Repair site iFixit took apart Apple’s AirPods 5 today for one of its traditional teardown videos. It turns out the new AirPods are slightly more repairable than previous models, but it’s still not a simple at-home fix.
The AirPods 5 uses pin batteries that Apple previously used in the AirPods 3, but not in the AirPods 4. The battery can be removed with a “nifty pair of pliers,” and iFixit says the component is “intuitive to unplug.” When the AirPods 3 used the pin battery, there was no easy way to access the earbud, but the AirPods 5 are easier to open.
iFixit was able to get into the AirPods 5 with a hairdryer to heat the adhesive and a tweezer to hold the earbud in place. The left and right earbuds use different batteries with reversed polarity, so the battery from a left AirPod cannot be swapped for a right AirPod, and vice versa.
Although the earbuds had a better repair score, iFixit said the case was “still a disaster” and difficult to access without destroying it.
iFixit gave the AirPods 5 a repairability score of 2/10, up from the 0/10 score earned by all previous releases. The site claims that “trained technicians and even intrepid DIYers” should be able to replace AirPods batteries “with a decent success rate.”
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