A Meaningful AirPods Max Upgrade

While the odds are good that we will see a new version of the AirPods Max this year, what we’ve heard so far suggests they may be less of an upgrade than many were hoping for — especially considering that we’ve been waiting for three years since the originals were released.

The main selling point of the “AirPods Max 2” may be the USB-C port and some new colors. To be fair, that USB-C port will probably come with wired digital audio support, enabling true lossless audio for the first time. However, there’s been no indication we’ll be getting the high-fidelity audio codecs that Apple has been working on. We’re hoping they at least get the H2 chip from the AirPods Pro, but there’s been no word on that, either.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s high-end cans don’t sell well enough to justify putting a lot of money into research and development, so these will be a minor refresh just to make them “current” again with USB-C and some new colors. Everything else is up in the air, and it seems Apple may be content to let the Beats Studio Pro take center stage for over-ear headphones.