Apple AirPods 5 Review

Design

• IP57, an improvement over the AirPods
• Still just one colour option
• Not much choice if they don’t fit well

Like previous generations of Apple’s traditional AirPods, the AirPods 5 have an open design, are available in a single white hue and come in a pebble-like glossy case. They sit just inside your ear, rather than burying inside them like the AirPods Pro 3. Many people I talk to instantly buy them for this single reason, as they can be much comfier for those who find earbuds with silicone tips intrusive.

The issue that comes with this design is fit. As there are no different-sized tips included, there’s no way to customise the fit. They either fit, or they don’t. With the AirPods Pro, you can tweak the fit to make them more comfortable.

For me, the fit is fine. The AirPods 5 don’t feel secure in my ears when I am out on a run or rushing for the train, but they haven’t yet fallen out, although I do find myself constantly pushing them back on, fearing that they will. When I am sat at a desk, this isn’t an issue, and even though they are plastic, they’re comfortable for extended periods of time.

I don’t think these are the best headphones for gym sessions or running – I’d much rather have that secure fit of the AirPods Pro – but they are IP57 rated for dust, water and sweat resistance, a slight improvement over the IP54-rated AirPods 4.

Features

• Class-leading transparency mode
• Powered by the H2 chip
• Some features restricted to the pricier model

Apple is no stranger to releasing two models of a single generation of AirPods, although it feels a little more confusing this time around. With the AirPods 4, we had a version with ANC and one without. Easy enough.

This time though, both models have ANC, which is very welcome. It’s a feature that most people want, and it’s good enough on these open-ear earbuds to make it something I wouldn’t want to be without.

Instead, the differences are more varied. The pricier model is called AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case, while the cheaper pair are simply called AirPods 5. Obviously, the first difference between the two is the case. One has a case that can be charged wirelessly, either on a Qi pad or via an Apple Watch charger. The wireless charging case also has a small speaker, so you can use Find My to ping it if it gets lost.

Another difference is on the stem of each AirPod. The base model has a standard ‘Force sensor’ – so you can play and pause tracks by squeezing the stem. The pricier model takes this sensor and improves it by adding swipe gestures: swipe up to increase the volume, swipe down to lower it. This is a feature ripped from the Pros, and it’s great having it here. It works tremendously well, and means you don’t need to take your phone out to alter the volume.

For me, these two features make the extra £20/$20 very much worth it.

The rest of the features are the same whichever model you get. They have the fantastic connection into the Apple device ecosystem, so once you’ve connected them to one device with an Apple ID associated, they will appear on all devices without any extra setup.

You can easily – although not always completely reliably – automatically move audio from one device to another. For instance, if you have a podcast playing from an iPhone and then start a YouTube video playing on a MacBook, the audio will move. It works most of the time, but sometimes annoying online adverts move the audio when I don’t want it to. You can also play audio from an Apple TV.

These buds support Live Translation. Although not a new feature for the series, if you’re upgrading from older AirPods it will be new. Once certain language packs are downloaded, holding both stems down enables the translation mode. I’ve found this is adequate for basic questions, and the translations are typically accurate. It’s just not really fast or natural enough for fast-paced chats.

Apple has been among the best at the Transparency modes on its various AirPods, and the AirPods 5 are the best yet. With this mode enabled, there’s no discernible difference that I can spot between hearing the outside world with the buds in or out. This is, of course, helped by the open nature, but Apple has managed to remove any sense of robotic-ness in voices. If you’re the sort of person who likes to keep AirPods in all day, this mode is a winner for talking to people or hearing the outside world when you have nothing playing.

Call quality is good, but not class-leading – that prize still goes comfortably to the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max. There’s a small improvement in voices compared to the AirPods 4 when I tested them side-by-side, although not a major one. The other caller could understand me easily on both, but I was told that the AirPods 5 did a better job of reducing some background road noise.

There isn’t an app as such for AirPods, and if you’re on Android, most of the extra features are inaccessible. Instead, the settings for the buds appear in your iOS Settings app when you’re connected. In here, you can alter what tasks certain gestures perform, tweak spatial performance and mess with a few other settings. My favourite smaller feature pauses music the buds sense you’ve fallen asleep.

Battery Life

• Battery life is fine, but nothing standout
• About 5 hours of juice, less on the base model
• Wireless charging on pricier model

There is one final difference between the AirPods 5 and AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case (that name just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?), and that’s battery life. The pricier buds get, according to Apple, one extra hour of juice per charge. So they should go for five hours, rather than four. And then you’ll get a few more charges from the case before that needs to be charged.

Four hours of charge is quite low, and five isn’t exactly fantastic. It’s closer to eight hours with the AirPods Pro 3, the cheaper Nothing Buds 3a manage six hours and the EarFun Air Pro 4 Plus deliver around eight hours of use.

I have the wireless model here, and that five hours is pretty accurate. I listened to the AirPods 5 for a full afternoon in the office, with ANC on, and they hit 0% just after the five-hour mark.

Charging is via USB-C, or wirelessly on the higher-end model. There’s no MagSafe support as such, but you can charge it with an Apple Watch charger, which I found enormously handy in a pinch. There’s no cable at all in the box, so keep that in mind if you still use a Lightning iPhone.

Noise Cancellation

• Apple claims 50% better ANC than the AirPods 4
• Impressive cancellation for open buds
• A couple of modes to pick from

Directly compared against the ANC-toting version of the AirPods 4, the AirPods 5 are a clear step up. Much more noise is cancelled out, especially those higher-end shrieks of a passing train and far-away road drill. Apple claims these new buds have up to 50% better cancellation, although it doesn’t really delve into what this really means.

This is the best ANC I have tried in an earbud of this style. They dull the background chatter of a busy office with ease, and really tune out the whine of a busy road. They do struggle with tougher environments, though. For instance, on the London Underground, I had to turn up my music to ensure it didn’t get drowned out by the Northern Line.

As good as they are, they still pale in comparison to in-ear buds – and I don’t really ever see that changing. If you want Apple’s best ANC in a bud, there’s no doubt the Pros are much better – especially if you travel a lot.

Apple doesn’t give you much control over the strength of ANC. You can have it on, off or in an Adaptive mode that alters the strength depending on where you are. You’re best just leaving it on the default mode.

Sound Quality

• Louder, bassier audio
• Crisper vocals
• Finally, there’s an EQ for tweaking

The AirPods 5 sound much better than the AirPods 4 – especially on tracks that need that bass punch to really stand out. Moving between AirPods 4 and AirPods 5, songs like Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy and Massive Attack’s Teardrop sound heaps better on the newer model, with the bass kicks really giving everything a punchier, more immersive feel

These open buds often struggle in the low end, but that isn’t an issue here, and I’ve previously found the base AirPods a bit mushy with louder, rockier songs like New Order’s Regret – again, the changes to the internals Apple has made have removed these issues. 

There’s a deftness to the opening of Portshead’s Glory Box, with plenty of spiky details picked out accurately. The vocals are lovely and crisp when they kick in too. There’s plenty of pop and fun in Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence.

Apple has finally added an equaliser, so you can have a little more control over the audio. You can tweak the lows, mids and highs – once you’ve found the option, buried in Settings. I played about with this on a few songs and found the changes were minimal (unless you whack everything to its lowest/highest point and ruin it), but then again I have never been the sort of person to tweak these settings. If you are, then you’ll likely have more luck than me.

If you use Apple Music, there’s Spatial Audio in supported Dolby Atmos songs. The quality of these mixes varies dramatically, and the spatial effect isn’t as pronounced as it is on the sealed-in Pros. Still, when a song is mixed well in Atmos, like a recent version of George Michael’s Careless Whisper, I can’t help but appreciate the extra height and depth.

Should you buy it?