The cool cats at iFixit have just completed and posted a complete teardown of the new AirPods Max headphones.
The good news is that it’s repairable.
The bad news is that the company cited Apple’s “obsessive craftsmanship” that makes other offerings look “like toys, by comparison.”
To this end, the headband portion of the unit appears to be easily removable via a simple SIM ejection tool. “A little poke in just the right place compresses two tiny springs … freeing the clamp that secures the headband.”
The teardown cites its ease of disassembly, but also goes on to describe the electromechanical hinge as “both intricate and overbuilt” and posits that the engineering and design could justify the hefty price of the headphones.
Other units that proved trickier to disassemble included the headbands, though user repairs were still possible. Accessing the actual ear cup portions of the AirPods Max required both specialized screwdriver bits as well as the melting of some adhesive, though teardown was still user-achievable.
Although not for the faint of heart, it’s possible to access key components like the battery and Lightning port by disassembling the earphones. The latter component is responsible both for charging and listening, since the AirPods Max lacks 3.5mm auxiliary cable compatibility.
The teardown concludes that the design of the AirPods Max is akin to a mechanical watch, and that its components are “intricate,” “precision-engineered,” and its design is more complicated than other headphones on the market.
The piece offered the following conclusion:
“And after tearing down some of the competition, we’re more understanding of that $550 price tag. Sony and Bose both charge less, but internally, the AirPods Max’s obsessive craftsmanship makes those other extremely capable devices look like toys by comparison,”.
iFixit assigned the AirPods Max a repair score of six, making this the first non-zero score assigned to an AirPods product.
As always, please be careful in attempting any repairs on this unit, as this is an excellent way to void the device’s warranty.
Via AppleInsider and iFixit