How to justify the AirPods Max price to yourself and others
Tags: Money Saving Tips, Airpods Max, Airpods, Money Management, Apple

How to justify the AirPods Max price to yourself and others

You can’t argue with the numbers

You are not stupid for preordering Apple’s AirPods Max. You are not a so-called “AirHead”. You are not bad with money. You know what you’re doing, and you know exactly why you want to buy a set of £549 noise-cancelling headphones. You deserve the best because you work hard and you play hard.

But just in case the price tag is keeping you up at night, here are some ways for you to minimise the cost to help you feel good about your purchase.

You never really liked regular AirPods

If you preordered last week, congrats, you’re in an elite group of Apple fans who get to see what makes the AirPods Max so unique before everyone else. You may feel a lot of guilt for buying luxury headphones in the middle of a pandemic where so many people are struggling to make ends meet.

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You may also be experiencing a feeling of lightheadedness from the sensation of spending more than half a grand on something you probably weren’t even considering buying in the first place. If excellent sound quality were a priority, you’d already have a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, instead of just rocking out to AirPods. But that’s the thing most people don’t understand about you. You love your AirPods because they’re so convenient, but the sound quality is not great for music. You’d listen to more music if only you had decent headphones. *Sigh*

The algebra of happiness

Putting sound quality aside, let’s see how we can justify the high price in a way that makes you feel less like an AirHead.

The first thing we need to do is cut the price down to a more manageable number. If we subtract the cost of buying an “ordinary” pair of noise-cancelling headphones we get the following:

Subtract the price of Bose 700 noise-cancelling headphones from the cost of AirPods Max: £549 - £279 = £270

That leaves us with £270 to justify. If we take build quality into account, we can probably take another £50 off of the total. The AirPods Max are constructed from stainless steel and aluminium, instead of plain old plastic, after all.

You live a designer lifestyle

That leaves us with £220 to justify, which is still a lot of money. Maybe Apple’s design is so special and unique that it’s worth the extra money?

The design of AirPods Max is just so much better than that of the Sony or Bose headsets. You just don’t see yourself buying any old headphones because, alas, their inferior designs are just so dull. Plus, Sony and Bose’s designs don’t come in fun colours. Come to think of it, £220 is a bargain for more colour options and a superior design. And even if you buy the black AirPods Max, they’re not really black. They’re space grey! There’s a big difference.

It’s not black, it’s space grey

Plus, you are design-conscious and it is important for you to have the best. You are known in your circle of friends for your excellent taste and beautiful things.

Cheaper than a cup of coffee

Another way to think about the Max price is to consider the number of days you’ll use them. If you’re lucky enough to get yours on launch day, you’ll have about 365 days to enjoy them before Apple makes them look like utter garbage when the new and improved version drops at the end of 2021. That means owning AirPods Max for one year works out to about £1.50 per day! What a bargain!

You won’t buy AirPods Max 2

There’s another way to make that pesky £220 number feel smaller. What if you tell yourself that you won’t buy the second-generation AirPods Max? That way you can keep using the first AirPods Max for longer, further reducing the daily cost of the product. After all, Apple is known for quality and the first-generation model is probably well built, which means you won’t even want AirPods Max 2.

Yes, you know that you’re lying to yourself, but it’s a little white lie, it’s not delusional. It’s not like AirPods Max 2 will come with an improved carrying case, a lighter design, fewer holes on the sides of the ear cups, water resistance, passive audio and some other feature you didn’t even know you needed until Apple releases it in 2021. The OG Max is an instant classic, and you won’t want to upgrade. Apple won’t be able to tempt you again.

You didn’t spend money at the Apple Store

Maybe you can justify the remaining £220 by what we didn’t buy in 2020? If you didn’t upgrade to the iPhone 12, you probably deserve the AirPods Max. The most expensive model of the iPhone 12 Pro Max is almost three times as expensive as the AirPods Max. How about accessories for your Apple devices? For the remaining £220, you could have bought a HomePod mini and two new cases for your phone. You could have purchased a MagSafe Duo Charger plus some Apple Watch bands. Or you could have upgraded your Mac which would have cost way more than £220, so when you think about it, is £220 all that much?

2020 was a challenging year

If these excuses, erm I mean justifications, don’t work you can always go the indulgent route and tell yourself that 2020 was such a hell of a year that you deserve a little treat for making it through. You deserve to feel a bit special after being locked down at home without seeing your friends. Plus, working from home means you hardly spent anything on your daily commute, which means you saved way more than £549 on transport costs. You also didn’t eat out as much, which means you saved even more money. Ka-ching!

You need it for work

Then there is the ultimate justification; you need AirPods Max for work. Come to think about it, Mark from Sales is forever talking loudly in the office and you need a way to block out distractions in order to keep you focused on work. And who knows, maybe having the extra focus at work will lead to a raise? That’s always a possibility.

You need it to work from home

An even better excuse (and this one’s rock solid) is you need AirPods Max to block out your noisy pets/kids/neighbours while working from home.

Boom! Congratulations you did it!

You just talked yourself into spending five-hundred and forty-nine pounds on AirPods Max! You now have all the ammunition to convince yourself, and others, that you’re not stupid for falling for Apple’s marketing, greed and emotional manipulation. You are your own person with your own ideas, motivations and you are in control of your emotions and have oodles of self-control. Tim Cook and his army of designers, marketers and researchers had nothing to do with this decision. You have always wanted AirPods Max and the moment has finally arrived for you to get a pair.

Because, when you think about it, they’re basically free. It would be a shame not to buy them. Right?

Oh, and did I forget to mention that you need to buy Apple Care as well? That’ll be an extra £49, please.

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