Apple AirPods Max 2 Review — The Icon That Time Forgot to Improve

Offer price: 2299

Currency: MYR

• Appearance - 9/10
  9/10
• Efficiency - 6/10
  6/10
• Features - 7/10
  7/10
• Materials - 8/10
  8/10
• Performance - 7.5/10
  7.5/10
• Portability - 8/10
  8/10
• User Experience (UX) - 7/10
  7/10
• Value - 6/10
  6/10

Summary

The Apple AirPods Max 2 is a product that is easier to admire than to wholeheartedly recommend. You will find things to love here, but if you are approaching this as a pure audio purchase and expecting the best headphones RM2,299 can buy, the answer is complicated.

Overall

7.3/10

7.3/10

Pros

+ Design and Construction That Justify the Premium

+ Active Noise Cancellation That Impresses

+ Sound Quality That Is Good, With Caveats

+ Class-leading Microphone Performance

+ Seamless Apple Ecosystem Integration

+ Smart Case Is Better Than Its Reputation Suggests

Cons

– Weight and Comfort Remain Unresolved

– Headband Adjustability Is Too Limited

– Audio Quality Has a Meaningful Weakness

– Transparency Mode Is Not as Natural as It Should Be

– Battery Life Trails the Competition

– Feature Set Lags Behind Its Price Point

– Wired Mode Delivers Less Than Promised

• Shopee

Unboxing the Apple AirPods Max 2

The Apple AirPods Max 2 arrives in Apple’s signature minimalist packaging, fully fibre-based and in keeping with the brand’s environmental commitments. Inside the box, you get the headphones themselves, a braided USB-C to USB-C cable, a redesigned Smart Case, and the usual documentation. The braided cable is a welcome upgrade in feel over the previous generation (which was also a USB-C to Lightning), and the Smart Case redesign addresses some of the more awkward aspects of its predecessor, though not all of them. More on that in a later section.

Walkaround

6 years on from the original AirPods Max, Apple has not touched the design. Not a single line, curve, or material has changed from what launched in 2020, and the colors carried over from the 2024 USB-C refresh are the only visual differentiator between this and what you could have bought two years ago. There is no way to tell the AirPods Max 2 apart from its immediate predecessor at a glance.

That said, it is genuinely difficult to argue with the design itself. These are among the most visually striking headphones money can buy. Apple’s designers have drawn from aviation headset aesthetics, blended them with the brand’s industrial sensibilities, and arrived at something that feels simultaneously classic and forward-looking. The cloth mesh headband sits taut in a downward curve through what appears to be engineering magic, the polished metal yokes extend cleanly from the headband to the ear cups, and the magnetic ear pads detach with minimal effort.

The digital crown and listening mode button on the right ear cup mirror the design language of other Apple products, and the antennas are hidden underneath the ear cups so they do not disturb the silhouette. The headphones are also perfectly symmetrical, with the physical controls on the right ear cup being the only way to distinguish one side from the other. In low light, you are essentially guessing.

Build quality is exceptional and arguably the strongest argument for the price. The aluminum ear cups, the fluid movement of the joints, the tactile precision of the controls, and the seamlessly hidden stitching all communicate premium craftsmanship in a way that very few competitors manage. At RM2,299, you are at least getting something that looks and feels the part.

There are, however, a couple of longer-term concerns worth noting. The ear cups have a known tendency to accumulate condensation on the inside around the speaker grilles, and the headband fabric has been reported to sag with extended use. Neither issue was observable up to the point of this review article being published, but they are worth knowing about before committing.

On the Smart Case, the redesign is genuinely better than its predecessor and I would argue it has been unfairly maligned. It is compact, easy to stow, and the process of putting the headphones in and taking them out is quick and intuitive enough that I found myself using it far more regularly than I would a traditional headphone case. The one frustration is that the charging cutout does not always align cleanly with the USB-C port, requiring a bit of fiddling before you can plug in, and it can get rather annoying.

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Specifications

The Good

Design and Construction That Justify the Premium

6 years without a design update sounds like a criticism, and in some ways it is, but it also reflects just how well-considered the original design was. The AirPods Max 2 remain among the most visually distinctive and premium-feeling headphones available at any price. The aluminum ear cups, precision-engineered joints, tactile controls, and seamlessly finished construction are a level above what competitors typically offer, and the magnetic ear pads make cleaning and replacement genuinely effortless. Apple offers spare ear pads directly, and third-party options are readily available, which is more than most manufacturers bother to provide.

In case there is some confusion, there are no spare ear pads included in the box. If you need to change them, you will have to purchase them yourself.

Active Noise Cancellation That Impresses

The Apple H2 chip brings updated ANC to the AirPods Max 2, and the results are genuinely impressive. The ear pad cushions provide meaningful passive isolation even before the electronics engage, meaning you get reasonable background noise reduction just from wearing them correctly. With ANC active, household noise sources including fans, air conditioning, televisions, and doorbells are suppressed to a degree that can leave you genuinely unaware of your surroundings.

Outdoor performance is similarly strong, with only the loudest sounds like a screaming child or someone playing with fireworks breaking through. The ANC pressure can become noticeable in already quiet environments, particularly during silent passages, but this is manageable and reduced when audio is playing.

Sound Quality That Is Good, With Caveats

The overall frequency response of the AirPods Max 2 leans V-shaped, with the emphasis placed specifically in the sub-bass region rather than across the broader bass band. This approach avoids the bloated lower-midrange energy that a wide bass boost typically introduces, and for most content it means the headphones do not sound excessively bass-heavy.

Voices and instruments in the lower midrange come across clearly and with good body. The Adaptive EQ feature also automatically adjusts frequency response based on fit and listening volume, which means published frequency response measurements are not necessarily representative of what you will actually hear during everyday use. Adaptive Audio monitors the sound in real time and compensates for any seal inconsistencies, ensuring a more consistent listening experience across different users and wearing conditions.

Class-leading Microphone Performance

The nine-microphone array on the AirPods Max 2 delivers call quality that rivals wired headsets in quiet environments, which is a genuinely remarkable achievement for a Bluetooth device. In noisy environments, the microphone prioritises voice clarity over aggressive background suppression, and the result is that your voice remains highly intelligible even if some ambient noise is still audible to the other party. For anyone who takes a lot of calls, this is one of the strongest arguments for choosing these headphones. Just remember not to expect the same quality as a studio-grade mic.

Seamless Apple Ecosystem Integration

If you are an Apple household, the AirPods Max 2 integrate with your devices in a way that no third-party headphone can match. Automatic device switching between iPhone and Mac is fluid and reliable, the Digital Crown provides volume and playback control that feels more considered than a button or a swipe gesture, and features like Personalised Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking, Live Translation, and Conversation Awareness are all available through the native settings menus without additional apps or configuration.

Smart Case Is Better Than Its Reputation Suggests

The redesigned Smart Case is more practical than many reviews have given it credit for. Its compact footprint makes it easier to carry than a traditional full-enclosure headphone case, and the ease of putting the headphones in and taking them out means it actually gets used regularly rather than sitting in a bag as a last resort. The charging cutout alignment is a frustration, but a minor one.

The Bad

Weight and Comfort Remain Unresolved

At 386.2g, the AirPods Max 2 are heavy for a pair of headphones, and Apple has done nothing to address this across generations. The weight is concentrated in the ear cups rather than the headband, so the headphones do not feel top-heavy, but the overall mass introduces noticeable inertia to head movements that takes some getting used to.

The clamping force required to keep that weight securely in place is significant, particularly on a new pair, and while the headphones become more comfortable over time as the clamp relaxes, the sensation of wearing them is always present and can become fatiguing during extended sessions. Simply reducing the weight by even 25 to 30 percent would have made a meaningful difference to the overall experience and is something that should have been addressed in a second-generation product.

Headband Adjustability Is Too Limited

The range of headband extension is restrictive, which creates two separate problems. First, it limits the size of heads that can wear these headphones comfortably, and even users without particularly large heads may find themselves wishing for more range. Second, wearing the headphones around the neck between listening sessions becomes genuinely uncomfortable, restricting neck movement and creating an unpleasant pressure that discourages the habit entirely.

Audio Quality Has a Meaningful Weakness

While the overall sound signature is pleasant for casual listening, there is a notable dip in the upper-midrange and lower-treble regions. Content that has significant information in this range can sound strangely recessed and murky, encouraging the listener to push the volume higher to compensate.

Beyond that dip, the upper treble is elevated, which can introduce sibilance and an uncomfortable brightness on certain tracks. The sub-bass emphasis, while controlled in most scenarios, can also become excessive with content that has heavy low-frequency content, producing a rumble that is more distracting than immersive. These are not dealbreakers for general listening, but they are patterns that an RM2,299 pair of headphones should not have.

Transparency Mode Is Not as Natural as It Should Be

The transparency mode on the AirPods Max 2, while functional, sounds artificially amplified and somewhat unnatural compared to what the best-in-class transparency implementations achieve. There is also a noticeable buffeting effect from wind and indoor airflow sources like fans and air conditioners that is more pronounced than it should be on full-sized headphones. The Adaptive mode, which blends elements of ANC and transparency, works better in practice and is worth using as the default in scenarios where some situational awareness is needed.

Battery Life Trails the Competition

Twenty hours of rated battery life with ANC enabled is a disappointing figure for full-sized headphones in 2026, where competing products from Sony, Bose, and others routinely offer 30 hours or more. In practice the AirPods Max 2 delivered a little over 20 hours in testing, which is decent if you’re trying to use up all those hours in a single seating. The fast charge capability, providing approximately 1.5 hours from five minutes of charging, is a useful safety net, but it does not compensate for the below-average total capacity. Users who travel frequently or spend long days away from a charger will find this rather annoying.

Feature Set Lags Behind Its Price Point

Despite receiving the Apple H2 chip, the AirPods Max 2 still miss out on certain features available on other Apple audio products including Hearing Test, Hearing Aid functionality, and hearing protection. For headphones positioned as Apple’s flagship audio product at a significant premium, the feature gap relative to less expensive options in the broader Apple audio lineup is difficult to overlook.

Wired Mode Delivers Less Than Promised

The lossless audio claim attached to the USB-C wired connection does not translate into a meaningfully better listening experience in practice. Audio quality in wired mode is not a noticeable improvement over Bluetooth, reinforcing the point that the primary quality constraints are in the drivers and audio processing rather than the transmission codec. The wired mode also disables the microphone entirely, ruling it out for calls or voice communication regardless of the connected device.

Apple AirPods Max 2 Verdict

The Apple AirPods Max 2 is a product that is easier to admire than to wholeheartedly recommend. The design is exceptional, the build quality is among the best in the category, the ANC is genuinely impressive, and the microphone performance is class-leading. For users deeply embedded in the Apple ecosystem, the seamless integration and polished software experience add real value that is difficult to replicate elsewhere.

But at RM2,299, the AirPods Max 2 asks for a premium that it does not fully justify on technical merits alone. Most notably, the weight and comfort issues from the original 2020 model remain entirely unaddressed 6 years later. It wins the market it occupies largely because it is the only full-sized headphone Apple makes, and for a certain buyer that is reason enough. If you are that buyer, and the price is genuinely not a concern, you will find things to love here. But if you are approaching this as a pure audio purchase and expecting the best headphones RM2,299 can buy, the answer is complicated.

At the end of our Apple AirPods Max 2 review, I award this pair of headphones with our Bronze Pokdeward.

Big thanks to Super Daddy for the early birthday present. The review is just icing on the cake.