After two years of being on the market, the Apple AirPods 4 have been dethroned by the next higher number. This week, Apple announced a series of refreshes to its product line. The all-new iPhone Duo—Apple’s response to Samsung’s lineup of foldable smartphones—certainly stole the show and coverage of it has been dominating everyone’s social media feeds. However, don’t let Apple’s first foldable iPhone cast too large of a shadow on the brand new Apple AirPods 5.
The Apple AirPods 5 are now available for preorders at every major retailer including Amazon. These are priced starting at $129 which is the same value the AirPods 4 launched at in 2024. Apple also has an all-new wireless charging case available as an option to the standard AirPods 5 which you can purchase with the earbuds. This set is priced at $149, valuing the charging case at $30.
Improvements to the AirPods 5
On the surface, you’d be hard pressed to be able to tell the AirPods 5 from the AirPods 4 off of visuals alone. The new earbuds from Apple share the same form factor as their predecessor, built with a shorter stem than the earlier generation AirPods for better weight distribution and and overall sleeker appearance. You can still pause, play, or skip a track using touch controls on the side of the AirPods. Newly added is volume adjustment via touch. You can now swipe up or down on the stem to quickly increase or decrease the volume of what you’re listening to.
The improvements really come along under the hood. Sound quality has been completely re-engineered as the AirPods 5 now utilize an new multiport acoustic architecture and next-generation Adaptive EQ that is similar to what’s found on the previous AirPods Pro models. This allows for richer and more detailed audio, supporting a wide range or ear geometries. That also enhances Personalized Spatial Audio—Apple’s sound features which places the listener in the center of a virtual sound space—making it more dynamic and immersive.
Active Noise Cancellation gets a boost. In fact, there is no longer a no-ANC model within the new lineup. The version of the feature implemented here is 50% more effective at removing unwanted background noises than the ANC-enabled AirPods 4, according to Apple. Beyond active noise cancellation, the AirPods 5 support transparency mode to allows outside sounds to filter in as well as Adaptive Audio which dynamically blends that mode with ANC. Additionally, Conversation Awareness is supported. This features automatically reduces the user’s media volume when they start speaking so they can more easily talk with people around them.
Battery life also sees an improvement. The AirPods 5 can last for up to five hours with ANC enabled on a single charge, which is one hour longer than the AirPods 4 could support. This totals out at 22 hours when adding in the extra charge you get from the charging case. If you opt for the wireless charging case, it can be used with Apple Watch chargers as well as an Qi-compatible wireless charger along with USB-C, while the standard case charges exclusively over USB-C.
Both the Apple AirPods 5 with the standard charging case and with the wireless charging case are available for preorder now with shipments expected to go out September 18.
