Apple just launched AirPods Max, an over the ear style headphones for 550$ or ₹59,900 starting to ship from 15th December. Now apple clearly wants to sell these during the Christmas holiday season to the customers who want to buy anything and everything they sell. After launching total 5 iPhones this year (iPhone SE2, 12Mini, 12, 12Pro & 12ProMax) along with 3 iPads and 2 MacBooks, apple is going all in on their products lineup. This new product completes their audio hardware lineup which was missing a Max. While we were waiting for a cheap version of AirPods Pro, the tech giant went ahead and launched the more expensive version of it. With a starting price close to or in some regions more than the Sony PlayStation5, the question has to be asked, are they worth it? Well, no one has listened to them, other than MKBHD maybe? First of all, let me just clear that this is not a review, these are just my first impressions & the comparison is just based on it’s price and not the feature set. In this article we are going to look at the AirPods Max and some of its alternatives.
AirPods Max
The AirPods Pro were already pretty good but they were not “Max” in terms with their size and price. So in came the AirPods Max, the more costly version of the Pro with an over the ear style and increased price. They come with a High-Fidelity (Hi-Fi) audio and Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) with the transparency mode that first debuted in the Pros. It also adopts the Spatial Audio (Fancy name for that theatre like surround sound effect thing) which was announced at the WWDC 2020 with iOS 14. I mean the ANC is great and is useful while commuting or travelling and also the Spatial Audio is amazing and probably is the only thing separating the Max with the other headphones available in the market. Another thing that probably is going to be good is the tight integration of these with your iPhone, iPad & MacBook. The ecosystem push is real here as that’s the thing which others can’t replicate. It now also has a button on the headphones to control the ANC modes. This button will not let you control the amount of noise cancellation, it will just let you change the modes of ANC. It has On-head detection and a battery that according to Apple can provide 20 hours of listening. It comes in five colours and a Smart-Case to preserve the charge.
Alternatives for AirPods Max
Bose Headphones 700
Considered as one of the best when it comes to noise cancellation, Bose Headphones 700 is the best alternative for AirPods Max. It is priced at ₹31,050 ($420.69) on amazon, which is almost half of what the Cupertino based company is asking for it’s AirPods Max. It has the Active Noise Cancellation technology along with Alexa capabilities. Anyone who has used Siri at least for once knows that it is not as good as other voice assistants. Alexa is way better than Siri which is a plus point for this headphones as you’ll probably be using the assistant a lot while listening. Overall this seems to be a great buy considering it’s available for half the price and the brand has a local shop network in India which apple doesn’t have.
Microsoft Surface Headphones 2
Microsoft is one of the well known brand here in India. It certainly has the brand value and brand image that apple possesses. Although it is neither considered premium nor regular, most people know it because of the Windows OS. Microsoft is not that successful in India when it comes to hardware. It’s surface laptops and headphones haven’t been selling well despite how good they are. The Microsoft Surface Headphones 2 are available on amazon for ₹41,599 ($556.40) which is still ₹20,000 ($271.41) cheaper than the newest apple ones. It offers Active Noise Cancellation and comes in matte black colour. To be honest the Amazon listing for this is not that informative, it doesn’t even show clearly that if it comes with a smart assistant support or not, which leads me to believe that the less marketing and lack of information may be the reason of Microsoft’s hardware selling problems.
Sony WH-1000XM4
Sony is one the pioneers of great sounding headphones and they currently offer the Sony WH-1000XM4 for ₹29,990 ($402.12) in India. The price difference here is again about 50% which makes these even more easy to recommend. Apart from their mouthful naming scheme, Sony has been pretty much doing great when it comes to everything related to audio. They have included industry leading wireless noise cancellation in these headphones along with the QN1 processor . The battery life claimed by Sony is 30 hours, which again excels the claims made by apple. These headphones also have Alexa built in which is superior than Siri. It also supports quick charging and comes in black colour. Again the presence of Sony in the Indian market along with its physical shops is also a positive.
Sony PlayStation 5
I’m just gonna throw this one in the list for fun! Seriously, If you have the money to spend, you can buy a PlayStation 5 for around ₹50,000 ($678.54) and spend the remainder of ₹10,000 ($135.71) on games or PlayStation Pulse 3D wireless headset. You’ll have a fully updated, latest generation console and some great games to play on it. Honestly this feels like a great deal now that these AirPods Max are out.
My thoughts
I haven’t listened to the AirPods Max but honestly they are way too expensive to even consider in a market as price sensitive as the Indian Market. Apple’s cheapest iPhone is priced at about ₹40,000 ($542.83) here while iPhone 12Mini is priced at ₹70,000 ($949.95). Apple has just started to see some rise in the iPhone sales in India but I don’t think this AirPods Max is gonna sell well in Indian market. The Indians didn’t buy the ₹40,000 ($542.83) HomePod and I’m sure that many of them aren’t gonna buy this either. This looks like an attention grabbing headlines for apple just like their ridiculously priced MacPro wheels and Pro Display XDR stand. The options mentioned above are offered by way more established and well known brands at a lower cost. The local presence of the brands like Bose and Sony makes it easier for people to buy their products which apple currently lacks. Apple currently is having their online store to sell these, but I don’t think they’re gonna be selling a lot of these in the upcoming holiday season.
Thanks, much needed.
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