AirPods 5 start at Dh539 in UAE with stronger noise cancellation

AirPods 5 start at Dh539 with stronger ANC and UAE availability from September 18

Last updated: September 09, 2026 | 21:58

Nivetha Dayanand, Assistant Business Editor

2 MIN READ

AirPods 5 start at Dh539 in UAE with stronger noise cancellation

Dubai: Apple has introduced AirPods 5 with prices starting at Dh539, bringing Active Noise Cancellation to its most affordable AirPods and promising up to 50% greater external noise reduction compared with AirPods 4 with ANC.

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Customers can pre-order AirPods 5 now, with the earbuds reaching stores on Friday, September 18. A second version with a Wireless Charging Case costs Dh629 and adds longer battery life and on-stem volume controls.

The new open-ear earbuds use a multiport acoustic architecture and next-generation Adaptive EQ, while Apple has also improved dust, sweat and water resistance.

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Noise cancellation gets an upgrade

AirPods 5 remove up to 50% more external noise than AirPods 4 with ANC, according to Apple, using the redesigned acoustic architecture and updated computational audio algorithms.

Transparency mode has also been updated to reproduce voices and nearby sounds more naturally, while Adaptive Audio switches between Transparency mode and ANC depending on the surrounding environment.

Conversation Awareness automatically lowers media volume when the wearer begins speaking to someone nearby.

Wireless charging model adds longer battery life

The Dh629 AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case offer up to five hours of playback with ANC switched on from a single charge, one hour longer than AirPods 4 with ANC.

Total listening time with ANC reaches up to 22 hours when used with the charging case, which supports Apple Watch chargers, Qi-compatible wireless chargers and USB-C.

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Also Read: Apple unveils AirPods Max 2 with stronger noise cancellation and smarter features

The higher-priced model also introduces volume swipe controls to Apple’s open-ear AirPods, allowing users to adjust volume by moving a finger up or down the stem.

Sound redesigned across different ear shapes

Apple said the new multiport acoustic architecture and Adaptive EQ are designed to provide richer and more detailed sound across a wider range of ear geometries.

Personalised Spatial Audio is also supported, while users can respond to Siri using head gestures.

AirPods 5 can be used with Live Translation on compatible Apple devices running the latest operating system software, provided Apple Intelligence is switched on and the feature is supported in the user’s language and region.

Apple Intelligence arrives September 14

Apple Intelligence will become available with iOS 27 on Monday, September 14, for supported devices and languages.

Siri AI will also begin rolling out in beta on September 14 for users with supported devices set to English, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish support due in October.

Apple said full AirPods 5 functionality requires the earbuds to be paired with an Apple device running the latest operating system software.

Nivetha DayanandAssistant Business Editor

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.