- AirPods Max 2 is not expected until at least 2027
- AirPods Pro 3 predicted again for the end of 2025
- AirPods Max reportedly not selling enough to justify investment
If you are hoping for an AirPods Max 2 message at the Big Apple event on September 9, 2025, prepare to be disappointed: The next generation of Apple’s over-ears is not expected to arrive until at least 2027.
It is an eternity in technical terms: The original AirPods Max were launched by 2020. But it seems that Apple is stuck between a cliff and a hard place.
According to Bloomberg, the problem is simple: AirPods Max is “too popular for Apple to stop selling them, and not popular enough for the company to invest a lot of time and money in creating a new version” – after all, AirPods Pro 3 to work on instead.
What is Apple’s AirPods Max 2 and AirPods Pro 3 plans?
As always with unannounced Apple products, we are dealing with leaks, rumors and predictions here. But it seems that AirPods Pro 3 is coming soon, and AirPods Max 2 comes later than hope.
Bloomberg says AirPods Pro 3 should be launched by the end of 2025 – let’s hope we hear about them at the iPhone 17 event – with similar heartbeat monitoring as Powerbeats Pro 2.
As for the current AirPods Max, their latest update was a damp Squib: They caused USB-C to comply with EU law, and it was as far as new hardware features went self-self enabled loss-free wired sound support and we think it works pretty well actually.
The hoped H2 chip upgrade, which would have put them on par with AirPods Pro 2, was not contained. AirPods Max, unlike many premium headphones, still does not make wireless lossless sound, and having an older chip means they lack many of the features of AirPods Pro 2.
After five years of daily wear, mine and AirPods Max Prime candidates for replacement: The headband becomes baggy, the tight fit-i have a big head-is, to say the least, annoying now, having to find a lightning cable or adapter when everything else in my life is USB-C is a pain.
But I’m not interested in paying a prize award for tech, which is half a decade old now, especially when the best headphones from other companies are significantly improved with each new release. I wonder how many other AirPods Max owners who are likely to switch to rival brands before the second generation arrives …
