What you need to know
- AirPods Max don't blow through battery life outside of the case as some have feared.
- Testing has shown that the headphones only drained by 3% over a four-hour period.
When AirPods Max first got into the hands of reviewers, many pointed out that there was no way to turn the headphones off and the only way to get them into "Ultra-Low Power Mode" was to keep them in the Apple's Smart Case that is shipped with the headphones.
A lot of people are accustomed to turning their headphones off to preserve the battery life and leave them on a stand on their desk, in a drawer, or just lying around. Because of this, many have expressed concern about the lack of a power button and the case situation, wondering if their AirPods Max would blow through the battery and die if left out of the Smart Case.
Well, it appears that MacRumors has put their AirPods Max to this exact test and found that no one has anything to really worry about.
The outlet found that, after four hours of the headphones being connected and unused with their iPhone, the battery drained a total of three percent.
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. Over a four hour period, the AirPods Max didn't disconnect and the battery life drained a total of three percent.
In comparison, the AirPods Max only drained by one percent over a four-hour period when stored inside Apple's Smart Case.
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.
So, while there is certainly an advantage to keeping your AirPods Max stored in the included Smart Case when it concerns battery life, leaving them outside of the case is not going to fly through battery life in the way that many feared.
