AirPods 5 Review: A Ridiculously Great Value for ANC Wireless Earbuds

I woke up to the voice of the captain telling everyone to prepare for landing and a tone in my AirPods 5 telling me the battery was under 10%. My cross-country test of Apple’s latest non-in-ear wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC) was a success. Not only did the AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case (not to be confused with the base model that doesn’t have additional features) almost get me through the entire 4-hour and 44-minute flight, but they also mostly drowned out the loud jet engines as I slept scrunched up in my middle-row seat.

The AirPods 5 (without and with the Wireless Charging Case) are an easy recommendation. They’re better than the AirPods 4 (with and without ANC) in every way with virtually no downsides.

The base model costs the same $129 as the AirPods 4 without ANC but now comes with ANC. The AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case (which I’ll refer to as AirPods 5 with WCC for the rest of this review) are $149 and comes with a case that supports wireless charging and has a built-in speaker for Find My, and the buds get an extra hour of battery life and have swipe controls for volume on their stems. Mathing it out, the AirPods 5 with WCC are actually a $30 price drop compared to AirPods 4 with ANC.

If you’re in the market for ANC wireless earbuds without in-ear tips, you can’t go wrong with either version of AirPods 5. For $20 more, the AirPods 5 with WCC are an absolute steal.

Same great fit

I’m fortunate enough that I don’t have a specific preference for open-ear or in-ear wireless earbuds. I regularly alternate between my AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It really depends on how much ANC and how much of a passive seal I want. On long flights and on the subway, I usually grab my AirPods Pro 3 for the in-ear tips and superior ANC for blocking out loud external noise. I use AirPods 4 with ANC when I’m running and want less pressure in my ears but still some ANC.

The AirPods 5 have the same exact fit as the AirPods 4. They felt lighter at first, but nope: they weigh exactly the same as the previous-gen wireless earbuds. (It’s that new earbuds placebo effect!) That is to say, if the AirPods 4 did not fit well in your ears, the AirPods 5 won’t, either. For me, the buds are light and airy. I wore them the entire flight from San Francisco to New York City with no discomfort.

As I already mentioned, you get a few quality-of-life features on the AirPods 5 with WCC. The charging case works with any Qi-based wireless charger or an Apple Watch magnetic charger. I have a 3-in-1 Belkin dock for wireless charging my iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch, so I’m used to the convenience of just dropping the AirPods 5 with WCC on the respective pad at the end of the day instead of managing multiple USB-C cables. And it’s nice to have a speaker built into the case that can chime if I ever misplace them, which happens a few times a year. My favorite addition is the swipe controls on the stems for controlling volume. It works just like on the AirPods Pro 3—grab the stem with two fingers and then swipe up to increase the volume and down to decrease it.

Apple also made the AirPods 5 more dust, sweat, and water resistant. They sport a higher IP57 rating compared to the AirPods 4’s IP54 rating. A higher IP rating is always appreciated, but I also never had liquid or dust-related issues using my AirPods 4 in the rain or while working out.

Even better active noise cancellation

Apple says both AirPods 5 models have up to 50% better ANC compared to the AirPods 4 with ANC. I didn’t do any scientific testing, but swapping between the AirPods 5 and AirPods 4 with ANC, I definitely noticed more sound blockage. On bustling streets, AirPods 5 drown out more footsteps and traffic. The construction workers jackhammering into the sidewalk down the block from the office were still audible with ANC turned on, though. Subway rumbles are slightly reduced on the AirPods 5 versus on the AirPods 4 with ANC. Same for blocking the jet engines on my flight. At volumes below 50%, I could still hear my coworkers across the room clacking away on their mechanical or laptop keyboards; over 50% and I mostly couldn’t hear them typing.

For the best ANC wireless earbuds that Apple offers, you’ll need to spring for the AirPods Pro 3. The combination of in-ear tips for a tighter seal and stronger ANC simply blocks out louder sounds better. I did do a comparison with Nothing’s Ear 3 ANC wireless earbuds with in-ear tips to see how well they would fare against the AirPods 5. To my surprise, the ANC on the AirPods 5 felt on par with Nothing’s $180 wireless earbuds. It’s impressive that Apple’s open ANC wireless earbuds can go toe-to-toe with another brand’s flagship in-ear pair. This is likely due to Apple’s “new multiport acoustic architecture and improved computational audio algorithms.”

Richer sound, but not always

Again, I didn’t do any scientific tests, but I could hear a small difference in sound quality between AirPods 5 and AirPods 4. Apple says it re-engineered the sound based on AirPods Pro to deliver “richer, more detailed sound across an even wider range of ear geometries” with additional “immersive and dynamic” improvements to Personal Spatial Audio.

In my music tests streaming lossless-quality songs from Spotify, vocals sounded clearer and instruments more distinct. In Adele’s “Hello,” the mids and highs have more separation, better bringing out her wide vocal range. Guitar riffs and drums in “Holiday” by Green Day sounded more pronounced to my ears. The low end also has a smidge more thump to it. In “Ghost” by Justin Bieber, the bass was stronger on AirPods 5 than AirPods 4, though not as deep as on AirPods Pro 3.

Songs don’t always sound better. In my opinion, some of my favorite Cantopop classics from the ’80s, mastered at a lower bitrate, sounded mushier with what appeared to be more distortion at volume levels above 50%. The same way some people disliked the sound profile differences between the AirPods Pro 2 and the AirPods Pro 3, there’s a slight difference in the signature between the AirPods 5 and the AirPods 4. It’s getting harder to say the default signature sounds the best for everyone. The good thing, however, is that you can adjust the EQ to your liking from within the AirPods section in your iPhone or iPad’s Settings app. Apple lets you tweak the low, mid, and high bands. It’s not as advanced as the EQs you may find on companion apps for other wireless earbuds, but it’s better than nothing.

Longer battery life

The base AirPods 5 get up to 4 hours of battery life with ANC turned on, which is the same as the AirPods 4 with ANC. With the case, they’ll get up to 20 hours of listening time, also the same as the AirPods 4 with ANC. The AirPods 5 with WCC get an additional hour of battery life—up to 5 hours with ANC on. For comparison, that’s 3 hours less than the 8 hours on the AirPods Pro 3 with ANC on. The case totals up to 22 hours of listening time with ANC on, only two hours shy of the 24 hours total for the AirPods Pro 3.

That extra one hour was the difference between making it through my cross-country flight and having to pop them into the case for charging. At touchdown, the AirPods 5 with WCC had just dipped below 5% and wouldn’t have made it taxiing to the gate. A 5-minute quick charge gave me an additional 1 hour of listening time; 15 minutes let me listen until I exited the airport and made it home after a one-hour Uber ride.

Five hours of continuous ANC listening time is fine in most situations, but many wireless earbuds average around 6 hours on a single charge. Still, it’s not bad that Apple was able to eke out an additional hour on the higher-end AirPods 5.

Perfect stocking stuffer

I have almost no complaints about the AirPods 5, especially the model with the Wireless Charging Case that I reviewed. Apple has improved everything across the board while dropping the price on the upper model. Other core AirPods features like best-in-class Transparency mode, clear-sounding mic pickup for audio calls, Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Live Translation and Siri AI, and automatic wireless switching between Apple devices are all present and work as advertised. No regression on any of these.

You can always wish for more—stronger ANC, longer battery life, a higher IP rating, and better sound quality. But for what the AirPods 5 offer—open-ear ANC wireless earbuds—it’s a really great value. Any more and it’d be harder for Apple to sell the AirPods Pro 3 for anything other than the in-ear tips.

Whether for yourself or for somebody else, the AirPods 5 with and without the wireless charging case are excellent wireless earbuds. They’ll probably be very popular come the holiday season when they inevitably go on sale at retailers like Amazon.