Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 launched a few months ago with better battery life, redesigned earbuds to improve sound, and heart rate sensors for the first time in the lineup’s history. However, two of the most important practical advancements with the new earbuds are their IP57 water resistance rating and improved Find My features. If you’ve ever forgotten to put your AirPods back in their case, you might just get a lot of mileage out of both of these new features.
With these improvements, you can have more peace of mind in several situations. Now, it’s not an automatic death sentence if your earbuds go through the laundry or take a dip in the pool. And if you happen to leave them behind, it’s easier than ever to zero in on them with Precision Finding. As easy as it might be to overlook these upgrades when scanning a spec sheet, they’re hard to miss once you start using the AirPods Pro 3 in the real world.
This is how AirPods Pro 3 improve over the previous model
With the AirPods Pro 2, Apple added an ultra-wideband (UWB) chip for the first time, which allows users to locate the charging case with Precision Finding in the Find My app. In addition to this, the company improved on the original model by going from IPX4 to IP54, making it resistant to dust and splashes.
However, the AirPods Pro 3 picked up Apple’s second-generation ultra-wideband chip, extending the range 1.5 times further than the previous model. And the last model’s IP54 certification was upgraded to IP57, which theoretically means these AirPods will work even if they were submerged in a few feet of water for up to 30 minutes. Still, what makes IP57 so good on this product is that Apple is not only talking about the charging case or the earbuds — everything has the same IP57 certification.
Perhaps even more importantly, these features can converge to drastically improve your real-world experience with the AirPods Pro 3. Let’s say you open your charging case and find the earbuds are missing. Then it hits you: They were probably left in the running shorts you tossed into the laundry earlier that day. So you check the Find My app to see if they turn up nearby, and sure enough, the improved Precision Finding leads you straight to the washing machine. Except you don’t need to contact Apple Support because that IP57 water resistance helped both earbuds and the charging case make it through the wash unscathed.
Of course, an IP57 rating doesn’t guarantee that the earbuds are laundry-proof. But we had firsthand experience with the exact scenario described above and came away thoroughly impressed by how well the AirPods Pro 3 handled it.
There’s more to love about the AirPods Pro 3
While improved Find My functionality and IP57 water resistance are nice to have, they’re not the only things to love about the AirPods Pro 3. The Live Translation feature is one of the top reasons to upgrade to iOS 26.2, and it works like something out of a sci-fi movie when paired with Apple’s latest premium earbuds. Translation happens almost in real time, and the other person can follow what you’re saying in their language on your iPhone’s screen.
During runs, the AirPods Pro 3 record reliable heart rate data, which can be analyzed by Apple Fitness or third-party apps to get insight on your workouts. Add that to improved Active Noise Cancellation and sound quality that have thoroughly impressed in our testing, and it’s clear that the AirPods Pro 3 are an important update over the previous generation — and not just for people who lose their earbuds or run them through the washing machine.
