Need to Repair Your New AirPods? Good Luck

Apple may have introduced some enhancements to its next-generation AirPods, but the product remains impossible to fix unless you're willingly to cut into the outer casing.

On Thursday, iFixit published a teardown of the 2nd-gen AirPods, and found that Apple made no enhancements to the wireless earbuds in terms of repairability. To open them up, iFixit's repair experts had to use heat and alcohol to loosen the adhesive that glues the ear pieces together, and then pry them open with a knife, which chipped away at the plastic.

Credit: iFixit

However, this merely allowed them to access each earbud's speaker. To reach the battery, iFixit had to use a knife to slice through each AirPod's stem, essentially cutting open the outer casing.

"We cut away as much of the outer casing as we dare, and painstakingly scoop out the rest with a fine dental pick," iFixit wrote about the unpacking process. Accessing the charging case also required some chipping away at the outer plastic.

According to the teardown, the new AirPods actually use many of the same components as the last generation. For instance, both models feature two tiny 93 milliwatt batteries in each bud and then a 398mAh battery in the charging cases.

However, the 2nd-gen AirPods are built with a "goopier" liquid-resistant coating on the motherboard, probably to help with water resistance, iFixit said. The product's case also comes with a new charging coil to enable wireless recharging, a key selling point on the new model.

But good luck fixing the product on your own. "After two years, AirPods are still disappointingly disposable. Those tiny batteries will fail before long," iFixit wrote in the teardown, which gave the product a score of zero in terms of repairability.

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iFixit's worry is that consumers will eventually end up throwing their AirPods away once the batteries give out, resulting in more e-waste. However, Apple can repair the product and add new batteries. It'll just cost you at least $49.

To dispose your AirPods once they get old, iFixit recommends you return them to Apple for proper recycling via the company's giveback program.

If you're looking for wireless earbuds you can fix on your own, iFixit recently did a teardown of Samsung's Galaxy Buds ($99.00 at Walmart) , and gave them a score of 6 out of 10 for repairability. The earpieces use coin-cell batteries, which you can find in stores, but you'll have to be careful when opening the buds up.

Apple AirPods (2nd Generation) Review