London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 10, 2025

Here's everything we know about Apple's stylish new headphones, the $549 AirPods Max

Here's everything we know about Apple's stylish new headphones, the $549 AirPods Max

In a surprise reveal on Tuesday morning, Apple debuted the $549 AirPods Max: premium, over-ear, wireless headphon

Apple unveiled the AirPods Max on Tuesday: its first-ever set of over-the-ear headphones, and the highest-end model in the popular AirPods line.

Apple's swanky new headphones have a sleek, stylish design, high-quality internals, and an equally high price tag at $549.

With a scheduled launch just days away, here's everything we know about Apple's newest device:

1. The look.

A look from the side, left, and from above, right.


AirPods Max are a major design departure from Apple's earbud-style wireless AirPods.

Most obviously, they're over-the-ear headphones rather than earbud-style headphones. But even among comparable products from other companies, Apple's new AirPods Max stand out.

Perhaps most notably, from a visuals perspective, is the "breathable knit mesh canopy" that makes up the band. Unlike the solid bands on most over-the-ear headphones, Apple's AirPods Max has a kind of Aeron office chair-style fabric held taut between two thinner posts.

Moving to the earphones themselves, Apple seemingly took design cues directly from its Watch: The "crown," as well as the Tic Tac-shaped button, appear to have been pulled directly from the Apple Watch.

2. The features.


Think of the AirPods Max as the highest-end version of the AirPods line. They offer much of the same functionality, albeit in a larger, better sounding package.

Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak said the intention with the new AirPods Max is to evoke "that magical AirPods experience" in an over-the-ear headset.

They feature a lot of the same functionality that AirPods users already enjoy. Apple detailed as much in the announcement on Tuesday morning:

1. AirPods Max pair most easily with Apple devices, which automatically recognize their presence when logged in through iCloud. This includes "iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV," Apple said.

2. Like how AirPods know they're in your ear, AirPods Max "automatically detect when they are on a user's head." You can set them to automatically pause if you remove the headphones, or even "when the user simply lifts one ear cup."

3. Beyond using the headphones for listening to audio, they can also be used with Siri and as a means of making/receiving phone calls (when paired with compatible Apple devices).

Beyond those features, Apple says that its new headphones are "the highest quality listening experience possible" in an Apple product.

The AirPods Max last for up to 20 hours of "high-fidelity audio, talk time, or movie playback," the company said. That battery time includes the use of two key features: Active Noise Cancellation and spatial audio.

Of note: Though Apple AirPods Max are intended for use with Apple devices, they are Bluetooth headphones capable of connecting via Bluetooth to non-Apple devices as well.

3. The Specs.

The inside of the AirPods Max, exploded.


The AirPods Max have nine microphones, the vast majority of which are dedicated to noise cancellation. It's got a gaggle of motion sensors, so it knows to pause when you lift an ear cup (among other things), and two physical inputs: a "crown," which operates similarly to the crown on the Apple Watch, and a rounded rectangular button.

The button has one function: turning noise cancellation on and off.

The crown serves several purposes, according to Apple: It can be turned to control volume, pushed in to pause/play or answer the phone, double tapped to skip forward, triple tapped to skip back, and pushed and held for Siri.

At the heart of the headphones is Apple's H1 chip, which the AirPod Max has embedded in each ear cup (one per ear).

4. The colors.


The initial debut of the AirPods Max is a five-color run: space gray, sky blue, green, pink, and silver.

5. The "Smart Case."


Alongside the headphones themselves, Apple includes a charging cable (Lightning to USB-C) and a carrying case. The latter, Apple says, is a "soft, slim Smart Case" that puts the headphones into an "ultralow power state" intended to preserve your battery as long as possible.

6. The price and release date.


As of Tuesday morning, Apple's online store had pre-orders available for the AirPods Max. The headphones cost $549, and Apple will engrave something on them at no additional cost.

The headphones are scheduled to launch on December 15.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
×