The AirPods Pro 3 aren’t even a year old yet, but rumors have already begun to swirl about their successors — the purported AirPods Ultra.
According to early reports from prominent analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the next-gen true wireless earbuds from Apple would sport an IR camera that syncs with Apple Intelligence to “see around you.”
Apple has been ultra-secretive (when isn’t it?) around the upcoming earbuds, but I’ve rounded up everything there is to know about the AirPods Pro 4, a.k.a. the AirPods Ultra.
How are they different from the AirPods Pro 3?
While the AirPods Pro 3 are some of the smartest wireless earbuds we’ve seen from Apple thanks to their in-ear heart rate monitoring sensors and real-time translation feature, they don’t use any sort of artificial intelligence.
That AI integration is what will set the AirPods Ultra apart: The AirPods Ultra will work by “feed[ing] visual intelligence data to Siri," says Gurman.
That visual intelligence will enable in-air gesture controls and better integration with the Apple Vision Pro.
That visual intelligence will enable in-air gesture controls and, very likely, better integration with the Apple Vision Pro, according to Kuo.
As for design changes to the drivers or microphones of the earbuds, we’ve yet to hear anything concrete, but it seems likely that Apple will tweak them for better performance as it has in each of the previous generations.
So how soon will the AirPods Ultra come out?
Launch timing and price are still two big question marks.
Over on X, occasional Apple leaker @Kosutami_Ito says that pricing will stay the same for the new Ultra model, while Gurman and Ming-Chi Kuo think they could fetch a higher price. That price could be as high as $349 but $299 seems more likely.
Potential release date details are even murkier — so far, it's anyone's guess. Traditionally Apple has made AirPods announcements at its September hardware event. We’re still several months away from that at this point, so it is plausible that we'll see them in September.
That being said, we’ve still waiting on new AirPods Max 2 headphones, despite many rumors that pointed to a 2025 launch date.
We’ll be sure to keep our eyes — and ears — open for more Ultra rumors in the meantime, however, and will report back once we hear more information.
