At the beginning of 2019 there was only one set of AirPods but now there are three: the AirPods, AirPods with wireless charging, and the AirPods Pro. It looks like Apple will be expanding the range further in 2020 with the arrival of over-ear headphones, which we think might be called the AirPods Studio, and the AirPods Lite.
In this article we take a look at how Apple is likely to evolve the AirPods line-up in 2020, whether there will be a replacement for the base offering or if Apple will discontinue them and reduce the price of the wireless-charging models. We cover the release date, price, tech specs, design changes and new features of the next AirPods models.
We also have separate articles about related products we believe Apple has in the pipeline, so if you’d like more information on them you can read about the new AirPods Studio, and the AirPods Lite.
When will the new AirPods launch?
It looks like there have been delays. The AirPods Studio, for example, were expected to launch as early as March 2020, after a placeholder (shared in this tweet) appeared in Target’s inventory. Obviously that didn’t happen.
Nikkei Asian Review, meanwhile, reports that the next set of standard AirPods may have to be postponed until 2021 as a result of the global health crisis.
We hope it doesn’t come to that, and YouTuber Jon Prosser (who scored big with his successful prediction of the iPhone SE, but for balance also posted that tweet above saying the AirPods Studio would appear in March) says we’ll get new AirPods in May, “probably”. Prosser’s acknowledgement of uncertainty in his predictions is simultaneously refreshing and infuriating.
There are also rumours that Apple will ship AirPods Pro Lite in 2020. We expect these to appear in September or October 2020.
Here’s the AirPods release schedule so far:
- December 2016: AirPods (2016)
- March 2019: AirPods (early-2019, aka ‘AirPods 2’)
- October 2019: AirPods Pro
It’s tough to draw too many conclusions from that release schedule – a big gap and then a flurry of releases; the sample size is too small to extrapolate a trend – but we definitely expect Apple to keep the AirPods and AirPods Pro as two separate lines.
How much will the new AirPods cost?
AirPods pricing has been a little controversial, although this may not have been entirely fair; the basic AirPods are actually pretty reasonable by the standards of True Wireless earbuds, and the Pro models are of sufficiently good quality to justify their price.
Here’s the pricing for the current range, correct as of May 2020:
- AirPods with charging case: £159/US$159/AU$249
- AirPods with wireless case: £199/US$199/AU$319
- AirPods Pro: £249/US$249/AU$399
That cheapest option could disappear the next time Apple updates its range, with the wireless-charging AirPods seeing a price drop. We anticipate something like this:
- AirPods with charging case: dropped from sale
- AirPods with wireless case: £159/US$159/AU$249
- AirPods Pro Lite: £199/US$199/AU$319
- AirPods Studio: £399/$399/AU$649
New AirPods design
The question here is whether Apple will take the plunge and significantly change the design of the AirPods. Our sense is that it won’t; we’ve already got an improved design on the AirPods Pro, but Apple won’t want to take away the exclusivity that makes those more expensive devices worth the extra money compared to the standard device.
So we’re more likely to see small incremental changes on the baseline model. In 2019 there were rumours that Apple would launch a black set of AirPods, so it’s feasible that we could see a new colour option. It would be nice to get a second colour option, for one thing (we feel Space Grey is most likely, with Product Red a strong second choice), although again this will only happen if Apple does the standard and Pro AirPods at the same time and can therefore offer this for both. It would be strange and slightly annoying for Pro owners if they were missing out on something that was offered with the bog-standard model.
As for the AirPods Pro, they’ve had their updated design for only one generation and it’s therefore unlikely that this will see major change. We’re big fans of this design, incidentally, although we have a few reservations about the charging case: it’s harder to get the Pros out than was the case with the previous models, and the hinge feels less robust. (The hinge sits along the longer edge, because the Pro models are shorter and wider than before.) Perhaps Apple could tweak the case design in lieu of major changes to the earbuds themselves.
New AirPods features
Let’s split this into two sections: the features we expect to drop down from the Pro range to the basic AirPods, and the entirely new (or at least new to Apple) features we expect to appear in the Pro range.
Basic AirPods
The Pros have only been available since October 2019; it would be a surprise for Apple to allow many of their exclusive features to appear on the baseline AirPods only a year later, which is when we expect the next launch. Active noise cancellation (ANC), for example, is virtually the Pros’ signature feature, and the chances of that appearing on standard AirPods is almost non-existent – aside from the fact that it would require a redesign that we don’t expect either. The same applies to the Transparency mode which comes hand in hand with ANC.
Improved water resistance, however, could be ready for the mainstream. The Pros are rated IPX4, which Apple glosses as “water and sweat resistant, but not waterproof or sweat proof”; the early-2019 AirPods are not claimed to be water-resistant at all. That could see an improvement in 2020.
AirPods Pro
What entirely new features could Apple contemplate for the Pros? Well, while we’re still on the subject of water resistance, that IPX4 rating leaves a fair bit of room for improvement.
The RHA TrueConnect and Creative Outlier Air headphones, which are the top two choices in our roundup of the best wireless earbuds, are both rated IPX5; the JBL UA True Wireless Flash buds are rated as a ‘stormproof’ IPX7.
Optical heart rate sensors have always struck us as unnecessary and uncomfortable, but some sporty users swear by them and they are offered by some rival earbuds. This is a long shot but not beyond the realms of possibility – especially if Apple can deliver them in a sleek package.
And on that note, it’s time to wrap up: that’s all the AirPods rumours fit to print.
Related speculation can be found in guide to the AirPods Pro Lite rumours. If you’d like to read about the current range, meanwhile, check out our AirPods 2 review and AirPods Pro review, and catch up on the best AirPods deals.
Via MACWORLD