We tested the AirPods 5, and the fit makes or breaks the entire experience

It might have flown under the radar compared to Apple unveiling their very first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, but for the first time, ANC now comes standard on every version of AirPods, and for $30 less. The AirPods 5 are the company’s latest open-ear earbuds, replacing the AirPods 4 as the entry point into Apple’s lineup. Yet curiously, there are still two models, one for $129 and one for $149, with little difference between what that extra $20 actually buys you. Since the ANC, drivers, and sound are identical between the two, we will evaluate both AirPods 5 models in this review.

Has Apple finally pulled off the winning trifecta: solid design, ANC, and sound quality that holds up despite the open-ear fit?

What’s it like to use the AirPods 5?

The AirPods 5 lineup brings active noise cancelation to all of Apple’s unsealed earbuds, and for the most part, it works. But because these earbuds don’t seal your ear canal, how well they fit you personally decides almost everything else about the experience — the noise canceling, the sound, even how long you can comfortably wear them.

Design

The AirPods 5 look almost identical to the previous AirPods 4. They have a short plastic stem, no silicone tips, and a case about the size of a small pack of gum. They come in two versions — a $129 model with a USB-C charging case, and a $149 model with a wireless charging case that also adds swipe gestures for volume control, similar to the AirPods Pro 3.

Comfort here is a mixed bag, and it’s going to vary a lot depending on your ears. At first, the AirPods 5 fit me well and stayed secure even while moving around. After about 30 minutes of continuous wear, though, the plastic housing started to rub lightly against the insides of my ears — enough to make longer sessions uncomfortable. If you’ve had a similar experience with past AirPods, it’s worth trying these on in an Apple Store before you buy, since ear anatomy varies enough that your results could be completely different.

Apple also bumped up the water resistance this generation: the AirPods 5 are rated IP57 for dust and water resistance, an upgrade over the IP54 splash resistance on the AirPods 4. That means a brief accidental dunk shouldn’t cause severe damage.

The bigger design story is what you get for that extra $20. The $149 version adds wireless charging, a Find My speaker built into the case to help locate them when misplaced, roughly an extra hour of ANC battery life, and — most notably — volume swipe gestures along the front of the stems. Skipping the volume swipe on the base model feels like an odd way to nickel-and-dime buyers, but if you can spare the $20, the wireless-charging model is the one to get.

Features

The AirPods 5 run on Apple’s H2 chip and carry over the feature set from recent AirPods generations, plus a few additions. You get Adaptive EQ, which adjusts the tuning based on how the earbuds fit in your ear, along with Personalized Spatial Audio with head tracking. Apple also added Live Translation and Conversation Awareness, which automatically lowers your media volume and boosts nearby voices when you start talking to someone.

For sound tuning, Apple includes a simple 3-band EQ in the Settings app, which lets you nudge the bass, mids, and treble to taste — a small addition, but a welcome one given how the AirPods 5 sound out of the box (more on that below).

How does the AirPods 5 connect?

The AirPods 5 connect over Bluetooth 5.3. As with every generation of AirPods before them, they stick to Apple’s own AAC codec rather than supporting aptX or LDAC, so Android users won’t get any codec advantage over Apple users here.

As usual, there’s no real connection issues that we ran into, though swapping between non-Apple devices is a bit of a pain. The AirPods line is famed for their deep iOS integrations, and it’s not hard to see why they’re popular among Apple users. However, anyone not using iOS in their daily lives may want to avoid these, as many of the features listed above simply will not work on Android or Windows machines.

How long does the AirPods 5’s battery last?

Apple rates the standard AirPods 5 for up to 4 hours of listening with ANC on, and up to 20 hours total with the charging case. The $149 wireless charging model gets a bump to up to 5 hours with ANC on, and up to 22 hours total with the case — about an hour longer than the outgoing AirPods 4 in both cases. Neither of which is especially long for wireless earbuds in 2026; but we’ll be back in a day or so with hard figures for you once our lab test is complete.

If you’re after earbuds for a long flight, an all-day study session, or a full workday, a 4- or 5-hour ANC runtime won’t cut it — you’ll want something with a longer stated battery life instead. But for quick commutes or short listening bursts, it’s not the biggest issue.

How well do the AirPods 5 cancel noise?

Because the AirPods 5 don’t seal your ear canal, they’re unusually difficult to measure consistently — the same pair can produce different results depending on exactly how they sit in your ears. Take the numbers below as a general guide rather than Gospel.

In our testing, the AirPods 5 reduced the perceived loudness of outside noise by an average of 59%. That’s a better result than we recorded from both the AirPods 4 and the unsealed Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 — an achievement, given how much harder ANC is to pull off in an open design without much passive isolation. The AirPods 5 reduce noise most effectively in the mids and highs, between roughly 1kHz and 9kHz — useful for quieting general street noise — but they struggle to attenuate anything below 500Hz. In practice, that means car engines and airplane rumble will still get through even with ANC engaged.

That said, the 59% figure undersells how the ANC feels day-to-day. The AirPods 5 did a solid job of quieting car rides and general street noise. Higher-pitched sounds like subway screech, HVAC whine, and nearby voices still come through, and low-end rumble from a moving car is still audible — both of which track with what the chart shows. It’s the best ANC we’ve tested on a pair of open-ear earbuds, but it’s never going to match a sealed pair like the AirPods Pro 3, and it’s better suited to short commutes and casual listening than long travel.

How good is the AirPods 5 Transparency mode?

Transparency Mode and Adaptive Audio are a highlight here. Outside sound comes through naturally — close to what you’d hear with nothing in your ears at all. It’s still one of the best implementations of this feature we’ve used from any earbuds, sealed or not.

How do the AirPods 5 sound?

The Apple AirPods 5 sound pretty solid for unsealed earbuds. But bass thins out fast if the fit isn’t right — and the tuning you get depends on how loud you’re listening.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Can you use the AirPods 5 for phone calls?

The AirPods 5 use dual beamforming microphones, an inward-facing mic, and Apple’s Voice Isolation processing to cut background noise. In our testing, voices came through clearly and intelligibly, and Apple’s noise rejection did a good job of maintaining vocal clarity while quieting background noise. Whether it’s a phone call or a video meeting, the person on the other end should hear you clearly.

AirPods 5 microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

Should you buy the AirPods 5?

After spending a few days with both versions of the AirPods 5, I’ve arrived at one conclusion: you’ll either love them or hate them, for one reason nobody talks about enough — how they fit your ears.

If you already own an older pair of AirPods, the improved ANC, updated sound, and small design tweaks make the AirPods 5 a reasonable upgrade — especially if you already know you get along with the open-ear fit. If you’re new to AirPods, please try them on at an Apple Store first. Fit really can make or break both the sound and the ANC here, and it’s worth knowing what you’re getting into.

If you try them and the fit doesn’t work for you, it’s worth considering something like the Nothing Ear (3a) for , which offers more bass and stronger ANC thanks to its sealed design. If you don’t want a deep seal, and you want less pressure on your ear canals, the Sony LinkBuds Fit () is a happy middle ground between the AirPods 5 and in-ears. Unless you truly can’t tolerate a sealed fit, even a lightly-sealed pair of earbuds is going to outperform the AirPods 5 in several ways.