Apple releases Airpod Max, its first over-the-ear headphones with price tag Rs. 59,900

Apple quietly announced its new pair of accessory, the over-the-ear-headphones Airpods Max on its website yesterday. They offer Apple’s proprietary H1 chip with 10 audio cores and include most of the features that one may find in their Airpods pro which include transparency mode, adaptive EQ and lastly but not leastly, the active noise cancelation. 

But do these features justify the price tag of Rs. 59,900 or $559? Well, only time and reviews from audiophiles around the world can tell that. But for now, let’s take a look at some of the features of Apple’s Airpod Max in detail.

Let’s first start with its ergonomics and design. Airpod Max’s headband is made of stainless steel and the company promises it to fit all varieties of head sizes and shapes. The headband’s frame is made of stainless steel and adjusts to fit a wide variety of head shapes and sizes. The cushions on the ear cups are soft and will create a warm seal avoiding any sound leaks.

Now let’s take a look inside. Apple promises AirPods Max to deliver crisp highs, with deep bass thanks to its 40-mm driver packed inside. When you add computational audio to the mix, AirPods Max promises high quality sound with little to no distortion. 

Taking a further look at the features, these pairs of over-the-ear headphones come with active noise cancelation, just like its younger yet smaller counterparts, the Airpods Pro. The two ear cups have three external microphones each monitoring the surrounding noise.

With optical and positional sensors like gyroscope and accelerometer, the AirPods Max also come with automatic head detection. It means that whenever someone might remove Airpods Max, the music would automatically pause or stop. 

But all of these features can fail to delight the customers if the battery life of the headphones turn out to be shabby. Apple promises a surprisingly delightful 20 hours of battery life on Airpods Max on a single charge(and this too with active noise cancelation turned on). 

The headphones will be shipping on 15th December, and are available to pre-order as of today right from apple’s website. It is interesting to note that 2020 has been a noisy year for Apple. 

With over 3 product launches so far and 9 iterative versions of products already launched, including the new iPhone 11, the new Macbook air/pro that did away with Intel processors and introduced their own M1 chips, and the new apple watch, it should be interesting to see how these products fare, what the analysts have to say about a diverse yet repetitive line up, and does the revenue reflect the strategy folks at apple have in their minds.