AirPods Max have had a bit of a disappointing history. After much anticipation, they finally released at the tail end of 2020. Some fans were disappointed with the high price tag and rather heavy aluminum and steel design, and have been looking forward to a revamp ever since.
Despite being refreshed last year, it was merely just a USB-C port swap and new colors. The headphones still lack in features compared to Apple’s newer AirPods Pro 2, and that likely won’t be changing.
Per Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, AirPods Max are in a bit of a tough spot. They sell well enough for Apple to justify their existence, but not well enough (apparently) for Apple to justify the engineering resources for a true update:
But the reality is that the headphones are in an odd spot commercially. They’re too popular for Apple to stop selling them, and they’re not popular enough for the company to invest a ton of time and money into creating a new version. Apple only rolled out the USB-C model last year due to EU requirements.
According to Gurman, it simply makes more sense for Apple’s audio team to put time into new AirPods earbuds, as well as investing in speakers for other products. Given the fact that AirPods Max have remained largely unchanged since their debut 5 years ago – other than a USB-C upgrade – this is rather disappointing.
In short, if you’ve been waiting out for a new version of AirPods Max – there probably isn’t anything in store for you. Gurman says that fans will ‘probably have to keep waiting.’
If you like them in their current form, you can buy a pair right now for $519 on Amazon. If you don’t, you can consider a cheaper pair of Beats Studio Pro at $179. Those will pack many key Apple features in a more lightweight over-ear design.
Either way, Apple doesn’t have a truly new AirPods Max model in the pipeline – for better or for worse.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
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