AirPod Maxes

AirPods Max are Apple’s premium over-ear wireless headphones, introduced in December 2020 as the company’s first major step into high-end audio gear beyond its popular earbuds. Designed with a sleek, minimalist aesthetic, they feature an anodized aluminum ear cup, a stainless steel headband frame, and a breathable knit mesh canopy for comfort during long listening sessions.

Inside, the AirPods Max house 40-mm custom-designed dynamic drivers and Apple’s H1 chip in each ear cup, enabling computational audio—a technology that uses advanced algorithms to optimize sound in real time. They support Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) to block out external sounds, Transparency Mode to let in ambient noise when needed, and spatial audio with dynamic head tracking for an immersive surround-sound experience, especially when paired with Apple devices.

They connect seamlessly via Bluetooth, integrate tightly with Apple’s ecosystem, and automatically switch between iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Battery life reaches up to 20 hours with ANC and spatial audio enabled. Apple offers them in multiple colors, including space gray, silver, sky blue, green, and pink, and each pair comes with a Smart Case designed to preserve battery life when not in use.

At launch, AirPods Max retailed for $549 USD, positioning them against top competitors like the Sony WH-1000XM4 and Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700—but with a distinctly Apple-style focus on build quality, design, and ecosystem integration.