Anecdotal, one of my colleagues was sounding surprisingly clear on one of the calls, and I had to ask him what is he using. Turns out whose were AirPods Pro 3, so my first impression with their microphone is quite amazing. Comparable to "studio mics from MBP" from a generation or two ago. He shared noise cancellation is also great.
Probably Airpods Pro 3 then and not Airpods 3. The latter have no noise cancellation.
yup, edited my comment, it was Pros
It might also be because newer Bluetooth codecs being used. I think Apple doesn't publish a lot of documentation about it (or it isn't obvious, at least...)
Could be the case, but it is very obvious if someone is using Pros 1 or 2, the audio is really bad. This was honestly such a jump that I somehow wish my Pros 1 to break so I can get new ones :D Can't upgrade from a perfectly working set of headphones, although they are more than four years old and probably my 2nd most used device after the phone.
At first I liked the noise cancellation on the AirPods 4 but after a while I started feeling weird. A weird, fullness in my head. Not very enjoyable.