little bar on the inside neck of the bud plus the built-in movement sensors can track 50 workout types with just AirPods Pro 3 – i.e., no Apple Watch needed – to give you a heart rate reading as long as you're wearing at least one earbud.

According to Apple: “AirPods Pro 3 introduce a custom photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that shines invisible infrared light pulsed at 256 times per second to measure light absorption in blood flow.”

Believe it or not, this is actually a different solution to the one found in the also-ticker-taking (and also made by Apple) Beats Powerbeats Pro 2, launched in February 2025. You need to be wearing both earbuds to get a reading there, because when you do, a green LED light sensor in each earpiece pulses over 100 times per second, then measures the light reflected back to calculate how many times your heart is beating per minute. See?

I had heard that my heavy-rotation free Seven app (of 'seven-minute workout' fame – because lunchtime is rarely the full hour in journalism) would simply work with AirPods Pro 3's heart-rate monitoring in-app, but alas, it does not. In fact, at the time of writing, Apple hasn't published a full list of third-party fitness apps that support AirPods' heart-rate monitoring natively. But I still know that my heart-rate went up from its resting 60 BPM to 117 BPM during that short workout, because your reading can be found in the Health app – or you can simply ask Siri to tell you your heart rate whenever you like (once you've turned it on and sorted out the correct permissions within Siri) provided you've got the breath to speak.

Apple is clearly using the AirPods' newest trick to send you to its free Fitness app (or better still, its paid-for Fitness+ offering) because even in the free variant, 19 types of activity are clearly displayed with simple Apple Music integration, your AirPods icon in the top right, your choice of three 'workout buddy' voices for personalized encouragement using Apple Intelligence, and a little heart icon as if to scream 'heart-rate logging here folks – just get going!' I'm a little disappointed to see no aerial silks/hoop or pole dance activities listed here, Apple (both are hugely popular) but this review is about AirPods Pro 3 rather than the suite of offerings within Fitness, and AirPods' help in facilitating all of this data accumulation does add a lot of value to your purchase.

(Image credit: Apple)

Now, Live Translation: once you get it up and running, it's excellent. I say 'once you get it up and running' because there are various hoops you need to jump through and barriers to pass (and tricks I used) before it'll work properly. And you should do these when you first set up your AirPods if you'd like to get at it quick enough so that when the time comes, the poor bartender you're trying to converse with doesn't get cold feet and run away while you're telling them to hang on.

So, you need: your AirPods Pro 3 (the feature is also available on the AirPods 4 (ANC) and AirPods Pro 2); iPhone 15 Pro or later; iOS 26 or later; Apple Intelligence turned on; the Translate app downloaded (and the language modules you want downloaded) plus the latest AirPods Firmware version. In addition to this, I customized the iPhone Action button on my iPhone 15 Pro Max to start Live Translation – because I found it marginally quicker and more reliable than pressing both stems of my AirPods Pro 3. But do either of those things once you've got everything running and you'll feel like James Bond in Casino Royale, dropping in on the local gossip at the tables in Venice's Hotel Danieli.

Luckily, I have a Spanish-speaking other half to deploy. He spoke to me about his plans to play tennis that night until 10pm (see the left screen-grab, below). The English version of his Spanish prose was piped vocally into my ears with very little delay, as well as appearing on my iPhone as a transcript. It's remarkably good.

Elsewhere, Apple's fit and hearing tests are back (you do the first, before you can take the second) and very thorough they are too. Since I answered the hearing test honestly (stay with it; it's worth it), I cannot in good faith test the hearing aid help in action, because I don't require it. But what is very useful is Conversation Awareness, which you simply toggle on in the AirPods Pro tab of your iPhone's settings. Then, when you talk, your music volume is lowered and background noise is reduced so that you can easily converse.

It's worth noting that both of these features (Live Translation and Conversation Awareness) are not popular with some of the team, because they encourage you to wear your AirPods constantly – and some of us (myself included) find this rude. Perhaps in time the pet peeve of a friend or colleague refusing to remove their earbuds when talking to me will cease to annoy me, but I'm not so sure…

(Image credit: Future)

• Features score: 5 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Apple AirPods Pro 3 review: Sound quality

• Enjoyable, emotive audio with personalized spatial audio on
• Vocals nicely textured and three-dimensional
• Not the last word in detail and neutrality, but that's not the point

Please, please take Apple's excellent ANC performance in the AirPods Pro 3 as read – it's almost scarily good at sucking the noise out of your ears, but without the actual sucky, wind tunnel, nauseating effect you can sometimes get with similar levels of noise-nixing. I found toggling on Apple's 'Adaptive' audio less effective (it felt just a touch laggy at picking up low-level noise when I'd have liked the AirPods to cancel it) so I chose to keep noise-cancelling and conversation awareness on, at my desk. And it eased me into my day in a cocoon of silence that very little could breach.

Sonically, you can expect an expansive, exuberant soundstage that allows bass registers ample space to rumble with regimented clout. The detailed Spanish guitar intro of Daddy Yankee's Toy Hermoso is textured through the mids and feels as if the guitarist is by my left ear, but as the reggaeton beat comes in, it's a toe-tapping and head-nodding mix that has me dancing at my desk like I'm in a Cuban salsa club – especially with head-tracked spatial audio on.

Cueing up Rema's FUN, the intentionally warm and static-filled intro is faithfully relayed, and as the dynamics and speed of the track build, I'm once again dancing in my seat.

For neutrality and detail (that 'integrated hi-fi versus fun' debate), it's worth pointing out that you'll get a little more from both the Technics EAH-AZ100 and the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 – think the breathy delivery of Taylor Swift's vocal in Elizabeth Taylor, which feels just slightly more human and detailed in the rival buds. But if you prioritize immersive, vigorous impact, I find the AirPods Pro 3 even better than the also-excellent Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) – and that's not a statement I make lightly.

• Sound quality: 4.5 / 5

AirPods Pro 3 on the right – with no reset button! (Image credit: Future)Apple AirPods Pro 3 review: Design

• Vastly improved fit
• Loss of the case button is a misstep
• Could do with a dedicated app now

As mentioned (and pictured below), the AirPods Pro earpiece shape has been reworked this time around. The angle of the neck has been tweaked quite significantly and I'm a huge fan. Simply put, they fit well – and by that I mean securely, even when I shake my head – for me now, and that has never been the case with any AirPods until this iteration.

An IP57 rating means the buds are also dust resistant and waterproof to a depth of one meter for up to 30 minutes, which is noteworthy.

The case is a touch taller and wider but less deep now. The LED light is now undetectable when it's not on, which makes for a sleek look. Also sleeker but for me less helpful is the loss of the reset button on the back of the case. I say this because when upgrading my iPhone to a model that supports Apple Intelligence to test these earbuds, I found myself needing to reset the AirPods. And that's no longer as easy as it once was, because double-tapping the front of the case with the lid flipped, but not touching the front of the case (so that said case registers my tap attempts) isn't a simple maneuver.

My one minor gripe here concerns the supporting software – because software design is still a 'design' issue, for me.

Yes, you can pull down on the Control Center on your iPhone to see the basic AirPods bubble, at which point you can check your listening mode, conversation awareness status and spatial audio profile. Then, you can go into your AirPods Pro tab, in Settings, to check the current state of more general features such as the Hearing Health tab, call controls, head gestures, enabling charging case sounds, automatic ear detection to pause your music when you remove one, and so on.

But given that so many of AirPods Pro 3's newer features require extra taps and navigation to alternate apps (there's the Translate app for your language modules, the Health app to see your heart-rate data, the Fitness app to see that heart-rate increase as you exercise) I wonder whether at this point it might make sense to have one dedicated AirPods Pro 3 app to rule them all. I'm speculating, but I'd definitely like to try that, because the current solution will doubtless have you consulting Apple's support pages in an effort to find how – or more importantly, where – to toggle on what you need…

(Image credit: Future)

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Apple AirPods Pro 3 review: value

• The best ANC earbuds on the market for iPhone owners
• Not the most original choice… but the best

Popular taste doesn't always mean good taste, does it? And I say that as a fan of pop music. Value is also an odd thing to quantify, since whether or not these represent value for you will hone in on possibly three things. Firstly, do you want the best ANC for your iPhone? Because here, AirPods Pro 3 are doubtless the best noise-cancelling earbuds on the market – Apple said they're twice as good as AirPods Pro 2, and I can vouch for that claim.

Secondly, do you value the extra battery life offered here over the Pro 2 – even though it's far from the the best on the wider market. For reference, the Technics EAH-AZ100 (which we called "good rather than great for battery") can offer up to 12 hours from the buds on a single charge with no ANC deployed, while AirPods Pro 3 can only manage a maximum of 10 hours before needing to be charged.

And thirdly, how much do you want your earbuds to take your heart-rate and use that reading within workouts (yes, even vocally, thanks to Apple Intelligence's virtual buddies)?

It's worth noting that I think AirPods Pro 3 are also the best earbuds for small ears Apple has made, because of the newer fit – and I found myself loving the Live Translation feature at home (although it's not exclusive to the Pro 3), since my other half speaks Spanish.

So, I'll leave all of that with you. For me personally though (and putting my minor queries with the case and software support to one side) there's great value here.

• Value: 4.5 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Apple AirPods Pro 3?

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

Heart-rate monitoring and Live Translation add to an extensive suite of perks for newer iPhone owners

5/5

Sound quality

Zealous, powerful and immersive audio backed by excellent ANC

4.5/5

Design

The tweaked shape and repositioned neck on the driver housing is a huge hit

4.5/5

Value

Simply the best iPhone earbuds for ANC on the market – if not the longest-lasting

4.5/5

Buy them if…

You work out (or you care about heart health)
If you don't have a subscription already, Apple will prompt you to try out Fitness+ for free, but even if you stick with free workouts – or you just like asking Siri "what's my heart-rate" – it becomes a very useful tool, very quickly

You want bubble-of-silence ANC from your iPhone
Simply put, no other buds do it quite like this if your source device is an iPhone

You have bilingual friends and family
Ha! We can all understand your French, Spanish, German or Portuguese conversations now… 

Don’t buy them if…

You own an Android
It may go without saying, but for this money (and for the number of features that slip away for it) you'll be better served with a Bose, Technics or Bowers & Wilkins product.

You need long-haul flight stamina
The battery life isn't awful (and it is better than the AirPods Pro 2), but compared to rivals it can certainly be beaten – the Technics EAH-AZ100 last two hours longer on a single charge with no ANC, for instance.

You want Lossless audio support, LDAC or aptX
No dice here, friend. If you need Apple Music's Lossless support from an iPhone, AirPods Max do it (using the USB-C wire), but if you want aptX or Sony's higher-resolution Bluetooth audio codec (LDAC), look to the Cambridge Audio Melomania A100.

Apple AirPods Pro 3 review: Also consider

Apple AirPods Pro 3

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)

Technics EAH-AZ100

Cambridge Audio Melomania A100

Drivers

'Custom high-excursion' Apple driver with new multiport acoustic architecture

10mm

10mm free-edge dynamic

10mm Neodymium dynamic

Active noise cancellation

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Battery life

8 hours (buds, ANC on; 10 hours with ANC off); 6.5 hours (buds, heart rate sensor on); 24 hours (case)

6 hours (earbuds, ANC off; 4 hours with it on) case not specified

12 hours (earbuds, ANC off); 17 hours (charging case)

11 hours per charge; up to 39 hours with the case

Weight

5.6g per bud

7.7g per bud

5.9g per bud

4.7g per earbud

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth 5.3 with aptX Lossless / Adaptive

Bluetooth 5.3 with LDAC and LC3 compatibility

5.4 with LDAC and aptX Lossless

Waterproofing

IP57 case and earbuds

IPX4 earbuds only

IPX4 earbuds only

IPX5 earbuds only

Technics EAH-AZ100
An option with slightly better stamina that also offers excellent sound quality and decent noise cancellation – plus LDAC higher-resolution Bluetooth support if you've got a Sony device. Here, you even get multi-point to three brand-agnostic devices (rather than the standard two) and the classy finish makes them nothing short of a joy to own – even though they won't take your heart-rate. Get the full picture in our Technics EAH-AZ100 review.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)
They've got excellent streaming-service agnostic immersive audio profiles, wonderful ANC for Android phones as well as iPhones and a colorful look. Some may find the buds a touch big and there are no guided hearing tests, but if it's the best ANC and an Android phone companion you seek, you've found the best there is. See our full Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) review for more.View Deal

Cambridge Audio Melomania A100
Cambridge Audio also offers a premium listen in its latest earbuds with good ANC. No heart-rate monitoring or Live Translation, of course, but if it's an integrated hi-fi listen you seek, add them to your list – and they'll last longer than the Bose option. Read more in our Cambridge Audio Melomania A100 review.

How I tested the Apple AirPods Pro 3

• Tested for three weeks
• Tested walking along Seaham beach, on a packed Eurostar train and at home

I used AirPods Pro 3 for three weeks while compiling this review, and my testing involved listening to podcasts and music, as well as watching streamed movies from various devices and streaming platforms – including Android and Apple sources.

I listened at home, during several sea-glass hunting walks in County Durham and on a busy train to Paris – and let me tell you, with these as both a musical companion and live translation tool, they eased my journey no end.

I've been testing audio products full-time since 2019, firstly over at our sister publication What Hi-Fi? as a staff writer (locked in our hi-fi testing facility for two years, I was), then as senior writer at TechRadar – and, since early 2024, audio editor.

My background as a professional dancer meant I was very interested in what AirPods Pro 3 made of my heart-rate and overall fitness (still got it, friends) and my seemingly insatiable need to move to music is what drives me to search for faithful timing, precision, clarity and good old fashioned fun in recorded audio.

• First reviewed October 2025.

• Read TechRadar's review guarantee
• Learn more specifically about how we test earbuds at TechRadar

Apple's AirPods Pro 3 will be a hit regardless of what I say, but nevertheless, this review is reassuringly glowingin all but one or two areas

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