Moreover, it was believed that ‌AirPods Max‌ would have left and right ear detection so users could reverse the headphones' orientation, as well as touch pads on the earcups for controls. This appears to have been replaced by the Digital Crown from the Apple Watch in the final product.

Our kids' and junior Air Max trainers are designed for running wild. Whether they're taking their first steps or heading out on adventures, our Air Max junior shoes are built to help them soar. Inspired by our adult-sized icons, these are the designs you love—rebooted for the next generation. So personally I think the AirPod Max is an extremely well priced headphone & great value once you consider its features, design, build quality and performance. The only way to get something better would be if you’re willing to spend considerably more money. So please no more talk about how these are over priced, it’s just such a ludicrous statement.

While it seems likely that the next-generation ‌AirPods Max‌ will gain many of the above features, there have been surprisingly few rumors about the device. In May 2021, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple was not actively working on second-generation AirPods Max, and previous talk of a color options refresh for the first-generation seems to have diminished. That's about it on the rumours front, but here are four other features we'd like to see on the AirPods Max 2: AirPods (3rd generation) are sweat and water resistant for non-water sports and exercise, and are IPX4 rated. Sweat and water resistance are not permanent conditions.

would be an uncharacteristically long wait between generations of Apple products, although we can hope that the eventual upgrade will be more significant for that gap.Until we learn more about the AirPods Max 2, we’ve made a list of the features we hope the AirPods Max 2 will offer compared to the original AirPods Max: AirPods Max battery life is "up to 20 hours" with noise cancellation and spatial audio enabled. That's plenty for a commute or five, but significantly less than you get from the class-leading Sony WH-1000XM5, which offer 30 hours, and the five-star Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless, which manage a staggering 60 hours. AirPods Pro (2nd generation) are dust resistant and sweat and water resistant for non-water sports and exercise, and are IP54 rated. Dust, sweat and water resistance are not permanent conditions. As Apple moves away from its proprietary Lightning connections towards the more universal USB-C, the one rumour was can be certain of is that a USB-C charging connection will appear on the AirPods Max 2. During the 12 September Apple Event, the company announced that USB-C connections will be featured on the upcoming iPhone 15 as well as the new charging cases for the existing AirPods Pro 2, which only strengthens the idea that USB-C is the new standard for Apple products going forward.

According to a patent Apple holds, the company is working on touch controls rather than the Digital Crown. Apparently, this feature was intended for AirPods Max the first time around, but Apple couldn’t get it quite right. Assuming Apple is working on this again, expect the loss of the Digital Crown to be a big design differentiator. Apple's AirPods Max launched over two years ago, but rumors about a successor remain thin on the ground, so what exactly can we expect from ‌‌AirPods Max‌‌ 2? Yet another patent (spotting a trend?) explains that Apple is working on new optical audio transmission technology. It’s a fancy new alternative to Bluetooth, which would allow Apple to deliver lossless audio wirelessly. Other alternatives for lossless audio support include an AirPlay-esque feature. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo seems to think we'll get the AirPods Max 2 in 2024 or possibly 2025, meaning the current headphones would be at least three years old by the time they get replaced. The most recent mention of the second-generation ‌AirPods Max‌'s features was Gurman's claim in October that the next version will feature USB-C and launch "by 2024." Beyond this single feature, we do not have any concrete rumors from reliable sources about what the new model could offer – but there is some evidence that could provide some interesting indications about what to expect.

Finally, who could talk about AirPods Max without mentioning the controversial case? While designed for convenience, the bra/purse-like design has received much criticism. Admittedly, the case does look a little silly and doesn’t offer much in the way of protection.

At least one new AirPods product has launched every year since 2019. To date, Apple seems to wait two and a half to three years to update each AirPods device and, since 2019, a different AirPods product line has been updated each year. According to this pattern, ‌AirPods Max‌ should be the next AirPods device to receive a refresh, perhaps somewhere between June and November 2023. The truth is Apple’s hardware designers first attempt at the AirPod Max was actually rejected my upper management because it would have cost twice the amount retail. Personally, I so wish we’d also had that option available to buy. I’d love it if version 2 of the Max included 2 models - a revised Max & a much higher audio quality version, and I don’t just mean the addition of lossless here, I mean actual audio quality. A model for all of us who understand better sound quality costs more to research, design, test & produce. Naturally, Apple might not pursue any of these patents. But if we’re to see them anywhere, we’d expect AirPods Max 2. A spec bump in the drivers behind the headphone, improving the already stellar audio quality, also seems likely. Many of the hardware enhancements we’re expecting have appeared in the latest version of the Beats Studio Pro headphones: they don’t have Apple’s H2 inside, instead using a custom Beats chip that – like the recent Beats Studio Buds+– supports Google Fast Pair as well as Apple’s FindMy tech. With these headphones, lossless audio (24-bit/48kHz) is supported via USB-C, but it is not available wirelessly.That's confirmed by Bloomberg tech writer Mark Gurman who said in the latest installment of his Power On newsletter that next AirPods Max will come with USB-C, in place of Lighting, along with some new colors. But much like the USB-C AirPods Pro 2, those will apparently be the only things Apple is actually going to change.