AirPods Pro 2 Teardown Provides Inside Look at Earbuds and Charging Case

Repair website iFixit today shared a video teardown of Apple's second-generation AirPods Pro, providing a closer look at the internals of the new earbuds and charging case. The teardown confirms that AirPods Pro remain largely unrepairable.


Opening up the AirPods Pro and the charging case continues to result in unfixable damage, preventing battery replacements and other repairs.

"AirPods are the most popular earbuds in the world — they are also among the most unfixable," says iFixit, in the video's description. "With the AirPods Pro 2, the flagship line gets a boost, in all arenas, apparently, except the environment."

As previously reported, the video shows that the metal insert on the charging case for attaching a lanyard is welded to the Lightning connector inside the case, but iFixit did not explain why. CT scanning company Lumafield speculated that the lanyard insert might double as an antenna for the U1 chip, which enables Find My support.

All in all, there are not too many surprises with the internals of the new AirPods Pro and case, which both remain environmentally unfriendly. The new AirPods Pro launched last Friday and are priced at $249 in the United States.

Related Roundup: AirPods Pro 3
Buyer's Guide: AirPods Pro (Buy Now)
Related Forum: AirPods

Popular Stories

iOS 26 Feature

iOS 26.1 to iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps. More features and changes will follow in future ...
iphone air thickness

Apple Said to Cut iPhone Air Production Amid Underwhelming Sales

Friday October 17, 2025 8:29 am PDT by
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec). The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
ios 26 1 liquid glass opaque

iOS 26.1 Beta 4 Lets Users Control Liquid Glass Transparency with New Toggle

Monday October 20, 2025 10:57 am PDT by
With the fourth betas of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS 26.1, Apple has introduced a new setting that's designed to allow users to customize the look of Liquid Glass. The toggle lets users select from a clear look for Liquid Glass, or a tinted look. Clear is the current Liquid Glass design, which is more transparent and shows the background underneath buttons, bars, and menus, while tinted ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.0.2 Update for iPhones Coming Soon

Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet. The update will likely be released by the end of next week. Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
iPhone Siri Glow

Some Apple Employees Have 'Concerns' About iOS 26.4's Revamped Siri

Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings. iOS 26.4 will...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

New iPad Pro Has Six Key Upgrades Beyond M5 Chip

Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more. With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple's Next Rumored Products: New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and More

Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year. The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
m4 macbook air blue

M5 MacBook Air Coming Spring 2026 With M5 Mac Studio and Mac Mini in Development

Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year. Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

New 14-Inch MacBook Pro Has Two Key Upgrades Beyond the M5 Chip

Thursday October 16, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M5 chip, and there are two key storage-related upgrades beyond that chip bump. First, Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 2× faster SSD performance than the equivalent previous-generation model, so read and write speeds should get a significant boost. Apple says it is using "the latest storage technology," ...

Top Rated Comments

Mailia Avatar
40 months ago

Not shocked, they’d have to be more bulky to be repairable
Or so Apple wants you to believe. Both the Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds and charging case are repairable and they don't meet my definition of "bulky".

airpods pro 2 teardown image

https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/07/06/ogle-every-millimeter-of-sonys-flagship-earbuds-in-this-exhaustive-teardown/
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
erikkfi Avatar
40 months ago
But I've been told that Apple cares deeply about the environment and it affects everything they do.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarAnalogy Avatar
40 months ago
OK after watching the video I gotta say this does not meet the usual iFixit standards. I don’t think carving a frowny face and cutting the case open right above the battery is exactly Apple’s recommended method.

Usually these guys sound like experts but this time the thing was torn apart like an ape.

I don’t actually take his word for it that these are completely unrepairable based on this, because I don’t think he did a good job in this case.

He also seemed pretty biased from the start that the whole thing was an environmental disaster.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aloyouis Avatar
40 months ago
iFixit has become so biased that they are unwatchable thereby undermining their own purpose.

All this "hit piece" tells us is that Apple built the AirPods to the highest degree of performance and reliability they could and THAT is my primary concern.

I can recycle them when the life of the AirPods is over. I don't need condescending BS from them now.

I wasted 2 minutes watching that hot garbage.

PS: He damn near blew his own fingers off. What an idiot.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarAnalogy Avatar
40 months ago

Or so Apple wants you to believe. Both the Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds and charging case are repairable and they don't meet my definition of "bulky".

airpods pro 2 teardown image

https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/07/06/ogle-every-millimeter-of-sonys-flagship-earbuds-in-this-exhaustive-teardown/
Personally I like that the AirPods Pro have a stem, I don’t like the entirely in ear form factor. Whether they could be made repairable in the current form factor, I don’t know. I do think those look kind of bulky. Probably at least the same weight as AirPods but more centered in the ear hole.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleFan360 Avatar
40 months ago
Honestly I don’t really care, if you want repairability, don’t buy them and vote with your wallet, if you are worried about the landfills, then stop throwing away your Starbucks cups
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)