AirPods 4 teardown reveals minor changes, no improvements to repairability

Following teardowns of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, our friends at iFixit are back with a look inside Apple’s latest entry-level AirPods 4 and AirPods Max updates. The teardowns reveal there are only a few internal changes for the AirPods 4, and a continued general lack of repairability across the board.

You can check out the full iFixit video below. The gist, however, is that AirPods 4 are surprisingly similar to AirPods 3 in terms of internal design structure. This, of course, means that AirPods 4 are no more repair-friendly, still earning the lowest possible repair score of 0/10. One of the more notable limitations is that there is still no way to easily replace the battery inside the AirPods case. iFixit points out that Samsung, Sony, and others have solved this problem on their respective products.

The iFixit video focuses specifically on the AirPods 4 without active noise cancellation, noting that the only difference between the two models is “a single outward-facing microphone.”

The latest version of AirPods Max, meanwhile, offer virtually no changes internally. This shouldn’t come as a big surprise to anyone, as the only change for the new AirPods Max is the switch from Lightning to USB-C for charging. Yes, that is literally the only change. AirPods Max are still missing out on all of Apple’s latest AirPods features.

iFixit concludes:

So here we are again, another year and another AirPod teardown that totally disappoints on the repairability front. And it’s a shame too, because Apple has made a functionally amazing piece of hardware that brings some real quality of life improvements, but at the expense of creating a device that’s totally disposable.

The AirPods Max, however, remain unchanged from the 2020 release model. We still don’t have parts or manuals for these $500 headphones, and the entry process into the cups is awkward at best.

With this in mind, the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC receive a provisional score of 0 out of 10 on our repairability scale. And the AirPods Max USB-C version score remains unchanged at a provisional 6 out of 10.

Check out the full video below. Have you picked up Apple’s newest AirPods 4 or AirPods Max? Let us know down in the comments.