Apple’s gorgeous over-ear headphones, AirPods Max, have been a sell-out success ever since they went on sale last year. A new software update may have fixed the battery drain that has dogged the headphones in the last few months.
Many critics, myself included, applauded the design, found the audio quality to be exceptional, and enjoyed the extra features like noise-cancelling and Spatial Audio. Many more found the minimalist carry case strange or comical.
But it’s the battery life which has been the most divisive aspect of the headphones. Although this started out strong, it seemed to suffer soon after a firmware update to version 3C16 was delivered. Users would go to bed with headphones fully charged and wake to find them empty – even if they were placed in the smart case which turns the headphones into ultra low power mode automatically.
Apple has now released new firmware for the headphones and there’s a chance it will fix the issue.
It’s hard to be more emphatic than that because Apple hasn’t revealed the purpose of the new update, which is numbered 3C39.
The battery drain didn’t affect everyone. For example, though I found there was some significant overnight drop in my AirPods Max, since following a simple fix, I’ve had no problems at all. In fact, after leaving the headphones in their smart case untouched for almost two weeks, they still had over 80% charge when I tested them again yesterday.
Still, there’s a decent probability, since Apple knew about the battery issues, that it will have addressed this now. Certainly, and of course this is only one person’s experience, battery life has been strong and consistent since I updated the firmware.
So, how to do this? It’s not like updating iOS, I’m afraid.
To check if you have the latest firmware, connect your AirPods Max to your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings, then About and AirPods Max. It’ll then show the firmware that’s currently on board.
Then, leave your AirPods Max connected to the iPhone and check again later. That’s really all you can do, though some say if the iPhone is connected to power, that can speed things up. My headphones updated within an hour of connecting them to the iPhone, for what it’s worth.
If there are further issues or more details arrive from Apple, I’ll report back.
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