New, Higher End AirPods Pro Coming This Year

Apple is readying to debut a high-end secondary mentation of AirPods Pro 3 this year, sitting successful the lineup alongside the existent model, reports suggest.


Back successful September 2025, proviso concatenation expert Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is readying to present a successor to the ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ successful 2026. This would beryllium somewhat antithetic since Apple usually waits astir 3 years to marque large changes to the AirPods' hardware. AirPods Pro 2 debuted astatine the iPhone 14 lawsuit successful September 2022, and they were updated with a USB-C charging lawsuit and a fewer different tweaks successful September 2023. Otherwise, Apple has waited astir 3 years to update each of its AirPods models.

Kuo said that the 2026 AirPods Pro volition diagnostic a "more significant" hardware upgrade successful the signifier astatine slightest 1 tiny infrared camera. He antecedently said AirPods with infrared cameras could admit manus gestures and supply an enhanced spatial audio experience with Apple's Vision Pro headset.

The Chinese leaker known arsenic "Instant Digital" subsequently corroborated the rumor with immoderate further details and clarifications. Rather than being a caller generation, the 2026 AirPods Pro volition seemingly beryllium a pricier, high-end variant of the ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ introduced successful 2025, suggesting that some models volition yet beryllium connected merchantability alongside each other. It is worthy noting that Apple offers 2 mentation of the AirPods 4 astatine $129 and $179 terms points, truthful this is simply a highly plausible move.

The existent AirPods lineup has offerings priced astatine $129, $179, $249, and $549. An further merchandise betwixt the $249 ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ and $549 AirPods Max seems possible, particularly fixed the emergence of higher extremity Bluetooth earbuds from the likes of Bang Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins, and Bose.

As Kuo archetypal said, Instant Digital likewise believes that the cardinal differentiator volition beryllium an infrared camera for motion controls. In fact, Apple whitethorn region the high-end model's pressure-sensors and spell all-in connected motion controls.

The H3 spot is besides a possibility. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the next-generation audio spot is in development. The ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ launched past twelvemonth stuck with the aforesaid H2 spot from their predecessor released successful 2022.

Launch timing is presently unclear, but Apple typically announces caller AirPods successful the 2nd fractional of the year. The archetypal AirPods, AirPods Pro 2 and their consequent USB-C revision, ‌AirPods 4‌, and ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ were each announced astatine Apple's yearly ‌iPhone‌ lawsuit successful September.
This article, "New, Higher End AirPods Pro Coming This Year" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

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