There's been a lot of talk lately about AirPods with cameras that Apple has in development and won't arrive until 2027, but we're about to get a couple of other new AirPods updates as soon as next month.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple could debut new AirPods 5 models at its fall iPhone event, which is now expected to take place on Wednesday, September 9, when new iPhone 18 Pro models and Apple's first foldable iPhone are expected to be unveiled.
When Apple announced AirPods 4 on Tuesday, September 9, 2024 at its "It's Glowtime" event, the company opened pre-orders the same day, with the AirPods 4 going on sale on Friday, September 20. If the AirPods 5 follow the same pattern this year, pre-orders could go live on Wednesday, September 9, with in-store availability and shipping on Friday, September 18. Note that Apple has yet to confirm the date of its iPhone event, so the above timeline is subject to change.
AirPods 5 models will come in both regular and noise-canceling versions, superseding the current entry-level AirPods 4 models. AirPods 5 references for both models were already discovered in macOS 26.7 Release Candidate code last week.
There is no word in Gurman's latest report about how the next-generation models will differ from the AirPods 4, but they could get an updated H3 chip with improved sound quality and lower latency.
In the U.S., AirPods 4 are priced at $129 to $179. AirPods were spared a price hike when Apple increased the prices of many of its products in June owing to higher memory costs, so there's a decent chance that the prices of the AirPods 5 will remain in line with the current generation.
