Apple’s first camera-equipped AirPods bet everything on a Siri rebuild that hasn’t shipped yet.
Apple’s rumored AirPods Ultra are shaping up to be more than a higher-end version of AirPods Pro. The big change is a pair of infrared cameras built into the earbuds, which would help Siri understand the world around you.
That makes the product depend heavily on Apple’s delayed Siri rebuild.
If the assistant is ready, AirPods Ultra could become Apple’s first real AI wearable. If it is not, the cameras may be hard to justify at a premium price.
Here’s what the latest reports say about the release timing, features, privacy questions, and expected cost.
When Is the AirPods Ultra Release Date?
New AirPods have debuted at three of Apple’s last four September iPhone events. So after the original first-half target slipped, multiple sources converged on a September 2026 launch alongside iOS 27, and Bloomberg reports that early mass production could begin soon.
The longer development history also supports that timing, as Kuo first described camera-equipped AirPods back in June 2024.
And since AirPods Pro 3 launched just last September, and the Pro line has followed an almost three-year upgrade cycle, this also helps explain why AirPods Ultra are expected to be a new premium tier rather than the next AirPods Pro generation.
What Features Can We Expect From the AirPods Ultra?
AirPods Ultra are expected to add more than the usual sound and noise-cancellation upgrades. The main focus appears to be environmental awareness, with infrared cameras feeding visual context to Siri and other hardware changes helping the earbuds process that information.
Infrared cameras and Visual Intelligence
AirPods Ultra’s infrared cameras appear to be less about capturing images and more about giving Siri a better sense of the wearer’s surroundings.
Each earbud reportedly uses Face ID-like sensors built into elongated stems, but they cannot take photos or video. Instead, they would collect low-resolution environmental data that Apple’s Visual Intelligence framework could turn into context for Siri.
That could make the assistant more useful in physical spaces. Use cases can be something like asking Siri about nearby objects, creating visual reminders, and improving walking directions.
H3 chip
The AirPods Pro 3 run on the H2 chip, the same processor Apple put in the Pro 2 back in 2022. But an H3 upgrade is widely expected for the Ultra model, though Bloomberg hasn’t confirmed it.
That expectation makes sense if Apple wants the cameras to do more than passively collect environmental data. Processing infrared input, handling Visual Intelligence requests, and supporting real-time Siri interactions would likely require more compute than the H2 was designed to provide.
So while the H3 chip remains unconfirmed, the Ultra’s rumored feature set makes a processor upgrade feel likely.
Gesture control
Kuo predicted in June 2024 that the cameras could enable “in-air gesture control to enhance human-device interaction.” Gurman’s more recent reporting from April 2026 flatly contradicts that assessment, saying he does not expect hand gesture support.
When the two analysts most closely followed for Apple hardware predictions disagree this directly, the safest bet is that gesture control remains speculative. The cameras may support it technically, but Apple may not ship it at launch.
Privacy and data handling
Putting infrared cameras in earbuds creates a different privacy problem from adding cameras to glasses. Meanwhile, AirPods are small, familiar, and easy to overlook, so people nearby may not immediately realize that the wearer’s device can collect environmental data.
Apple appears to be addressing that partly with a small LED that reportedly lights up whenever the cameras are transmitting data, but visibility will matter just as much as the indicator’s existence.
The bigger unanswered question, however, is what happens to visual queries after they are captured. The cameras reportedly cannot take photos or video, which limits the risk, but Siri and Visual Intelligence still need to process information about the user’s surroundings.
How Much Will the AirPods Ultra Cost?
Estimates place the price between $299 and $349, a $50-$100 step above the AirPods Pro 3’s $249 list price. But the AirPods Pro 3 sell for $199 on most days, so the practical premium for most buyers would land closer to $100-$150.
| Product | MSRP |
|---|---|
| Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 | $229 |
| AirPods Pro 3 | $249 |
| Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro | $249 |
| Bose QC Ultra Earbuds Gen 2 | $299 |
| Meta Ray-Ban (standard) | $299 |
| Sony WF-1000XM6 | $330 |
| AirPods Ultra (expected) | $299-$349 |
At $299, AirPods Ultra would sit at the same price as the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds Gen 2 and Meta’s standard Ray-Ban glasses, with the Sony WF-1000XM6 at $330 just above. The Meta comparison is imprecise, though. Ray-Ban glasses carry 12MP visible-light cameras that take photos and 3K video, while AirPods Ultra’s infrared cameras can’t produce viewable images.
But every competitor in this range has to prove itself through sound quality, ANC, comfort, and battery life, while almost nothing has been reported about major audio improvements for AirPods Ultra. Lossless Bluetooth audio also remains absent from the leaks, so the rumored price depends heavily on whether the infrared cameras and rebuilt Siri feel useful at launch.
That value pitch gets even harder if AirPods Pro 3 owners are still dealing with unresolved ANC static or crackling. Apple would be asking buyers to pay more for cameras before clearly proving that the Ultra model also improves the core earbud experience.
This article is poorly written. If Apple usually announces new Airpods in September, then why mention a “first-half target” that slipped, without providing any context? What does that even mean? Then you say “But an H3 upgrade is widely expected…”. Why include the word “but”? But what? Super annoying. Learn to write better.