If you’re a fan of headphones, you’re going to like this.
Apple on Monday unveled its AirPods Max 2 headphones, which boas the following new features along with the inclusion of the company’s H2 chip:
- Adaptive Audio adjusts the levels of ANC and Transparency in response to the environment automatically to optimize the audio experience.
- Conversation Awareness helps lower content volume and reduce background noise when a user starts speaking to someone nearby.
- Live Translation, powered by Apple Intelligence, helps users communicate across languages in person.
- Voice Isolation uses advanced computational audio powered by H2 to prioritize the voice during calls, while blocking out ambient noise.
- AirPods Max 2 also support Personalized Volume, which adjusts the volume based on a combination of your surroundings and your volume preferences.
With the H2 chip, Apple says the AirPods Max 2 deliver up to 1.5× more effective active noise cancellation than the previous generation, and it promised that the Transparency mode that lets in some ambient noise sounds even more natural.
The new headphones continue to feature a USB-C port for charging and lossless audio, and Apple has advertised 20 hours of battery life on a single charge with active noise cancellation enabled, which is unchanged compared to the previous generation.
Similar to the previous AirPods Max headphones, the AirPods Max 2 support 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio with the included USB-C cable, for the highest-quality wired playback. For wireless connectivity, AirPods Max 2 support Bluetooth 5.3, whereas the previous AirPods Max support Bluetooth 5.0. Once again, the available options for the unit remain Midnight, Starlight, Orange, Purple, and Blue.
The AirPods Max 2 will become available to order on the Apple website and in the Apple Store app as of Wednesday, March 25, in the U.S. and 30 other countries, and will launch to other regions on an unspecified day in early April. The units will retail for the same $549 price point as the previous generation, which Apple has stopped selling.
Finally, the AirPods Max 2 come with a Smart Case, which has the same design as it always has. The headphones enter an ultra-low-power state when placed in this carrying case, which is fairly important, as the headphones still lack a power button.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.