Hands-On with AirPods 4 and New AirPods Max – Video

I just got out of the Apple event where Apple introduced two new airpods for earbuds along with some cosmetic enhancements to the airpods. Max. I’m going to concentrate on those airpods four models, one of which has active noise canceling. Did you get a chance to try that active noise canceling out? Let’s go do this. All right. So there’s a little bit of confusion about the two airpods four models because they both have the new H two chip and they both have the same design. They’re a little bit smaller than airpod three. They also have a slightly smaller case. They cost $129 for the entry level model and $179 for the model with active noise canceling. Now, the way to look at the airpods four with active noise canceling is to look at them as the airpods pro two with an open ear design. So the airpods four with active noise canceling for instance, because it has noise canceling, it can do that conversation awareness mode. It kicks in a transparency mode and it also has adaptive audio. Now the entry level airpods for don’t have those features. The other feature that the airpods four with active noise canceling has is a little bit better case, the case has a speaker in it that emits a noise so that if you lose the case, it will emit the noise and make it easier to find. The other feature the case has is that not only does it have wireless charging with key pads, but it also can be charged with the Apple watch charging pad. Now, of course, both airpods four cases do have USB C charging instead of lightning charging. That’s a feature that’s going to be an all new airpods going forward. And in terms of the design of the airpods, as I said, they’re a little bit smaller, so they’re kind of in between the airpods two and the airpods three. And that means in theory that they’ll fit probably more ears better. A lot of people didn’t like the airpods three because they just couldn’t fit smaller ears. I’ll finish by talking about the active noise canceling in those airpods four with active noise canceling. I did get a chance to try it on the floor. I was pretty impressed because I’ve never heard open earbuds actually able to do active noise canceling. All right. So we’ve engaged in noise canceling. Here is obviously a very noisy room and it definitely does work. Um It’s better at canceling out lower frequencies. I still hear the music and it’s not going to be quite as good as the airpods Pro two. But it’s impressive that it can tamp down the noise for an open ear bud. It’s a rare thing. It does a decent job with lower frequency. So not the frequency range that the airpods Pro Two can do with noise gassing and not quite as strong. The idea is that you’d have some, you know, an air conditioning unit in the background or some low drone noise in the background and the buds would tamp that noise down as for battery life, both airpods four models have up to five hours of battery life with noise canceling off. Obviously, the entry level model doesn’t have noise canceling, but the airpods four with noise canceling would get up to four hours with noise canceling on. So Apple hasn’t really improved the battery life performance on these compared to previous model. Now, if you’re wondering whether it’s worth buying the entry level model versus the higher end model, it’s obviously a $50 difference, see how it all shakes out their street prices. But I do think for a lot of people, it will be worth getting the noise canceling feature. Unfortunately, the new airpods max are not the airpods max two that we were hoping for, that might have the H two chip in it and some other new features, these new airpods Macs just have USB C charging and some new color options, a new blue color, for instance, kind of a peach color that I liked but nothing new from a features and performance standpoint. They’re really just cosmetic changes. So I’m here with the new color options for the airpods Max. As I said before, there’s really only USB C been added instead of lightning. No new H two chip. They’re still $549 but check out these new colors. I’m David Connor for cnet.com. Thanks for watching.