AirPods Pro 3 on track for better noise cancelation — but there’s some bad news, too

We're still a few weeks out from Apple's September event where we're expecting our first official looks at products like the iPhone 16 , iPhone 16 Pro and Apple Watch 10 . But that hasn't stopped the rumor mill from churning out a few nuggets on the rumored AirPods Pro 3 whether or not they're joining those other devices at next month's event.

The latest of these rumors comes from X user Kosutami , a known leaker of Apple information, who claims that there's going to be a big improvement to the wireless earbuds' active noise-cancelation technology.

If you remember, the AirPods Pro 2 offered a 2x improvement in noise cancelation compared to the original AirPods Pro , and now the wireless earbuds seem poised to make a similar leap in its third iteration. (Though, technically, it could be considered the fourth if you count the AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C redesign from last year.) i

Too bad the timing is still up in the air

So here's the bad news: There's no guarantee we'll see the AirPods Pro 3 at the Apple event on September 9. In fact, the main source for all Apple leaks — Bloomberg's Mark Gurman — says that they're not due out until 2025 at the earliest .

Unfortunately, I'm inclined to agree with Gurman on this one. We just got the USB-C revamp of the earbuds last year, and that only happened because of the European Union law that's forcing Apple to adopt USB-C as the universal charging port, effectively barring the sale of the product if it didn't comply by the end of 2024.

To that point, there's no real impetus on Apple to release the AirPods Pro 3. Instead, the company is likely focusing on the AirPods 4 and/or AirPods Max 2 . Both current generations of these models still use the older Lightning connector for charging.

Another supporting piece of evidence for my theory is that we're getting a pretty big price drop on the AirPods Max , with the over-ear headphones hitting a new record-low price of $399 as one of the best Labor Day sales . I'm no fortune teller, but it seems to me like Apple is trying to get its retailers to clear out the old stock before a new model makes its way onto store shelves sometime next month.

For now all we can do is wait and see what Apple has in store for us. However, that's not going to stop us from keeping an ear out for all the new rumors as we approach September 9.

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