Apple launches Airpods Max with a ‘custom acoustic design’
NEWS
After months of rumours, Apple has announced Airpods Max, the latest member of its headphone line that brings the technology of its popular Airpods earbuds to a new over-ear design to rival highfidelity offerings from Sony, Bose and Beats. And in a nod to Apple’s other ubiquitous wearable, the Apple Watch, the Airpods Max have a Digital Crown to control your music.
The new headphones, which come in five colours to match the ipad Air 4 and cost a whopping £549, include all of the features Apple has brought to the Airpods and Airpods Pro, including active noise cancellation, Transparency mode and spatial audio. The somewhat large cups are wrapped in a ‘breathable knit mesh canopy’ that spans the stainless-steel headband and is designed ‘to distribute weight and reduce on-head pressure’.
That bit is important since the Airpods Max weighs 384.8g, which is significantly more than the £350 Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 (250g), Sony’s £350 WH-1000XM3 (254g), and the £250 Beats Studio 3 (260g).
The ear cups aren’t customizable as was rumoured, but Apple says they attach to the headband “through a revolutionary mechanism that balances and distributes ear cup pressure, and allows it to independently pivot and rotate to fit the unique contours of a user’s head”. A Digital Crown is affixed to the right cup to bring volume control as well as playback and other controls.
Like the second-gen Airpods and Airpods Pro, the Airpods Max are powered by Apple’s H1 chip to bring super-connectivity with low latency and lengthy battery life. Apple says the new headphones feature 20 hours of battery life on a single charge with noise cancellation and spatial audio enabled, but they don’t include a charging case. Instead, you get a soft Smart Case that puts the Airpods Max into an ultra-low
power state to preserve battery between uses.
While you can press the Digital Crown to activate Siri, the Airpods Max also support always-on Siri by voice control. They charge via a Lightning-to-usb-c cable but a power adapter is not included in the box. As with other Airpods models, they can be used as Bluetooth headphones with non-apple devices but Apple warns that functionality is limited.
Apple does offer a Lightning to 3.5mm Audio Cable for those times you want to connect the Airpods Max to a wired connection, like on a plane. The cable can also be used to connect an iphone or ipad with a Lightning port to speakers. It’s £35 from Apple, but yo can find cheaper alternatives online.
The Airpods Max are available to buy now.