iPhone 16 audio questions, AirPods 4 worries and more: our verdict on Apple’s event

Apple’s hotly anticipated September “Glowtime” event has come and gone, and it brought with it a wealth of new hardware announcements.

Highlights include the company’s new line of Apple Intelligence (AI) focussed iPhone 16 handsets, new AirPods 4 earbuds and a very modest update to its existing Apple AirPods Max over-ears.

But did it do enough to keep audio and hi-fi enthusiasts excited? Here’s what our team of hi-fi and home cinema experts had to say on the topic.

The AirPods 4

The AirPods 4 are the latest wireless earbuds from Apple, and according to the tech giant a massive sonic upgrade on their predecessors.

This is great, but they've been met with cautious curiosity as much as excitement by the What Hi-Fi? team. One key reasons is the arrival of an AirPods 4 with ANC variant, which aims to let them deliver advanced active noise cancellation, despite featuring a tipless design.

If the buds succeed, this would potentially give them a unique position in the wireless earbuds market, which is why they caught the eye of our hi-fi and audio editor, Kashfia Kabir.

Despite this our staff writers were slightly less enamoured with them for two reasons. First was Lewis Empson, who has continuing misgivings about a different feature, previously limited to the AirPods Pro 2, coming down to the AirPods 4.

Fellow staff writer Harry McKerrell was also on the fence, arguing the AirPods 4 don't deliver one key change we've wanted from Apple AirPods. Specifically, an affordable option.

The AirPods Max 2024

Ahead of the event there were a number of rumours suggesting Apple would launch a next-generation upgrade to its five-star, Award-winning AirPods Max over-ear headphones. Sadly, come the event what it actually brought to the table was a very modest spruce, which left some, our editor-in-chief (me) included, a little disappointed.

The iPhone 16

Like most September Apple events, the iPhone was the focus of most of the keynote. This year the new iPhone 16 line was unveiled with an overt focus on how they're the first handsets "built around Apple Intelligence" – its version of AI. While there were plenty of robust discussions about how the tech will improve camera performance, recommendations and more, Apple was oddly silent on a few areas the What Hi-Fi? team care about, much to the chagrin of contributor, Joe Svetlik.

Despite the lack of any formal announcements about AV improvements, some members of the team remain hopeful, including deputy editor Andy Madden, who pointed out we won't know the full story until we get them in for testing.

The no shows

While Apple unveiled a lot of new hardware at the event, there were a few noticeable absences and devices we'd really been hoping to see alongside the new iPhones and AirPods, especially for our home cinema editor, Tom Parsons.

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