Apple AirPods 5 Review: A Better Upgrade Than I Expected - CNET

The AirPods 5 start at $129. / David Carnoy/CNET

When I first saw reports that Apple was going to release the AirPods 5 alongside its new iPhones this year, I rightly guessed that their design would remain the same, but their performance would be upgraded. But what I didn’t anticipate was that Apple would add noise cancellation to the $129 entry-level model while also lowering the price of the step-up model — which includes wireless charging and other extras — from $179 to $149. It’s a bit of a shock, considering Apple raised prices on the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.

On the surface, the changes to the AirPods 5 may not seem that substantial, particularly since they look identical to the AirPods 4. But the earbuds’ sound and noise cancellation are noticeably improved, to the point where you don’t feel like these “standard” AirPods are much of a step down from the AirPods Pro 3, which have a noise-isolating design with silicone eartips. While I’d personally opt for the step-up AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case for $20 more, both versions are better values than their predecessors, and both have earned CNET Editors’ Choice Awards.

Read more: Best Wireless Earbuds of 2026

Most of you are probably aware that the standard AirPods are open earbuds designed for people who don’t like having eartips jammed in their ears. The size of the bud has changed over the years, and some people who got a perfect fit with the original AirPods and AirPods 2, which were smaller, didn’t do well with the AirPods 3 and AirPods 4.

Personally, I couldn’t get the early AirPods to stay in my ears securely, but I’ve managed to get a pretty secure fit with the 4s and 5s by wedging them into my ears in a certain position. That said, my only reservation is that I don’t fully trust the earbuds to stay in my ears as securely as the AirPods Pro 3. For running, I’d go with one of the many open earbuds with ear hooks or a pair of clip-on open earbuds.

While I can’t guarantee they’ll fit everyone equally well, they’re quite comfortable if you can get a secure fit. Many people may find them more comfortable than the AirPods Pro 3. There’s something nice about having the earbuds nestled in your ears with a little room to breathe, rather than having ear tips seal off your ear canals, which can sometimes cause irritation after prolonged use.

The water resistance of both the earbuds and the charging case has been improved, making them more durable. Their rating has increased from IP54 to IP57, meaning they can withstand brief immersion in water. (In my companion review video, you can watch me dunk an earbud in a glass of water.) I wouldn’t advise swimming or showering while wearing them, though.

While the two versions of the buds look the same, the step-up model’s charging case is equipped with a little speaker, so the case makes a sound when you’re trying to locate it using Apple’s Find My feature. (Neither AirPods 5 versions support the more advanced Precision Finding you get with the AirPods Pro 3, which have Apple’s U2 chip in their case.)

While both models have pinch controls on their stems to control playback, only the step-up model has on-stem swipe controls for volume adjustment. The AirPods Pro 3’s swipe controls seemed slightly more responsive, but with a little practice, the swipe volume controls worked pretty well for me.

I harbored some hope that the AirPods 5 might be the first AirPods with Apple’s rumored next-gen H3 chip, but that didn’t happen. Like the AirPods 4, Beats Powerbeats Pro 2, AirPods Pro 2 and Pro 3, they’re equipped with the H2 chip and Bluetooth 5.3.

The AirPods 5 have many of the same features as the AirPods Pro 3, including Adaptive Audio, Spatial Audio with head tracking, Live Translation and Conversation Awareness. That last feature automatically lowers your music’s volume and switches the earbuds from noise-canceling mode to transparency mode when you start talking, allowing you to have a conversation without removing them.

One omission is Apple’s Hearing Aid feature, which is only found on the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3. Also, the AirPods 5 don’t have heart-rate monitoring like the AirPods Pro 3 and Powerbeats Pro 2.

Like the AirPods Pro 3, these have always-on Siri, as well as Siri Interactions, which allows you to nod or gently shake your head to accept or ignore incoming calls and listen to or dismiss notifications Siri sends your way.

The AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation were something of a technological marvel. ANC is a rare feature for open earbuds because it typically doesn’t work with an open design. As I said in my review, while the AirPods 4’s ANC isn’t as good as the AirPods Pro 3 and other top noise-canceling earbuds from Bose and Sony, the fact that it works at all and is reasonably effective is wild.

Now, with the AirPods 5, Apple says it’s 50% more effective. Also, the transparency mode sounds slightly more natural. You might not think open earbuds need a transparency mode, but they partially cover your ear canals, so turning it on helps you hear your surroundings almost as if you weren’t wearing earbuds.

I tried the AirPods 5 on a cross-country flight, on the streets of New York and underground on the subway. Once again, I was impressed by how effective the noise cancellation was, given the earbuds’ open design. It also seems stronger than the AirPods 4’s noise cancellation, muffling midrange and higher-frequency sounds — including people’s voices — a little more effectively.

To be clear, the AirPods Pro 3’s noise cancellation is significantly better, which is partially due to how the eartips passively seal out a lot of ambient noise. But the AirPods 5 easily have the best noise-canceling capabilities of any open earbuds I’ve tested to date, and it’s really nice to have the feature on board. As I said in my review of the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, it’s a game-changer for open earbuds, which typically let a lot of ambient sound in. While the AirPods 5’s ANC didn’t muffle subway noise as well as the AirPods Pro 3’s ANC, it reduced it enough to allow me to hear my music a lot better. When I turned up the volume, I really couldn’t hear much ambient sound at all.

As noted, the step-up model with wireless charging offers longer battery life — not because its battery is larger, but because it uses more advanced battery chemistry. It’s rated for up to five hours with noise cancellation on and seven hours with it off, while the charging case provides a little more than three additional charges. The entry-level model has the same battery and battery life as the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation: up to four hours with ANC on and six hours with it off.

Those battery life numbers aren’t great compared to what you get with the AirPods Pro 3 and a lot of other earbuds out there. I suspect that’s because using noise cancellation and pumping out high-quality sound with enough volume in an open earbuds design requires more energy. But the earbuds charge quickly: Five minutes in the case provides an hour of battery life.

The AirPods 4 delivered a noticeable improvement in sound over the AirPods 3, and the AirPods 5 offer a similar upgrade over the AirPods 4. Apple has brought over some of the acoustic architecture enhancements it made to AirPods Pro 3, which have helped to improve the bass performance and clarity of these buds. It’s not a massive difference, but definitely noticeable, as everything sounds more refined. While the bass just doesn’t have the same kick and girth as the AirPods Pro 3’s bass, it’s punchy and well-defined. Also, the buds sound cleaner and more accurate overall, with slightly better detail and separation between instruments (you can hear them more distinctly). Finally, as you might expect from open earbuds, the sound is open and airy, with a fairly wide soundstage — even with spatial audio turned off.

With noise cancellation on, some external sound still reaches your ears in noisy environments, which can slightly affect sound quality. But in quieter settings, the earbuds sound impressive and rank among the best-sounding open earbuds. Compared with a good pair of noise-isolating earbuds, they don’t leave you feeling as though you’re sacrificing much, which is an achievement.

With iOS 27, Apple has added a three-band equalizer to the settings for those who want to tweak the sound a bit. It’s pretty basic and only changes the sound profile a little, but it’s worth playing around with to see if you can dial the sound in more to your liking.

As for voice calling, the AirPods 5 deliver strong performance, with excellent noise reduction. Callers told me they heard almost no background noise and my voice sounded clear, though not always completely natural. Callers heard a bit of wind noise, but it was fairly faint. Overall, I’d give the AirPods 5 an A for voice-calling performance. In noisy environments, however, I prefer the AirPods Pro 3 because their sealed design makes callers easier to hear over ambient noise.

Check out my companion video review of the AirPods 5 to hear a test recording made on the noisy streets of New York, demonstrating the voice clarity and noise reduction you can expect during a call.

While the AirPods 5 are pretty much what I expected, I was surprised by how good they sounded for open earbuds and appreciated that the noise cancellation has improved. While the performance improvements aren’t massive, they’re noticeable, and they help close the performance gap between Apple’s standard AirPods and the AirPods Pro, which are still the better choice for those who want Apple’s best sound quality and noise cancellation in an earbud.

With the entry-level model now equipped with noise cancellation — and the step-up model costing $149 instead of $179 — the AirPods 5’s value proposition has also improved. $149 is still not cheap (nor is $129), but when we start seeing discounts around the holiday buying season, the AirPods 5 will likely be more affordable, with the entry-level model likely dipping to less than $100. That makes the AirPods 5 easy to recommend to Apple users who don’t like having ear tips jammed in their ears or don’t want to spend extra on the AirPods Pro 3. In fact, if the AirPods 5 fit my ears more securely, I might consider giving up my AirPods Pro 3 for them — they’re more comfortable.