The full review
The AirPods Max are Apple's answer to 'what if we made the nicest headphones, price be damned.' The aluminium and knit-mesh build feels like a piece of studio equipment, and the noise cancelling is genuinely top-tier — matatu noise, office chatter and plane hum all melt away.
Spatial audio with head tracking is the party piece: watching a film on an iPad, dialogue stays locked to the screen when you turn your head. For music, the sound is balanced and detailed rather than bass-heavy.
The compromises are real: heavy on the head over long sessions, a case that protects almost nothing, and no headphone jack. If you're deep in the Apple ecosystem and want the best, they deliver — otherwise Sony and Bose rivals undercut them meaningfully.
Key features
- Best-in-class active noise cancelling
- Spatial audio with head tracking
- Aluminium cups, knit-mesh canopy
- 20h battery with ANC on
- Digital Crown volume control
