Apple’s third-generation AirPods Pro may boast smarter health sensors, stronger water resistance, and a new foam-infused tip, but when it comes to repairability, nothing has changed. A detailed teardown by iFixit shows the same frustrating story: sealed components, glued-in batteries, and a design that makes repairs virtually impossible.
Inside the AirPods Pro 3
The teardown reveals a few noteworthy hardware updates. Apple redesigned the ear tips with a thin layer of foam to improve noise isolation, though the difference is visible only under a microscope. The earbuds themselves house a 0.221 Wh battery, while the charging case contains a single 1.334 Wh cell. That’s a shift from the dual-cell setup of the AirPods Pro 2, and it explains the drop in total battery life from 30 to 24 hours.
Apple has also rearranged the rare earth magnets inside the case to maintain MagSafe and Qi2 compatibility while using fewer materials. But despite these changes, the internal structure remains as hostile to repair as ever. According to iFixit, accessing the battery or any other component requires specialized tools, precise heat application, and a willingness to permanently scar the plastic shell.
A Familiar Story from iFixit
iFixit’s teardown is damning. The batteries are still glued into place, both inside the earbuds and the charging case. Replacing them without damaging the device is nearly impossible. The flex cables are fragile and deeply embedded, and soldered joints add more obstacles. In practice, even professional technicians struggle to remove components without destroying them.
This isn’t just an inconvenience. It means that once the battery inevitably degrades after two or three years, your only real option is to buy a new pair. That’s expensive for consumers and disastrous for e-waste. Despite calls from the right-to-repair movement and examples from companies like Fairphone, Apple continues to prioritize a sleek design over longevity.
The Impact on Everyday Use
The AirPods Pro 3 highlight a broader industry problem. Apple’s choices set the standard, and most competitors follow suit. Features like heart rate sensing, improved ANC, and IP57 water resistance might make these earbuds more capable, but they don’t solve the fundamental issue: they’re designed to be thrown away, not fixed.
In the end, iFixit gave the AirPods Pro 3 a repairability score of 0 out of 10. That marks nine years of AirPods models with the same fundamental flaw. Until Apple embraces repairable design, every new model will carry the same hidden cost: convenience today, electronic waste tomorrow.
Why does anyone expect these incredibly tiny marvels of miniaturization to be repairable?
Repairs would cost as much as new devices.
I’m perfectly happy with my Fairbuds and delighted in the knowledge that when the battery life inevitably drops below a useful level I can just pop in new batteries.
If it was illegal to sell electronics without user replaceable batteries, Apple would simply find a way to do it.
Typical consumer reply. It is not only about costs, it is mainly about circular economy and the stuborness of tech giants to not have your legally owned hardware repaired by yourself.