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. Naturally, they also feature a transparency mode which is common on earbuds featuring noise cancelation. 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. There’s also wireless charging on it which means you can use any Apple Watch or Qi-certified charger to replenish it.
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.
Renowned Apple analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, was also speculating the release of a budget AirPods Lite priced at $100. Jeff Pu, at 9to5Mac, had confirmed Kuo’s claim, too. However, Apple didn’t mention a budget version at its event today. If the speculation was accurate, it’s possible that we might see them towards the end of the year.
Apple insider, Mark Gurman, also claims that Apple is working on a new iteration of the two-year-old 2nd gen AirPods Pro. Apparently, the upcoming variant will feature improved ANC and an upgraded design. Gurman predicts these will likely be launched “as early as next year.”
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