AirPods Max 2 review: the H2 chip earns its keep — but Apple still wants you to buy that case

Apple wants £499 for a pair of headphones whose biggest party trick — proper lossless audio — only works when you plug them into a cable. That is the contradiction at the heart of the AirPods Max 2, which Apple unveiled in March 2026, opened for pre-order on 25 March and started shipping in early April. Six years on from the original, the over-ears finally get the H2 chip, USB-C lossless and a meaningfully better noise-cancelling story. What they don’t get is a power button — and that omission tells you almost everything about who this product is really for.

Let me be plain about the position I’m going to land on, because the spec sheet buries it: the AirPods Max 2 are a better pair of headphones than the set they replace, and they are still sold on the assumption that you live entirely inside Apple’s walls. If you do, the £499 is defensible. If you don’t, this is one of the easiest premium headphones to talk yourself out of.

The price hasn’t moved — and that’s the smartest thing Apple did (AirPods Max 2)

Here’s the bit that surprised me most. The AirPods Max 2 launch at £499, exactly the same as the outgoing model. Cast your mind back: the original 2020 Lightning AirPods Max arrived at £549, then quietly dropped to £499 in 2024 when Apple swapped the port for USB-C. So the headline number has actually been frozen for two years while the internals have moved on. In a market where almost everything premium has crept upward, holding the line at £499 reads less like generosity and more like discipline — Apple knows the figure people already accept, and it isn’t going to spook them.

You also get the same colour options as that 2024 USB-C refresh, and a chassis that is, to the eye, unchanged. That continuity is the point. Apple isn’t asking you to fall in love again; it’s asking the people who already wanted these to stop hesitating.

The H2 chip is the upgrade that justifies the generation

The real change sits inside. The AirPods Max 2 are powered by the H2 chip, the same silicon family that transformed the AirPods Pro line, and Apple’s headline claim is up to 1.5× better active noise cancellation than the first generation. On paper that is the single most consequential line in the whole announcement. The original AirPods Max were already among the best in the business at shutting out the world; a 50% improvement on that baseline is the kind of figure that should genuinely change a daily commute or an open-plan office.

This is where the case for spending £499 actually lives. Not in a redesign — there isn’t one — but in the fact that the most-used feature, the one you reach for every single day, has been sharpened. ANC is the thing you buy over-ears for. Apple has put its effort exactly where it earns the most goodwill.

Lossless on the AirPods Max 2 is real, it’s genuinely good — and it’s tethered to a cable. The freedom these headphones sell you and the fidelity they promise you cannot exist at the same time.

USB-C lossless: a brilliant feature with an asterisk you can’t ignore

Now the compromise. The AirPods Max 2 support 24-bit/48kHz lossless audio — but only over a wired USB-C connection. Go wireless, and you are back to AAC and SBC over Bluetooth, exactly as before. Read that twice, because it matters more than the marketing wants it to.

The entire pitch of a £499 wireless headphone is freedom from cables. Apple’s answer to the audiophile crowd is to hand you back the cable. I don’t think that’s a scandal — wired lossless is a legitimately lovely thing to have, and for anyone editing audio, working at a desk or feeding from a dongle on a flight, it’s a real, usable benefit. But let’s not pretend it resolves the tension. You buy these for the wireless life, and the headline fidelity feature asks you to abandon it. If lossless-on-the-move is the reason you’re tempted, temper your expectations now.

Battery, the case, and the button Apple still won’t give you

Stamina is solid rather than spectacular: 20 hours with ANC switched on, and a fast-charge top-up where five minutes buys you roughly 90 minutes of playback. Those are sensible, real-world numbers. Plenty of rivals quote bigger figures, but 20 hours of genuinely heavyweight noise cancelling will see most people through several days of commuting.

And then there’s the case — the detail that gives this review its spine. The AirPods Max 2 still have no physical power button. The only way to drop them into proper ultra-low-power standby is to slot them into the Smart Case, which is unchanged from before. Leave them out, and they sit in a half-awake state that nibbles at the battery. Six years and a brand-new chip later, Apple’s solution to “how do I turn these off” is still “use the accessory.” You are, in the most literal sense, still buying that case — not as an optional extra, but as the missing power switch.

It is a small thing that reveals a large attitude. Apple would rather preserve the clean industrial design than concede a button, and it trusts that the people buying AirPods Max 2 will simply absorb the quirk. For the most part, they will. But it’s exactly the sort of friction that a £200 pair of headphones would be eviscerated for, and the premium price tag doesn’t make it disappear — it makes it harder to forgive.

Who should spend the £499 — and who should keep walking

So here’s where I come down. If you are already inside Apple’s ecosystem — iPhone, Mac, the lot — and you want the most polished, best-cancelling over-ears Apple has ever made, the AirPods Max 2 are an easy yes. The H2 chip is a real upgrade, the price hasn’t moved in two years, and the instant pairing, audio hand-off and Find My conveniences remain genuinely best-in-class. For that buyer, £499 spent on sharper ANC is money well placed.

But if you came chasing wireless lossless, or you bristle at being told a cable and a case are non-negotiable parts of a £499 wireless product, walk on. The thing that would change my mind is simple and almost certainly never coming: lossless over Bluetooth, and a power button on the cup. Until Apple delivers either, the AirPods Max 2 remain a superb pair of headphones sold with one hand tied behind their back — and you, dutifully, will still be reaching for that case. For how they sit against the rest of the line, MobileTechWorld’s wider AirPods Max 2 coverage goes deeper on the day-to-day.