AirPods Max launched at a surprising price point of $549. Hence, it is natural to compare them with the industry-leading pair of headphones. Here’s an AirPods Max vs Bose 700 comparison, despite the glaring price gap between the two. While the former is a recently-launched product that goes for $549, the latter is available below the $400 price tag. It mostly sells for $379 without a discount and $339 with a discount. How do both of these stack up? Is the AirPods Max worth the extra money? Let’s find out in our comparison.

AirPods Max vs Bose 700: Design

Both of these headphones have different aesthetics. The AirPods Max features curved rectangular cups as opposed to the oval cups found on the Bose 700. Plus, the ear cups on the Max attach magnetically, which is an easier change-process when compare to the Bose counterpart. Both have a stainless steel frame. While in the case of the AirPods Max the stems meet the top of the cans, the stems on Bose 700 bisect the plastic ear cups. Coming to the headband, the former has a mesh canopy layer, whereas the latter has a cushiony layer on top. The AirPods Max is heavier at 384.8 grams, while the Bose 700 weighs just 254 grams. That said, both of them are inconvenient since neither of them collapses.

Color

The AirPods Max offers more playful color options with Space Gray, Silver, Sky Blue, Green, and Pink, while the 700s come in Black, Luxe Silver, Soapstone, and Triple Midnight color options.

Controls

The AirPods Max doesn’t offer touch controls. Unusually, it features the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown for volume controls. The headphones have this crown and a dedicated Noise Cancelation button to switch between ANC on/off and Transparency modes. By contrast, the Bose 700 have both control buttons and a capacitive touch panel. 

Case

The AirPods Max comes with an unusually useless case. It is smaller than the competition, but it doesn’t serve a purpose other than to place the headphones on standby. In this case, you cannot carry any wires or other accessories. As for the Bose 700, they come included with travel accessories and the case protects the whole product.

AirPods Max vs Bose 700: Performance

Both these headphones are equipped with a wide range of features. The AirPods Max has Active Noise Cancelation, Spatial audio, top-class audio quality, and more. On the other hand, the Bose 700 is known as the king of ANC. Let’s focus on all these aspects in more detail.

Sound Quality and ANC

The AirPods Max sports 40mm drivers within the ear cups, which deliver an excellent audio experience. Apple has used a custom-designed dynamic 40mm driver for the AirPods Max. They vibrate to the beat in a way that doesn’t deter from the music or video, making the sound more immersive than the Pro. It also has a dual-neodymium ring magnet motor, which is claimed to be modeled after the ones you’d find in high-end floor speakers. The spatial audio is amazing and better than the AirPods Pro on these pair of headphones.

Coming to the Bose 700, the sound quality is on par with the Apple counterpart. They feature 8 integrated microphones to block out ambient noise without affecting audio quality. There’s a Conversation mode (transparency mode) that lets you hear what’s outside your headphones without taking them off.

Active Noise Cancelation effectively cuts out the background noise. Both these audio devices feature ANC. In the words of our own Jaime Rivera, ANC on the AirPods Max is “epic.” These come with 9 microphones, and Apple’s H1 chip for computational audio performance.

Voice Assistant

One big let down with the AirPods Max is that you are stuck with the Apple ecosystem. Hence, this is a product targeted at people who already own an Apple device like the iPhone or a Mac. The company offers Siri as a voice assistant on its pair of headphones. On the other hand, you get more freedom with the Bose 700. These can accommodate your preferred voice assistant including Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, or Siri.

Battery life

The AirPods Max is claimed to last up to 20 hours on a single charge with ANC and spatial audio enabled. Similarly, the Bose counterpart is slated to last up to 20 hours as well. However, you’ll have to juice up the Max with a Lightning cable as opposed to the USB Type-C found on the 700. Notably, the former doesn’t switch off and you place it in the case to have them in standby mode. Moreover, the AirPods Max lose about 2% battery life per hour, while sitting out of the case when not in use. It is not the case with Bose 700.

AirPods Max vs Bose 700: Which one to buy?

AirPods Max are priced well above the Bose 700. They offer advanced computational audio and seamless integration, and a better integration with the Apple ecosystem. However, it might or might not be enough to take on the Bose 700 with their industry-leading ANC. Both of these headphones offer similar battery life, but the 700 might last longer since there is an option to switch them go. At the end of the day, both of these products are of high-quality, and you can’t go wrong with either of them.