Apple AirPods 5 Review: The Best AirPods for Most People, Now With Superb Sound

There are two versions of the AirPods 5: the standard version for $129 and the AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case for $149, reviewed here. The latter includes a wireless charging case, adds slightly more battery life, and has on-stem volume controls. Those are the only differences.

You won't find anything new about the physical design of the AirPods 5, at least if you compare them with the AirPods 4. Apple said it intentionally uses the same design because its research (50 million data points from thousands of ears) shows the buds' size and shape work well for most people (and their ears). That means you get two smallish buds that fit tightly into a compact charging case—all made of glossy white plastic. If you ask me, Apple could have added a few color options to the mix. Yes, I know white is central to the AirPods' iconic look. Still, a choice would be nice.

Bud Fit and Controls: Your Mileage May Vary

AirPods use a stem-style design. The bud is about the size of a large bean, and the stem aims downward when you place it in your ear. Because of the open design, there is no silicone or foam tip; you don't insert these into your ear canal. Instead, you rest them in your earlobe. The fit is somewhat loose in my ears. I often found myself reaching up to reposition the right bud so it wouldn't fall out. I was sure to test the AirPods when walking and moving around. Despite shaking my head and jumping up and down, they never fully dislodged. They are lightweight and don't stress my ears even after wearing them for several hours. Your experience will depend on the size and shape of your ears.

Apple's AirPods Pro 3 ($249) use silicone tips that fit into your ear canal to create a seal against outside sound. This is critical for the Pro's superior active noise cancellation. Plus, the eartips help keep the buds in place more firmly.

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The controls are unchanged. One press on the stem plays/pauses media or answers/mutes a call. Two quick presses will end a call or skip forward a track, and three presses skip back a track. A longer press-and-hold alternates between listening modes. The standard AirPods 5 don't support volume controls, but the AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case do. This is a quality-of-life improvement you may or may not find worth the extra $20. You can change some of the actions here via the settings.

Tech Specs: Reshaping the Sound

Apple says it has completely redesigned the buds' interior to accommodate a new acoustic architecture and support its new adaptive EQ tuning. The company hasn't provided details about the driver, but notes that it can measure how sound travels to your ears, differentiate between the left and right buds, and adjust in real time based on acoustic feedback to optimize sound.

The buds connect to your Apple gear via Bluetooth 5.3. This spec isn't the latest; the latest is version 6.0. The buds support the AAC, AAC-ELD, and SBC codecs, but not more advanced options like aptX, LC3, or LDAC, which competing buds from Bose and Sony support. There's no lossless listening here. They don't support traditional multipoint connections, but can automatically bounce between other Apple devices like your iPad or Mac (as long as you're signed in via the same Apple ID). This is one of the AirPods' superpowers. We can thank the H2 chip for this, Apple's audio processing silicon.

Apple boosted the ingress protection rating to IP57, matching the AirPods Pro 3. This makes the AirPods 5 (and the charging case) mostly protected from dirt and waterproof enough to handle a quick dunk in shallow water. That's good news for everyone.

Charging Case: A Powerful Little Puck

My favorite aspect of the charging case is its size: It's absolutely tiny. It measures 1.82 by 1.97 by 0.83 inches (HWD) and weighs practically nothing at 1.22 ounces without the buds and 1.52 ounces with them. Its smooth river-rock shape means it easily slips into pockets, pouches, purses, and more.

The case for the basic AirPods 5 has a USB-C port on the bottom and a single small hole. The case for the AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case adds, as you might guess, wireless charging to the rear panel. You can charge it with any Qi charging puck, and even use the Apple Watch charger in a pinch. This case also adds three holes on the bottom for a speaker, which works with Find My to help you locate the buds via sound if needed. Speaking of Find My, you can use Apple's service to locate either set of AirPods, though the standard case can't make any sound. I found the location tracking to be accurate in testing.

If the AirPods 5 fall short anywhere, it's battery life. Apple says the standard model gets up to 4 hours with ANC on, and up to 20 hours total with the case. Apple doesn't say how long they last with ANC turned off. The AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case last a bit longer, at up to 5 hours with ANC on and a total of 22 hours with the case. Placing the buds in the case for 5 minutes will give you an hour of listening.

For comparison, the AirPods Pro 3 get 8 hours with ANC on and 24 hours with the case. The Google Pixel Buds 2a ($129) get 7 hours with ANC on and 27 total with the case. The Anker Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro ($169.99) lasts 6.5 hours with ANC on and 28 hours with the case.

For my money, I prefer earphones to at least last the length of a cross-country flight, which is often 6 hours between NYC and LA.

Apple doesn't make a standalone app to manage your AirPods; you handle everything in your Apple device's Settings menu. Thanks to system-level integration, you have far more control over the AirPods' behavior than with most competing models.

In terms of basic tweaks, you can change the name, manage the personalized volume and conversation awareness tools, set up head controls, and toggle Live Translation. Deeper in the menus, you can set up personalized Spatial Audio, manage the bud controls and camera remote, and more.

If you want to take control of the AirPods' sound, you have more options than ever. To start, Apple reworked its audio algorithms around the new buds' new internal design. You can opt to use the personalized Adaptive EQ, which customizes the sound based on the shape of your ear. As before, you can also use the Apple Music app to select from 22 EQ presets, like Pop, Dance, Rock, and so on. More importantly, for the first time, Apple has added a user-adjustable EQ to the AirPods' controls. It may only be three bands (rather than five or seven or 10), but that's just enough to create an EQ curve you like. After sampling the basic listening profile and comparing it to several presets and my own EQ, I found that my setting sounded best. But that's because I'm picky about sound. You can ignore this entirely if you want. The EQ feature is available to all AirPods, new or not.

One important thing to note here. The EQ presets in the Apple Music app only impact audio played through that app. The user-adjustable EQ is global and applies to audio from all apps.

It's important to remember that the AirPods 5 have an open design; they don't seal off your ear canal to passively block sound. Instead, they rely entirely on mics, the H2 chip, and algorithms to map out the surrounding noise and create an inverse wave to eliminate that noise before it reaches your eardrum. Apple is really good at this, but you shouldn't expect complete silence.

When they were released (Sept. 2024), I was legit shocked by how well the AirPods 4 With ANC blocked nearby noise. The AirPods 5 are significantly better. Apple says it's reducing external sound by up to 1.5x compared with the AirPods 4. I don't have any way to measure that, but when I A-B test the old AirPods against the new ones, the difference is palpable.

The AirPods 5 work best against low, consistent droning sounds. They do a fine job against things like airplane turbines, clattering bus engines, and low voice chatter in public spaces. The buds dial sounds like these down a level or two and make it easier to hear your music without cranking the volume. They don't eliminate it entirely, but have enough of an impact to matter. They aren't as effective in places like noisy coffee shops, with loud chatter, background music, and hissing espresso machines. Inconsistent sounds like horns or sirens mostly pass right through, though the ANC prevents these sounds from hurting your ears. The AirPods Pro 3, which have an in-ear silicone seal, are much better. Similarly, the Pixel Buds 2a and Anker Liberty 5 Pro, both of which have silicone seals, are a bit more effective at blocking sound.

Apple's transparency modes are unbeatable. When you have it active, your own voice sounds more natural than before, and you can hear almost everything around you without an audible background hiss. The Adaptive Audio tool helps the buds switch from noise cancellation to transparency mode when needed, and Conversation Awareness automatically lowers the audio when you start speaking (like when ordering a coffee). The AirPods switch between modes so seamlessly that you might not even notice.

The best news is that both versions of the AirPods 5 have the same level of ANC performance.

The Live Translation tool arrives via way of the AirPods Pro 3, which gained the feature a year ago. It relies on the AirPods' mics, ANC, H2 chip, and Apple Intelligence on your nearby iPhone to understand foreign languages you hear in real time. You have to download language packs in advance for them to work properly, and you have to trigger the feature by saying "Siri, start Live Translation." You can also launch it on your iPhone or by pinching the buds.

The buds listen to the language you've chosen, translate the phrases, and then replay them in your buds. The on-board ANC dampens the speaker's voice so you can focus on the translation in your ears rather than what they're saying out loud. You can choose to see a transcription of the conversation on your iPhone's screen, and even have your phone speak your translated responses if needed.

AirPods aren't the only buds to offer this feature. Google has brought it to some Pixel Buds models, and companies like Anker are adding it to budget-friendly offerings.

You've been able to access basic aspects of Siri through your AirPods for several years, but the AirPods 5 bring the new Siri AI directly to your ears. You can ask it to do a lot more than raise the volume or check the weather. As long as your iPhone has iOS 27 with the latest version of Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, you can search through messages or mail, ask longer, more complex queries, and respond with a nod and shake of your head.

I tested it by asking questions about guitar amplifiers, something I've been exploring for the last few months. It can search the web, generate long-form answers, and read them back to you while also showing the response on your phone. Critically, these queries are stored in the local Siri AI app that's on your phone for later reference.

You can go back and forth with Siri purely using your voice; no need to take your iPhone out of your pocket. It's a pretty cool way to access Siri's AI, and I can see it being most useful when using your hands isn't an option (like when driving or cooking).

Google's Pixel Buds have similar access to Gemini AI.

Apple develops its audio algorithms to work with all musical styles and to appeal to the broadest range of listeners. If you consider yourself an Average Jane or Joe, that means you. They produce a more balanced sound signature than, for example, Beats, which tunes more heavily toward bass.

Apple says the AirPods 5 represent a big step up in audio quality from the AirPods 4. If you're coming from the latter, you should hear deeper bass, cleaner vocals, and more room in the mix thanks to the internal changes to the audio design. I'd say this is true. I did some A-B testing between the 4s and the 5s, and the 5s are definitely the superior of the two. It's not a flat sound, but it's not an overly sculpted one either. Despite the available user-adjustable EQ, I tested the AirPods 5 in their default settings, with all EQ settings off. I also kept the Adaptive EQ feature turned off.

Our low-end test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," has an urgent bass line that anchors the track, and the AirPods 5 give it enough weight to carry the song forward. The airier soundstage elevates this track considerably, as it's loaded with additional voices and sounds that come and go from the left and right channels. High sounds from the cymbals have a sharper crash, and the droning vocals are just clear enough.

The AirPods 5 aren't quite capable of reproducing the deep bass line that runs through the 34-second mark of Kendrick Lamar's "Loyalty," but they approximate the tones well enough that you get a sense of them all the same. From there, the track flows forward thanks to the snare and crisp hits on the high-hat.

Bill Callahan's deep voice sounds natural throughout his song, "Drover." This driving track moves quickly with a pat-pat-pat on the drums and swinging strums of the guitar. Somehow, these all find balance in the mix, with none overpowering the others. It's a clean, plain sound that strikes the right note for the track's timbre.

The expanded soundstage really helps a track like the opening scene to John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary. This orchestral song mixes a wide range of instruments and comes through the AirPods with a pleasing blend that gives each voice just enough space to stand out.

After listening to these tracks in the buds' default tuning, I went back and re-listened with my own EQ settings. I was much happier the second go around, which means the buds are capable of more life than the base algorithm provides. I encourage you to experiment with this feature. The AirPods Pro 3 have a slightly more engaging default tuning to my ears, and also benefit from the newly added user EQ.

AirPods' mics have always been solid, and they are more capable than ever on the AirPods 5. For example, Apple notes that you can use the AirPods as an external microphone when capturing video or voice memos. Whether you use them to record your latest podcast or to take calls on the go, they do a great job of capturing your voice with minimal background noise.