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Music Apple Hardware

iFixit Teardown Reveals Apple's New AirPods Are 'Disappointingly Disposable' (arstechnica.com) 117

Posted by BeauHD from the surprise-surprise dept.
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.
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iFixit Teardown Reveals Apple's New AirPods Are 'Disappointingly Disposable' More

iFixit Teardown Reveals Apple's New AirPods Are 'Disappointingly Disposable'

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  • 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?

    • Re: Not a problem (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The environment you shmuck.

      • If that is the issue, better for everyone to not buy any headphones AT ALL.

        Schmuck.

    • Re:Not a problem (Score:4, Interesting)

      by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Friday March 29, 2019 @07:48PM (#58355602) Journal

      They are what, $160? Assuming you use for 2 years, that is under $7/month.

      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 know something is overpriced when people try to justify a purchase in the form of a monthly payment.

      • Last time I spent over $100 on a pair of headphones it was on a set of Sony headphones in 1996. They are still working, are in excellent condition, and I use them frequently.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tsa ( 15680 )

        I just bought a pair of in ear headphones (wired) at AliExpress for € 0,80. That’s almost € 0,00 per month...

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Why would you subject yourself to substandard sound from a substandard product all for the hipstery of it, while you can get cabled studio quality in-ear Etymotics for 75% of that, and those are going to last you much longer?
      And why pollute the planet with disposal and destroy countless lives and habitats by strip mining and tossing out rare earth elements? I am striving to live this planet a better place for all life, not live balls to the wall, come hell or high water like you do.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Bigbutt ( 65939 )

        Unfortunately the in ear ones are painful as are any headphones that press on my ears. The hanging ones like these work better, not that I’ve purchased any.

        [John]

    • Re:Not a problem (Score:4, Interesting)

      by melted ( 227442 ) on Friday March 29, 2019 @07:55PM (#58355630) Homepage

      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.

    • I am not inclined to cry about replacing them after that 24th month.

      You should. Headphones should last much longer than that.

    • Re:Not a problem (Score:5, Insightful)

      by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Friday March 29, 2019 @07:57PM (#58355642)
      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.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by phayes ( 202222 )

        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

    • Average income after paying for essentials is less than $1000/mo [theatlantic.com]. 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 [theminimalists.com]. 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
      • Wired headphones that cost $10 and a phone with a real 3.5mm headphone jack, not a flagship phone that's a work of art-fartism.

      • My wife and I make $200K/year between us:

        That breaks down like this:
        Taxes: $60K
        Retirement savings: $30K
        Childcare: $16K
        Mortgage (all-in): $12K
        Utilities: $12K
        Food: $12K
        Education savings plan: $5K
        Healthcare: $4K

        We spend nothing on car payments or cable TV.

        I think I can justify spending a whopping $7/month on some headphones.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Or you could figure out how to increase your 15% savings rate to 45% then retire in under a decade. If you want to spend the rest of your life working so you can afford random things like expensive headphones then go ahead, so long as other people aren't forced into making the same choice.

        • With all due respect, you really sound like a Cocaine addict justifying why they can afford Cocaine.

    • 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

  • 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 t

  • Right to repair (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Friday March 29, 2019 @07:53PM (#58355622)
    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.
    • I'd rather be able to fix it myself -- not all parts of the world are convenient to an authorized repair store. It's a damned battery -- it wouldn't be hard to make it removable.

    • All you will accomplish with such a plan is to drive up prices and make products unaffordable to many who can afford them now.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sad_ ( 7868 )

        All you will accomplish with such a plan is to drive up prices and make products unaffordable to many who can afford them now.

        we would be going back to where we came from, when indeed everything was way more expensive, but generally lasted much longer and was easier to repair (or it was easy to find somebody who could repair it for you).

        also, i don't think anybody really _needs_ airpods, compared to maybe things like a washing machine, etc. so it doesn't really matter that those things would be expensive (btw, i find them already expensive enough not to want them anyway).

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      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.

      Or better still, introduce right to repair laws, and tack-on automatic manufacturer warranty extension if they try to pull that shit. Apple says, "oh yeah? you wanna be able to repair it legally? Well, we'll just make it physically impossible to repair..." to which the government says, "you know how your headphones have a 90 day warranty? Well, now it's a 5 year warranty. If it breaks within that time, you must provide, at no cost, a new replacement. NOT a refurbished or rebuilt or re-manufactured one

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      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.

      Not if the law is written sensibly, requiring that parts be made available for a period of time and that products be designed in such a way that consumable parts, such as batteries, are easily replaceable.

      Instead, treat it like a lease - force manufacturers to extend the warranty to cover whatever

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The EU likes putting stickers on products. For example, when you buy a vacuum cleaner there is a sticker showing how well it cleans on carpet and on hard floors, how much dust it emits from the exhaust, how much energy it uses, and how loud it is. When you get on a plane there is a sticker that shows how efficient it is on an A-G scale.

      So why not put a repairability sticker on electronics? iPods get a G rank, high glue content, expected lifetime 18 months before the battery reaches 80% capacity.

    • Now will people believe me when I say Right to Repair won't accomplish what they think it will?

      That's a very certain comment about what people think and what will be achieved given that legislation has not been written. Are you a time traveler from the future? Tell us, did we end up destroying the planet or did we get a clue at some point?

    • 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.

  • Repairing earbuds is a punishment in hell ... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Freischutz ( 4776131 ) on Friday March 29, 2019 @07:55PM (#58355632)

    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.

    • Iâ(TM)ve never even considered fixing headphones unless itâ(TM)s just the foam, and replacement pads arenâ(TM)t easy to find for most models. Even if the battery never wore out, people would still complain these arenâ(TM)t serviceable.
    • Have you ever paid $150 for headphones?

      • Have you ever paid $150 for headphones?

        I have a high quality set of noise cancelling corded headphones from Sennheiser that cost me $370. If you want good quality, expect to pay more than $5 at the thrift store. Nothing amuses me more than audiophiles who bought a $8.95 set of earbuds from Sony on Amazon and them posted outraged reviews about how they expected awesome audio quality and didn't get anything even close from a set of $8.95 earbuds. Thing is that (1) if you think you're going to get the same quality audio out of earbuds as on-ear or

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      By all accounts the AirPods hold up reasonably well, it's just that after 18 months or so the battery is knackered and only lasts a couple of hours.

      • By all accounts the AirPods hold up reasonably well, it's just that after 18 months or so the battery is knackered and only lasts a couple of hours.

        I agree with that, most of the battery powered headphones that I have bought used to have user replaceable batteries but now the fashion seems to be to make them batteries internal which is an annoying general trend in the headphone market. That being said I've not had any major problems with my battery powered Sennheiser over-ear phones yet that have an internal battery. You can get spares fairly easily from Sennheiser and once you figure out how to take them apart the battery is usually attached with a sn

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Non-replacable batteries should be illegal. Aside from anything else it makes recycling or even safe disposal of e-waste difficult, because lithium batteries are quite dangerous.

    • That's why decided to research if there were any headphones (in-ear earbuds in my case) with replaceable cables. Turns out they do exist. There's the MMCX standard many use and there're other propietary ones.
      I ended up buying a pair of MEE audio M6 and I'm happy so far. We'll see if the buds themselves last more than the cable and so the replaceablity is actually useful.

      • That's why decided to research if there were any headphones (in-ear earbuds in my case) with replaceable cables. Turns out they do exist. There's the MMCX standard many use and there're other propietary ones. I ended up buying a pair of MEE audio M6 and I'm happy so far. We'll see if the buds themselves last more than the cable and so the replaceablity is actually useful.

        There are some Bluetooth Sennheiser and Bose headphones (and probably other brands) that come with a cord as an option. The corded Sennheisers also often have a replaceable cord which is one reason I buy them, I like the option of having different cords. However, smaller headphones and earbuds are generally a lost cause since they are designed to be single use (irrespective of manufacturer).

    • but I don't think I've ever seen a set of earbuds that did not fit that description

      How many earbuds have you seen that rely on a battery to operate?

      Even the legendary 3,5mm jack equipped corded earbuds and headphones are a bitch to re-solder

      None of my 3.5mm jacks or speakers have ever "worn out" after 2 years.

      headphones in general are somewhere between a nightmare and impossible to (economically) repair.

      Headphones in general will happy still work 20 years later. The only thing I've had to replace on any set of headphones in the past 20 years was the foam, and that was almost universally a click out / click in 1 minute job, even replacing the foam or rubber on earbuds is easy.

      So why shouldn't it be for a battery?

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday March 29, 2019 @07:56PM (#58355638)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Fees a family of For for $150 over a 2 year period? Maybe in the DPRK.

    • 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.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I especially like the comments from the people who depreciate these toys. When I apply the same approach to my headphones (top of the line Sennheisers) I get $3/month and everyone thought I was crazy for spending money on them in the first place. Those same people have these shitty things.

      Idiots. Idiots everywhere.

    • 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.

      How many $8 headphones does my dog have to rip out of my ears for this to be economical? About 20 pairs. Now realistically I used to spend about $10-12 a pair and my dog would accidentally destroy a pair once every 8-10 months. Not that she was trying to destroy them, but she gets excited and prances around me (not even jumping on me) and accidentally snags a dangling wire and now I've lost a pair of headphones and potentially damaged my phone. A good pair of bluetooth headphones will run you $120 easil

  • Not unreasonable (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    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.

  • products like this.. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    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.

  • Too true (Score:5, Funny)

    by dohzer ( 867770 ) on Friday March 29, 2019 @08:34PM (#58355746)

    They're horribly disposable. Sometimes I see them on the footpath, so people must just throw them on the ground instead of binning them.

  • Where does it stop? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kiwioddBall ( 646813 ) on Saturday March 30, 2019 @02:52AM (#58356518)

    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.

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