Since AirPods first came out in 2016, the wireless earbuds market has exploded with practically every known brand releasing one in the market. But even with so many rivals from formidable brands, the Apple Airpods have managed to beat or at least compare to the best earbuds in the market today. 

Four and a half years later, Apple is expected to give its legendary semi-in-ear TWS headphones an update, including a refreshed design. Yes, that’s right, we’re talking about the new Airpods that are expected to launch very soon. While we don’t have the real Airpods 3, what we do have is a real-life lookalike of the upcoming Apple earbuds. Anyway, join us for an early look at the exciting possibilities for the new Airpods, which should be called the AirPods 3.

We have to remind you again that this is a clone of the Airpods 3, and not the real Apple earbuds. So in this hands-on, we will not discuss its sound quality, latency, or changes to the chip or power consumption. All subjective inferences are made only from the appearance of the model and interesting information that we’ve got from the industry.

AirPods 3 Clone Design

It’s clear that both the new AirPods and the charging case inherit the design of the AirPods Pro. The case in our hands is not wirelessly chargeable, which does not rule out the possibility of a wirelessly chargeable version like the Airpods 2. The case has a slightly different size from the previous AirPods’, sitting somewhere in between the AirPods 2’s case and the AirPods Pro’s. Other than that it’s hard to tell the difference between them.

Now let’s take a look at the earbuds themselves. Looking at the notch on the earbuds’ stem, the operation should still be the same as the pressure-sensing style. It has a slightly larger cavity and a shorter headset stem. When you put it on, the fit is definitely tighter. And thanks to the change in the center of gravity, the new Airpods 3 design will be less likely to fall off your ears. Well, this is a smart improvement. But because of this, it’s also not as distinguishable as the wearing experience of the Airpods 1 and 2. 

Overall, it’s still very comfortable, and this new Airpods design is probably an improvement made by Apple after hearing people’s complaints about the previous generation’s unstable fit. And it looks like this adjustment will help provide a better fit to a larger number of users. 

What we’re curious about is that the design of the new earbuds has a near-identical opening of the cavity as the Airpods Pro. Also, the position of the IR sensor and the position of the filter on the buds’ stem are almost the same. 

Does this mean Apple might add active noise cancellation to the new Airpods? 

It’s not impossible to add active noise cancellation in a semi-in-ear design, like what we’ve seen on Huawei’s Freebuds 3, albeit at 15dB noise-canceling capacity. Or probably Apple is trying to apply the removable ear-tip design for the new AirPods. So the decision is up to users themselves.

If you prefer the in-ear design then put on the tips and at the same time enjoy better performance of noise-canceling, or if you cannot tolerate the in-ear tips, just remove them and Apple may have fixed the issue of the noise-canceling for the semi-in-ear design. Of course, this is just speculation at the moment. 

Also, we still think that if Apple adds ANC to Airpods 3, it would overlap with the Airpods Pro’s product positioning.

So why is Apple launching the new Airpods?

We think the new Airpods is trying to solve two problems. An improved design will allow more people to wear the Airpods with a better fit, and the second problem it solves is it will stimulate the semi-in-ear headphone market with a new look, and possibly with a reliable noise cancelation performance. If you’re not in a hurry to buy semi-in-ear earbuds, I think it’s worth waiting for them. After all, if Apple makes them, it means this design is ready. 

As for what’s new about the sound and call quality, we don’t have any solid information about it. But we’ll get the real new AirPods as soon as possible after its launch and will bring you guys a full review.

Stay tuned to us for more details.