Each fall, like clockwork, Apple broadcasts a brand new technology of iPhones. However different merchandise are refreshed on a extra relaxed foundation: the AirPods Max, for instance, got here out in December 2020 and didn’t get an replace till earlier this month. Nonetheless, at the least Apple made up for misplaced time and gave them a very thorough replace, bringing them updated with the most recent audio developments, proper?
Proper?
Effectively. Take a look at it this manner: {hardware} replace fixes the issues with the earlier mannequin. (A revolutionary {hardware} replace rethinks your complete product from the bottom up, however we gained’t set the bar that prime for now.) My exemplar of {hardware} replace is the mighty Apple Watch Sequence 2, which addressed the pace, battery life, and water resistance issues, in addition to the dearth of GPS, which reviewers had flagged with the unique mannequin. It didn’t reinvent the wheel, however it made the journey an entire lot smoother.
So do the 2024 AirPods Max, accessible at present for $549, match the Apple Watch Sequence 2? Do they characteristic fixes for the problems we highlighted in our assessment at first of 2021? In any case, Apple has had greater than three and a half years to discover a higher approach. Let’s have a look at the proof, beginning with the issues that had been obvious at launch.
Situation: The AirPods Max, whereas comfy, are excessively heavy: 40-50 p.c heavier than competing wi-fi noise-cancelling headphones.
Repair: None. It’s the identical design.
Situation: Lack of sweat/waterproofing.
Repair: Once more, none.
Situation: There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack.
Repair: We nonetheless don’t get 3.5mm. The USB-C port is extra versatile than Lightning however based mostly on Apple’s announcement it seems to be for charging solely, not music enter.
Situation: They nonetheless have a Lightning port.
Repair: The AirPods Max now have USB-C.
Situation: The Good Case could be very poorly designed and offers nearly no safety.
Repair: None. It’s the identical!
Situation: The AirPods Max are overpriced for what you get.
Repair: The value stays the identical within the U.S. There is a worth drop within the U.Okay., nonetheless: from £549 to £499.
And what concerning the areas the place Apple has moved on since 2020, leaving the AirPods Max left behind? For instance:
Situation: The AirPods Max, regardless of being Apple’s flagship headphones, don’t assist its personal lossless audio format, launched in 2021.
Repair: If the brand new fashions assist lossless, Apple is preserving quiet about it.
Situation: The newest AirPods Professional (and even the $129 AirPods 4) get a extra superior H2 chip, which improves battery life and ANC efficiency and is important for Apple’s adaptive transparency mode. However the AirPods Max are caught on the older H1 with none of the brand new options.
Repair: None. It nonetheless has the H1, farcically.
Mainly, nothing has been fastened. The AirPods Max are as outdated as ever, rising extra so by the day.
The AirPods Max look new, however they’re very a lot the identical.
Apple
Minimal effort
Maybe I’m being unfair on the “new” AirPods Max. In any case, Apple doesn’t label them with a 2nd-gen tag or separate the 2024 version from the 2020 version within the “Compare Models” part on its web site. So far as Apple’s involved, this is identical product, solely with USB-C and a few new colours.
However that’s the issue, proper there. Of all of the merchandise on Apple’s books, that is the one that almost all urgently required a full refresh. It wanted to do what it did with the Apple Watch Sequence 2: acknowledge the errors and issues, and discover a approach to resolve them, as an alternative of fobbing us off with this disappointment. And the worst half is that, now Apple has completed an “update,” there’s little likelihood of an precise 2nd-gen mannequin within the close to or medium time period.
The factor is, this isn’t new conduct for Apple. It’s been phoning in “will this do?” non-updates for years. The Third-gen iPhone SE, for instance, was an identical disappointment which, as our reviewer factors out, up to date the one half that didn’t want it, ignored all the issues, and didn’t contact the bodily design.
The iPhone SE received an identical remedy, with a bare-minimum replace that didn’t repair any of its predecessor’s issues.
IDG
The Mac Professional, in the meantime, is meant to sit down on the high of its line, just like the AirPods Max, however really has one of many Mac lineup’s extra outdated specs lists as a result of Apple doesn’t replace ultra-premium merchandise typically sufficient. The Mac Professional had been languishing on four-year-old {hardware} (sound acquainted?), and when Apple lastly gave it an replace it didn’t change the design and put in chips that will shortly fall behind the corporate’s different machines. As my colleague factors out, it feels symbolic that the lab proven in Apple’s Scary Quick video final yr was working on Mac Studios, not Mac Professionals.
In the end this comes all the way down to an age-old drawback when coping with Apple, which is that in lots of fields the corporate is so dominant that it isn’t actually competing with different corporations, however with its personal legacy merchandise. When Apple launches a brand new Mac, telephone, or set of headphones, you simply know that somebody from advertising and marketing has been getting within the engineers’ ears: ensure you don’t advance issues an excessive amount of, as a result of we’ll need to high this subsequent time. Certain, you possibly can launch an unimaginable product and everybody can be completely happy at first. However you’re simply storing up issues for your self sooner or later.
I imply, it’s not like prospects are going to disregard the brand new AirPods Max and purchase over-ear headphones from another person, proper?
Proper?