iFixit Shares AirPods 4 and USB-C AirPods Max Teardown Video

Well-known electronics repair website iFixit today shared an AirPods 4 teardown video that offers a look inside Apple's latest wireless earbuds. Specifically, these are the entry-level AirPods 4 without active noise cancellation (ANC).


Unsurprisingly, iFixit said AirPods remain a "nightmare to take apart," with the earbuds earning a lowest-possible 0/10 score on iFixit's reparability scale.

The teardown does not reveal any major internal differences between the AirPods 3 and AirPods 4.

The charging case for the AirPods 4 without ANC is equipped with a 345 mAh battery. This is the same size battery as in the AirPods 3 charging case.

iFixit also opened up the revised AirPods Max, which launched alongside the AirPods 4 last month. Aside from a USB-C port instead of a Lightning port, the headphones have no major internal differences compared to the original AirPods Max.

Related Roundups: AirPods 4, AirPods Max
Related Forum: AirPods

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Top Rated Comments

Jhonjhon236 Avatar
3 hours ago at 07:53 am

Why bother tearing the max down when they already did one for the original and they are basically the exact same product!!
Because we didn’t know if Apple may have changed anything more internally.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ignatius345 Avatar
3 hours ago at 08:25 am
I don't get all the hate for iFixit. To be sure, there's some self-interest in their advocating for repairability -- but they're doing the advocacy nonetheless. They're also offering some really useful guidance along with these teardowns. I managed to open up my old 2014 iMac, replace its HDD with an SSD, and glue the whole thing right back up using their instructions and their tool/parts kit. I got several more useful years out of that thing. Could I have done that by sourcing instructions and parts elsewhere? Maybe. But the fact that it was a one-stop shop took a lot of legwork out of the process. And they have a solid and growing library of documentation for other gear as well.

If you'll notice, Apple has made some progress in making parts, documentation and tools available in the past few years, and even changed some designs to make things like iPhone batteries easier for end-users to replace. I don't think they're doing that out of the goodness of their hearts, they're doing it because of growing pressure to do so, and trying to head off Right To Repair legislation at the pass.

When devices get more repairable, they get longer useful lives in the secondary market in places like the US, and in emerging economies where "unofficial" aftermarket repairs keep devices working. I think it's a right worth advocating for, and if iFixit makes a few bucks selling repair kits I sure don't have a problem with it.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
foobarbaz Avatar
3 hours ago at 08:13 am

Why bother tearing the max down when they already did one for the original and they are basically the exact same product!!
In order to know that it's basically the exact same product rather than just assuming it.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rigby Avatar
2 hours ago at 09:01 am
Interesting. The video shows that there *is* a hardware difference between AP4 and AP4 ANC: the latter have a bigger microphone. So it's not just a software flag.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
thadoggfather Avatar
3 hours ago at 07:49 am
I still dont get why we had to get rid of leather cases but disposable consumable electronics that mostly will end up in a landfill after a few years is OK.

Even as someone who isn't on their high horse about sustainability blah blah, it bothers me about AirPods to a degree.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chiromac81 Avatar
4 hours ago at 07:37 am
Why bother tearing the max down when they already did one for the original and they are basically the exact same product!!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)