AirPods Max review: the wireless headphones gamechanger
Apple's most stunning and versatile headphones
🏆 Review score: 4.5 out of 5
🏅 Editor’s Choice Award
✅ Pros
🎶 Fantastic audio quality with deep bass, crisp mids, and bright highs
🎥 Immersive spatial sound modes are better than everyone else
🐦 Natural-sounding, crystal-clear transparency mode
📐 Exceptional build quality and design aesthetics
🎧 Comfortable and well-balanced fit
🎵 USB-C lossless audio and low-latency audio
🔋 Low power modes maintain battery life
❌ Cons
💲 $50-100 more expensive than all its competition
🧳 Smart case covers only 50% of the headphones
💰 The older Lightning Edition is often $399 or less
🫥 USB-C to 3.5mm cable not included
💽 Only basic ACC and SBC codec support
🤖 Android users don’t get Spatial Audio or device switching
🦗 Charging issue requires a factory reset
The Shortcut Review
The AirPods Max were so ahead of their time that they’re still exceptional five years later after originally launching in 2020. The audio quality of these headphones is excellent across the board, from the deep bass to crisp vocals, while the highs are bright and detailed. If you want to tune the sound of these headphones, you’ll have to dive deep into the accessibility settings on an Apple device or be left to the mercy of Apple’s default Adaptive EQ. However, the out-of-the-box sound profile is so well balanced that I’m more than happy to listen to these headphones without any tweaking.
What else makes AirPods Max so impressive is that they still deliver the best spatial sound I’ve heard. The fixed spatial sound mode puts you right in the center of a concert and movies. Activating head tracking only intensifies the immersion level, as you can hear the sound field twist as you move around, and it intensifies as you move towards your audio source. The support for lossless and low-latency audio over USB-C is still rare, and this feature helps unlock the true potential of the AirPods Max.
For everything the AirPods Max do spectacularly, there are better headphones for portability, battery life, and noise cancelling. It’s taken years for companies to catch up, but I wholly recommend the Sony WH-1000XM6 as better noise-cancelling headphones. Meanwhile, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra is far more portable, lasts 10 hours longer, and can go into low-power standby for months. If you mostly connect your wireless headphones to an Android phone, Chromebook, Windows laptop, or airplane screen, there are more affordable and better alternatives.
That said, if you’re heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem with an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac, the AirPods Max are a more than worthy investment for $499. The automatically switching connection between almost all Apple devices is magical, and the audio quality of these headphones is superb. You can also find refurbished AirPods Max with Lightning for $399, though these models don’t support lossless audio over a wired connection.
Full Review
🔊 Fantastic audio quality. The sound profile of the AirPods Max is full of life with rich bass and exceptional highs. Mids sound crisp, making vocals exceptionally clear, so you’ll rarely have to read song lyrics or turn on subtitles for movies/TV. The AirPods Max easily have the best well-rounded sound profile out of the box, which is a good thing because it doesn’t have a traditional customizable equalizer. If you really want to tweak the sound of the AirPods Max, you can dive into the Accessibility settings to tune the audio for a balanced tone, a wider vocal range, or more brightness, as well as boost soft sounds.
🏟️ Orchestra sound. While other audio brands have added spatial audio modes to their headphones, the AirPods Max are still ahead of the game. With just Fixed Spatial Audio, these headphones reorient the soundstage to surround you rather than just from two left and right drivers. Apple’s head-tracking spatial sound is even more impressive, as the sound not only moves as you turn your head but also intensifies when you move towards your audio source. Watching movies and shows on a MacBook Pro or iPad with the AirPods Max is a real treat, too, as you can get most of the Dolby Atmos experience with these headphones.
🛩️ Ready for takeoff. Noise-cancelling on the AirPods Max blocks out most low-frequency sounds, such as the hum of an airplane or the rumble of a train. Unfortunately, it falters when blocking higher frequencies, so I can still hear sirens and voices through these headphones, especially in a busy restaurant or café. Voices are the most challenging thing to cut out, and even the brand-new Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Gen 2 partially struggles in this area. So far, only the Sony WH-1000XM6 has been able to block out almost all sound across every frequency.
It sadly comes down to the fact that the AirPods Max USB-C still features the same noise-cancelling as the original AirPods Max Lightning Edition released in 2020. Apple has made huge noise-cancelling improvements with the AirPods Pro 2 (2022) and AirPods Pro 3 (2025), so I hope the eventual AirPods Max sequel will, in turn, be upgraded to block out everything effectively.
🐦 Natural transparency. Apple’s transparency mode is by far the best I’ve heard. It sounds perfectly natural, like I’m not wearing headphones at all. Whether it’s the sound of a police siren or relaying voices, you’ll be able to hear the world around you when you want to. The hear-through mode on the AirPods Max also lacks the telltale hiss and digital noise that bothers me on other headphones. The AirPods Max truly have a best-in-class transparency mode.
Features
🔀 Better than multipoint. Switching audio between Apple devices is so seamless that it makes Bluetooth multipoint seem like an old-school telegram by comparison. I can seamlessly transition from listening to music, playing a video on my iPad, and then working on a podcast on my MacBook, all without having to switch between or stop playback on any device manually.
The only thing that ruins this perfect system is that the Apple TV 4K overrides the headphone’s connection to all my other devices. Still, it’s an overall step above Bluetooth Multipoint, which always required pausing the audio on one device before I could start playback on something else.
🎶 Lossless audio. Wired connections might sound antithetical to a pair of wireless headphones, but connecting a cable unlocks lossless and ultra-low latency audio on the AirPods Max. You can enjoy up to 24-bit/48 kHz lossless audio just by connecting the AirPods Max to any USB-C device, whether you’re playing FLAC files or listening to Apple Music and Spotify. The AirPods even support 24-bit/192kHz audio quality if you have a powerful enough DAC to handle the extra bandwidth.
🎮 Game-ready low-latency. The low-latency audio from the AirPods Max, connected to my Asus ROG Xbox Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go 2, makes games like Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 feel luxurious. Not only do I get audiophile-grade game audio, but the hardwired connection also helps reduce the lag time of audio coming over the headphones, ensuring that every sniper rifle shot cracks right as I fire.
Design and comfort
📐 Trendsetter. I’ve never handled a product as well-built as the AirPods Max. I’m enamoured with almost every design element of the AirPods Max, including the immaculate weave of the earcup cushions, the innovative ball-jointed yokes, and the way the headband mesh actually curves downwards. Yes, the back of the AirPods Max’s earcups looks like a blown-up Apple Watch Series 7, complete with a digital crown, and the case is more like a sleeve that only protects the metal earcups. But you can’t deny that the AirPods Max don’t have an immediately recognizable silhouette and design.
🎧 Heavy, but you won’t notice. All those premium materials, especially metal, add up to a higher weight of 13.6 ounces vs the Sony XM6 (8.96 ounces) and Bose QC Ultra Gen 2 (9.33 ounces). However, the AirPods Max actually don’t feel any heavier, thanks to how they distribute their weight on my head. The headphones clamp firmly around your ears, while the headband acts more like a guide to keep the headphones upright on the top of your head. This fit makes the AirPods Max as comfortable as a pair of earmuffs
🥵 Sweaty ears. I’ve worn a lot of different headphones, and only the AirPods Max have caused my ears to sweat after hours of use. Interestingly, this is the case even though these headphones feature fabric ear cup cushions, unlike the synthetic leather on the Sony XM6, Bose QC Ultra Gen 2, and most other headphones. Fabric should be a more breathable material, but because of the tight seal the AirPods Max creates around my ears, it’s actually less breathable than other headphones.
Battery life
🪫 Battery life. The AirPods Max’s 20 hours of battery life falls short of the 30 hours you can get from other wireless headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Gen 2. That said, these headphones can still last for four to five days of casual listening. You’ll be able to get through a round-trip cross-country flight even if you forget to top them off completely.
⚡Fast charging. Recharging is very fast, although this is partly due to the AirPods Max’s lower total energy capacity. According to our tests:
15 minutes of charging returns 19% of the battery life
30 minutes of charging restores 44% of the battery life
⏻ Sans power button. The AirPods Max don’t really ever turn off, and it’s not just because they don’t have a power button. These headphones, instead, switch to a low-power state after sitting idle for a few minutes, or as soon as you put them into their smart case. From there, the headphones enter an even lower power state, which turns off Bluetooth and Find My after 18 hours in the case or 72 hours when out of the case. Impressively, these headphones will power right back on and reconnect as soon as you put them back on your ears. If you’re the type of person who always forgets to turn off your headphones, this solution might actually work better for you, and I see almost no battery drain even if I haven’t plugged in the AirPods Max for days.
🔄 Factory reset to charge. When I first pulled the AirPods Max out of their box, I couldn’t get them to turn on or charge. It turns out that this is a fairly common issue affecting these headphones, and the solution is to perform a factory reset while they are plugged in. There’s also a chance the AirPods Max can become so unresponsive that I’ll have to freeze them, but I haven’t encountered that issue yet.
Should you buy the AirPods Max?
✅ Yes, if…
🎶 You want to hear better sounding audio from your iPhone, iPad, MacBook, or Apple TV
🎛️ You want high-quality audio without needing to mess with equalizer curves
🐦 You want over-ear headphones that still let you hear your surroundings
🎧 You want the most premium set of headphones
⏻ You always forget to turn off your headphones
🔊 You want lossless audio and low-latency audio
❌ No, if…
🧳 You want a more portable pair of headphones (get the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Gen 2 instead)
🔋 You want a pair of headphones with longer battery life (get the Nothing Headphone 1 instead)
🚫 You want better noise-cancelling headphones (get the Sony WH-1000XM6 instead)
🏋🏻♂️ You’re looking for headphones to work out with (get the Beats Powerbeats Fit instead)
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.
The transparancy mode being so natural is a huge deal that doesn't get talked about enough. Most headphones have that wierd digital hiss you mentioned. The wired lossless audio support is also clutch for gaming setups, even if it seems counterintuitive for wireless headphones. Shame about the noise cancelling not keeping pace with the XM6, but the spatial audio still being best in class after five years says alot about how far ahead these were.