Honor’s Earbuds 3 Pro come with built-in temperature monitoring

Along with its 100W charging-capable Magic 4 phone, Honor has announced new Earbuds 3 Pro that include built-in temperature monitoring technology. According to Honor, this technology is an industry first, that owners can experience once the €199 buds are released.

Temperature monitoring, among other signals, has become especially important to tracking someone’s health during the pandemic, and checking your temperature at home using infrared ear thermometers is already widely available. Wearables incorporating temperature monitoring sounds like something that isn’t far off, and the idea even reportedly caught Apple’s eye while developing updates to its AirPods.

Image: Honor

Wearers can tap the buds three times to activate temperature monitoring, with continuous measurement and even an “abnormal temperature alert.” However, a footnote mentions that there are “not for any medical purpose,” and that for now, the device is for demonstration purposes only until it has been brought into compliance with related regulations.

The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Apple was looking into adding the feature in its AirPods, making the product a part of its growing platform of health tech. An earlier rumor mentioned temperature monitoring as a feature for the Apple Watch Series 7, but it wasn’t there when the device launched in September.

Though these Earbuds 3 Pro aren’t likely to be sold in the US, the product could be an indicator that the approach is realistic. UK startup Bodytrak showed off its own temperature-monitoring earbuds a few years ago, but they don’t appear to be production-ready yet.

Honor didn’t provide many details while announcing the earbuds at MWC 2022 but confirmed a few other features outside of the temperature monitoring. The Earbuds 3 Pro’s basic features include adaptive active noise cancellation (ANC) that will adjust for the wearer depending on their listening environment. The earbuds will have 11mm dynamic driver with enhanced sound details and bass and claim to have up to 24 hours of battery life before their charging case is fully discharged, as well as fast charging that can provide two hours of music playback with just five minutes of charging.