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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.
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.
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.
They're horribly disposable. Sometimes I see them on the footpath, so people must just throw them on the ground instead of binning them.
They cost $159USD. That's different than a lightbulb by two orders of magnitude.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Well, IMO, anything that uses a battery should be possible to have it replaced. The rest would depend and it'd be hard to draw a line but the possibility to replace a battery should definitely be there. Otherwise it's just programmed obsolescence