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iFixit Teardown Reveals Apple's New AirPods Are 'Disappointingly Disposable' (arstechnica.com)
After tearing apart Apple's new second-generation AirPods, the repair guide site found that there is no practical way to service or repair them even at a professional shop. They labeled them as "disappointingly disposable." Ars Technica reports: iFixit had to go to almost comical lengths to open the AirPods up, and despite their expertise and tools, the iFixit team was unable to do so without permanently damaging the product. [...] That's disappointing, given that the batteries in the AirPods won't last longer than a few years with heavy use, and they're hard to recycle. Apple does offer to recycle headphones through partners as part of its Apple GiveBack program, but the GiveBack Web portal does not offer a product-specific category for AirPods to consumers like it does with most other Apple products. Consumers may simply select a general "headphones & speakers" category on the site.
The teardown also revealed some differences from the first-generation AirPods. The battery is the same size, but iFixit identified the new, Bluetooth 5-ready H1 chip in the earbuds themselves. The site also found some small differences likely related to Apple's efforts to increase the case's water resistance. For all the details, visit iFixit's teardown page for the product. All told, iFixit gave the AirPods a 0 out of 10 for repairability -- that's low even for Apple products. By contrast, the site also opened up Samsung's Galaxy Buds and gave them a 6 out of 10.
The teardown also revealed some differences from the first-generation AirPods. The battery is the same size, but iFixit identified the new, Bluetooth 5-ready H1 chip in the earbuds themselves. The site also found some small differences likely related to Apple's efforts to increase the case's water resistance. For all the details, visit iFixit's teardown page for the product. All told, iFixit gave the AirPods a 0 out of 10 for repairability -- that's low even for Apple products. By contrast, the site also opened up Samsung's Galaxy Buds and gave them a 6 out of 10.
They are what, $160? Assuming you use for 2 years, that is under $7/month. I am not inclined to cry about replacing them after that 24th month.
I agree with previous poster. They are disposable - who cares?
This is by design. Making serviceable goods yields very little revenue, especially with "right to repair" laws coming to public focus lately. Apple ran out of innovation, so now they have to survive selling services and disposable accessories - earpods, headphone adapters, charging cables. Why do you think Apple makes everything proprietary? Because even charging cables break and are disposable and Apple doesn't want to miss out on the recurring revenue. I don't use Apple products, but my family does, and they go through cables and adapters at a fairly steady rate (they stop working, not lost).
Now will people believe me when I say Right to Repair won't accomplish what they think it will? It'll just end up pushing manufacturers to create unrepairable products, to force you to buy a new one when it breaks.
Instead, treat it like a lease - force manufacturers to extend the warranty to cover whatever period they won't allow you to repair it. With control comes responsibility. They want to exert control over something after they "sell" it to you, then they're also responsible for fixing it until they cede that control. If they make it unfixable, then the warranty should default to some upper threshold like 5 or 7 years. If an unfixable product breaks within 5 or 7 years, the manufacturer has to replace it at no cost to you.
That'll encourage product designs which are reliable and fixable, and discourage repair lock-in unless the manufacturer is prepared to eat the cost of all the repairs during the lock-in period.
iFixit Teardown Reveals Apple's New AirPods Are 'Disappointingly Disposable'
I generally don't like to throw things away so I'll go out of my way to repair them but I don't think I've ever seen a set of earbuds that did not fit that description. Even the legendary 3,5mm jack equipped corded earbuds and headphones are a bitch to re-solder to a new jack when the cord gives in to metal fatigue because the copper wires are coated and very, very, very fine and delicate. In fact, apart from the big over-ear headphones from brands like Sennheiser for which you can **GHASP** actually get spare parts, headphones in general are somewhere between a nightmare and impossible to (economically) repair.
Did IQs suddenly drop while I was away? You could feed a family of four with what these cost. When they stop working you just throw them out?! I have a few decent $8 earbuds from over 5 years ago that still work and sound perfect to this day. In my opinion, they make people look ridiculous, at least Spock and Uhura's earpieces looked better on them than these things. I weep for the future.
Apple's version of the right to repair. You have the freedom to try, but you'll fail. Makes a mockery of its environmental friendly energy and whatnot image polish.
Yes, products like this should make them environmental pariahs, but they will buy carbon credits to make up for it. Really!
And the more often you have to replace them the more carbon credits they (well, actually you) will buy!
Green, green Apple! ROFL.
Average income after paying for essentials is less than $1000/mo. Even if you look at just the $50k-$70k income range, it's only about $1200/mo. At $7/mo, you're spending ($7/$1200) = 0.6% of that on headphones. Or put another way, you can only afford to own 171 such toys. Even a minimalist owns 1.5x as many things. What you're proposing is not a sustainable lifestyle unless your income is substantially higher.
(Of course the counterargument is that you shouldn't be buying these unless you're making six figures. You should be buying wireless headphones which cost on the order of $25 instead.)
If you figure $50 an hour for labor, you're looking paying over $100 in labor and parts when you can just buy new ones for $150
People expect these things to be light weight and water proof. You can't exactly make something like that which is easy to crack open and repair. People need to check their expectations against reality.
should NOT be on the market. unless the manufacturer provides repair service at a reasonable cost for a reasonable amount of time (10 years, i'd say for these, or more, would be an expected lifespan if the batteries were serviceable) and pays into a fund that guarantees the buy-back of them for recycling and further provides for other environmental efforts.
They're horribly disposable. Sometimes I see them on the footpath, so people must just throw them on the ground instead of binning them.
When they stop working you just throw them out?
Why would they stop working if they are well sealed?
If they start to not last as long, you can have Apple replace the battery.
And if they are dead dead you can turn them into Apple for recycling.
The reason they are popular is they work really well, are a good size, and are more comfortable (to me) than any other earbud I have used. They do things like auto-stop playback when you take one out, the charging case is a really nice way to approach charging.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
They cost $159USD. That's different than a lightbulb by two orders of magnitude.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Repairability has to stop somewhere.
I mean, say your CPU fails tests. Are you expected to be able to replace individual transistors in your CPU to repair it - clearly not, they are microscopic. It can't be done because that is the way the technology is manufactured.
So where do you draw the line - it appears the line is somewhere between full sized headphones which can be repaired, and airpods which are probably manufactured by machines and a human never goes near them in the manufacturing process.
If I spent $200US for a burned-out lightbulb you bet you arse I'd be fixing it rather than throwing it away. Now go back to ruining the economy from your penthouse office you crappy 1%er.
If you figure $50 an hour for labor, you're looking paying over $100 in labor and parts when you can just buy new ones for $150
It's almost as if you're unable to imagine a different design where it's intentionally easy to replace the batteries.
No sig today...
Your idea of product life warranty also encourages REAL environmentalism. Instead of being an i-poser CEO who claims to be green, but then makes products that are designed to last 2-3 that use horrific CVD processes. Nice idea.
"Liberalism is a very noble idea, currently controlled by some very bad people. Be sure you do not get the two confused.
I think they'd offer a wireless trunk, which is basically a little robot that follows you around.
Cheap storage VM.