Apple AirPods 5 Review: A Better Upgrade Than I Expected
Both versions of the AirPods 5 have active noise cancellation. But what I didn’t anticipate was that Apple would add noise cancellation to the $129 entry-level model while also lowering the price of the step-up model — which includes wireless charging and other extras — from $179 to $149. It’s a bit of a shock, considering Apple raised prices on the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
- ▪Both versions of the AirPods 5 have active noise cancellation.
- ▪But what I didn’t anticipate was that Apple would add noise cancellation to the $129 entry-level model while also lowering the price of the step-up model — which includes wireless charging and other extras — from $179 to $149.
- ▪It’s a bit of a shock, considering Apple raised prices on the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
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| Original publisher | CNET |
| Canonical URL | https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-airpods-5-review/ |
| Publication time | 2026-09-14T13:07:26Z |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-14T13:16:51.950Z |
| Last seen | 2026-09-14T13:16:51.950Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
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| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | EUrztXCeKAH_ · 1 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Both versions of the AirPods 5 have active noise cancellation. David Carnoy/CNET Table of Contents Same design, same fit AirPods 5 features Improved noise cancellation AirPods 5 sound quality levels up Top-tier voice calling AirPods 5 final thoughts The AirPods 5 start at $129. / David Carnoy/CNET Apple AirPods 5 8.9 $129 at Amazon $129 at Apple Pros & Cons Lightweight and comfortable open earbuds with no silicone eartips Improved sound from previous version that's top-notch for open buds Both the base and step-up models now offer active noise cancellation, and it's been improved Step-up model with bonus hardware features and one-hour better battery life now costs less Many of the same features as AirPods Pro 3 Strong voice-calling performance More durable with IP57 water resistance…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at CNET.
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