6 Things To Know About Apple's AirPods Max

Apple's latest product, the AirPods Max are here, a sleek, stainless-steel headphone available in five shades catered to provide the ultimate personal listening experience

Apple's highly-anticipated AirPods Max, a revolutionary wireless headphones version of their AirPods, are finally hitting the market, including in in Hong Kong. The over-ear design boasts high-fidelity sounds, active noise cancellation with Transparency mode and spatial audio for theatre-like sound, among many other versions features. The launch of AirPods Max follows the recent releases of the iPhone 12, Macbook Air, iPad and Apple Watch.

"AirPods are the most popular headphones in the world, beloved for their effortless setup, incredible sound quality, and iconic design. With AirPods Max, we are bringing that magical AirPods experience to a stunning over-ear design with high-fidelity audio," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing.

The latest addition to the Apple family is set to deliver "the ultimate personal listening experience." As with every new Apple product launch, you may be wondering what makes it special. To help you decide whether to get this latest drop, we break down everything you need to know about the AirPods Max including the price and how to get it.

1. Custom Design

Photo 1 of 5 AirPods Max feature a breathable knit mesh canopy, distributing weight to reduce on-head pressure (Photo: Courtesy of Apple)

Photo 2 of 5 AirPods Max come in silver, space gray, sky blue, pink, and green (Photo: Courtesy of Apple)

Photo 3 of 5 The Digital Crown provides precise volume control (Photo: Courtesy of Apple)

Photo 4 of 5 The ear cushions use acoustically engineered foam to create an affective seal for immersive sound (Photo: Courtesy of Apple)

Photo 5 of 5 Every part of AirPods Max is curated to provide a comfortable fit (Photo: Courtesy of Apple)

Every part of the AirPods Max is curated to provide exceptional audio performance for the user—from the canopy right down to the ear cushions. The knit mesh canopy which spans the headband is breathable and is designed to distribute weight and reduce head-on pressure. The stainless steel headband frame provides strength, flexibility and comfort regardless of head shape and size. And finally, the telescoping headband arms extend smoothly, staying in place to maintain your desired fit.

To add to that, each ear cup is attached to the headband using an innovative mechanism that balances and distributes ear cup pressure, allowing it to rotate, fitting the unique contours of any person's head. The Digital Crown is inspired by the Apple Watch, and makes sure to offer precise volume control as well as to play, pause, skip tracks, answer or end phone calls and even activate Siri.

2. Personalised Listening Experience

Photo 1 of 2 Anatomy of the AirPods Max (Photo: Courtesy of Apple)

Photo 2 of 2 AirPods Max combine a custom acoustic design, Apple H1 chips, and advanced software to power computational audio for the ultimate personal listening experience (Photo: Courtesy of Apple)

The AirPods Max has a 40mm Apple-designed dynamic driver that aims to provide rich, deep bass, accurate mid-range and crisp, clean high-frequency extension ensuring that you can hear every note. It is also equipped with an Apple-designed H1 chip in each ear cup, a custom acoustic design and advance software. It makes sure to use computational audio to deliver the highest-quality listening experience possible by utilising each of the chips' 10 audio cores, which is capable of a staggering nine billion operations per second. Finally, the Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency mode and spatial audio also contribute to the personal listening experience—we break them down more thoroughly below.

Adaptive EQ

This is to adjust the sound to fit and seal of the ear cushions. It's done by measuring the sound signal delivered to a user, adjusting the low and mid-frequencies in real-time.

Active Noise Cancellation

Especially in the era of work from home, this is helpful. The Noise Cancellation feature allows you to focus on what you're just listening to. Each ear cup has three outward-facing microphones that detect environmental noise, one of the microphones monitors the sound reaching your ear. And by combining that with computational audio, noise cancellation adapts in real-time.

Transparency Mode

When you use this mode, you can simultaneously listen to music while hearing the environment around you, ensuring that the user's own voice sounds natural while the audio plays at the same time. You can easily switch between Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode using the noise control button.

Spatial Audio

This is used together with dynamic head tracking to place sounds virtually anywhere in space. The result is an immersive, theatre-like experience for sound recorded in 5.1, 7.1 and Dolby Atmos. Regardless of how you move your head, spatial audio tracks your head and the AirPods Max and compares it with motion data then remaps the sound so it stays on the headphones.

3. The AirPods Magic

Above AirPods Max feature the magical one-tap setup experience that customers love with AirPods (Photo: Courtesy of Apple)

AirPods Max is the latest addition to the existing AirPods family in delivering unparalleled wireless audio regardless if it's listening to music, phone calls, TV shows, movies, playing games or even interacting with Siri. The same setup experience in AirPods also extends to the AirPods Max including the one-tap setup, automatic pairing with the devices on your iCloud account.

Using optical and position sensors, AirPods Max automatically detects when it's on your head. It can play audio, pause once removed or when you simply lift one of the ear cups. With the AirPods Max, voice calls and Siri commands are flawless and smooth thanks to its beam-forming microphones that help block ambient noise, focusing only on your voice.

4. Better Battery And Performance

Above When stored in the soft, slim Smart Case, AirPods Max enter an ultralow power state that preserves charge

With AirPods Max, you can enjoy great battery life of up to 20 hours of high-fidelity audio, talk time or movie playback, even with Active Noise Cancellation and spatial audio enabled.

The device also comes with a soft, slim Smart Case that puts the AirPods Max in a power state, eventually preserving battery charge when not in use.

5. Finishing Touches

Above Outside of the AirPods Max (Photo: Courtesy of Apple)

Above Inside of the AirPods Max (Photo: Courtesy of Apple)

Some additional features of AirPods Max:

Automatic Switching

This feature allows you to seamlessly move between Apple devices, whether it's iPhone, iPad or Max. When playing music on Mac, you can easily answer a phone call on iPhone and AirPods Max will automatically switch over.

Audio Sharing

This makes it possible to easily share an audio stream between two sets of AirPods with iPhone, iPod touch or Apple TV 4K. All you need is to simply bring AirPods Max near the advice and connect it with a single tap.

Siri

Apple's resident assistant, Siri is unsurprisingly included in the AirPods Max. It has the ability to play music, make calls, control the volume, get directions and so much more. Siri can also read your messages as they come in using the Announce Messages with Siri feature.

6. Purchasing Details

Above Get a free engraving when you purchase AirPods Max (Photo: Courtesy of Apple)

AirPods Max costs HK$4,500. Each order includes the device, the Smart Case and lightning to USB-C cable. Each buyer is limited to two devices. You can choose from space grey, silver, green, sky blue and pink. It comes with a free engraving, choose from a mix of emoji, text and numbers to make AirPods Max yours.

Pre-order is available now at the Apple website and shipping begins on Tuesday, December 15, 2020. AirPods Max requires Apple devices running iOS 14.2 or later, iPadOS 14.3, macOS Big Sur 11.1 or later, watchOS 7.2 or later and tvOS 14.3 or later.

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apple hong kong airpods max apple airpods max airpods max hong kong headphones airpods gadgets technology electronics

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