Apple’s new $19 EarPods are a smarter purchase than the $549 AirPods Max

When Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 series with USB-C last week, the company didn’t forget about wired headphone fans. Apple updated its EarPods for the first time since 2016, giving them a USB-C connector too—and if you need a pair of headphones, you might want to give them a look.

EarPods are very simple headphones reminiscent of the original iPod headphones featured in Apple’s iconic silhouette ads. They were redesigned in 2012 with “a breakthrough design for a more natural fit and increased durability, and an incredible acoustic quality typically reserved for higher-end earphones,” and the new version is identical save for the USB-C connector.

They’re actually quite comfortable and at $19, incredibly cheap. And if you subscribe to Apple Music, they’ll also play lossless audio. According to MacOtakara, who tested the new EarPods using an Audio MIDI device, Apple’s newest buds play audio in lossless quality thanks to a built-in DAC (digital-to-analog converter) that supports 48kHz. 

That means Apple’s $19 earbuds play music at a higher bitrate (16bit/44.1kHz to 24bit) than its $549 high-end AirPods Max (256kbps/44.1kHz). Granted, the difference between the two devices is massive, with the AirPods Max offering spatial audio, active noise cancellation, and a slew of other features, but they’re also nearly three years old, still have a Lightning port, and desperately need an update.

So we wouldn’t recommend spending hundreds of dollars on a pair right now. However, for $19, the newest EarPods are a fantastic deal that will more than hold you over until Apple gets around to updating the AirPods Max.