There’s not much to say about the new AirPods 5 that were announced alongside the iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pros, and Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 at Apple’s big “Surprise and Shine” event yesterday.
After the keynote, I had a few minutes to listen to the new wireless earbuds, and they sounded pretty solid. I’ve used the AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation (ANC) before and AirPods 5 look and feel exactly the same.
There are two versions of the AirPods 5, both with ANC. Previously, AirPods 4 came with and without ANC. $129 now gets you AirPods 5 without a wireless charging case and $149 with one. The latter is $30 less than the AirPods 4 with ANC model, which also came with a wireless charging case. At a time when prices for gadgets, like last year’s iPhones, keep increasing, this is a hell of a value. In addition to the obvious wireless charging (works with any Qi charger or Apple Watch puck) the higher-end model also comes with a built-in speaker for Find My in case you misplace them. You don’t get Precision Finding, though, since there’s no Ultra Wideband support.
But that’s not the only difference. AirPods 5 with the wireless charging case also has 5 hours of battery life with ANC turned on, one more hour than the base model. The wireless charging case model also has swipe controls for adjusting volume on the earbuds’ stems.
Apple touts 1.5x better ANC on both AirPods 5 models compared to AirPods 4 with ANC. Sitting in a room, with HomePods in each corner pumping out simulated airplane engines, the AirPods 5 did a good job silencing the background noise, but not entirely. I wasn’t able to do a side-by-side comparison between AirPods 5 and AirPods 4 with ANC so I can’t say in more detail how much of an improvement the ANC really is. But they did seem to work pretty well for wireless earbuds without in-ear tips. If you’re not into in-ear tips because of comfort, you’ll appreciate the improved ANC on the AirPods 5. For the best ANC that Apple offers in a pair of wireless earbuds, the AirPods Pro 3 still take the crown.
Sound-wise, AirPods 5 seemed to have more low-end bass with less distortion than I recall on AirPods 4. Apple says that’s correct, and AirPods 5 also have more pronounced mid frequencies, which should make vocals more punctuated. I’ll need more than a handful of songs listened on Apple Music to determine the difference in audio fidelity.
There’s also other good news: all AirPods 4 cases will work with both AirPods 5 models, so if you already have a favorite accessory, you don’t need to run out and buy a new one.
We’ll have a proper review of the AirPods 5 with wireless charging case soon. Stay tuned.
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