AirPods Pro Teardown: Heavier Than Original AirPods, Different Battery, Same Zero Repairability Score

[IIGS User]

I'll take Sony's or Bose's NCH option any day. That's just personal preference.

When AirPods can accept a Processor Direct Slot and I can plug cards from my Mac SE into it. We'll talk.

Or a Disk II card from my IIGS. "PR iforgetwhatthehellslotitwas"

Forgetting this is a BIG deal to me. My first computer was a II+, then a IIE then a IIGS.

I'm old...

 

[PickUrPoison]

Does anyone that knows about batteries know if coin cell have better longevity than pin type? The only reason I’m looking to upgrade my 3 year old original AirPods is that the battery lasts all of 5-10 minutes. Even if these hold 50% of capacity after 3 years I’d be happy. If they can hold an hour of life 6 or so years down the road I’d happy.

Yikes, that’s unusable. Hard to know how these will fare over time, but be sure not to ever let them get too hot. Nothing kills lithium battery capacity faster than leaving it in a hot car at 140° or 170° for a few hours.

 

[bbednarz]

I do miss the old days. When the battery in my old Bose headphones died, I simply slid it out and threw in another AAA.

Seems easier to just toss them on the charger for 5 minutes.
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Yikes, that’s unusable. Hard to know how these will fare over time, but be sure not to ever let them get too hot. Nothing kills lithium battery capacity faster than leaving it in a hot car at 140° or 170° for a few hours.

I think this really just comes down to how much someone uses them. I use them a 4-5 times a week for both audio and voice. Mine are still going pretty strong. Get about an hour of talk time on each AirPod. I got mine in December 2016. I think the most I use them in one sitting is about 2 hours though. Never had them die on me in use.

 

[jimbobb24]

I love all the engineers on here who magically know that the change to a replaceable battery would result in the same product with a lesser “environmental impact” - a useless ill defined term. Would it result in a net lower carbon footprint over the lifetime of the product including its engineering, design, construction, and other trade offs? Or are we talking about world supply of refined lithium? Landfill net gain? PhDs write dissertations trying to determine those trade offs for very simple things and it is incredibly difficult to know but apparently everyone on MacRumors just knows it would be a better trade off. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t but I am pretty confident no one here actually knows the true answer to these questions they just like to preen.

 

[HardRain]

God. Such negativity on here.

People giving a damn about the limited planetary resources equals negativity? Quite the opposite, it’s positivity caring about something.

 

[Strelok]

I love all the engineers on here who magically know that the change to a replaceable battery would result in the same product with a lesser “environmental impact” - a useless ill defined term. Would it result in a net lower carbon footprint over the lifetime of the product including its engineering, design, construction, and other trade offs? Or are we talking about world supply of refined lithium? Landfill net gain? PhDs write dissertations trying to determine those trade offs for very simple things and it is incredibly difficult to know but apparently everyone on MacRumors just knows it would be a better trade off. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t but I am pretty confident no one here actually knows the true answer to these questions they just like to preen.

Seems ever since the media has started covering environmental conditions more with a bunch of exaggerations everyone is going ******* crazy over everything. It’s kind of comical to see some of the posts in this thread about how horrible these new AirPods are for the environment. Personally I have zero interest in these since they are overpriced and don’t provide any real benefits for my personal needs. I have some Jaybird X3’s I use for working out and outside of that I don’t really use earbuds for music.

 

[Digital Dude]

company who produce non repairable product like this should be taxed like hell, if they can't use their engineering skills to produce more eco-friendly products on their own will.

Engineering skills? Remember that all went away with Steve Jobs. Apple is no better than almost any other company today. If I were not so tied to the ecosystem, I'd be using Google's new more economical product line.

 

[HardRain]

Counter point: as someone using wired earphones almost every day I've had to get a new pair nearly every year. The point of failure every single time was the cable breaking from normal rubbing against my pocket too many times.

Using AirPods for months now and no complaints yet touch wood

Thats some cheap cable there, or your pockets are rubbing it in a very weird way.

 

[Rogifan]

The cynic in me says iFixit doesn’t really care about anything more than hits on its website. That’s why they fly someone to Australia every time Apple releases a new product. So they can have their tear down on their website first thing knowing when they give something a low score it immediately gets picked up by all the tech sites and is posted all over social media.

 

[Strelok]

The cynic in me says iFixit doesn’t really care about anything more than hits on its website. That’s why they fly someone to Australia every time Apple releases a new product. So they can have their tear down on their website first thing knowing when they give something a low score it immediately gets picked up by all the tech sites and is posted all over social media.

That might be true, but that still doesn’t change their analysis and rating here. I’m not sure which earbuds are very repairable to be honest other than maybe the tips or in rare instances the battery if they have them. My sennheiser headphones have a replaceable cable and earcups, that’s it.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Why do people think the batteries in something this small should be user replaceable? To design that you’d have a completely different product and one much larger.

Because they're a bunch of captain planet wannabes.

 

[bbeagle]

Tim is KILLING this company. I wish Apple would make PROPER in-ear headphones.

- Replaceable battery
- Modular RAM
- Ethernet port
- SD card reader

Of course that would impact the bottom line by SOLDERING everything. Disgusting practice.

There really should be an 8-track tape slot in the in-ear headphones for those of us still rocking 8-track tapes. Why give up on 8-track tapes so soon?

 

[ipponrg]

The cynic in me says iFixit doesn’t really care about anything more than hits on its website. That’s why they fly someone to Australia every time Apple releases a new product. So they can have their tear down on their website first thing knowing when they give something a low score it immediately gets picked up by all the tech sites and is posted all over social media.

you can arguably say the same about many things including all the trash articles Macrumors posts to get hits. It is part reporting, and it’s part garnering traffic

I think one of the reasons people are cherry picking on this is simply Apple boasts about how green they are. Just like arrogant (or confident) people, others will try to look for a flaw to point out

 

[pika2000]

I love how Apple always just HAS to solder everything for no obvious reason yet claims they are so environmental. Hypocrites

Oh yeah, because other wireless earbuds out there on the market are highly repairable....


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Because they're a bunch of captain planet wannabes.

Show me other wireless earbuds that as compact as the EarPods that are highly repairable. And if they use recyclable materials.

 

[jonnysods]

Has any company ever made earphones like this that are actually repairable...

This is the question no one likes to ask - it's a little much to want a replaceable battery in a unit this small and complex.

 

[dwsolberg]

Everyone is suddenly so concerned about the environmental impact of these tiny devices. Just admit that you want a replaceable battery so it’s cheaper to own. If you were really concerned about the environment, you would just use the corded pair that you probably already own.

 

[chrono1081]

God. Such negativity on here.

Yep. It's why I rarely come to the forums anymore. The trolls and whiners took over.

 

[MacOH21]

No one's making you buy the apple airpods. Seems to be plenty of options out there for wireless earbuds.

 

[Dirtydutch]

Everything about these is just as good as the original AirPods, but making these disposable after a few years just like the original AirPods, and needing some sort of replacement or repair is not appealing at all...

 

[2979382]

won't you be happy if Apple were the first to do so?

Would you be happy if the resulting product would cost twice the amount and might even be bigger? Don't underestimate the cost of building modular commercial products in such a small form-factor.

 

[Remy149]

I would gladly buy a wired version of the AirPods Pro. The noise cancelling can then be powered thru the lightning connector. The AirPods Pro would then last so much longer, no battery to deteriorate. Not good for Tim's profit sheet though.

What would also be handy is that the AppleTV remote could pass audio thru the lightning port and then you could use the wired AirPods Pro with the remote. With the remote having a sensitive touchpad, they could put lockswitch on the remote so you could then pair the remote with other bluetooth audio device, effective you've got wireless era buds - another option.

No thank you on the wires. I’ve been using Bluetooth headphones since I got the iPhone 3GS. You can easily connect airpods or any other Bluetooth headphones to Apple TV right now.

 

[realtuner]

People giving a damn about the limited planetary resources equals negativity? Quite the opposite, it’s positivity caring about something.

Why do people assume everything gets thrown in a landfill? You never heard of the term “recycling”?

 

[meme1255]

Why do people assume everything gets thrown in a landfill? You never heard of the term “recycling”?

You mean that „manufactoring and transporting two pairs of AirPods is more environment-friendly than replacing just the battery in one pair"? 😮

 

[Jakewilk]

Why do people think user relatability is good for the environment? When consumers do their own repairs they almost always throw replaced parts in the landfill.

On another note, I’ve never owned a pair of repairable headphones. These things are tiny; repairs would be a nightmare
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You mean that „manufactoring and transporting two pairs of AirPods is more environment-friendly than replacing just the battery in one pair"? 😮

If you throw the replacement parts in the landfill then yes

 

[2979382]

This are "single use" items. Frankly speaking I think it should be banned. There was nothing wrong with wired headphones that did not need battery etc and were lasting many years. Now you pay 250USD and have basically couple years of use until battery gives up. I will not support that practice neither from Apple nor any other company

1. I have not had a single pair of wired headphones that lasted more than 2 years. Wires broke all the time, and repairing some of them was way beyond trivial.
2. Any reason why would the battery last only 2 years? I can't think of a single reason other than listening to stuff 24/7 for 2 years which means you'd hit the standard 700 discharge cycles in 2 years. Average usage is a fraction of that, making the battery last potentially 5+ years.