iFixit’s long in the making AirPods Max teardown is finally complete, giving an exhaustive look at the internals of Apple’s debut over-ear headphones and an idea of how easy they are to repair. iFixit even went as far as to teardown Sony’s WH-1000XM4 and Bose’s NC 700 headphones for comparison. Until now, iFixit has refused to grant Apple a single repairability point for any of its AirPods, but the AirPods Max buck the trend with a surprisingly high score of six out of ten.
One of the most cheering elements is that Apple has swerved both glue and solder for several key components. And while it’s not for the faint-hearted, you can access (and remove) the battery and Lightning port, two likely points of failure for any pair of headphones. In total, the cans scored a six out of 10, the first time an AirPods product has managed to earn points for repairability.
iFixit is particularly fond of the headband hinge mechanism found between the band and the ear cups, which it notes can be detached “with just a SIM card removal tool or paperclip, without even opening the ear cup.” It calls this “perhaps the most elaborate part of the AirPods Max” and notes that it’s “both intricate and overbuilt, and might make the AirPods Max’s price tag a little easier to swallow.”
Apple also gets some praise for sweating the details on a couple of oft-overlooked components, like the hinge connecting ear cups to headband. You can almost feel the implicit praise when the electromechanical hinge is described as “both intricate and overbuilt,” and serves as a justification of that hefty price. Even better, is that you can pop out the headband from the ear cups with a SIM tool or paperclip to further aid repairability.
