Image via Apple
“AirPods are the most popular headphones in the world,” says Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. AirPods are one of Apple’s best selling products, so it only made sense to add to the family, with the $549 AirPods Max.
The new design is available in five colors: silver, space gray, sky blue, pink, and green, and the unique design really makes the AirPods Max stand out (kind of like the AirPods did when they first dropped). The knit mesh canopy is made to distribute weight and reduce on-head pressure and it really makes a difference. The Telescoping arms allow you to adjust the headphones easily and they stay in place.
After spending a day with these on, listening to music and watching the Euphoria holiday special, these might be my staple headphones for a while. Here’s why.
Listening to “Blinding Lights (Remix)” by The Weeknd & ROSALÍA is an experience. It’s the synths for me. But really, you can hear every detail in the song, and for a second I don’t feel like I’m in my Brooklyn apartment.
The single press of the noise control button on top of the right ear cup lets you move between Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode. No need to change the setting on your device anymore.
The Digital Crown, similar to the one on the Apple Watch, allows you to control the volume, answer calls, and skip songs.
Now, let’s talk about the best feature: the spatial audio with dynamic head tracking. This is the closest I have felt to being in a theater in almost a year (and the closest I might get for a while). While watching the latest Euphoria special, it sounded like I was in the diner with Rue and Ali. Head tracking really immerses you in the show or movie; you feel surrounded by it.
AirPods Max have 20 hours of battery life, but unlike the other AirPods, the case does not charge them. The sleek Smart Case does put the AirPods Max in an ultralow power state to preserve the charge.
The AirPods Max continues to have some of my favorite AirPods features. As soon as you connect your AirPods Max to one device, every device in your iCloud account gets automatically paired. Time saver. Second, automatic switching is a function I don’t want to live without. With the AirPods Max, you can switch between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac in no time. You can end a FaceTime call on your laptop and go back to listening to a podcast on your phone, and it switches over right away.
These are nearly $300 more than the AirPods Pro, and more expensive than similar headphones on the market. But I haven’t been to a show in months and I can finally hear Ariana Grande say, “Math class. Never was good,” at the end of “34+35,” so that’s a plus for me.