The AirPods 5, available from September 18, sport their signature open-ear design and feature the Adaptive EQ [File]
| Photo Credit: AP
At this year’s ‘Surprise and Shine’ edition of Apple’s annual Autumn event, CEO John Ternus unveiled the company’s newest accessory devices: the Apple AirPods 5, the Apple Watch Series 12, and the Apple Watch Ultra 4.This marked a reduction in the number of accessory devices when compared to previous years, but still covers Apple’s main wireless earbuds categories and its two smartwatch variants.The AirPods 5, available from September 18, sport their signature open-ear design and feature the Adaptive EQ. Apple promises up to 1.5x more Active Noise Cancellation than the previous generation.“AirPods 5 feature even better sound quality with Personalised Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking thanks to a redesigned acoustic architecture and next‑generation Adaptive EQ,” stated the company on its website.The AirPods offer up to 4 hours of battery life on a single charge with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) enabled, and up to 20 hours of battery life with the charging case. A higher priced variant offers up to 5 hours of battery life on a single charge with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) enabled, and up to 22 hours of battery life with the charging case.Siri AI has been integrated into the AirPods. This means users can ask questions that draw on their personal context, as well as continue to use Live Translation.The AirPods 5 retail at ₹14,900, while the version with the wireless charging case, force sensor with volume swiping, and longer battery life retails at ₹17,900.On the smartwatch front, the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4 come with upgraded health trackers powered by AI, including a new ‘Health Sensing System.’The Watch Series 12 has been re-designed with more capable optical and electrical sensors, per the company. The Health Sensing System is powered by the S11 chip.Meanwhile, the Watch Ultra 4 boasts the longest battery life of any Apple Watch.“Apple Watch Ultra was designed to be the ultimate running watch, with powerful features that help you train smarter and precision dual-frequency GPS. Now Apple Watch Ultra 4 takes it to the next level with game-changing health and fitness tracking to help you elevate your performance,” stated Apple about the device.A new feature called Live Rewind allows watch-wearers to go back several seconds and access transcriptions of what they may have missed. Adding to that, Siri Recap uses ambient listening to take notes. Even though Apple stated that the raw audio used for this processing is not accessible, users on social media have expressed concerns about privacy.The Apple Watch Series 12 starts at ₹56,900 while the Apple Watch Ultra 4 starts at ₹1,09,900 in India. Published - September 10, 2026 02:10 pm IST
