A Unicorn Appears: Apple Randomly Launches the AirPods Max 2
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The first week of March was already a fun-filled occasion that gave us the iPhone 17e, M4 iPad Air, new MacBooks with M5 chips, two new Studio Displays and the incredibly powerful and affordable MacBook Neo, and while the entry-level iPad was conspicuous by its absence, we had every reason to believe that Apple was done unveiling new products.
However, Apple threw us a curveball this morning by quietly launching the one product update nobody saw coming — the AirPods Max 2.
That’s a big surprise not just because we hadn’t heard any rumors or leaks on the new over-ear headphones, but because many analysts had written them off. The original AirPods Max arrived in 2020, and after four years of silence, received one of the most lackluster product updates ever, with a new version that got a USB-C port and… nothing else (unless you count new colors as a “feature”).
Many pundits believed that the only reason Apple even released this update was to comply with the European USB-C mandate, as Apple would have been barred from selling the AirPods Max with a Lightning port in the European Union. However, while Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believed Apple was working on a lighter version, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman repeatedly claimed that the AirPods Max were never enough of a priority for Apple to put any real money into them, especially when its Beats division already has the Beats Studio Pro on the market that provide many of the same features at a lower cost.
Looking back, we got at least one big hint earlier this month that new AirPods Max may have been just around the corner when Apple rather oddly featured them in a lifestyle marketing image of the new MacBook Neo.
We shrugged that off at the time, but in retrospect it does seem rather odd that Apple would be showing an image of someone using its most expensive set of headphones with its most affordable MacBook. Perhaps the subtle message was to buy a MacBook Neo so you can splurge on a set of AirPods?
Or, it was a nod to the very next product Apple had on deck.
What’s New in the AirPods Max 2
The biggest surprise in the AirPods Max 2 is that they exist at all.
Firstly, Apple is explicitly calling these the “AirPods Max 2” — not the “second-generation” AirPods Max, as it often does with its products. The 2024 update to the AirPods Max also skipped a generational designation; instead, they became “AirPods Max with USB-C” or simply “AirPods Max (USB-C).”
The upgrades in the AirPods Max 2 are exactly what you’d expect; Apple is finally bringing them in line with the rest of its AirPods lineup by adding things the AirPods Pro have been able to do for years.
That’s thanks to Apple finally adding the H2 chip to the AirPods Max, four years after it first debuted on the second-generation AirPods Pro. This means Apple’s premium headphones are no longer being left out of the party, and can now do all the things that AirPods Pro owners have been able to enjoy since iOS 17 added features like Adaptive Audio and Conversation Mode.
In fact, they’ll now support the entire suite of software-level features from the latest AirPods Pro, including Voice Isolation and Live Translation, plus far better Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). They’ll even support using the Digital Crown as a camera remote, just like the stems can be used on the AirPods Pro with iOS 26. The only thing they’re really missing compared the AirPods Pro 3 are the heart rate sensors, which we wouldn’t expect Apple to pack into a set of over-ear headphones anyway.
“With the incredible performance of H2, AirPods Max are upgraded with up to 1.5x more effective ANC for the ultimate all-day listening experience,” said Eric Treski, Apple’s director of Audio Product Marketing. “The sound quality is remarkably clean, rich, and acoustically detailed — and when combined with capabilities like Personalized Spatial Audio, AirPods Max 2 deliver a profoundly immersive experience.”
However, Apple is making up for that by focusing on what AirPods Max users are far more likely to be looking for: improved audio quality. The AirPods Max will continue to support 24-bit 48 kHz lossless audio when using a wired USB-C connection — a feature that Apple unlocked for the first-generation USB-C AirPods Max last year in iOS 18.4 — along with reduced latency for wireless audio and studio-quality audio recording. Apple has also added a new high dynamic range amplifier for “even cleaner audio,” and likely made some other tuning adjustments to the drivers and algorithms to deliver even better sound than the originals.
Interestingly, Apple hasn’t changed up the color palette for the AirPods Max 2. The original AirPods Max launched in space gray, silver, sky blue, green, and pink, but when Apple added a USB-C port in 2024, it also refreshed the colors to midnight, starlight, blue, purple, and orange. Today’s AirPods Max 2 announcement lists those in a different order — midnight, starlight, orange, purple, and blue — but they appear to be identical to the shades introduced with the AirPods Max (USB-C).
The new AirPods Max 2 will start at the same $549 as the originals, and will be available for pre-order starting Wednesday, March 25, and arrive in stores early next month.
