Beats 360 Vs. AirPods Max: Which Over-Ear Apple Headphones Should You Pick?

As of October 2026, Apple's latest lineup of over-ear headphones includes the Beats 360 and AirPods Max 2. Beats 360 went on sale on September 22 for $350, while the AirPods Max 2 were introduced in March for $549. On paper, the headphones are more similar than the $200 price difference might suggest. Beats 360 weighs less, lasts longer, can survive sweat, and lets you swap the cushions for a different color. The AirPods Max 2, meanwhile, are a more premium set of headphones that look more stylish and sound better.

I've worn both, and while my first Beats 360 unit refused to pair with my iPhone at all, a replacement pair worked fine, so I'd put that down to a single faulty set rather than something wrong with the product. Having listened to them both for hours, this article is going to dive into what they share, where they differ, and which one deserves your money.

Each pair of these headphones features a closed-back over-ear design with active noise cancellation and a Transparency mode, each runs Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking, and each connects over Bluetooth 5.3. You charge both via USB-C, and a 5-minute charge can get either pair back to playing music in a pinch. Both of these headphones are also controlled by physical buttons, which is a nice touch. Beats 360 features a volume rocker and a play button on the right cup, with power and listening modes on the left, while the AirPods Max 2 keeps its Digital Crown and single button.

Despite the headphones coming from different brands, Apple treats them very much the same in the ecosystem. Both offer one-touch fast pairing, automatic switching between your devices, hands-free Siri, and Find My. This means some of the most-used AirPods Max 2 features are available on a set of headphones for $200 less. Beats 360 also supports Fast Pair, Find Hub, and audio switching on Android, which means you'll get better support if you're connecting them to any phone other than an iPhone. Both headphones also lean on recycled materials.

AirPods Max 2 pack the H2 processor, and Apple claims it offers noise cancellation up to 1.5 times more effective than the previous generation AirPods Max along with Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Voice Isolation, and Live Translation. Beats 360 uses a custom Beats chip instead, so none of those four features make their way to the more affordable cans, and you also lose lossless playback. AirPods Max 2 handles 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless over the bundled USB-C cable, while the USB-C port on Beats 360 only charges the battery.

Beats rates combined active and passive cancellation on the 360 at up to 1.75 times the Studio Pro, but no direct comparison to AirPods is offered. But after using the headphones, I found the noise cancellation on the Beats 360 to be rather weak, with a constant low hiss sitting under everything whenever the headphones were on my head. BGR's full Beats 360 review covers the cushion system in more detail.

Beats 360 weighs 10.39 oz against 13.6 oz for AirPods Max, making them almost 3 oz lighter. AirPods Max 2 are a heavy pair of headphones; there's just no two ways about it. The Beats 360 claims up to 32 hours with ANC running against 20 hours from Apple. Beats' latest offering also carries an IPX4 sweat- and water-resistance rating that AirPods Max 2 doesn't. While the ear cups on both detach and can be swapped out, only the Beats 360 supports a detachable headband cushion with kits in knit or engineered leather from $50. Replacement ear cups for the AirPods Max 2 will run you slightly more at $69. The Beats 360's pouch-like case weighs 3.1 oz, against 4.74 oz for Apple's Smart Case that is more of a half case that looks rather like a bra.

AirPods Max 2 are the clear winner if you can absorb the $549. Both noise cancellation and audio quality are in a different league, and the exclusive H2 chip features are the reason people pay Apple prices in the first place. BGR's AirPods Max 2 review covers how much the chip changed, and a head-to-head against Sony's WH-1000XM6 is worth reading if you want to shop outside Apple entirely. Better yet, AirPods Max 2 often drop to around $400 during savings events such as Prime Day, so you can nab them at a more reasonable price.

Beats 360 may be a better choice for some. They're much lighter than AirPods Max, their 32 hours of battery life beat almost any other headphones Apple sells, and an IPX4 rating means you can workout in them. But my biggest hesitation is the price, which may surprise you. At $250, the Beats 360 would be an easy recommendation with a few tradeoffs. But for $350, they sit roughly $100 above what the listening experience justifies, and the hiss and the soft cancellation are hard to forgive. Apple's latest cheap earbuds — the $129 AirPods 5 — actually undercut the Beats 360 on noise cancellation. If you don't want to splurge on AirPods Max, wait until the Beats 360 gets a discount.