How to use AirPods, AirPods Pro and AirPods Max: Tips and general instructions

Charging Your AirPods

By Apple’s official estimates, the standards AirPods can last for 5 hours of playback per charge, while the AirPods Pro can go for 4.5 hours. The AirPods Max is rated for 20 hours of uptime with ANC enabled, though unlike the earbud-style AirPods, doesn’t have a charging case. 

Here’s how to charge the AirPods and AirPods Pro:

Holding AirPods in charging case. Image Credit: Shaun Lucas

(Image credit: Holding AirPods in charging case. Image Credit: Shaun Lucas)

1. Place the AirPods in their charged charging case.

2. Wait 15 minutes.

3. Put the AirPods back in your ears

With a fully charged AirPods case, you can charge the buds multiple times, extending the battery life for a full 24 hours. Thanks to the W1 chip, the AirPods can get 3 hours of charge in 15 minutes, which should help get you through that long commute. The AirPods Pro's H1 chip will give you an hour of battery life with just a 5-minute charge.

If you need to charge the actual case, simply plug it in with a Lightning cable. You can do this with or without the buds.

The AirPods Max also charge directly via Lightning, specifically with the bundled Lightning-to-USB-C cable. There's no power adaptor in the box, though, so you'll need to either buy one or plug in to a laptop or PC and charge through that.

Sherri L. Smith

Sherri L. Smith has been cranking out product reviews for Laptopmag.com since 2011. In that time, she's reviewed more than her share of laptops, tablets, smartphones and everything in between. The resident gamer and audio junkie, Sherri was previously a managing editor for Black Web 2.0 and contributed to BET.Com and Popgadget.