Noise Airwave Max 5 review: Solid wireless headphones under ₹5,000, but do they stand out?news24

Homegrown electronics maker Noise has kicked off the new year with a flurry of launches, rolling out a range of products—from smartwatches to audio equipment. I got my hands on their latest headphones in the Indian market, the Noise Airwave Max 5, which pack a 40mm driver, promise 80 hours of battery life, and offers low-latency gaming support—all for a price tag of ₹5,000. But are they worth your time? I tested them for over three weeks to see how they hold up in real-world use. Here’s what I found.

Design and unboxing:

Kudos to Noise for its packaging quality, the black coloured box of the Airwave Max 5 looks premium and offers a minimalist yet premium unboxing experience. Inside the box, you get the headphones itself along with a Type C to Type C cable (for wired listening), a Type A to Type C cable (for charging) and some documentation.

I received the white-coloured unit for my review, but these headphones are also available in Beige (my personal favourite) and Black colour variants.

Coming to the design, the Airwave Max 5 come with a full plastic built with an adjustable headband and soft earcups and metal enforced hinges for durability. The ear cups come with a soft cushion that sat nicely for ears and I can confidently say that they good for listening for at least 2-3 hours.

There is a big ‘L’ and ‘R’ sign inside the earcup to indicate the right ear. On the right side, are four buttons, two volume control ones (long pressing them changes to previous/next song), a power on button in the middle (long press triggers Google Assistant/Gemini) and a dedicated button for ANC.

The headphones come with an IPX5 rating, which means they handle a bit of water splashes say during a gym session even light rainfall. And in case you are trying to protect the Airwave Max 5 from heavy rainfall, the earcups are rotatable meaning they won’t take a lot of space in your bag.

I did notice though that the Noise Airwave Max 5 get sweaty very easily during workout session, leading to a less secure fit. This isn’t a major issue but I hope that Noise fixes it with a future interaction of the product.

Sound experience:

For the price, Noise Airwave Max 5 deliver decent audio quality with a excellent highs and decent vocals, the bass is a little lacking but that wasn’t a major issue for me. Considering that this was my first experience with a Noise audio product, I was actually quite impressed with the audio quality especially for the price but I feel the loudness could have been slightly better.

The headphones come with a dedicated gaming mode that can be triggered by long pressing the noise cancellation button. Noise promises low latency gaming up to 30ms. I tried playing some popular games like Call of Duty Mobile and Modern Combat 5 with the headphones on and there was no noticeable lag. However, advanced gamers would know that a wireless headphone can never compete in terms of latency with a wired alternative.

There were no leaking noises as far as I could tell and the mic quality was also decent for taking phone calls but do not have a lot of hopes in this department given the price point.

Hits and misses:

Believe it or not, audio wasn’t the standout feature of the Airwave Max 5. Instead, it was the adaptive noise cancellation, which Noise claims can cut out up to 50dB of sound. This really helped me focus on work or workout sessions without distractions. Obviously, extremely loud noises, such as a DJ playing nearby or the sound of horns on the street, will still find their way through, but overall, the noise cancellation was quite effective, especially given that it didn’t cause a noticeable drop in audio quality. The Ambient Mode, however, isn’t as effective if you prefer to stay aware of your surroundings.

Another absolute lifesaver feature of the Noise Airwave Max 5 is its battery life, which the company claims lasts around 80 hours on a single charge. Now I can’t actually confirm that the headphones last 80 hours – they probably last a little lesser – but what I can say here is that you won’t have to worry about battery life with these headphones even if you are a power user. In my on and off usage of about 20-25 days with the Airwave Max 5 (ANC turned on), I just got to charging them twice or thrice which should give you a fair idea about the battery life.

Talking about the misses, there’s no support for Hi-Res codecs like LHDC and LDAC, which is immediately noticeable when you listen to high-quality music. Another major downside of the Noise Airwave Max 5 is the lack of a dedicated app, which means there is no way to customize the sound experience.

Verdict:

If you’re looking to spend around ₹5,000, it’s hard to ignore the Noise Airwave Max 5 with its long battery life, balanced sound, strong ANC, comfortable fit and low-latency gaming support. Sure, they may not be the right choice for bass heads or audiophiles due to the lack of Hi-Res codec support and a dedicated app. However, for most people looking for reliable headphones for studying, working out or casual music sessions, these could be just the right pick – especially if you can snap them up on sale for around ₹4,000-4,500.