Apple released the AirPod Pro a few days ago, while not unexpected, rather suddenly. While the new wireless earphones by Apple are yet to be available in India, customers abroad have already started getting their hands on the newest buds from Apple that feature ANC. iFixit too managed to get a pair of the new AirPod Pro into their labs and systematically took the buds apart.
As per iFixit’s teardown, the AirPod Pro is borderline unrepairable and completely uneconomical to repair. Apparently, all parts of the AirPod Pro are glued together, and taking them apart is most likely to cause damage to the parts it has been glued to. Interestingly, the AirPod Pro does use a button style battery which technically, is replaceable, but in doing so, you’re very likely to damage many other parts.
This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, given that the AirPods themselves followed a similar construction. In fact, over the last few product cycles, Apple has been making their products less and less repairable. MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models now come with a T2 chip which disables the machine in case a component is replaced by a non-Apple authorized party.
Long story short, if you do decide to buy the new AirPod Pro, you’re going to have to be very careful to not break them, since repairs are out of the question and a new pair will cost you Rs 24,900. Of course, you could get Apple Care, in which case, the replacement will be slightly cheaper, but at the end of the day, its just easier to take good care of the buds than get into repairs and replacement.