Third-Gen AirPods Offer Only 5 Hours' Listening Time With Spatial Audio Enabled
Apple on Monday announced third-generation AirPods, featuring an updated design, improved sound quality, and an extra hour of battery life compared to the second-generation AirPods, which offer five hours of listening time. However, what Apple didn't make very explicit in its marketing is that to get six hours out of its latest earphones, spatial audio must be disabled.
As noted in Apple's fine print, if spatial audio is enabled, users can expect up to five hours of battery. That's the same amount of listening time offered by the second-generation AirPods, which don't support spatial audio, but still half an hour longer than the AirPods Pro. That said, AirPods Pro can also be pushed to five hours of listening time by turning off Active Noise Cancelation and Transparency mode.
The new AirPods, as rumored, feature a design similar to the AirPods Pro but without silicone eartips or Active Noise Cancelation. The new AirPods also include Adaptive EQ, which adjusts frequencies in real-time based on what a user is listening to deliver even improved sound quality.
According to Apple's specifications page for the new AirPods, the third-generation AirPods do not support the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and the iPhone 5s, because they require iOS 13 to work. They also drop support for the iPad mini 2 and iPad mini 3 alongside the sixth-generation iPod touch.
The new third-generation AirPods are being offered alongside the second-generation AirPods, as well as the higher-end AirPods Pro. The new AirPods are available for pre-order now and will begin shipping next week.
(Thanks, Anton!)
Popular Stories
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series in the fall, and a possible September 10 announcement date has been floated this year, which means we are just one month away from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design...
Apple's M3 MacBook Pro is seeing multiple high value discounts on Best Buy and Amazon today, with up to $1,000 off select models. This includes a new all-time low price on the entry-level M3 512GB 14-inch MacBook Pro at $1,299.00, down from $1,599.00, and a massive $1,000 discount on the high-end 16-inch model exclusively for Best Buy members. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best...
Multiple rumors have suggested that the iPhone 16 models are going to have an all-new button that's designed to make it easier to capture photos when the devices are held in landscape mode. Apple calls the button the Capture Button internally, and it is going to be one of the most advanced buttons that's been introduced to date with support for multiple gestures and the ability to respond to ...
Apple is beta testing iOS 18 and the first update to iOS 18 concurrently, and we got the second betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 today alongside the sixth betas of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia 15. Many of the changes in iOS 18.1 are focused on bringing the .1 betas in line with the standard betas, which recently received updates to Photos and Safari, while...
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we sometimes get rumored feature leaks so far ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different – already we have some idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you plan to skip...
Apple's rumored iPhone 17 "Slim" could be positioned as an iPhone "Air" to boost sales, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman explained how the "fourth" model in the iPhone lineup since 2020 (the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 14 Plus, and iPhone 15 Plus) has largely been a commercial failure. In the case of the Plus model,...
