Apple Newsroom:

Apple today announced AirPods Max 2, bringing even better Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), elevated sound quality, and intelligent features to the iconic over-ear design. Powered by H2, features like Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Voice Isolation, and Live Translation come to AirPods Max for the first time. The new AirPods Max also unlock creative possibilities for podcasters, musicians, and content creators, with useful features like studio-quality audio recording and camera remote.

“With the incredible performance of H2, AirPods Max are upgraded with up to 1.5x more effective ANC for the ultimate all-day listening experience,” said Eric Treski, Apple’s director of Audio Product Marketing. “The sound quality is remarkably clean, rich, and acoustically detailed — and when combined with capabilities like Personalized Spatial Audio, AirPods Max 2 deliver a profoundly immersive experience.”

Three and a half years after the H2’s introduction in the second-generation AirPods Pro, Apple finally ran out of H1 processors and updated the AirPods Max with the new system-on-a-chip. The improvements — better noise cancellation and “intelligent features” — are all powered by the H2, and there appear to be no other hardware differences compared to the USB Type-C variant released in 2024. Before Monday’s surprise announcement, I honestly thought Apple would discontinue the AirPods Max, but it probably decided to keep them around because they make such an enormous profit.

There are plenty of infuriating things about the AirPods Max — I say as a disgruntled owner of a first-generation pair I excitedly bought in 2020 before sending them in for repairs six times throughout their warranty period. AirPods Max are easily the most unreliable Apple product since the HomePod, thanks to their metal design, which invites condensation inside the ear cups. This condensation corrodes the headband connectors through two inconveniently placed holes used to detach the headband from the cups, rendering the headphones dysfunctional after a few months of regular use. (The solution to this is to wipe the cups dry every few hours, or tape the holes sealed. I learned this the hard way.)

The metal design also makes the headphones extraordinarily uncomfortable. They’re heavy, unsuitable for exercise, and place an enormous clamping force on a user’s head to ensure the headphones aren’t pulled to the ground by gravity. Using them for more than five hours at a time almost always causes a headache. And the headband — affectionately called a “canopy” in marketing materials — is made of a soft, elastic mesh that loses its shape and elasticity after a few years, causing the hard stainless steel headband to pick up the slack and support the headphones’ weight. An out-of-warranty headband replacement costs about half the price of the headphones. (This is why I seldom wear mine nowadays.)

I could go on with my qualms about recommending the AirPods Max. I think they’re one of the worst, most overpriced Apple products on sale, and I’m disappointed — yet unsurprised — that Apple didn’t take this time to address the product’s glaring flaws. It makes sense: the AirPods Max are hugely popular among affluent people. Take a flight from anywhere in America to a big city — Chicago, Miami, or heaven forbid, New York to San Francisco — and half of the first-class and premium-economy cabins will be wearing them. TikTokers and YouTubers wear them in their videos, and gym-goers — despite their discomfort — too. The AirPods Max are a status symbol, and people are happy to spend $550 to own a status symbol. They don’t care that the product is poorly made, dysfunctional, uncomfortable, or lagging behind the competition.

The only objective thing the AirPods Max truly have going for them is sound quality. They really do sound excellent. But Apple could’ve warranted the $550 price and prestige if it had introduced an H3 processor in this refresh (for even better fidelity) and modified some of the materials for a more comfortable fit. The AirPods Max are one of those Apple products that have a lot of headroom — both monetarily and in the room-for-improvement sense — and I guess I’m disappointed Apple doesn’t take advantage of that. It could do a lot for $550. Until it does, please do not purchase these headphones.