Apple Debuts AirPods Max Over-Ear Headphones, Arrive in Time For Christmas

If you bought expensive over-ear wireless headphones from the likes of Bose and Sony as a gift for the holidays, you might want to rethink things now that Apple has announced their AirPods Max wireless headphones. As the name suggests, AirPods Max bring the in-ear AirPods Pro earbuds experience to those who prefer an over-ear headphones design. What's more, AirPods Max are available to pre-order starting today, December 8th, for a whopping $549 with shipping beginning on December 15th.

In Apple's AirPods Max announcement, they note that the headphones feature high-fidelity sound, a 40-mm Apple-designed dynamic driver, and "a custom acoustic design, H1 chips, and advanced software to power computational audio for a breakthrough listening experience with Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency mode, and spatial audio". It also comes in five colors: space gray, silver, sky blue, green, and pink.

Additional AirPods Max features include "up to 20 hours of high-fidelity audio, talk time, or movie playback with Active Noise Cancellation and spatial audio enabled" and a Digital Crown (inspired by the Apple Watch) that handles volume control, track skips, phone calls, activates Siri and more. Automatic switching allows users to quickly move their audio between their iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The beloved AirPods AirPods Pro one-tap setup has also been brought over to the Max.

As far as comfort is concerned, AirPods Max utilize "acoustically engineered memory foam" and cups that individually pivot and rotate for a better fit.

"AirPods are the most popular headphones in the world, beloved for their effortless setup, incredible sound quality, and iconic design. With AirPods Max, we are bringing that magical AirPods experience to a stunning over-ear design with high-fidelity audio," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

Pre-orders for the AirPods Max headphones are live here at Apple.com for $549 with a personal engraving option. Details about availability at other retailers has not been made available at the time of writing, but keep tabs on this Amazon link and this Best Buy link for updates.

On that note, if you can handle the in-ear design and want to save yourself $349, Apple's AirPods Pro are available here on Amazon for $199. AirPods with wireless and wired charging case options are available here on Amazon for $159.98 and $128.98 respectively.

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