Review: Apple AirPods Max 2

On a recent trip, I accidentally booked my family to fly on a de Havilland propeller plane. If there’s anything I hate more than flying, it’s flying on a tiny plane sitting next to giant propeller blades that are, improbably, the only things that keep you from crashing into the ground. I immediately pulled out the AirPods Max 2 ($549) and put them on to block out the overwhelming buzzing whirr. When I looked up, three other people had pulled out their own pairs.

Yes, the updated version of the 2020 AirPods Max is iterative. Yes, the only reason I knew the woman two rows ahead of me had the old version instead of the new one was that the new one doesn’t come in green anymore. But the AirPods Max design is instantly recognizable. Even the Sony WH-1000XM6, the best headphones, look more or less like every other pair. It takes a second—or third—look to see if someone really is wearing a pair of premium headphones or a pair of gorgeous cheap ones.

Photograph: Adrienne So

The Apple AirPods Max 2 will never require a second glance. This year’s iteration is basically stuffing the headphones with all the new software that landed in the AirPods Pro 3. They have Siri, Live Translation, head-based gestures, and more, along with some of the best noise-canceling on the market, deep bass, and shimmering highs. If you’re an iPhone owner with $549, there is just no reason to get another pair of over-ear headphones besides these.

What's Old Is New Again

I have the OG AirPods Max and yes, the two look exactly the same. They have the same milled aluminum casing, magnetic replaceable (and repairable) ear cups, the button and dial on the right ear cup, and the mesh headband (that Apple calls “the canopy”) that looks like a Herman Miller Aeron chair. Yes, they’re still two ounces heavier than every other headphone, but the canopy goes a long way towards making them feel lighter than they are.

And yes, they still come in the soft, magnetic, bra smart case. I understand why Apple uses this case. You can carry the headphones easily by just sliding the canopy onto your wrist; they’re easier to pull out of a bag. The canopy is tough enough to take whatever treatment you can dish out. I shoved the AirPods Max 2 into an overstuffed Wandrd Prvke Pocket ($245) and kicked it under airplane seats, and there’s no damage at all.

Photograph: Adrienne So

Still, the case is related to the one major downside of these headphones. There’s still no power off button, so the only way to turn the headphones off is by putting them into the case and carrying it around with you. The headphones go into low power mode if you leave them alone for 5 minutes, but mostly the battery is constantly, slowly draining. I put them on at 3 pm when I boarded my flight, kept them around my neck, pulled them on and off to watch movies or listen to music in between taking care of my kids. By the time I got home at 8 pm, the battery was down to 50 percent.

I got about two days of battery life per charge, with about 15 hours of active listening that includes noise cancellation. This is the headphones' most embarrassing flaw, when the Sony WH-1000XM6 have 30 hours of listening and a convenient power button that lets you extend the life of the battery by turning it off when, you know, you're just wearing them around your neck.

This is an Apple problem, not unique to the company’s headphones. The Apple Watch and iPhone have also struggled historically with battery life, but that’s partly due to advanced mission creep. Aside from USB-C charging and the new H2 chip (that’s also in the AirPods Pro 3), the main upgrades to the AirPods Max 2 are software-related.

It's All Inside

You can’t really talk about the AirPods Max 2 without talking about all the ways that the headphones integrate with iOS. Yes, the noise canceling has improved (it blocked out about 80 percent of the propeller blade noise and 60 percent of my terror), but a ton of the new software that showed up in the AirPods Pro 3 is now in the AirPods Max 2.

Live translation is still in beta and still working out of a lot of the kinks. (It was painful to watch my phone puzzle over the most rudimentary sentences when my son and I spoke in Spanish.) But many of the other new interactions are much easier to use. I can shake my head yes or no to respond to Siri’s questions or use the button as a camera remote to take selfies (as I did here!).

Photograph: Adrienne So

Personalized spatial audio is enjoyable when watching movies on Apple TV+; I watched three Mission: Impossible movies on my iPhone 16 while traveling and developed a new appreciation for both exploding cars and Tom Cruise’s dry sense of humor. Adaptive Audio and Conversation Awareness are fast and fluid. I usually turn these on while I’m walking my dog. I’ve been able to respond quickly to my neighbors without the usual “What? What?” interaction that usually starts off every conversation with them while I'm wearing headphones.

The Bluetooth connection has also been improved, from Bluetooth 5.0 to Bluetooth 5.3. As anyone who has ever experienced having 45 different strangers’ headphones pop up on your iPhone in an airport, the improvement in connection stability is the most noticeable in Bluetooth-heavy environments; I didn’t notice any dropouts. You can also now plug the headphones into your phone to reduce latency and for better sound quality, which is a bit useless for me since I’m one of the vast majority for whom lossless audio makes no difference.

As far as the sound goes: These are some of the best-sounding headphones I’ve ever tried. (I compared them in listening tests with the Sonos Ace.) Anything with a big bass line sounds amazing with Apple headphones, and that iconic “headbanger” intro to Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” vibrated right through my skull without sounding muddy.

Photograph: Adrienne So

The main criticism of the AirPods Max line in general is that the highs are painfully bright, but I didn’t notice this with Kacey Musgraves’ pure, clear vocals on “Everybody Wants to Be a Cowboy”. I could also enjoy the full speed and articulation of Billy Strings’ intricate fingerpicking. Dance music also sounds incredible—I loved the big brass in La Roux’s Trouble in Paradise and also found myself listening to a lot of Robyn’s Sexistential. There's still no manually adjustable EQ, so you better be happy with how it sounds because you're not changing it.

As is the case with most Apple products, if you already own a pair of the OG AirPods Max, you don't really need to shell out the money to upgrade. However, if you own an iPhone and you've been considering whether to get these, the Sony pair, or the Bose, you should probably just get these.

They sound amazing; they block out the whirring of the giant propeller blades of death and your children shrieking while playing Paper Mario in the next room. They now come with a whole new set of software upgrades that make them, along with the AirPods Pro 3, the most useful headphones for iOS.

And if this matters to you—it probably does, since you're reading this review—the AirPods Max 2 still look and feel totally different from every other headphone around. Why mess with a design that anyone can still spot at 100 yards away? I wish they still came in green, though.