Following the teardown of the new iPhone 17 Pro, the iPhone Air, and its MagSafe Battery, iFixit has now published the teardown of the new AirPods Pro 3. Here’s what they found.
Let’s get this out of the way: as with previous AirPods models, the new AirPods Pro 3 are all but unrepairable. Or as they put it:
AirPods are some of the most unrepairable and wasteful products you could possibly buy. The batteries in AirPods, like in all portable electronics, will wear out after 2-3 years of normal use. The newly released AirPods Pro 3 are no exception.
They note that even a skilled technician would be hard pressed to replace the battery or any other component without risking serious cosmetic damage to the earbuds, or ruining them completely.
So, as with previous AirPods models, the new AirPods Pro 3 get a 0/10 repairability score “continuing their abysmal 9 year streak,” which at this point is hardly a surprise.
Now that we got this out of the way, on to the fun stuff.
Putting the AirPods Pro 3 under the CT scan
The first thing iFixit notes is that Apple has replaced the twin battery cells from previous models with a single, 1.334Wh battery. They also noted that the battery is easier to remove than in previous models, although that doesn’t do much for the actual repairability of the earbuds.
They also note that Apple has rearranged the rare earth magnets array within the case, which allowed them to cut down on the number of magnets without sacrificing Qi2 and MagSafe support.
Putting the foam-infused tips under the microscope
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