Skip to main content

Marshall’s latest earbuds take direct aim at Apple AirPods, AirPods Pro

Whether you’re an Apple fan or not, it remains the most influential company when it comes to true wireless earbuds, and Marshall is using that to its advantage with the launch of two new models that are designed to compete directly with the AirPods and AirPods Pro: The $129 Marshall Minor III and $199 Marshall Motif ANC. You can pre-order the Motif ANC today from Marshall, with sales starting on September 30. The Minor III can be purchased starting today.

Apple’s earbuds are incredibly popular, but the company has remained content to only offer them in white. That preserves the instantly recognizable look of Apple’s products, but it doesn’t do much for people who would prefer something a little more stylish. And style has always been Marshall’s strong suit. Leveraging the classic guitar amp heritage of the Marshall brand, the Minor III and Motif ANC are the stylistic equivalent of giving Apple’s earbuds a rock ‘n’ roll bad boy makeover.

The Minor III and Motif ANC’s features will feel very familiar to Apple fans. The Minor III offer a dead-simple wireless experience, with a set of buds that have an open shape instead of silicone eartips. Shape-wise, they’re nearly identical to the AirPods. Even their wireless charging case uses the same flip-top size and shape. Marshall claims the Minor III “will blow you away” with 12mm drivers that are custom-tuned to deliver enhanced bass, smooth mids, and clear highs.

That’s hopefully no overstatement, because other than sound and style, the Minor III are incredibly bare-bones. There’s no app for EQ adjustments or control customization, and while they mimic the AirPods’ auto-pause feature when you remove an earbud, they don’t have any way of letting you trigger a voice assistant like Siri or Google Assistant. The controls are limited to play/pause, call answer/end, and track skip forward/back. Battery life is nearly identical to the AirPods (five hours per charge, 25 hours total time with the case included), and even their protection from water (IPX4) is the same as Apple’s buds.

Sticking with the cooler-than-Apple theme, the Motif ANC offer an AirPods Pro experience. You get active noise cancellation (ANC) and transparency modes, both of which can be tuned within the Marshall app, as well as adjustable EQ, and control customization. Unlike the Minor III, you can choose to trigger your voice assistant through a long-press of the Motif’s touch controls or flip between three different EQ modes.

The charging case, which once again looks a lot like Apple’s but dressed in textured black plastic, offers wireless charging. Battery life appears to be nearly the same as the AirPods Pro: 4.5 hours per charge with ANC on, and 20 hours of extra life within the charging case, but water protection is slightly better (IPX5 versus IPX4).

Marshall tends to charge a premium for its products compared to other brands, but in this case, the company has decided to provide a lower-cost set of alternatives to Apple’s products. Are they worth considering? Marshall’s first true wireless earbuds, the Mode II, delivered big sound and plenty of style, but we found them to be overpriced. If the Motif ANC and Minor III have found a better balance, they could be an excellent option — we’ll let you know as soon as we try them out.

Editors' Recommendations

Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like…
Can you use AirPods Pro without eartips? The answer may surprise you
Apple AirPods Pro 2 seen with ear tip removed.

Apple sells three versions of its super-popular wireless earbuds: The original AirPods, now in their second generation (thus AirPods 2), the third-gen version of the AirPods (which we’ve opted to call the AirPods 3), and the second-gen AirPods Pro (or AirPods Pro 2 for greater clarity). While there are a lot of differences between these models, people invariably notice the physical differences most of all, specifically the presence of silicone eartips on the AirPods Pro 2, and their absence on the AirPods 2 and 3. And that eventually leads to the question, can you use the AirPods Pro without those eartips, and if you did, what would happen?

Before I answer that, let’s quickly review why the AirPods Pro have eartips in the first place. The main purpose of eartips on any set of wireless earbuds is to create a seal around the entrance to your ear canal. This has several benefits:

Read more
Soundcore’s latest earbuds steal some of Apple’s smartest features
Soundcore Liberty 4.

Soundcore is revamping its lineup of wireless earbuds with a new naming convention and a lot of new features. The Liberty 4 is technically the latest version of the company's popular Liberty Air earbuds, but the "Air" portion of the name is now history. They'll be priced at $150 when they go on sale in October.

Design-wise, the Liberty 4 will look very familiar to Soundcore fans. They maintain the same elongated-stem shape from the previous models and their wirelessly capable charging case uses the same sliding lid mechanism that the company first used on the Liberty Pro. But if you look a little closer at those stems, you'll see the first big change: a small set of flattened areas. Instead of touch controls, these are the same force controls seen on the Apple AirPods Pro, and they work the same way, with a squeeze-to-click gesture.

Read more
Apple AirPods Pro 2 vs. AirPods Pro: What’s new?
Apple AirPods Pro 2 next to first-gen AirPods Pro.

If you were a loyal AirPods Pro user waiting for the next-gen to drop, we have good news for you. Apple finally launched the upgraded, second-generation AirPods Pro at their September 2022 event, leaving fans wondering if the new version is worth the investment. To make the decision easier for you, we break down the major differences between the new AirPods Pro 2 and their predecessor so you can clearly see what's new and decide if you'd like to pick up a pair of the new buds. But let's be honest, this second-generation of AirPods Pro basically pick up where their sibling left off and pretty much make them better in every way. For comparison's sake, though, here we go.  
Further AirPods Pro 2 reading

AirPods Pro 2 vs. Sony WF-1000XM4
AirPods Pro 2 vs. Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro
AirPods Pro 2 vs. Google Pixel Buds Pro
AirPods Pro 2 review 
Should you upgrade to the AirPods Pro 2?

Read more