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AirPods 2 Teardown
- frou_dh 8y agoYou can get good knockoffs ("i12 TWS") for ~$25 delivered from China, these days. If it's the combination of non-repairability and price that bothers you, a 6x price warp sure softens the blow.
- jvagner 8y agoHave you actually tried these? interesting that these knockoffs claim Bluetooth 5.
- frou_dh 8y agoYes, I have a pair in hand. There are multiple products being sold under that same name, though. Some of which aren't very good. So be sure to check recent seller feedback.
- dmitrygr 8y agoEvery feature added to bluetooth since version 2.1 has been optional, so you can take any BT 2.1 chip and validly claim it is a BT 5.0 chip (it just lacks all the optional features). source: i work on bluetooth
- ikeboy 8y agoI've had good experience with Funcl AI, they run almost constant deals at $50 on Amazon. Just Google around for the most recent coupon code, e.g. https://m.androidcentral.com/thrifter-deal-funcl-ai-true-wireless-bluetooth-headphones https://m.androidcentral.com/thrifter-deal-funcl-ai-true-wir... now has them at $40
- jaxbot 8y agoMy main interest is in Bluetooth 5. Walking around NYC, in even semi-congested areas of Manhattan, my audio cuts out with my phone in my front pants pocket. I literally have to hold it in my hand or coat pocket in order to cut through the interference. Has anyone experienced improvement when upgrading in this regard?
- news_to_me 8y agoI have the same issue in semi-congested Seattle — it's the biggest downside to the AirPods, imo. I'm very interested in how the new ones perform. I've heard anecdotally that the problem is not only interference, but physical surroundings: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2018/04/heres-why-your-airpods-or-other-bluetooth-headphones-cut-out-while-crossing-a-street.html http://www.iphonehacks.com/2018/04/heres-why-your-airpods-or...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- swah 8y agoYou just made a great point for wired headphones that I have never considered...
- coldtea 8y agoAudio cutting out? Isn't that the automatic #1 consideration point for wired vs wireless headphones?
- swah 8y agoMaybe its luck, but I finally found a wireless mouse and BT headphones that I haven't got anything to complain about. Around 5 years ago I made the same test and came back to wired versions. I suppose AirPods, with that price tag, must be much better.
- Wowfunhappy 8y agoAnd the repairability score is zero. I am quite concerned about these all ending up in landfills due to battery degradation. Apple claims it can "recycle" them, but that's legitimately hard to believe. I would not feel morally comfortable owning one of these.
- Eric_WVGG 8y agoApple produced a pretty wild video about their iPhone-recycling robot. “True innovation means considering what happens to a product at every stage of its life cycle.” Even has a name, Liam. It would do a lot to put my mind at ease if Apple produced a similar video showing how AirPods get torn down, although it's early enough in their history that Apple is probably just throwing expired AirPods in a shipping container to wait until the numbers make sense. (Apple accepts all their old products back for recycling; I take most of my used electronics to Staples, but Apple stuff always goes back to Apple, as I assume they can do the best job of getting every ounce of meat out of the pig.)
- snthd 8y agohttps://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/yp73jw/apple-recycling-iphones-macbooks https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/yp73jw/apple-recy... > "Materials are manually and mechanically disassembled and shredded into commodity-sized fractions of metals, plastics, and glass," John Yeider, Apple's recycling program manager, wrote under a heading called "Takeback Program Report" in a 2013 report to Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. "All hard drives are shredded in confetti-sized pieces. The pieces are then sorted into commodities grade materials. After sorting, the materials are sold and used for production stock in new products. No reuse. No parts harvesting. No resale." As the article points out recycling should be a last resort (after reuse). Apple is deliberately obstructive of that.
- pfranz 8y agoThinking back, I've handed down and repurposed so many Apple products. Way more than any other company--especially for tech. I hear so many stories about hand-me-downs with kids, too. There's only a few items I've dropped off to Apple to dispose of...most were part of a buy-back program (I'm curious where those ended up; one was an original Apple Watch they recently gave $25 for and another a few year old iPhone. I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up in different places). Laptops I can often buy new and resell to recoup a significant part of the original cost...my first few Apple laptops were purchased used. iPods have been repurposed as; low-tier gym music players, sound machines for a baby, full time car music bulk playback. Due to generally higher build quality, they seem to last longer and being almost a commodity (a relatively small number of SKUs and popular), it's easy to find replacement/new parts many years later. I did try and repurpose my old Nexus One phone for a RaspberryPi project, but the screen/touchscreen died.
- bluetidepro 8y agoSide note, this teardown is very well done, and organized. I don't think I've ever seen these before, but I'm a big fan. I love how easy it is to digest, and all the supporting media for it is great. Awesome detail, and very informative!
- jessriedel 8y agoAgreed. Showing all the tools used, and giving credit to community members who discovered better methods, are particularly nice touches.
- mikestew 8y agoI don't think I've ever seen these before You've...never seen an iFixit teardown before? Much like discovering the alt-text of XKCD years after you started reading it, you've got some back catalog to catch up on. And if you ever get the DIY itch, they'll sell you every tool they use. Decent quality kit, too. (EDIT: and to those of today's 10,000 with regards to XKCD, I am so, so sorry. Enjoy the rest of your non-productive day!)
- btkramer9 8y ago> Much like discovering the alt-text of XKCD Wow! I didn't know about this until right now
- mi100hael 8y agoYou're one of today's lucky 10,000. XKCD recursion! https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
- simonebrunozzi 8y agoI'm one of today's 10,000 then. I didn't know about alt-text!! Does every XKCD contain alt-text?
- glaurung_ 8y agoHaha yeah pretty much! I think there's one our two where the alt text is just "..." or something like that, but it's always there. A lot of the pictures in his what if posts have an alt text too!
- Chris_Chambers 8y agoThe constant attempt at one-liner sitcom applause sign humor makes this very hard to read.
- prolepunk 8y agoEarbud holder is a strange place to put a wireless charging dock -- I always thought there are two prongs that get magnetically attached to charging ports. Inductive charging is only about 60% efficient, so in theory you only get 398*0.6=238.8mAh of charge, which is a little bit more than a single full recharge of 2x93mAh earbuds.
- michelb 8y agoWould love to see a teardown of the cheap knockoffs, like the i12 TWS types..
- yoodenvranx 8y agoHow can anyone in their right mind claim that Apple is a 'green' company? In 5-10 years we will have 10s of million dead and useless AirPods due to degraded and broken batteries. So much unnecessary e-waste!
- coldtea 8y agoIn 5-10 years we'd have the same number of "million dead and useless AirPods" even if they had replaceable batteries, because by that time we'd have the next model with new features, design, etc. The green thing is not to expect a company like Apple to merely add batteries, but to not consume as much, and to get stuff that works long term and is not prone to such improvements (e.g. a good old pair of high quality wired cans you keep for decades). Of course they keep removing stuff like the headphones jack too. In my idea government, that move would incur a hefty environmental fine by itself. The "Apple is Green" etc, is environment-theater, as is "recycling".
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago> In 5-10 years we'd have the same number of "million dead and useless AirPods" even if they had replaceable batteries, because by that time we'd have the next model with new features, design, etc. Earbuds aren't cell phones—there's not a lot you can add. You can improve audio quality but that happens at a slow pace, and much of the public doesn't care. I don't think all that many people would rush to replace a $200 product after two years if the original had a longer usable life.
- coldtea 8y ago>Earbuds aren't cell phones—there's not a lot you can add. I can think of enough stuff. New Bluetooth standards, longer lasting charge, better audio drivers, health monitoring, embedded connection-free translation (babelfish-like), eSIM and calling/receiving directly from the AirPods (like you can do from the Apple Watch, but using Siri for the dialing). And those are just off the top of my head. Heck, just the same model available in black too, would make tons of people replace their AirPods 3-4 years after they got them.
- imagiko 8y agoHow are those battery terminals connected to the logic board - it has no connector header, just flat leads? Hard to keep up with miniaturization of connectors!
- mhh__ 8y agoPointless(And fuck-ugly IMO), but the engineering on display is very impressive.
- LyndsySimon 8y agoI agreed with you... before I picked up a pair. As with several of Apple's best products, the reality of using them exceeds what you'd expect from merely reading about them. The iPad was the same way for me when they came out. I bought an LTE iPad a couple of years ago, and had been using Sony Bluetooth headphones for some time for conference calls and such. I was at PyCon and my headphones crapped out on me - since I use them for work daily, my employer was reimbursing me anyhow and I decided to go ahead and splurge on AirPods. WOW. Just wow. I found myself pairing them to my iPad and purposefully leaving it uncovered in my backpack while walking around so I could talk to Siri. I had a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge at the time, and while I was very happy with it, I went out the next week and bought an iPhone X primarily so I'd be able to access Siri from my AirPods more easily and without having to leave the cover off my iPad. I've since upgraded my iPad to an 11" iPad Pro - and all because of the AirPods, honestly. I've spent almost $3k in total because of them, and am happy with that.
- taternuts 8y agoI bought into the hype as well even with every angle of my headphones covered (JayBird for workouts, Bose SoundSports for all-day/work, Sennheiser Momentum over-ears for quality), probably a drunken buy, but it's kind of replaced my all-day pair. The no-wires thing is kind of nice, but really it's how well they work with other apple products that does it for me. First pair of bluetooth headphones that didn't annoy the shit out of me until I just went back to wired.