AirPods Max unveiled: Apple takes on Bose with $549 noise cancelling wireless headphones

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple tree unveiled today the AirPods Max, a $549 pair of noise cancelling wireless headphones that are ready to rival the Bose 700.

These long-rumored headphones were quietly revealed in a press announcement this morning instead of being showcased on the big stage. The AirPods Max flaunt a "custom acoustic design" made of stainless steel and utilise Apple'due south H1 flake. The cans come with all the features you'd look from a premium pair of headphones, including Adaptive EQ, dissonance cancellation, transparency manner and spatial audio.

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"With AirPods Max, we are bringing that magical AirPods experience to a stunning over-ear pattern with high-fidelity sound," said Greg Joswiak, Apple'south senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The custom audio-visual pattern, combined with powerful H1 chips, and advanced software enable AirPods Max to use computational audio to wirelessly deliver the ultimate personal listening experience."

Apple AirPods Max: Price, release date and colors

AirPods Max are available to gild today and will be released on December 15. At $549, these are amid the most expensive headphones marketed toward consumers.

The headphones come in five familiar colors: space gray, silver, sky blueish, green, and pink.

AirPods Max design

The AirPods Max blend a retro artful with mod design cues taken from other Apple products. The company calls the headband a "awning" as it uses a knit mesh material for breathability. Information technology will supposedly distribute weight across your caput to reduce downward pressure, assuasive you to wear them for longer listening sessions.

Taking a page from the Apple tree Sentry and the most premium iPhone models, the headband is made of stainless steel for added durability. And although that is a rigid material, the arms will telescope for dissimilar head sizes. There is no mention of these folding, and so y'all tin't pack them neatly away. Instead, y'all'll need to use the...erm...strange-looking slim Smart Case that comes included (which too puts them in an ultra-depression power country).

Apple tree claims the earcups attach to the headband in a way that balances and distributes pressure while allowing you to pivot and rotate the cups and then they can contour to your confront. The cups use memory foam for comfort and to create a seal against your peel so no sound leaks through.

Some other familiar design element is the Digital Crown found on the bottom of the earcup. This dial lets y'all easily adjust the book but can also play/suspension songs, skip tracks or reply/end telephone calls. And, of course, you can e'er activate Siri for voice commands.

AirPods Max: Sound quality

The AirPods Max apply a 40-millimeter driver that Apple says will "provide rich, deep bass, accurate mid-range and crisp, clean loftier-frequency extension." These are the sorts of claims nosotros hear all the time from audio brands, so don't go too excited simply yet — we'll put these through our listening examination in the days ahead.

That said, at that place are some interesting things going on nether the hood. Apple tree crafted a dual neodymium ring magnet motor (stay with me) that will supposedly go on distortion to less than ane% fifty-fifty at maximum volume. That means yous can blast your tunes without that off-putting fuzzy audio.

Spatial sound should provide a surround sound effect to your music. It tracks your head and places sound in the infinite around yous for content recorded in 5.i, 7.1 or Dolby Atmos.

These besides use the H1 scrap found in the AirPods Pro and PowerBeats Pro. It contains x sound cores and uses computational audio for improved sonics as well as amend ability efficiency and seamless pairing to other Apple products.

AirPods Max features

Premium headphones are expected to do more today than only play music. The AirPods Max accept many of the features you'd await in a pair of modern over-ear headphones.

That starts with active noise counterfoil. Each earcup has 3 outward-facing microphones that detect environmental noise while some other mic inside the cup monitors sounds that reach the listener's ear. The Max so utilise computational audio to suit the racket counterfoil based on the fit of the headphones. The existent test is whether they block out equally much noise every bit the Bose 700.

There is also an adaptive EQ feature that adjusts the sound based on the fit and seal of the headphones. It does this past measuring the audio indicate reaching your ear and tweaking the low and mid-range. While this sounds like a novel idea, purists will hope at that place is a way to turn it off.

Like virtually noise cancelling headphones, the AirPods Max have a transparency mode so you can listen to the environment around you while music is playing. It's a useful feature when you need to chat with a coworker or ask for less ice in your plane cocktail.

AirPods Max: Pairing and voice calls

If y'all own AirPods, then you know how easy information technology is to pair them to your iPhone or MacBook. The AirPods Max continues that tradition with a i-tap setup and automatic pairing to whatever device signed into your iCloud business relationship, including an iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple Watch or Apple TV.

Using sensors built into the headphones, the Max will outset playing music when you put them over your ears and pause tracks when you lift an earcup or accept them off. Apple promises "crisp and articulate" vox calls cheers to the beam-forming mics on the headphones. Again, it will exist going upwards against the Bose 700 in this category.

AirPods Max battery life

One of the biggest weaknesses of AirPods is their brusk battery life, and the AirPods Max fall victim to the same result.

Apple says the AirPods Max last for 20 hours on a charge, which matches the Bose 700, but falls well short of the Sony WH-g XM4'south 30-hour runtime.

AirPods Max outlook

Looking past the $549 price tag, the AirPods Max have a lot of compelling features. The design has a uncomplicated even so striking aesthetic with premium materials, pairing to other Apple products should be effortless, and Apple is making some convincing claims about the sound quality.

But the competition is trigger-happy with the likes of the Bose 700 and Sony WH-1000XM4, and those top competitors can be purchased for less than $350. Apple tree will need to make up the price somewhere, otherwise, the AirPods Max will have much of an appeal beyond the Apple tree fans who will buy them anyhow.

Phillip Tracy is the banana managing editor at Laptop Mag where he reviews laptops, phones and other gadgets while covering the latest industry news. Afterward graduating with a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin, Phillip became a tech reporter at the Daily Dot. There, he wrote reviews for a range of gadgets and covered everything from social media trends to cybersecurity. Prior to that, he wrote for RCR Wireless News covering 5G and IoT. When he's not tinkering with devices, you can observe Phillip playing video games, reading, traveling or watching soccer.