New AirPods Pro Charging Case's Lanyard Loop Potentially Doubles as Antenna

Lumafield today shared CT scan images of the second-generation AirPods Pro charging case, providing a look at internal changes to the case.

AirPods Pro 2 Charging Case CT 1
While the basic layout of the case appears to be similar to the original, Lumafield discovered that the newly added "lanyard loop" is internally connected to the Lightning connector, which interfaces with the logic board, leading the company to speculate that the metal insert might double as an antenna for the U1 chip or serve some other additional purpose.

There's a new metal eyelet on the side of the case. Apple says it's for a lanyard, but it seems to serve an additional purpose: it's 4 mm deep and 18 mm long, with a hidden tail that's connected to a metal pad around the Lightning port. Perhaps it's an antenna to support improved "Find My" tracking.

The U1 chip enables Find My support, allowing users to track the location of the charging case in the Find My app on their iPhone or on iCloud.com. The case features a new built-in speaker that can emit a chime to help with finding it.

AirPods Pro 2 Charging Case CT 2
Other improvements to the charging case include water resistance, support for the Apple Watch's magnetic charging puck, and longer battery life.

The new AirPods Pro launched last Friday and are priced at $249 in the United States.

Related Roundup: AirPods Pro
Buyer's Guide: AirPods Pro (Caution)
Related Forum: AirPods

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Top Rated Comments

NT1440 Avatar
29 months ago

Form meets function? You can tell Jony isnt there anymore.
Wasn’t he there for the Apple logo serving as an antenna point on some of the iMacs?

I know people like to hate on him, but he has a very elegant view on engineering. The world’s capacity of CNC machines was almost doubled from the introduction of the aluminum unibody chassis and now that’s standard building from most high end machines.

He contributed a lot beyond the look of products, mostly in the actual manufacturing space. The problem was without Steve there to say No to certain things he overreached.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
EvanGrill Avatar
29 months ago
At a cursory glance this is to ground the exposed metal to prevent damage from electrostatic discharge (ESD).
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Wolfson Avatar
29 months ago
It's grounding..
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Costino1 Avatar
29 months ago
Form meets function? You can tell Jony isnt there anymore.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MayaUser Avatar
29 months ago
Very smart
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Analog Kid Avatar
29 months ago

It's grounding..
This.

It's just making sure all metal parts are grounded so they don't affect the real antennas in unexpected ways...
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)