The Best Alternative to the AirPods 3? The Earbuds They Usurped.

The Apple AirPods Pro 3 are pretty fresh on the vine. Or the stem, I guess, since Apples don’t grow on vines. Whatever. Apple launched the follow-up to 2022’s AirPods Pro 2 for sale on September 19, 2025.

They sell for $249, which is typical Apple for a pair of freshly sprouted AirPods. The AirPods Pro 2 sold for $249, too, when they launched. They’ve been on one or another sale for a while, now. And at $169, they’re the best alternative for somebody who wants AirPods Pro tech at a significantly lower price.

(opens in a new window)

Apple

AirPods Pro 2 (opens in a new window)

Available at Amazon

Buy Now (opens in a new window)

Available at Walmart

Buy Now (opens in a new window)

Available at Apple

Buy Now (opens in a new window)

two generations, two slots in the market

Don’t hold your breath that the AirPods Pro 3 will drop in price anytime soon. It took about two years of the AirPods Pro 2 being on the market for them to drop below $200 consistently. Apple likes to keep the prices high on its newly launched products for quite some time.

Even though you’ll see, as I’ve seen, tons of headlines about the AirPods Pro 2 being on sale, they’re not really. They’ve been selling for $199 or, for short bursts, $169 almost continuously for the past year.

The AirPods Pro 3’s introduction seems to have knocked them down to $169, where the price will hopefully stay. It makes it easy to recommend them, even though the third generation is, frankly, better.

Better for the money, though? I’d say not. For $80 less, the second-generation AirPods Pro still have active noise cancellation (ANC), including pass-through mode that lets you hear your surroundings better than a regular, old pair of earbuds.

And they still have pretty decent sound. So you get eight hours of claimed use with the 3’s over the 2’s six hours. And Apple says the ANC is twice as effective. You have to decide whether that’s worth the extra $80 for the AirPods Pro 3, though.

If it were my money, I’d find it hard to turn down the AirPods Pro 2 at that price.

(opens in a new window)