Apple Newsroom:

Apple today announced AirPods Max 2, bringing even better Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), elevated sound quality, and intelligent features to the iconic over-ear design. Powered by H2, features like Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Voice Isolation, and Live Translation come to AirPods Max for the first time. The new AirPods Max also unlock creative possibilities for podcasters, musicians, and content creators, with useful features like studio-quality audio recording and camera remote.

AirPods Max 2 will be available to order starting March 25 in midnight, starlight, orange, purple, and blue, with availability beginning early next month.

The first AirPods Max were released in December 2020. They remained unchanged until September 2024, when USB-C replaced the Lightning port. An update a mere eighteen months later is downright speedy.

If you’re someone who wears over-ear headphones, and you currently own a pair of first-generation AirPods Max, I imagine this would be a tempting, if incremental, upgrade.

My first-gen AirPods Max sit effectively unused next to my bed. I find them too bulky, too heavy, and too uncomfortable to wear for more than a few minutes at a time. The one exception to this was while traveling, as the longer battery life eased charging stress and the over-ear design helped block out a little more noise than my stalwart AirPods Pro 2. But even that use case has become less true: I now generally prefer to travel with two pairs of AirPods Pro, which, for $50 less than the AirPods Max, offer greater total battery life, nearly the same noise cancellation, and take up way less space in my carry-on.

(My first-gen AirPods Max are also one of my last Lightning devices. I work around this charging frustration by using one of these tiny magnetic plugs that stays permanently connected. A micro-USB version is in my Kindle Paperwhite. I only need one cable to charge both. They work great.)