New ‘AirPods Pro Lite’ Could Arrive Next Month

It’s all but certain that Apple will be releasing a new set of over-ear headphones at least sometime this year — recent rumours have said they could come as soon as June — and as the company continues to expand its focus on wearables, it also sounds like at least one new set of AirPods may be just around the corner as well.

Earlier this year, we heard a report from the supply chain that Apple could have a ”Lite” version of AirPods Pro in the works, although we were left scratching our collective heads as to exactly what form those might take — and it still remains somewhat unclear.

Apple’s second-generation AirPods, released around this time last year, came in with the same $159 price tag as Apple’s original 2016 AirPods for the standard version, while users could add a wireless charging case to the mix for around $40 more. Apple followed those up with the AirPods Pro last fall, with an entirely new design that sold for $249 and offered a much better in-ear fit, active noise cancelling (ANC) features, and the aforementioned wireless charging case as standard kit.

Presumably, “AirPods Pro Lite” would fit somewhere in between these two, however there doesn’t seem to be a lot of pricing room in between the two current AirPods models.

The same report that suggested a June release for Apple’s “AirPods Max” over-ear headphones also pegged the new AirPods as “AirPods X” offering up a codename of B517 and suggesting that they’d sell for $200 with a design similar to the Beats X, focused on sports and running.

This rumour seemed even more unusual, as Apple has otherwise left the athletic market to its Beats brand thus far, with both last year’s Powerbeats Pro and the more recently released Powerbeats featuring its newest H1 chip that offers most of the same features of the AirPods in a more “sporty” package.

Still, the new “AirPods X” could fill a niche for users who are looking for something a bit different. In fact, even if Apple offered the same better-fitting in-ear design of the AirPods Pro without the active noise cancellation, they could prove to be a popular option at the $199 price point, although Apple would presumably need to omit the wireless charging case as well, since that would be the same price as the current second-gen AirPods sell for with the wireless charging case.

Considering the kind of battery life that AirPods offer it’s easy to see how many users might choose to save a few bucks by foregoing wireless charging. AirPods don’t typically need to be topped up throughout the day, so plugging them in at night isn’t a huge burden. Plus, wireless charging for the AirPods has been kind of hit and miss for many people so far.

Coming in May?

Prolific leaker Jon Prosser, however, who has been on a bit of a roll lately, accurately predicting the April 15th launch of the iPhone SE, suggested that a new set of AirPods was actually supposed to debut at the March event that Apple didn’t hold.

Instead, Prosser suggests, they’re going to be announced by press release in May, alongside the rumoured 13-inch MacBook Pro refresh.

Prosser is notably also the same source who has predicted that Apple’s “AirPods Max” over-ear headphones will be arriving at WWDC in June, but he had previously said that Apple wouldn’t be launching “AirPods X” until this fall, so it’s unclear if he’s talking about yet another new set of AirPods — perhaps a third-generation version of the standard AirPods — or whether he was mistaken about the original fall timeframe. Prosser has also speculated that Apple is planning to shutter its Beats division entirely, but other sources have refuted that claim.

When it comes to AirPods rumours, this year is actually shaping up a lot like last, with conflicting information starting to appear that could certainly suggest that Apple once again has more than one product in the works. Both of the AirPods models released last year came as a bit of a surprise, with the second-generation AirPods arriving earlier than many expected, while the AirPods Pro moved the needle pretty significantly ahead when they arrived later last year with their addition of ANC and a better-fitting design.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]