Apple Clarifies Power-Saving Modes of AirPods Max When Not in Use

[ignatius345]

Again Apple's reluctance to include a simple feature means you need to go through a ridiculous storage procedure to maintain battery life. Why not allow a press of the crown for a few seconds to power down the device instead.

By "ridiculous storage procdure" do you mean just putting them down and letting the aforementioned ultra-low power mode kick in after a few hours? I agree it seems like a trivial change to just enable a traditional power off mode, but let's not overstate the problem.

 

[ignatius345]

I'd be going to Grado for ultimate audio quality but they're an altogether different prospect, and not wireless.

Fellow Grado fan here. The Grado GW100 are quite nice IMO, and wireless. They're capable of aptX connections (which sadly the iPhone is not) and also work with a 3.5mm cord if your battery is dead or you just want to bypass the wireless stuff. I think they sound wonderful, but it feels like Grado budgeted ALL the cost here to producing the best possible sound, and had to cut corners on literally everything else to hit the $250 price point.

I'm personally making the jump to these new Apple cans because currently I'm switching a lot between sound isolation (via an old pair of Bose) and open soundstage (GW100) and I'm hoping the AirPods Max can do both and offer some other goodies as well. I may hang onto the GW100 or might eBay them to recoup some of the cost here. The Bose are going away no matter what

 

[Jim Lahey]

Fellow Grado fan here. The Grado GW100 are quite nice IMO, and wireless. They're capable of aptX connections (which sadly the iPhone is not) and also work with a 3.5mm cord if your battery is dead or you just want to bypass the wireless stuff. I think they sound wonderful, but it feels like Grado budgeted ALL the cost here to producing the best possible sound, and had to cut corners on literally everything else to hit the $250 price point.

I'm personally making the jump to these new Apple cans because currently I'm switching a lot between sound isolation (via an old pair of Bose) and open soundstage (GW100) and I'm hoping the AirPods Max can do both and offer some other goodies as well. I may hang onto the GW100 or might eBay them to recoup some of the cost here. The Bose are going away no matter what

Oh cool. Didn't realise they now made wireless headphones. I had a pair of SR80e. They felt like they were made from recycled ice cream cartons but sounded absolutely wonderful. Open back and wired, of course, so a totally different ballgame to noise cancelling bluetooth items.

 

[CaptFuzzyBuns]

This is really good to know. I wish Apple would just be upfront about this stuff from the get go instead of waiting until people complain enough they feel they have to explain how their devices actually work. We are paying a premium for these headphones and it would be REALLY nice to know that we don't have to use your ridiculous case and not lose a ton of battery because of it.

Apple: (waves hand and uses Jedi mind trick) you only need the information and technically we give you.

 

[Rogifan]

It’s just the principle. I absolutely love Apple’s products, software and ecosystem, but MAN why can’t they just include this information from the jump? Lol

Obviously it’s not a big deal I love my AirPods Max, but Apple just makes some strange decisions sometimes.

Side note: Being able to adjust volume with the Digital Crown is amazing. The build quality / sound / features of these are so worth the price IMO.

I agree they should be upfront with low power mode information but my god the way some are making it out to be a national scandal that these headphones don’t have a power button is ridiculous. I swear people wake up in the morning looking for things to be worried/outraged about. 🙄

Honestly I would argue a bigger issue than a power button is the lack of aux jack (or inclusion of aux cable) so people can easily use these wired.

 

[LeadingHeat]

Don’t really know why there’s so much hate still. Yeah this info should have been available earlier, but now that we know this, it makes a lot of sense. Low power mode when tested it didn’t drain the battery very much! But it still allowed them to be found via the Find My app. After 3 days, it’s better that they save battery than to be found (you’re going to notice they’re missing before 3 days and try to ping them.)

 

[ignatius345]

Oh cool. Didn't realise they now made wireless headphones. I had a pair of SR80e. They felt like they were made from recycled ice cream cartons but sounded absolutely wonderful. Open back and wired, of course, so a totally different ballgame to noise cancelling bluetooth items.

Yeah, I saw these come out last year and jumped on them immediately. There's a revised version now that charges over USB-C instead of the dreaded micro-USB.

Build quality is still pretty funky, but they're light and comfortable enough and the sound is awesome. Huge bonus: you're not saddled with that insanely thick, hard wired, six foot cable they typically use. Any normal 3.5mm AUX cable works. But of course being open they're utterly useless unless you're in a quietish room.

 

[neander]

Surely they can fix this with a long press somewhere.

For future somewhat infrequent users, every other day or third, of the headphones this would surely help out.

 

[creediddy]

These headphones are way overpriced!

 

[Herrpod]

Apple claims to be a green company and yet releases that waste battery when not in use, offering no option to avoid that. Next time they claim they removed something from the retail box to help the environment, just laugh in their face.

 

[Jim Lahey]

Yeah, I saw these come out last year and jumped on them immediately. There's a revised version now that charges over USB-C instead of the dreaded micro-USB.

Build quality is still pretty funky, but they're light and comfortable enough and the sound is awesome. Huge bonus: you're not saddled with that insanely thick, hard wired, six foot cable they typically use. Any normal 3.5mm AUX cable works. But of course being open they're utterly useless unless you're in a quietish room.

Thanks for the info. Will look into these next time I'm in the market.

 

[NT1440]

This is really good to know. I wish Apple would just be upfront about this stuff from the get go instead of waiting until people complain enough they feel they have to explain how their devices actually work. We are paying a premium for these headphones and it would be REALLY nice to know that we don't have to use your ridiculous case and not lose a ton of battery because of it.

Are...are you actually losing “a ton” of battery?

 

[Herrpod]

Eww I don't want that smart case on my desk when I'm using my AirPods, I like my workspace nice and clean.

Why didn't Apple make the case a bit bigger to protect your whole device and able to charge your AirPods wirelessly in the case. That would make it perfect for traveling etc

Because they want to sell you an after-market case for 150+ dollars.

 

[Herrpod]

Good grief. Is there nothing that people won’t fret about? What do people do with their iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches? We know people aren’t turning them off. Is it so hard to charge a pair of headphones like you would your phone or computer?

Lists a bunch of things that need to be on all the time regardless of being used and attempts to equate it to something that only serves its purpose when its in use. Brilliant! More proof there's a defense force for everything.

 

[TomOSeven]

Because they want to sell you an after-market case for 150+ dollars.

Apple’s slogan at this point might as well be:
”We sell you the solution to the problem we created.”

 

[ZMacintosh]

sounds like a software solution could be had. Sort of like how you can switch between Noise Cancellation, Transparency, Neither (Off), Turn off Headphones, etc or something of the like...

 

[hidekigomi]

It explains how they work but it still doesn't say WHY. "collecting noises for noise cancellation = spying"??

 

[phantom13]

You’re conserving battery wrong

 

[BWhaler]

That case looks like a diaper.

 

[Ds6778]

Most of the people freaking out over this do not even own a pair. Thismakes sense to me, it’s the same mentality as to why you don’t power off your AirPods when you put them in the case or power them on when you put them in your ear, it just works and does it’s thing. The case is nice and it’s not an absolute needed accessory but I still don’t understand the hate towards it.

 

[dwaltwhit]

A product with no power button, genius!

Truly a test of their bravery

 

[gnasher729]

I’m glad they’ve clarified how unnecessarily complicated it is.

What's complicated? You have the headphones on your head, or you put them down somewhere, or you put them into a case. Your decision. If someone explained to you how the gearbox of your car works, would you call the unnecessarily complicated as well?

 

[bluespark]

Eww I don't want that smart case on my desk when I'm using my AirPods, I like my workspace nice and clean.

Why didn't Apple make the case a bit bigger to protect your whole device and able to charge your AirPods wirelessly in the case. That would make it perfect for traveling etc

Being able to charge in an enclosed case (i.e., you can leave the case plugged in and drop the headphones in whenever you want) would have been great, and it would have tracked the similar -- and very popular -- feature in the AirPods/AirPods Pro. Strange that they went in a very different direction.

 

[gnasher729]

Unless you’re using them 10 hours plus a day, I would expect these to get 18-20 hours battery life per charge for the first three years. Then natural aging for year 4 and 5 would mean maybe as low as 15 hours. So, £75 for a battery replacement in 5 years? Fine by me.

These batteries aren’t going to age horribly like in-ear AirPods due to their size.

About the same as my watch. Except the first battery lasted 13 years. Without recharging.

 

[Kuckuckstein]

Sennheiser’s PXC 550 have a simple mechanism that switches them off when you turn the cups into “transport mode” or want to lay them flat on the desk.
Since the AirPod Max has the same folding design, they could just do that. Simple and works very well.