If you bought the AirPods Max a few years ago and feel like new AirPods are outshining them, you may be waiting a while to catch up. A recent report suggests that the AirPods Max could receive an upgrade in the next 12 months and, with how great the AirPods Pro 2 are, it needs it.
Originally released way back in 2020, the AirPods Max are starting to show their age. With the older Apple H1 chip, the new AirPods Pro 2nd gen outperforms these headphones in many key areas like battery life and some unique audio upgrades.. In his weekly newsletter, Power On, Mark Gurman reported that, in 2024, the new AirPods Max would get ‘ a USB-C port and fresh colors. There won’t be other major changes, but it shows Apple is still committed to this product, which hasn’t been updated since 2020.’
This information could always change over the next year but, as of right now, it suggests we won’t see the next release of AirPods Max get the H2 chip present in AirPods Pro 2nd generation.
About time — iMore’s Take
Though we’re glad to see some extra support for a pretty great pair of headphones, it’s a little disappointing that they may not receive any hardware upgrades alongside the USB-C port. The H2 chip present in AirPods Pro 2nd gen enables better battery life, active noise cancellation, and some cool features like transparency mode, which allows you to listen to your surroundings with the pods in. These are all present in AirPods Max but only as good as they could be back in 2020.
By the time the AirPods Max 2 will reportedly launch, it will have been four years since the first generation. The AirPods Pro 2nd gen saw a USB-C refresh this year but it has only been one year since the 2nd generation launched with Lightning in 2022. If AirPods Max 2 do launch next year, I hope Apple goes for a bigger upgrade, rather than a small refresh. If not, will new colors be nice enough to make up for it?
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