Apple has just launched the Airpods Pro 3 among the many other ads in its last event (catch up with everything Apple announced in its iPhone 17 event here) and as is the case, some interesting tibits No mentioned in live broadcast.
One of them is that my current favorite feature of the current Airpods Pro 2 has had an update on Airpods Pro 3: the precision location monitoring that allows its iPhone to literally indicate its airpods using an arrow on the screen, with a distance listed, if you do not know where they are.
Just a few days ago, I wrote about the characteristics of Airpods Pro 3 that would persuade me to update my trusted headphones Pro 2, and one of them was this exact characteristic.
Point the way, Apple
Apple did not bring this at all in the virtual stage, but the technological specifications for the Airpods Pro 3 on its website confirm that the new model has Apple U2 chip for the wide wide band connectivity, and promises an increase of 1.5x in the maximum distance between its lost headphones and its phone in which this technology can work.
That is great, because my only complaint about monitoring the UWB location in the Airpods Pro 2 is that its distance falls short. If I am in the front of my house, you cannot find the airpods using this system until it walks to the back of the house, and I do not have a large house.
This does not eat much time, but I hope this means that I receive a strong and pleasant signal instantly, so it is even easier to grab them from the pocket of the jacket that has left them.
However, there is a trap: the U2 chip has been on iPhones since the iPhone 15, but Apple says that “the improved precision finding requires iPhone 17”, which is disappointing.
I hope Apple is being conservative here, and everyone gets an update, even if iPhone 17 users get the best and biggest update.
I will try it scientifically (well, in my house, hiding both headphones in the same place) once I can have a couple of new headphones in my hands. That should be on September 19: Airpods Pro 3 is available for pre-the-date today from Apple, for $ 249 / £ 219 / AU $ 429.
