We already knew for several months that Apple is preparing to launch a new generation of AirPods, but now we have the first concrete details about price and design. It seems that there will be no major visual differences between the new model, which could be called either AirPods 3, or AirPods Pro Lite, or maybe just AirPods and the current AirPods Pro. But the price will be lower.
AirPods 3 adopts the in-ear design on the Pro
According to Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is preparing the third generation of AirPods for the beginning of next year. It’s probably a launch in March, as we saw last year. The new headphones may be almost visually identical to the AirPods Pro, but will have a missing feature: ANC.
Even though they are considered some of the best headphones with background noise cancellation, Apple believes that there are enough customers who would be willing to save 20% of the price to give up this feature. Thus, AirPods 3 could come at a price of $ 199, replacing the current AirPods 2 headphones with wireless charging case.
This suggests that it could remain at an entry price of $ 169, as there were from the beginning the AirPods 2 headphones with wireless case, followed by AirPods 3 without ANC at $ 199, and the AirPods Pro model at $ 249 with all integrated functions remain in position.
In addition to a new, in-ear design, the AirPods 3 could come with a significant upgrade over the AirPods 2: better battery life. AirPods 2 has already improved playback time over the first generation of AirPods headphones, and AirPods 3 should come with another upgrade. But we should not expect “miracles”, as the space for components is quite small. The increased autonomy will probably be due to the lack of certain internal components and more efficient Bluetooth and sound processing chips.
