What you need to know
- The new AirPod will gain the Pro name
- They'll justify that with noise cancelling tech.
- They'll cost around $260.
New AirPods Pro earbuds will be announced as soon as the end of this month according to a pair of Chinese language reports by China Economic Daily (via MacRumors).
AirPods Pro will feature an in-ear design to aid noise cancellation and isolation, improving sound quality and base response in the process. That will be enough to give these AirPods the "Pro" moniker, as will the $260 asking price, according to the report.
These new earbuds will feel the part, too. They're said to be made of metal rather than plastic. Not only will that make them feel more premium to the touch, but it will also help with heat dissipation. That might not sound like something earbuds need but with such a small device stuffed to the gills with H1 and noise cancelling circuitry the heat will need to go somewhere.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has been making similar noises about AirPods Pro of late, although the timescales don't quite match up. He had them being ready to go into mass production by the first quarter of 2020. Apple is likely to want to have AirPods Pro ready by the busy holiday period if at all possible, so an October launch would make sense. If the product is ready, of course.
Recent iOS 13.2 betas have also included glyphs which appear to depict the new, unannounced AirPods Pro. That would suggest they aren't that far off being ready – potentially in time for iOS 13.2 to be made available to the public. Maybe that October timeframe isn't that crazy after all?
Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.
Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.
