AirPods Max Battery Drains Only Slightly Faster Outside of Case

Apple did not include a power button on the AirPods Max, so there's no definitive way to turn them off, but Apple says that putting the headphones inside the included Smart Case puts them into an ultra low power mode.

AirPods Max Smart Case Battery Life Feature2
That's left a lot of questions about what happens to the ‌AirPods Max‌ when they're not inside the case yet not being actively used, so we've done some testing to attempt to figure out what's going on.

YouTuber Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) has said that the ‌AirPods Max‌ enter into a sleep mode after about two hours when just removed from the head and set down somewhere, and it does appear that the ‌AirPods Max‌ are staying actively connected to an iPhone for hours at a time.

At 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time yesterday morning, we connected the ‌AirPods Max‌ to an ‌iPhone‌, played a song, and then took them off and set them down on a desk. At this time, the battery was at 63 percent.

At 10:00 a.m., the ‌AirPods Max‌ were still connected, and the same goes for 11:00 a.m. During this period, the ‌AirPods Max‌ dropped to about 62 percent right around 10:00, and then stayed at that level until 11:26 before dropping to 60 percent battery life.

At 12:00 p.m., three hours later, the ‌AirPods Max‌ remained connected to the ‌iPhone‌ over Bluetooth and did not disconnect or go to sleep. During this time, the ‌iPhone‌ was in use for various activities and also in a rest mode where it wasn't in active use. The ‌AirPods Max‌ were left alone and not touched.

airpods max in case
Over a four hour period, the ‌AirPods Max‌ didn't disconnect and the battery life drained a total of three percent.

With a second set of ‌AirPods Max‌ and a different ‌iPhone‌ that was set aside and not used, we left them connected for more than two and a half hours and saw the same two percent drop in battery life. YouTuber Andru Edwards did a similar test and saw three percent battery drain over the course of 10 hours with the ‌AirPods Max‌ sitting out on a desk.

After monitoring the ‌AirPods Max‌ for a four hour period, we put them in the case at 1:00 p.m. When placed in the case, the ‌AirPods Max‌ immediately disconnected from the ‌iPhone‌ and it was no longer listed as connected in Bluetooth nor were battery levels listed.

We left the ‌AirPods Max‌ in the case to test battery drain while in Apple's advertised "ultra low power mode." From 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time to 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, the ‌AirPods Max‌ drained approximately one percent while in the case. The battery was at 60 percent when they went in the case at 1:00, and 59 percent when they came out of the case at 5:00.

An hour of music playback on the ‌‌AirPods Max‌‌ with Active Noise Cancellation engaged appears to drain somewhere around four to five percent battery. Andru Edwards saw 3 percent battery drain in 10 hours and leaving a set of ‌AirPods Max‌ out all night we saw a total of 8 percent battery drain, so the amount of listening time you're losing will vary.

So while the ‌AirPods Max‌ do need the case to go into a low power mode that's the equivalent of a sleep mode, leaving them out and connected to your devices isn't the biggest hit on battery if you don't want the hassle of putting them into the case and taking them out. If you want maximum battery life, though, you need to put them in the case.

We still don't have a definitive answer on when the ‌AirPods Max‌ "sleep" when out of the case because they never appeared to disconnect from the ‌iPhone‌ in our testing without the case, but we do now have a better idea of what happens when they're used without a case.

Related Roundup: AirPods Max
Buyer's Guide: AirPods Max (Buy Now)
Related Forum: AirPods

Popular Stories

iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
watchOS 11 Thumb 2 1

Apple Releases watchOS 11.4 With Sleep Alarm Update

Tuesday April 1, 2025 10:34 am PDT by
Apple today released watchOS 11.4, the fourth major update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.4 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2. watchOS 11.4 can be downloaded on a connected iPhone by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software,...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Monday March 31, 2025 11:27 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Apple Card iPhone 16 Pro Feature

Visa and American Express Vying to Win Apple Card Deal in 'Fierce' Fight

Tuesday April 1, 2025 1:50 pm PDT by
Visa wants to pay Apple approximately $100 million to be the new payment network for the Apple Card, reports The Wall Street Journal. As of right now, the Apple Card is on the Mastercard payment network, but that is set to change because Apple is ending its partnership with Goldman Sachs. Both American Express and Visa are vying to replace Mastercard as Apple's card services provider, while...
iOS 18

Apple Seeds First Beta of iOS 18.5 to Developers

Wednesday April 2, 2025 10:11 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming just two days after Apple released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4. iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. We don't yet know what Apple is introducing in the iOS 18.5...

Top Rated Comments

Herrpod Avatar
56 months ago
Put a power button on it and it won't drain at all. What a stupid design.
Score: 79 Votes (Like | Disagree)
F23 Avatar
56 months ago
thank you for testing this. 8% overnight compared to <1% if it was fully turned off is pretty bad for something this expensive.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
56 months ago
Dear MacRumors: stop giving people one less thing to whine about
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
payup Avatar
56 months ago
Mine drained 6% between 1am and 9am. They should add power off via long hold of the transparency button. Coming from QC35s that I charge like once per 1-2 weeks, this kind of sucks.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
56 months ago

How good is the microphone sound quality on these?
I used it on one phone call and nobody complained. Though I was annoyed that I couldn’t hear myself talk because of the noise cancellation - I had to hit the button to toggle it into transparency. Would be nice if it took care of that for you, since the phone knows you are on a call and hearing yourself talk would be helpful.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
56 months ago

Do I want to have to press a power button every time I want to turn them on and off, OR do I want to have to charge more often? I think I'd rather have an instant on device that I have to plug in every few uses. But I'll find out IRL whenever my headphones finally ship....
Having a power button wouldn’t force you to use the power button, of course. Just like you don’t have to use the case.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)