Headphones with heart rate monitors are nothing new — I first tried some out 10 years ago and have tested earbuds from Jabra, Sennheiser, and most recently Beats that all offer the feature. However, headphones with accurate heart rate monitors are something I haven’t come across. All the ones I’ve tried in the past have been unreliable when compared to a chest strap — the most accurate type of heart rate monitor readily available for consumers.
So it’s fair to say I didn’t have high hopes for the heart rate tracking on the Apple AirPods Pro 3, especially as the tracking on the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 was both hard to use and often inaccurate in my testing. Fortunately, the sensor used in the AirPods Pro 3 is a new one, and it delivers the goods in terms of accuracy. I’ve done several runs with the buds and compared them to a chest strap’s readings, and the AirPods Pro 3 have barely missed a beat.
