This Week at Mark Ellis Reviews

👉 My thoughts on the AirPods Max lossless audio update, a Poco F7 Ultra review and my definitive Mac buying guide!

TOP STORY

Definitive Mac buying guide 2025! Don’t waste your money!

Last week, I gave you my advice for purchasing an iPad, and this week I’ve gone even bigger with a full Mac buying guide. In the video, I cover how to decide between each type of Mac and give some recommendations about which specs are best.

If you’re a regular viewer, you’ll probably be able to guess which devices I think make the most sense. It’s also the first time I’ve ever had a Mac Studio in the err…studio, which only reinforced my view that the Mac mini is the superior device for 99% of people.

Poco F7 Ultra review: This is insane!

The smartphone market in the $500/£500-$700/£700 price bracket has become massively competitive in the last few years. Think Nothing Phone 3a Pro, Google Pixel 9a, OnePlus 13R and, yes, the iPhone 16e.

Forget near-flagship though, the Poco F7 Ultra has a top-of-the-range chip inside in the form of the Snapdragon 8 Elite and a frankly bonkers battery life, all for under £700. You can assess the camera for yourself in the video, but I think it’s as good as any other phone at this price. The only question remaining is why wouldn’t you buy one? No seriously, let me know!

BYTE-SIZED NEWS

This Week’s Top Tech Headlines

📂 Foldable iPhone Could Use A Liquid Metal Hinge
The much rumoured foldable iPhone is apparently going to use a special metal alloy for the hinge mechanism.

🫣 Why the AirPods Max News Could Be Bad News
AirPods Max are bringing us lossless and ultra-low latency audio which sounds great... but does it indicate that a future model is no longer on the horizon?

🤖 WWDC 2025 Will See Apple Give a Facelift To Apple Intelligence
iOS 19 was supposed to be the upgrade that would actually make Siri great again but apparently it’s now been delayed even further.

🔐 Anona Security: Spring Sale On 4K Camera and Home Security System
Check out some genuinely excellent value home security systems from Anona.

OPINION

Apple’s BIG AirPods Max news… could be bad news

This week, Apple announced that lossless audio is coming to AirPods Max in April. More specifically, it’s coming to the latest version of their over-ear headphones, along with a (mandatory) USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable. This means that if you have the Lightning AirPods Max ‘classic’, you’re not getting lossless. Sorry.

Predictably, the price of that aforementioned cable is making most of the headlines. It’s £39/$39. Because of course, it is. This is Apple, remember. Its only saving grace, as some have pointed out, is that it’s probably got a decent quality DAC inside, it’s bi-directional, and from the looks of the images on Apple’s website, it’s braided. But it’s still as-near-as-makes-no-difference, forty quid. And, yes, I’ve just ordered one.

That aside, this news is marginally exciting. From next month, I’ll be able to listen to 24-bit, 48kHz lossless audio on my AirPods Max via a cable and with extremely low latency. Will I notice the difference? Possibly not, but at least I’ll know that it’s lossless. This is what matters if you’re a wannabe audiophile (although, arguably, AirPods Max wouldn’t be your cans of choice if you were a real audiophile).

The promise of low latency is good news for anyone who wants to use their AirPods Max for music production purposes - particularly given the fact that they’ll be the only headphones on which you can mix spatial, head-tracked audio. Neat.

What isn’t neat is what this might mean for a more comprehensive AirPods Max update. Following the tepid USB-C (now that makes even more sense, doesn’t it?) and colour refresh last year, some were hopeful that a more meaningful AirPods Max V2 would be released shortly after. Now that we essentially have a pair of Apple headphones which can play back lossless audio via a cable, I think any promise of the next version of AirPods Max is very far off. Sorry.

TOP FINDS

What Had Me Glued to YouTube…

🎹 Doctor Mix Studio Tour 2024: Synths, Secrets, and Sound (Doctor Mix) - I’d forgotten about this guy until he popped up in my feed this weekend. He can usually be found reworking classic songs from scratch. Those videos are definitely worth a butchers, but this studio tour is mouth watering for anyone who is even remotely interested in this kind of thing.

☠️ I Survived The 5 Deadliest Places On Earth (MrBeast) - Despite the incessant shouting, I do find myself occasoinally dipping into the world of Mr Beast, as regular newsletter readers will know. This video is a brilliant example of how to condense what could have been an hour-long Netflix special into just 13 minutes. It’s why he’s huge on YouTube.

💰 EMERGENCY DEBATE: They Lied About The Economy Recovering! Is A Financial Apocalypse Coming? (The Diary of a CEO) - I promise I’ll never get into politics on this newsletter, but this debate is eminently watchable, if not mainly because you’ll end up heavily disagreeing with one of the guests. I listened to this, to be fair, so if the runtime is a bit long for your tastes, you’ll find it on the podcast network, too.

NEED TO KNOW

Tip Of The Week

iOS tip: Need to use your iPhone with one hand? Swipe down from the white stripe at the bottom to activate Reachability, bringing the screen closer to your thumb.

BEST BUYS

My 3 Must-Have iPad Accessories

To pair with my Mac buying guidance this week, I thought I’d throw in three recommendations for accessories that I use every day as part of my workflow with my various Macs!

1.  Satechi M4 Mac mini Hub - This is virtually an essential companion to your Mac mini by adding more ports and a slot to access the power button 👉 BUY HERE

2. BenQ PD3225U Monitor - This is always the monitor I recommend when someone asks what to buy for a Mac mini 👉 BUY HERE

3. SanDisk 2TB Extreme Portable SSD - Don’t buy internal memory with a Mac, just et an external SSD like this one for much less! 👉 BUY HERE

Just a note to say that these are affiliate links meaning I may earn from them, but they are genuinely all products that I love and use in my own setup!

‘GRAM OF THE WEEK

Exploring the world of Abu Dhabi with Ultra Human at the end of Feb!

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. Remember, as a newsletter subscriber, you get free access to my Discord server using the link below! I hope to see you there. Until next week,

~ Mark