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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.
The environment you shmuck.
For earbuds? $7/month is pretty expensive. They're bluetooth, so they don't sound all that good anyway. They actually sound worse than the $15 headset I've had since 2011, which have cost me about fifteen cents per month, and show no sign of wearing out any time soon.
And I don't have to charge them. Did I mention they sound better than the Airpods? They definitely sound better than the Airpods.
You are welcome on my lawn.
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.
That wouldn't be a problem if they came with full warranty for the entire 2 years, including warranty against things like drops and water damage. But they don't.
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.
I am not inclined to cry about replacing them after that 24th month.
You should. Headphones should last much longer than that.
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.
They're $160. If you could buy a $20 set of batteries and keep them for 4 years, they'd be $3.75 per month. The battery is inside the "tail" of the Airpods -- it would be trivial to allow it to be replaced via an end cap that unscrews. Easy to seal against water, too.
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.
I do not ascribe status to Apple products. Why do you?
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 it’s as trivial as you claim, you (or anyone else) should be able to buy a pair of AirPods and mod them so the battery is replaceable in the screwed in tail — without compromising the weight, breaking the recharging function, making sure the battery has as reliable a connection as it’s current soldered in connection, breaking the tap detection, degrading the microphone at the end of the tail or making the AirPods overly fragile and likely to break at your new screw interface.
But that’s not going to happen because your “trivial” mod is _much_ more complicated than you claimed because the are all the other constraints you glossed over. Nobody wants AirPods that refuse to charge, easily break, have poorer mic function, no longer react when tapped and weigh twice as much and/or have a tail twice as long so they fall out easier.
I prefer intra-auricular earphones so AirPods are not for me but your claimed “trivial” mod is bunk.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
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.
that is under $7/month. They are disposable - who cares?
Holy shit. You're actually happy to pay as much for the hardware as an entire Spotify subscription? Look I get it. You're out of touch. Maybe when you finish parking your Ferrari in your 5 car garage in your wonderful mansion and are done pissing in a gold toilet you may want to consider how absurd your comment actually was. Do you also pay $7/month for typing on your keyboard? How about another $7/month for your mouse?
What other things that shouldn't wear out do you depreciate on a monthly basis to justify stupidity?