{"id":12628,"date":"2024-09-13T19:05:48","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T19:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=12628"},"modified":"2024-09-13T19:05:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T19:05:48","slug":"the-129-airpods-4-have-features-the-549-airpods-max-dont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=12628","title":{"rendered":"The $129 AirPods 4 Have Features the $549 AirPods Max Don\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"


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If Apple wanted<\/span> to bury the fact it\u2019s leaving its most expensive headphones as the least technically capable in its lineup, it didn\u2019t do a very good job.<\/p>\n

It all started promisingly. At Apple\u2019s September Glowtime event<\/a>, CEO Tim Cook teed up VP of hardware engineering Kate Bergeron for the big reveal by stating that the company\u2019s much-loved AirPods family had \u201csignificant updates across the entire lineup.\u201d And with four years under their belt since their debut, it felt like the supposedly flagship AirPods Max had<\/em> to be top of the billing.<\/p>\n

Instead, that honor was bestowed upon the AirPods 4\u2014Apple\u2019s cheapest AirPods at $129, and now with the option of noise cancellation for an additional $50. Among other additions, Bergeron announced they would now come with the \u201cpower of the H2 chip,\u201d the most advanced headphone chip from Apple, which was first introduced in the AirPods Pro 2<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n

That chip delivers some significant upgrades, too. Apple said at the time that the H2 chip in the AirPods Pro 2 cancels \u201ctwice as much noise\u201d compared to the original Pro. Now, in the AirPods 4, Apple writes in its press release that H2 delivers a \u201cmajor improvement in sound quality\u201d and that it unlocks a whole host of \u201cintelligent features that change the way users take calls, interact with Siri, and so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of these features are down to the advanced machine-learning capabilities of the H2 chip, and Bergeron touched on a few of them in her enthusiastic introduction of the AirPods 4. Features like Siri Interactions, which allows you to respond to Siri by nodding or shaking your head; \u201cthe magic of Adaptive Audio,\u201d said Bergeron, which blends noise cancellation and transparency modes to best suit your environment; and also Conversation Awareness, which dips your audio down when it hears you talking to someone, then raises it again after.<\/p>\n

That’s not even all of them. There’s also Personalized Audio, shorter \u201cSiri\u201d summoning and Voice Isolation for clearer calls.<\/p>\n

Better sound, better ANC, better features? That sounds like a very tempting package indeed. But when it came to the H1-packing AirPods Max, Apple quickly swept all that good stuff under the carpet, throwing a handful of new colors and a USB-C connection our way in the hope we\u2019d forget about everything that had just come before.<\/p>\n

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