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Comment by jefftk | Hacker News Reader

The iPhone was very different, and in many ways much better, than its competitors. I'm not seeing that here?

"Magic" syncing, spatial audio, and transparency mode are likely top three.

Many people didn't see how iPhone was better than its competitors at first either, mostly because they were focused on the things the competitors emphasized and dismissive about what Apple brought to the table. Until, of course, those things because all any company was trying to deliver.

Computational audio is another, it has the H1 chip, its gonna be Apple exclusive algorithms that make soundscape absolutely bonkers. Sort of like Dolby proprietary stuff.

Better is subjective. It most likely doesn't have the audio fidelity as the headphones OP mentioned, but something like Transparency mode is such a great feature for me.

The end product experience doesn't always correlate to existing metrics of quality.

Not a single one of the headphones mentioned by OP have bluetooth, noise canceling, or a built-in microphone.

That's because the ones mentioned are all audiophile headphones focused only on sound quality. There are plenty of headphones, notably the Sony wh1000xm3 for $230, which have bluetooth, noise canceling, and a built-in microphone plus they work with non-ios devices

AirPods, including AirPods Max, support Bluetooth 5.0 and do work with non-Apple devices.

I must've misinterpreted > AirPods Max require Apple devices running iOS 14.3 or later, iPadOS 14.3 or later, macOS Big Sur 11.1 or later, watchOS 7.2 or later, or tvOS 14.3 or later.

It also says: "AirPods Max can be used as Bluetooth headphones with Apple devices using earlier software and with non-Apple devices, but functionality is limited."

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