Apple Announces AirPods 4 With ANC, and AirPods Max Get a Frustratingly Minor Update

At its Glowtime event today, Apple did away with the 2nd and 3rd generation AirPods and introduced two new AirPods 4 models. Both sport an open-ear design, steering away from the in-ear design found on the company’s flagship Pro 2s. To align with the EU’s new laws on a universal charging standard, the new cases sport a Type-C port instead of the previously used Lightning port.

The high-end AirPods 4 retail for $180 and the base model for $130. Both releases are open to pre-order today and will launch on September 20.

The two main features that set the $180 higher-end AirPods 4 apart from the lower-end model are active noise cancelation and a premium charging case. These are Apple’s first open-ear buds to feature ANC. They also feature a transparency mode, standard on most earbuds. With adaptive audio, the sound on these buds will adapt to your surroundings and automatically adjust the volume. They also have conversation awareness, meaning the buds automatically lower your music volume when they sense you’re talking to someone.

The charging case for this version supports Find My and embeds a speaker for playing alerts when you’ve misplaced it. It’s also wireless, so you can recharge any Apple Watch or Qi-certified charger.

The lower-end AirPods 4 also sport an open-ear design, just without ANC. The same H2 chip that powers the premium model is inside these buds, too. The H2 chip also powers the two-year-old AirPods Pro 2, so there’s no major upgrade in terms of performance, but Apple does claim considerably upgraded audio quality across the new AirPods series. To make the EU happy, these buds also switched to Type-C charging.

The four-year-old over-ear headphones AirPods Max didn’t see any dramatic upgrades. We got new color variants (Midnight, Blue, Purple, Orange, and Starlight) and a switch to Type-C charging. They still retail for a pricey $550 and are available to pre-order today, with an availability date of September 20.