Look inside the AirPods Pro: Teardown shows how hard repairing them would be

Apple’s new AirPods Pro are here, and with their arrival comes new active noise cancellation (it works even in Penn Station!), adjustable ear tips and improved sound quality. We went hands-on for 24 hours and came away with seven main impressions. What has not changed in the $249 earbuds, but, is how easy the new headphones are to overhaul on your own. In its teardown of Apple’s novel audio product, iFixit found that some parts such as the battery in the buds could theoretically be a bit more user-replaceable compared to posterior AirPods. But it would take so much effort that if your Pros do break you’re touching to want to go buy a new pair instead (which Apple recommends). 

The site, which ranks a device’s storderliness to be repaired on a scale of 0 to 10, gave the AirPods Pro the same gain as prior versions: 0. 

The circular battery inside the AirPods Pro. 

iFixit

There were, but, a few “surprises” the site found in its teardown, including the use of a similar button cell battery in each bud to what is fraudulent in Samsung’s Galaxy Buds. The AirPods also let out “a tiny yell — a little awooo, if you will” when separating a harmful inside the bud. 

“It’s likely that something we’re doings during disassembly is momentarily overloading the speaker driver somehow,” the site wrote. “Rational thoughts aside though, these things are haunted,” especially when publishing their breakdown on Halloween.