The AirPods Pro 3 could land sooner than expected

Anyone who’s followed Apple launches for a few years knows the schedule by now: new iPhones in September, new MacBooks in the spring, and new AirPods in September or October. But 2025 could throw us a curveball.

Apple is rumoured to launch the AirPods Pro 3 in “early 2025”, according to noted Apple analyst Mark Gurman. The original AirPods Pro launched in October 2019, while the AirPods Pro 2 arrived in the Septembers of 2022 (for the Lightning model) and 2023 (for the updated USB-C version). Early 2025 would be a break with tradition.

It is just a rumour for now, albeit one being spread by one of the few authorities on everything Apple. Gurman also says the AirPods Pro 3 could sport an updated design, though he doesn’t elaborate on how they might differ from the AirPods Pro 2.

In September, Apple introduced the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. They feature some subtle design changes over the AirPods 3, while the ANC model is the first in-ear pair to offer active noise cancellation without eartips. We were impressed by its performance, awarding the ‘buds four stars in our review.

The flagship AirPods Pro 2 picked up the full five stars, however, and has been updated with new ANC and health features recently. We’re excited to see what Apple can offer from a sequel.

We’ll bring you more rumours and leaks as they arrive.

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Joe has been writing about tech for 17 years, first on staff at T3 magazine, then in a freelance capacity for Stuff, The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, Men’s Health, GQ, The Mirror, Trusted Reviews, TechRadar and many more (including What Hi-Fi?). His specialities include all things mobile, headphones and speakers that he can’t justifying spending money on.