When the brand-new AirPods Pro 3 arrived, I figured I’d film a quick, clean, perfectly executed first look.
It was not perfectly executed. About halfway through, I dropped them. Brand new, on camera, no second take available. The whole moment is in the video above, preserved exactly as it happened.
So this article does two jobs: it walks you through what’s in the unboxing, and it’s honest about what a first look like this can and can’t tell you before you spend your money.
Why I picked up the AirPods Pro 3
I’m a filmmaker, not an audiophile. Earbuds are the piece of gear I use the most and think about the least – long edit days, calls, drives between shoots. They’re not production audio, but they spend more hours in my ears each week than any microphone I own spends pointed at anything.
So when Apple updates its flagship earbuds, it’s the kind of purchase that tends to happen on autopilot. The difference here is that I decided to point a camera at it first.
What’s in the box
I won’t pretend an Apple unboxing holds shocking surprises. The packaging is exactly as tidy as you’d expect, and the contents are what they are – the case, the buds, and the small handful of extras Apple includes. If you want to see every item laid out before you order, the video above shows the full spread in real time.
Here’s what the video covers:
- The full packaging and everything that comes in the box
- A first hands-on look at the case and the buds themselves
- The drop, unedited and uncut
- My genuine first reactions, before I’d read a single spec sheet
About that drop
Roughly halfway through the unboxing, the brand-new AirPods Pro 3 left my hands and gravity handled the rest. There’s no graceful way to describe it, and I’m not going to try.
I thought about cutting the moment. Re-shooting it. Pretending this was, as the title promised, just another perfectly executed unboxing. But that’s not how I want to run this channel. If I fumble a product on camera, you get to watch me fumble a product on camera.
How did they take it? I’ll let the video answer that one. What I will say is that earbuds live a rough life – pockets, camera bags, car seats, the gap next to the car seat – so an accidental, completely unscientific drop moment was always going to happen eventually. It just usually doesn’t happen this fast.
First impressions, with an honest caveat
This is an unboxing, not a review, and I want to be upfront about the difference. When I filmed this, I hadn’t run these through a full edit day, worn them on a long drive, or used them anywhere noisy. I’d owned them for roughly the length of one video – minus the brief period they spent airborne.
So I’m not going to tell you the sound is incredible or that the noise cancellation changed my life, because I’d be making it up, and there’s enough of that on the internet already. What you get in the video is a real-time, unscripted first look: how the product shows up at your door, how it presents out of the box, and how it handles. Or how I handle it.
If the AirPods Pro 3 earn a permanent spot in my everyday kit, that’s a follow-up worth making. If they don’t, I’ll be honest about that too.
Who this one is for
If you’re on the fence about ordering and want to see exactly what arrives before you commit, the video does exactly that job. If you already own an older pair of AirPods Pro and want detailed comparisons and measurements, this isn’t that video – full reviews will serve you better, and I’d rather send you there than fake expertise I don’t have yet.
And if you simply enjoy watching a grown man drop a brand-new Apple product on camera, you are extremely well covered.
My general rule with earbuds is simple: buy for the life you actually live, not for the spec sheet. If you’re already deep in the Apple ecosystem, the newest AirPods Pro are usually the path of least resistance. That’s not a hot take. It’s just how the ecosystem works.
If you’ve already made up your mind and just want a pair on the way, the link below is the fastest route. Check the current price on Amazon
And if you want to see the equipment I actually shoot and edit with every week – the cameras, lenses, and audio gear that have survived my hands considerably longer than these earbuds managed – head over to my gear page.
