Apple AirPods Max 2 in for review

Today we have with us the new Apple AirPods Max 2 headphones. This is the newest generation of Apple’s flagship audio product, and promises some notable improvements to its performance over its predecessors, while still remaining largely familiar.

That’s right, predecessors. The AirPods Max 2 is the third product in the series, as there is also the non-demarcated model Apple released back in 2024 that replaced the Lightning port on the original model with USB-C, and brought some new colors, which have been carried over to the AirPods Max 2. Let’s just call that the AirPods Max 1.5.

The packaging for the AirPods Max 2 is fairly simple; you get the headphones bundled within the Smart Case, and a USB-C cable. You won’t be able to tell from the midnight color variant we have here, but the Smart Case is color-matched, which means it will match the color of the other variants if you pick one of those up instead of just being black. The USB-C cable, on the other hand, isn’t color-matched, which is disappointing since we have seen Apple do color-matched cables for its other products. You are spending $549 for these headphones, so a few niceties like that aren’t too much to expect, especially considering how spartan the rest of the packaging is.

The design of the AirPods Max 2 has remained unchanged from the original model launched over five years ago at this point, and since even the colors are identical to the AirPods Max 1.5, the AirPods Max 2 don’t really look any different or fresh from something you could have bought almost two years ago. In the same vein, the much maligned Smart Case is also unchanged, and Apple still does not provide a full-size case with these headphones.

As for what’s changed, Apple promises two key improvements over the previous variants. The active noise cancellation performance has been improved, and Apple claims 1.5x more effectiveness than before. This is brought about by the inclusion of the new Apple H2 chip, which is also found on the AirPods Pro 2 and some of the Beats products. Apple also claims to have improved the audio quality thanks to a new high dynamic range amplifier.

Of course, the inclusion of the H2 chip means there will also be improvements in other areas, such as in audio latency, microphone performance, and support for features like Live Translation. Unfortunately, there is no improvement in the battery life, which remains at 20 hours.

We will be getting into more details regarding the performance, comfort, and actual battery life in our full review, so stay tuned!