The design of the Beats Studio Buds was spoiled before their release, but Apple's latest wireless earbuds still hid a few surprises. Not only are these a very inexpensive pair of Buds by Apple's standards, but they also offer a premium feature: active noise cancellation (ANC).

On top of that, it was clear that the Studio Buds ditched the usual Apple H1 and W1 chips in favor of more platform-agnostic, Android-friendly silicon. While initial hands-on impressions were positive, one can't help but wonder what the Beats Studio Buds will mean for the AirPods 3.

Yes, another headphone that Apple is expected to launch in 2021 has yet to be announced, but we have seen various photos purportedly showing the AirPods 3 design. While specs and features are speculative at this point, Apple could easily draw inspiration from its own Studio Buds.

Beats headphones were not as expensive as the AirPods, especially the $549 AirPods Max. However, given that the Studio Buds are a major new release with a much redesigned design compared to the Powerbeats Pro and Beats Flex, the $149 asking price seems unusually generous. AirPods are not much cheaper, and both are a couple of years old.

Neither offers ANC. While this feature is increasingly available on lower-priced headphones, including the best inexpensive wireless earbuds, it is still a hardware-dependent bonus that drives up costs. the cheapest pair of ANC-enabled AirPods is the AirPods Pro, on sale for $200 You'll be lucky to find them on sale for $200.

Studio Buds also feature a transparency mode and IPX4 water resistance, suggesting that Apple has finally had enough of the Apple tax joke. Does this mean that the AirPods 3 will or should be a $99 bargain? Not necessarily, but Apple itself has proven that great features do not require huge investments. Either a price cut from the second-generation AirPods or a significant feature upgrade would allow the AirPods 3 to maintain its edge in an increasingly competitive market.

Reading up on the Android features of Studio Buds is close to an unreal experience. One-touch pairing. support for Find My Device. Did Apple really make this?

The charging case is also powered by USB-C rather than Apple Lightning, allowing Android users to more easily reuse their phone's charging cable. Apple's decision to forego the H1 and W1 chips, which offer numerous advantages to iOS users at the cost of having only the most basic Android support, was clearly made to broaden the appeal of Studio Buds.

Will the AirPods 3 follow suit; unlike the Studio Buds, this model has "Apple" in its name. But with Studio Buds, Cupertino has succeeded in carrying over the iOS advantages of these chips, even with the added convenience of Android.

Studio Buds allows iOS users to locate their lost buds with the "Find My" app, and single-tap pairing is included on both mobile platforms. Indeed, iOS retains an overall advantage by offering exclusive OS-based features like spatial audio for Apple Music and "Hey Siri" voice control. Therefore, the Studio Buds, and potentially the AirPods 3, could provide an incentive to stay in Apple's walled garden while satisfying Android users. by offering more than the bare minimum to Android fans, the AirPods 3 would further strengthen Apple's dominance over wireless earbuds.

However, Studio Buds do not fully replicate the benefits of the Apple chip. There is no audio sharing with other Apple/Beats headphones, no syncing between iCloud devices, and no fast switching between multiple iOS/macOS sources. Studio Buds could be Apple's best headphones for Android, but they could also be its worst headphones for iOS. If Apple goes ahead with this multi-platform strategy, it will need to decide if the sacrifice is worth it.

Of course, the impact on the AirPods 3 may depend on how well the Studio Buds do. If sales bomb or piss off enough iOS fans, it is quite possible that the AirPods 3 will be an entirely conventional follow-up to the 2019 AirPods. Similar hardware, no major surprises in the feature list, and no price drop.

But if the Beats Studio Buds are a major departure from the norm and that means taking some risks, it may be the AirPods 3 that pays off.