Apple AirPods Max 2 review: there’s only one problem (aside from the wacky case)

Introduction

It was a surprise to hear that Apple was launching a second version of the AirPods Max headphones. Aside from a small update to provide USB-C connectivity in 2024, the AirPods Max have remained unchanged since launch in 2020

Whatever points I make in this review, the biggest challenge for the $549/£499 AirPods Max 2 is the strong competition out there combined with Apple’s high pricing of these headphones. Our current high water mark is the excellent Sony WH1000-XM6. But at $400 they are $150 cheaper. And then there’s Apple’s own $350/£350 Beats Studio Pro, which are much better value and have most of the same technology. They may not have the finish of the AirPods Max, but they have a lot of the quality.

Other excellent rivals, such as the $399/£399 Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 or $479/£399 Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3, are also cheaper, boast excellent sound quality and noise-canceling, and have been updated regularly over recent years.

The bottom line is that these are going to have to go some to match the competition.

Design & build: comfortable, but a little heavy

The overall comfort is the best thing about these headphones. They are highly comfortable and can be worn for long periods of time. The weight of the aluminium build was a big criticism of the original AirPods Max, leading to fatigue after longer periods of wear.

This hasn’t changed, but I found the weight distribution OK. At 386g they are considerably more weighty than the 254g Sony WH-1000XM6, for example. I found I could wear them for very long periods at a time, so a big tick there but I haven’t had chance to wear them on a long haul flight as yet.

I’m not sold on the look of them and when I was asked what color I would like for this review I asked for black (midnight) so they didn’t stand out. I think the starlight also looks decent, though I would prefer them in a straight silver.

Aside from midnight and starlight, they also come in blue, purple and a rather peachy-type orange. It is a bit of a shame stronger hues aren’t available in my opinion, but if you’re spending this much on headphones, you want to be able to use them all the time and that probably means going for something more subtle that you can wear in all environments, whether that’s on a bus or at work.

On the top of the right earcup you get the same physical controls that you did on the original AirPods Max – a digital crown like on the Apple Watch for changing volume and play/pause/answer/end call and an additional control for changing between noise cancellation modes and initiating pairing.

Sound quality and noise cancelling: superb audio, near-leading ANC

These headphones have the H2 chip originally introduced in 2022. You would have expected a new version of this hardware to have been introduced by now, but a lot of software features have debuted for it since the AirPods Pro 2 appeared (now in AirPods Pro 3), including live translation and adaptive audio so it’s not as big a deal as it might seem at first. These are available here.

The sound quality and noise cancellation are really great. The noise cancellation is helped by the earcups being quite isolating in the first place – you feel like you’re separated from the world anyway, even in transparency mode. I’d say that’s unusual for over-ear headphones and shows how well the cushions fitted around my ears. There is a little bit of audible noise cancellation hiss if you have nothing playing.

AirPods Max 2 are not capable of wireless lossless audio, which is a shame. Though it is rare for other headphones to support this and it’s not a huge problem in itself, we had expected Apple to have sorted this out for the second version, particularly given their hefty $549 price point. Lossless audio is available if you cable them up via USB-C and the qualty is absolutely stunning when listening to lossless content. I particularly enjoyed the 2023 mix of Dark Side of the Moon during my testing. And of course the Interstellar soundtrack is always good to try. Check out our guide to the best audiophile albums.

Features & battery: a problem case, so-so battery life

The battery life is now only just about OK – rivals are now often giving battery life figures of 30-40 hours and there needs to be improvement here for the AirPods, especially when you can’t manually turn them off. A 5 minute fast charge will get you around 1.5 hours of listening and you can fully juice them in around two hours.

When it was debuted, the kindest thing you could say about the AirPods Max Smart Case is that you could say it was innovative. It is not at all smart as it is just a piece of rubberised material. But the issue for me is that it is not fit for purpose. It doesn’t protect the most delicate piece of the headphones, which is the mesh between the two headphone parts. It’s no wonder there is a healthy market for third-party cases.

The fact the headphones need the case to put them to deep sleep is limiting, especially with the 20 hours of battery life remaining the same (10 hours less than the Sony WH1000-XM6).

They will apparently sleep if they are stationary for 5 minutes but they don’t go into a deep sleep for 72 hours (18 hours if they are inside the Smart Case).

You don’t always have the case with you after all, and you may find yourself buying a cheap second case just to keep in a second bag or at another location such as your office.

Interface: excellent integration

As with other Apple headphones, they’re deeply integrated with Apple software so you can change the noise cancellation/transparency setting, volume (of course) as well as checking on battery life. They’ll also auto-switch to different devices which can be a blessing and a curse – you can easily stop them switching if you don’t want them to move across to your laptop while listening to music on your phone.

Setup is absolutely seamless as you’d expect and you go through numerous screens like the one above. This is a little overbearing if you don’t have the time to go through them, but Apple clearly reasons there’s no time like the present. These include but aren’t limited to Personalised Volume, gesture controls, conversation awareness, live translation (with languages you choose), lossless audio through USB-C. how to use the controls and how to use them with the iOS Control Centre. Quite a lot on offer – all of which you can control in Settings, too, as you can see below.

You can set up the controls as you wish – so I have a double-press to end a call for example, and camera remote off. Camera Remote is really good if you are on a shoot or similar, but it interferes too much with other things, so I leave it off at other times. All these features are common to the AirPods Pro 2/3 as well.

Naturally, you can also choose whether or not the AirPods Max 2 are tracked by Find My, too.

Apple AirPods Max 2 verdict

The AirPods Max 2 are a welcome update, even if they don’t bring a lot of change to Apple’s flagship headphones. The changes – particularly with the H2 chip – do make these headphones better.

The noise canceling and sound quality are great. The design remains a grower. But there are real disappointments. You just can’t get away from the fact these are priced way higher than many of Stuff’s five-star-rated headphones. The case is a real drawback, both in terms of protection and general usability.

The battery life being average by 2026 standards makes this worse as well, because if the battery life was double, you wouldn’t be so concerned about the headphones going to sleep and therefore you wouldn’t be worried about putting them in the case to preserve battery life.

The experience of owning the AirPods Max 2 is still excellent in spite of these drawbacks and while you could say that the battery life and case mean it doesn’t bag our Recommended or Highly Recommended awards, it’s the price that really means I can’t award them a fifth star.

Apple AirPods Max 2 technical specifications