Apple has made the AirPods 5 slightly easier to repair, with a new teardown from iFixit revealing a more replaceable battery design.
The biggest change is Apple’s return to pronged battery contacts, which are easier to disconnect and replace than the glued-in battery connections used in previous AirPods generations.
That is a meaningful improvement because degraded batteries are among the most common problems with wireless earbuds.
Battery Replacement Is Still Complicated
Despite the change, repairing the AirPods 5 remains a difficult process.
To open an earbud, repairers need to clamp it securely and apply an even amount of hot air around the upper casing to soften the adhesive holding it together.
Once the casing is opened, the battery itself is still secured with additional adhesive strips.
The left and right AirPods also use batteries with opposite polarities, meaning the batteries cannot simply be swapped between the two earbuds.
iFixit Gives AirPods 5 a 2/10
The switch to pronged batteries was enough for iFixit to award the AirPods 5 a 2/10 repairability score.
That is still a poor result overall, but it marks an improvement over previous AirPods models, which iFixit has repeatedly scored at 0/10 over the past decade.
Most internal components remain difficult to access and replace, so the AirPods 5 are still far from being easy to repair.
However, making the battery more replaceable addresses one of the most common points of failure in wireless earbuds and represents a small but notable improvement in Apple’s AirPods design.
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