AIRPODS MAX
AirPodsMaxareanythingbutcompact.Theydon’tfoldupatall,
onlyturnflat.headphones, but that too is mitigated
by the fantastic ear pads.
Try to run or work out with these
on, or just turn your head quickly, and
you’ll suddenly feel all that weight. No
matter, as these are not at all sweat or
water resistant, so you shouldn’t be
doing anything more active than a brisk
walk in them anyway.
The controls are great, too. Apple
avoided touch controls (everyone with
a hoodie rejoice), opting instead for
a digital crown like that on the Apple
Watch along with a single button, both
on the top of the right earpiece. The
crown is thankfully much larger than
that on the watch and controls volumeand playback: click it once to play/
pause, twice to skip forward, three
times to skip back, press and hold
to invoke Siri. You can even reverse
the direction of the wheel if you
find yourself turning the volume up
every time you want to turn it down.
The button toggles between noise-
cancelling and transparency mode, or
turns noise cancelling off if you enable
that option in Bluetooth settings.
The controls are simple, intuitive,
unobtrusive and attractive; everything
you want in a pair of headphones.
Despite the excessive weight,
AirPods Max look great, feel great, and
have excellent controls. I wore them
for hours without
discomfort, with
and without glasses,
which is more than
I can say for other
consumer wireless
headphones.
If there’s a
downside, it’s the
fact that these
headphones charge
only with a Lightning
connector and
have no 3.5mm
headphone jack
input (as with many
products, Apple