Sometimes it ’s just not worth it to peek behind the mantle and find out how the magic happen . That ’s the flavor you get fromiFixitafter the teardown champs involve on their former challenge : Apple ’s AirPods .
These tiny wearables pack a lot of king into a little distance . They ’ve get Bluetooth , beamforming microphone , visual sensors , a motion accelerometer , a 93 milliwatt battery ( we ’ll get to that ) , and speakers . It ’s no surprise there ’s little elbow room among all those components for grace and an easy debut stop .
Glueeew !
In fact , the AirPods appear to be equal part engineering and glue . Or as iFixit cast it : “ If jamming complex components into a small shape factor and seal it with a ample amount of glue were a biz , Apple would be winning . ”
The shock on you at home : The reality is that if you violate either of these little dangly headphones , you wo n’t be repairing them . IFixit turn over the headphones a repairability score of 0 out of 10 . That ’s not really a huge surprise though , is it ? How many types of wire earbuds are repairable save for perhaps snapping them back together if they come sunk ? Not many . The AirPods are expensive earbuds , but they ’re still earbuds .
That means if you break an AirPod you ’ll be shelling out at least$69 to replace it . To sum up : AirPods may not fall out of your ears in most situations , but you ’ll still want to be careful not to miss or damage them .
Despite waging war with adhesive , iFixit did get hold some interesting technical distributor point inside the AirPods . For entrant , the bombardment istiny . It ’s notApple Penciltiny , but it ’s still a pretty small power pack . That ’s not such a big deal , however , as those 93mW still give you five hour or more of euphony playback .
depend at that massacre .
The iFixit teardown also found a technical reason as to why the AirPods look more or less like regular Apple earbuds with the conducting wire cut off . That boom - like extension is there not only to provide balance , but as a base for an aerial in ordering to deliver better reception .
