tl;dr: leaving them on your desk for over 5 minutes does the same thing as putting them in their pouch. https://t.co/rS2hGZaBaD

— Tim Van Damme (@maxvoltar) December 18, 2020

Apple designs products so the 80% normal humans don’t have to stress over things like micro-managing battery-life or remembering to switch headphones on or off.

Then we 20% tech nerds ruin it for ourselves by stressing over the lack of micro-management and on/off switches.

— Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) December 18, 2020

Why does Apple keep spoiling my review? https://t.co/wO21c79KaA

— Quinn Nelson (@SnazzyQ) December 18, 2020

AirPods Max are regularly selling for $800-900 on eBay ?

And here I am thinking $550 is too much

— Luke Miani (@LukeMiani) December 18, 2020

You’re exactly right, Rene. I don’t begrudge anyone the desire to spend time in the weeds. But, as you note, Apple aims its products at that 90% of people who just want it to work. So it does baffle me when techies attack them for prioritizing simplicity and ease of use.

— Walt Mossberg (@waltmossberg) December 18, 2020

I don’t understand why Apple is allowing there to be so much confusion about the AirPods Max battery when left outside the case.

Good article here by @MacRumors confirms my review experience that they drain very slowly when left out for hours. https://t.co/i0BmnsPR52

— Chris Welch (@chriswelch) December 17, 2020

Sure, I just think they’re tied together. Apple initially made it sound like the case was fairly necessary if you *really* wanted to save as much battery as possible. Glad they clarified.

— Chris Welch (@chriswelch) December 18, 2020

It's extremely sad that they had to clarify this, but then again power management is far more technically complex than people might imagine.

— Daniel Matte (@DanMatte) December 18, 2020

Without the case, AirPods Max go into low power mode after 5 minutes of being left stationary. Not 2 hours or whatever that estimate was.

It takes them 18 hours *in* the case to go into the ultra-low power / off state. So the case barely even matters!https://t.co/g489gbtkhj

— Chris Welch (@chriswelch) December 18, 2020

These numbers make the AirPods Max "smart" case even more of a nonsensical accessory. Low power mode is activated after 5 minutes anyway; ultra-low power mode after 72 hours instead of 18.

What's the point of the case then?https://t.co/RDeYgnQpxM

— Federico Viticci (@viticci) December 18, 2020

Watching headphone engineers critique and breakdown the AirPods max design is intriguing.https://t.co/YMH8NBBHBA

— Lemont (@cocoalabs) December 19, 2020