Apple has just launched the AirPods Pro 3 among the many other announcements at its latest event (catch up with everything Apple announced at its iPhone 17 event here) and as is often the case, some interesting tidbits weren’t mentioned in the live stream.
One of them is that my secret favorite feature of the current AirPods Pro 2 has had an upgrade in AirPods Pro 3: the precision location tracking that enables your iPhone to literally point you to your AirPods using an arrow on the screen, with distance listed, if you don’t know where they are.
Only a few days ago, I wrote about the AirPods Pro 3 features that would persuade me to upgrade from my trusty Pro 2 earbuds, and one of them was this exact feature.
Point the way, Apple
Apple didn’t bring this up at all on the virtual stage, but the tech specs for the AirPods Pro 3 on its website confirm that the new model has Apple’s U2 chip for ultra wideband connectivity, and promises a 1.5x increase in the maximum distance between your lost earbuds and your phone that this tech can work at.
That’s great, because my only complaint about the UWB location tracking on the AirPods Pro 2 is that its distance falls short. If I’m at the front of my house, it can’t find the AirPods using this system until I walk to the back of the house – and I don’t have a big house.
This doesn’t eat up much time, but hopefully this will mean I get a nice strong signal instantly every time, so it’s even easier to grab them from whichever jacket pocket I’ve left them in.
However, there’s a catch: the U2 chip has been on iPhones since the iPhone 15, but Apple says that “Improved Precision Finding requires iPhone 17” which is disappointing.
I’m hoping that Apple’s being conservative here, and everyone will get an upgrade, even if iPhone 17 users get the biggest and best upgrade.
I’ll test that scientifically (well, in my home, by hiding both earbuds in the same place) once I can get my hands on a pair of the new earbuds. That should be on September 19th – AirPods Pro 3 are available to pre-order today from Apple, for $249 / £219 / AU$429.
