AirPods Pro and AirPods Max refreshes, new colors rumored for fall 2022

Grogu Airpods Max Iphone 12 Pro (Image credit: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore)

What you need to know

Apple is rumored to have plans to launch new AirPods Pro and AirPods Max this year.
It's possible any refreshed AirPods products could support lossless audio for the first time.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman points to new AirPods Max colors coming to market.

Apple's highest-end audio equipment could be getting a refresh before the end of the year with new colors also potentially in the works.

Writing via the weekly Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman suggests that we should expect refreshed AirPods Pro to be announced this fall, with the design that's being sold today coming up to three years old. We've heard rumors of new AirPods Pro being worked on for some time now, with support for lossless audio one potential feature.

As for the costly AirPods Max, Gurman also believes Apple could offer a new look here as well. Specifically, talk of new color options will please those who aren't fans of the current offerings while Gurman also mentions a price drop. That, however, appears to be mode a case of wishful thinking than anything based on information he has picked up from sources. The current $550 price point is a hard pill to swallow for buyers, but that doesn't mean people aren't doing so.

Look out for new AirPods Pro in the fall. The current model has been on the market since fall of 2019, so the batteries are already probably in trouble for some early adopters. Also look out for an AirPods Max refresh with new colors (and, we hope, a price drop—$550 is absurd for those headphones).

Air Pods Pro on stage (Image credit: Rene Ritchie / iMore)

If Apple does bring lossless playback to new AirPods Pro we can safely expect it to also be a feature added to the refreshed AirPods Max, too. How Apple will make that happen isn't clear, however — the Bluetooth technology used by wireless headphones doesn't support lossless audio, suggesting some form of bespoke connection would be used instead.

The current AirPods Pro are among the best iPhone earbuds on sale and AirPods Max are well suited to hours of listening while sitting at a Mac. But the addition new colors definitely wouldn't go amiss. Hopefully AirPods Pro will even get an option other than white this year.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.