Fans of Apple’s in-ear and over-ear headphones alike could have something to look forward to later in 2022, in the form of refreshes to the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max respectively.
This claim has been made by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter. More specifically, the well-known observer of Apple developments has said that we should “look out for new AirPods Pro in the fall.”
Gurman reasoned that the fall launch was likely for the Pro headphones on account of the present model having been available since the fall of 2019 – almost three years ago – which means that, in his words, “the batteries are probably already in trouble for some early adopters.”
So, what about the AirPods Max, which were released slightly more recently, in December 2020? Well, Gurman made a brief mention of these, telling readers to “look out for an AirPods Max refresh with new colors (and, we hope, a price drop – $550 is absurd for those headphones).”
The latter remark about the price would seem to be Gurman’s opinion instead of a prediction based on any sources he may have. He also didn’t go into any more detail about the specific new colors we might be able to expect AirPods Max to be offered in.
Gurman, of course, isn’t the only person who has been speculating about potential looming changes to the AirPods line, and it seems that support for lossless audio could be one feature of any new AirPods Pro. It has also been suggested that updated AirPods Pro could offer a new stemless design, enhanced on-device intelligence, and health-related features.
The AirPods Max, meanwhile, would surely also gain lossless playback in their next refresh if that is a feature of any updated AirPods Pro.
Both of these models of wireless headphones use Bluetooth technology that doesn’t support lossless audio, so if we are to assume the rumors are true, it will be interesting to see how Apple makes it possible. Presumably, the Cupertino company would turn to some kind of bespoke connection.