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I want to own the AirPods Max, but I don’t buy them. I love the seamless nature of AirPods and have always preferred on-ear headphones. Also, I think the pink and black designs look great. But I’m looking forward to what Apple does next, and I would recommend many do the same.
And, no, before you assume I’m being frugal, this decision is more than just the price of the AirPods Max, which are insanely expensive $ 549. I have recommended that people spend $ 300 on headphones before. My caution is more complicated.
Fortunately for Apple, the public disagrees with me on this as the AirPods Max are seriously out of stock as Apple has a backup until March for the drives. I don’t know how the public has the funds for these headphones, are they spending their $ 600? stimulus controls in headphones?
The first version of an Apple product is not necessarily ready for prime time
From the iPhone to the MacBooks with Retina displays, there is a mixed track record for the debut version of Apple products or new designs. It may sound like ancient history, but do you remember Antennagate, one of the the biggest apple fails Ever when the new design of the iPhone 4 meant you could hold it wrong?
And that those MacBook Pros had a screen burnout problem (among others)? These were pretty big Apple products, with major flaws. And then there was the Power Mac G4 Cube, which had a new and unique look, plus a serious overheating issue. It was commercially bombed and is also not fondly remembered, as Tim cook he himself called it “a spectacular commercial failure.”
We don’t know what the first AirPods Max controversy will be, or if they will have one. But for now, I’d rather let early users find out if there is one.
I want a better case
Maybe the jokes about the bra-looking case will go away soon, but even looking past that, I’m not a huge fan of what I heard about the AirPods Max charging case.
Initial reports from The edge Suggest that the case offers little to no protection, with lots of slots that could end up opening up your expensive AirPods Max to attack from something else in your bag. The case is also easily smudged and attracts fingerprints.
The good news? Well, it’s just one case. They can design another case around the AirPods Max, right? And I’d bet that other companies that make accessories and cases for high-end Apple devices, like Bellroy, will probably make superior cases for AirPods Max in the future, and you might see me waiting a while.
No “killer feature”
I don’t like the phrase “killer feature”, but it’s more than appropriate here. There is nothing in the AirPods Max that forces me to buy them now.
I already have the instant-pairing AirPods Pro for when I listen to Apple devices I own, and the rest of the time I can easily divide my listening between the SteelSeries Arctis 3 Bluetooth headphones and my wired Beoplay H6 2nd Gen (which is sadly no longer in production). Among all these, I don’t lack for audio fidelity, noise cancellation, or ease of use. Sure, the AirPods Max allow me to combine a lot of what I want into a single earbud, but they have nothing. new what I want.
And while the reviews will argue that they have a fantastic high-end design, I’m not buying headphones for industrial design, I’m buying them to listen to things. Likewise, while I bet they sound fantastic, I never complain about how great music or podcasts sound on those aforementioned headphones. I know Apple’s computational photography tricks make my iPhone photos look great, but I don’t feel like I’m at a point where I need Apple’s H1 chip’s computational audio tricks. The AirPods Max’s spatial audio is reportedly pretty good and different than the AirPods Pro’s implementation, but I’m not entirely sure if it’s worth $ 550.
Sound is one of those things where what you have can be good enough until you hear how good the alternative can be, and I’m happy with my blissful ignorance right now.
I need a headphone jack
All of these caveats become even more annoying when you learn that the AirPods Max cost $ 549. $ 549 isn’t just “expensive” either. It’s too expensive not to offer a headphone jack and for Apple to not include its Lightning to headphone jack cable. Of course, Apple will sell you that cable, but it costs an additional $ 35.
Why do I need a headphone jack? I use laptops where I’m not connected to my Apple ID, which puts you through a more cumbersome pairing process for Bluetooth. And someday, I’ll fly on an airplane, where you need headphones with a 3.5mm jack if you want to watch inflight entertainment.
I know Apple is trying to reduce its environmental impact, and I know the company thinks we’re all going to use Bluetooth for listening (RIP headphone jack for iPhone, you’re gone but not forgotten), but this is worse than not including charging. . brick with the iPhone 12. At least someone who has bought a phone before may already have a power adapter. I don’t know of anyone who has a Lightning to headphone jack.
And that makes the actual AirPods Max price look more like $ 584. What’s the amount of money a PS5 and a game could get me, after taxes?
And I also need a price drop
The original iPhone took a price cut a few months after its launch, falling your 8GB model for $ 200, which drew the ire of the crowd of pioneer users. In April 2019, Apple cut the price of the HomePod from $ 349 to $ 299, and it looks like they might do it again here. Like ours AirPods Max vs Bose 700 vs Sony WH-1000XM4 head-to-head shows, AirPods Max are almost double the excellent Sony WH-1000XM4and more than $ 200 more expensive than Bose 700.
Even a small price cut would help me consider the AirPods Max, as I’ve spent more than enough time looking at a pink pair in the online shopping bag. It’s just that I can’t bear to pay $ 49 for the headphones I need, plus almost $ 50 in local taxes.
Bottom line
But a price reduction is not guaranteed. The AirPods Max order through March 2021 suggests that the company may not need to, but we don’t know about Apple’s inventory and how many they expected to sell up front.
My hope is that by the time AirPods Max 2 comes out, they’ll have a feature that’s more appealing to me. So it’s up to Apple to make the AirPods Max’s feature set price-fit or to adjust the price to fit the earbuds as-is.
