Right when we thought the hubbub around Apple Park had died out, the Fruit Company quietly unveils yet another product — the AirPods Max 2. Sure, owners of the current iteration might call it a nothingburger update (the same battery life, really?), but for Apple’s newbies, it’s well worth taking a look for the ANC upgrades alone.
Apple’s gone and stuck the H2 chipset in this here headset, supposedly delivering a swathe of smart features. Those are worth a look, but it’s the promise of “1.5x more effective ANC” that interests us. The Max 2 comes in midnight, starlight, orange, purple, and blue — with pre-orders opening on 25 March in the US.
Maximum effort?
Owners of the first-gen AirPods Max may be even more disappointed to see the same subpar battery life — hovering around the 20h mark with ANC — make a return. Adding to the misery is the news that Apple has stuck with the same 386g weight that proved a nuisance for owners of Apple’s last over-ears.
As for the actual improvements, there are a few. We’ve mentioned the ANC upgrades, but Apple’s promised upgrades to the microphone, calling it “studio-quality”, could mean folks want to have these slung around their necks for longer periods. The H2 chipset also enables more powerful voice isolation during phone calls.
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On top of generally just sounding better than the previous cans — Apple’s words — the Max 2 arrives with upgrades to spatial audio and 24-bit, 48kHz lossless audio. The only catch is that you’ll need to use the USB-C hole to get that quality, sacrificing wireless convenience. But if you’re going wireless, Apple says it has brought lower latency to Game Mode on iOS, macOS, and iPadOS to make it more “immersive”.
It wouldn’t be an Apple product without Apple Intelligence crammed in its tubes, and the AirPods Max 2 is no exception. A bunch of features — Live Translation, personalised volume, and Siri gestures among them — round out the headphones. Buyers in the US can expect to pay $550 (∼R9,200), though Saffas won’t be quite so lucky. The first-gen AirPods Max still demands a hefty R13,000 price. That’s… more than a MacBook Neo.
