The AirPods Max Are Finally Back on Sale for Over $100 Off for Prime Day

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Amazon Big Deal Days is October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best bargains, based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools.

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.

I love my AirPods Max, but I can rarely recommend them. It's a shame, because they should be a no-brainer for anyone in the Apple ecosystem: They easily pair with all of your devices, have great noise cancellation (these are my go-to airplane headphones), and they sound fantastic.

What's not to love? Well, the price. Typically, AirPods Max retail for $549, making them among the most expensive consumer-grade headphones available. Comparable headphones in this category range from $250 to $450, making the AirPods Max a tough sell for anyone not completely tied to the Apple ecosystem. If all you care about is a pair of high-quality on- or over-the-ear headphones, you can opt for something less expensive.

For Prime Day, though, you can pick up a new pair of AirPods Max for $429—over $100 off, 22% off the MSRP. That's still expensive, no doubt, but it places the headphones at the top of this category range, rather than nearly $100 outside of it. I can comfortably say if you're interested in these headphones, now is a great time to buy.

AirPods Max

$429.00 at Amazon

$549.00 Save $120.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$429.00 at Amazon

$549.00 Save $120.00

As far as headphones go, AirPods Max are pretty straightforward. Like other AirPods, when you put them on your head and they automatically connect to your active Apple devices. If you're listening to music on your Mac, but you pick up your iPhone to watch a video, they'll automatically switch over to the new active source. You don't have to live with this feature, but it's gotten so good in recent years that it's pretty seamless when working across devices.

The headphones come with excellent noise cancellation, as well as its opposite: Transparency Mode. This feature pumps in sounds through tiny microphones in the AirPods, so you can have a full conversation without needing to take the headphones off. (Even with noise cancellation turned off, AirPods Max can block a decent amount of noise just by being on your head.)

Perhaps my favorite AirPods Max feature, however, is the battery life. These are rated for 20 hours of power at a time, which blows Apple's other earbuds out of the water. If you make sure to place the AirPods Max in their case in between uses, you'll find you don't have to charge them very often. (Though make sure you do use the case, since there's no way to turn off the AirPods when they're outside of it.)

Should you buy the new AirPods Max or the original?

You may or may not be aware that these AirPods Max are not the original model Apple released back in 2020. Apple actually refreshed the headphones last September, though you might not know it at first glance. In fact, for the most part, the two AirPods Max versions are almost identical, save for three points: new color choices, USB-C instead of Lightning, and the "ultra low latency" audio option that allows you to listen to lossless content over a wired connection.

Those are all improvements, of course—especially the latter two perks—but for a while there, I was recommending the original pair over the new model. For one, Apple hadn't yet rolled out the exclusive wired playback features, but for another, you could find the original model at a greater discount than the new pair, especially during events like Prime Day. As long as you could live with Lightning instead of USB-C, you'd save a chunk of change and have roughly the same AirPods Max experience.

Now the situation is different. Not only is the new model better, but the original model seems to be harder to find new. You can pick up an original pair for $399 or less, but it'll be renewed. If that's fine with you, go for the savings. But I think $429 isn't a terrible price for a new, unopened pair of AirPods Max.

Alternatively, consider AirPods Pro

If you’re looking for a high-quality audio experience that similarly works well with the Apple ecosystem, you really can’t go wrong with the AirPods Pro. In fact, they might be better for some people than the AirPods Max, since they have some exclusive features despite the lower price tag. I really wish Apple would add things like Conversation Awareness to AirPods Max, an advanced version of Transparency Mode that automatically reduces your music or audio source when you start talking to someone.

While Apple's newest AirPods Pro 3 remain at their full price of $250, Amazon has a great deal on AirPods Pro 2 for Prime Day, so if $429 is still too large a pill to swallow, give the Pros a look. You'll get the features you expect—noise cancellation, automatic device switching, high-quality audio—plus more.

AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

$169.99 at Amazon

$249.00 Save $79.01

Get Deal

Get Deal

$169.99 at Amazon

$249.00 Save $79.01

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.

View the full article