Einleitung
Apple EarPods were standard issue with iPhones released before the iPhone 7. So what happens when Apple releases a phone with no headphone jack? They release wireless headphones. Are the new Apple AirPods worth the wait? Only one way to find out. Ladies and gents, hold onto your headphones seats, it's teardown time!
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Alright, we've got Apple's latest stocking stuffers on our teardown table, and it's time to see what they're made of. Here's the scoop so far:
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Each AirPod weighs 0.14 oz (4 g), while the charging case weighs 1.34 oz (38 g)
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Each AirPod measures in at 0.65" × 0.71" × 1.59" (16.5 mm × 18.0 mm × 40.5 mm) while the charging case measures in at 1.74" × 0.84" × 2.11" (44.3 mm × 21.3 mm × 53.5 mm)
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Utilizes Bluetooth technology and Apple's new W1 chip for wireless connectivity
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Uses microphones, optical sensors, and a motion accelerometer for in-ear detection
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Beamforming microphones are coupled with an additional accelerometer in order to filter out unwanted noise
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The AirPods alone can hold a charge up to 5 hours, while their charging case holds additional charge for up to 24 hours of listening time
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AirPods—featuring the electrifying Apple Egg!
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On one end, this power-packed charging case is equipped with a Lightning connector to charge its battery.
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At the other end, recessed deep within each AirPod housing, is a pair of contacts for charging the 'Pods respective onboard batteries.
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Finally, at the top of the charge case, we spy a little status LED for notifying you when the triad of batteries is collectively out of juice.
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The charge case cover sports a new model number—A1602—and offers up some info on the case's overall power capacity: 398 mAh.
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Performing our last teardown rites on the charge case, we take a quick peek at the setup button on the back. If Apple's highly-touted instant sync feature fails or isn't available, this button is here to save the day with a more traditional Bluetooth pairing process.
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The earbuds are covered in dots: grilles for speaker action, microphone holes for those noise-canceling secondary mics, and black dots for IR proximity sensors.
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The 'Pods are individually labeled with separate model numbers—A1722 (left) and A1523 (right)—and FCC IDs, BCG-A1722 and BCG-1523.
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X-rays give us a peek at what's inside, some grilles, and that microphone, the rest is a mystery to unravel.
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With no visible fasteners in sight, we resort to more aggressive tactics and apply some heat and knife action.
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After the application of heat, we try some samurai slicing.
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In the interest of safety, we pull out an opening pick to finish the job. With a quick twist we separate the speaker portion of the earbud, and spy some internals.
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Our journey in pursuit of electronics did not leave us disappointed. We reveal some tightly-packed components.
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As we begin to pull out the boards, cables, and other bits, we're reminded of a certain wearable repair nightmare (*cough* Apple Watch *cough*).
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If jamming complex components into a small form factor and sealing it with a copious amount of glue were a game, Apple would be winning.
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That game now includes the world's cutest (and smallest?) coaxial connector.
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Dangling off to the side is one of the two IR proximity sensors that the AirPod uses to detect when it's in an ear.
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At this point we're momentarily stymied—what remains in the earbud is a hot mess of cables and adhesive, and none of it seems particularly keen on coming out. So we turn to the stem, hoping for another entry point.
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Instead, we encounter a waterfall of glue.
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That shiny metal cap provides contact points for charging the AirPod, and surrounds the primary microphone. Hidden behind and within the torrent of glue, we spy the end of the battery cable.
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Ripping out the glue plug reveals the end of a teensy weensy battery, with teensy weensy spot welds. Looks like we won't be replacing these any time soon (or recycling them, ever).
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Having exhausted the obvious entry points, we opt for the full surgical approach. Nurse, hand me the scalpel.
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Lifting the membrane with surgical precision reveals what's likely an antenna laid over the
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Okay, so we might not have the patience of a surgeon. The pliers come out, and we rip the rest of the casing off to get to the goodies.
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With the plastic casing off, we're able to peel that long antenna from the battery.
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Finding the antenna here explains a bit about the AirPods' design. That hanging boom is for more than just balance—it's also to improve reception.
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Digging deeper under more glued-on cables and tape, we find some markings etched into the battery. Looks like this is a 93 milliwatt hour battery—equivalent to a little over 1% of the charge capacity in an iPhone 7.
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Pulling up the complex flexible circuit reveals a golden array! They look like test points, but the cluster isn't labeled.
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The cable weaves into an intricate speaker assembly that houses a proximity sensor and some antenna lines.
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We bust out our microscope to get a look at these tiny chip markings:
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Apple 343500130 is suspected to be the W1 wireless communication chip
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Cypress CY8C4146FN programmable system on a chip
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Maxim MAX98730EWJ low power stereo audio codec
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Texas Instruments TPS62743 300 mA DC-DC buck converters
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Bosch Sensortec BMA282 accelerometer
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STMicroelectronics accelerometer/gyroscope
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Likely some sort of serial flash memory
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AirPods pretty well destroyed, we turn to their seamless-looking case...
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Jimmy proves to be too nice a guy to open our stubborn charging case.
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So we grab something with a little more tooth. Don't worry, you'll only feel a sliiight pressure ...
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Fair warning: this is not the safest way to do this. But the dentist told us we only bled because we haven't been flossing.
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We're finally able to pull the cabley 'pod holder out of the main case, revealing some internals—namely a hefty battery.
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With the cable pod removed, but still connected by a tangle of ribbon cables, we pull off that status LED.
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With some more dental fortitude, we're able to separate AirPod tubes from the charging bracket, freeing them from the cable spaghetti.
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And while we're at it, we wrestle the head off the capsule, pulling the hinge mechanism out of its gooey green slot.
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The heavily-armored charging case proves to be a formidable foe, inflicting some damage on our weary teardowners. Desperate times call for desperate Dremel usage.
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What lies beneath the impenetrable sheath? A battery does! It is tucked into a cozy slot within the
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Upon removal, we spot the
secret oozeadhesive that was fighting us—and we spot a single cable connecting the battery to the logic board of the charging case.
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Safely shucking the casing finally gives us a good look at the biggest battery of the day.
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This 3.81 V, 1.52 Wh lithium-ion cell has roughly 16 times the power capacity of the ones we dug out of the AirPods' stems—meaning you should be able to top them up at least a few times between case charges.
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The sync button is a self-contained li'l clicky dude, with contacts that match up to some spring contacts on the main board.
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We loosen a pair of Phillips screws to access the Lightning connector, pop its press connector off the back of the logic board, and seconds later it's free to leave this plastic mess behind.
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Luckily, the Lightning port is modular—so if you wear your port out, all you have to do is utterly destroy the case to replace that component.
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Let us take a look at what silicon is so heavily guarded by the charging case:
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STMicroelectonics STM32L072 ARM Cortex-M0+ MCU
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NXP Semiconductor CBTL1610A3 charging/port controller IC (as seen in iPhones 6s and SE and both iPad Pro models)
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Texas Instruments BQ24232 power management IC
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Maxim Integrated MAX9028 1.8 V comparator
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AMS AS3441 power and communication interface (likely)
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Probably ON Semiconductor regulators
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Blood, sweat, and lots of glue later, we give you:
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A pile of 'pod parts...
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and a collection of case components.
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Every single one of the amazing X-ray images in this teardown comes to you by way of our ingenious friends at Creative Electron. Hi guys!
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AirPods repairability score: 0 out of 10 (10 is the easiest to repair). Here's why:
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Accessing any case component is impossible without destroying the outer casing.
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Glue is the only external fastener used in the case or earbuds.
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95 Kommentare
do the airpods feature the same driver as the earpods?
Great question, trying to find this out myself.
It looks like it's a bit different. The EarPod teardown has a pretty nice comparison of the generations of earbuds from Apple in step 11. They look like they mostly have open-back designs while the new AirPods have a black plastic (and mesh?) that covers the back of the driver. Apple EarPods Teardown
I would be interested in seeing these compared to the new PowerBeats 3 since that headphone model also uses a membrane-style speaker in the midsection bulge of the stem.
It wouldn't really matter. The EarPods had a lot of tuning done to them through the ports on the front, back, and stems (cover with tape and see what happens). The AirPods have ports moved as well as less air in the housings (replaced with logic boards, batteries, and other electronics. So even if they do use the same drivers, they'll sound substantially different.
I'm curious if you were to design something that small with the same capabilities how would you A) not use glue and B) make it somehow "easy" to repair
I don't think you can get away without any glue. It's a question of using it effectively not over doing it. The kind of glue you use is important as well!
I would have liked to seen bayonet style in the caps with a small touch of glue and/or a snap fit. The inner workings could have used less tacky foam glue so the parts don't move but could be removed if needed (given the price it should be repairable).
Dan -
Not for the headphones themselves, but I guess the case could've been made a lot more repairable.
That was my first question as well. Compared to a lot of other consumer electronics, designing fully wireless earbuds that are easily recyclable would seem to be an interesting (and likely difficult) engineering challenge. Both in terms of the physical design as well as surviving even a rudimentary cost-benefit analysis. Going by the AirPods and Apple Pencil, it seems like glue is the cheap, easy go-to solution when the internal components aren't enough to justify a major recycling effort. Though the case itself might be worth recycling. I'd think that the glue also helps with a better seal as well, but it's not like these are water resistant in the first place.
Manual recycling looks like a total no-go for these. They could probably automate some of the breakdown (ugh), but again, the recoverable materials per item are so low it couldn't be justified economically. Unless Apple ate the costs as part of their marketing efforts, it looks like the AirPods themselves go straight to the landfill.
Tom S -
That's a good question, I can think of quite a few ways. Per example the metal connector base coud be used as a screw to hold the case together, and the internals could be kept in place in a sandwich like fashion by a plastic support. Everything would be tightly secured by the base screw, which could be unscrewed to open the case and grant access to the battery for replacement.
But Apple's engineers aren't really that much into clever internal product design, they're more about the finish, aesthetics and low manufacturing costs. Who cares about recycling when you can just use tape and glue. Leave the environment speech to marketing.
asuma -
Massive glue is used because it is needed for acoustic sealing around the housing and the transducer. No other ways like ultrasonic welding can replace glue in earbuds and headphones.
steve -
The same way watchmakers have done for centuries - captive spring-loaded pins locking a thread.
Kliment -
Samsung seems to have done it without a non-stop glue nightmare, so Apple should be able to, too.
Check out edgewater wireless. They specialize in wifi technology , multichannel wireless , reducing interference, etc. they hold 24 patents. A lot of their tech applies to any wireless protocol. In 2015, apple bought a patent off them for front end power effiency ( us patent 7016654).The deal had “strong commercial terms attached “. I beleive it is Edgewater’s tech that apple used to enhance the airpods when they were designing them with the patents acquired during the passif semiconductor acquisition. Confident that we will see technology from edgewaters patents inside the w1 chip. It would be what gives the airpods the incredible battery life, amazing connectivity, and the ability to sync a seperate signal to each pod with no interference. How do you get to the bottom of the inner workings of a chip in order to discover these patents?
JD8510 -
Has someone checked the battery lifetime in cold (freezing) temperatures?
Peter Goedtkindt -
I guess in cold temperature you should have the gear covering your ear or ear is warm enough for airpods. If your airpods are left in cold environment for a while and you pull out to use, that is different story.
bubble.stock -
How long does it take to charge the airpods by the case?
Jim Ngo -
Do not buy, case will die after the warranty is up, and you will be forced to shell out another $70 for a new one. Buy another brand… AirPods suck, and fall out anyways.
brentmesnick -
What i will do f my airpod not working for call i cannot hearing anything, its only work for music, thank you for answering
gines_josephine -
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