Apple AirPods are designed to die: Here’s what you should know

Repairable earbuds are now here, so that's pretty cool. https://shop.fairphone.com/fairbuds

It's not for me because I like wired but it's much better than apples.

Huh, no shipping to the US it seems. I guess I'll be waiting for a while then.
- They are planning to extend. I wouldn't hold my breath though until they give a solid date.
Ugh. Gross I hate the in ear canal things. Absolutely the worst.

My problème is that all the non apple ear phones wireless suck. Iike the plain basic airpods for the ear fit. Not because apple.
- How are Apple’s AirPods not “in ear canal things”?
- Ugh, i hate people that think only their view of the world is valid.
- Agree, the soft tip earbuds always fall out of my ears/don't have a good seal. I couldn't find ANY decent alternative to airpods, I've been using my airpod 3's for over a year for 8+ hours a day. If someone knows of a secret headphone manufacturer that makes wireless buds with good battery life and non-soft tips, I'm ALL EARS
- Personally I like the muse headphones. Absolutely fantastic range for the price and if you are actually looking for audio quality + repairable they are great. The build quality is also top notch and compare with the $500+ range headphones. I don't like how apples sound tbh. For that price it should sound better.
  
  For everything else I just get wired or target brand wireless. The target brand for less than 10$ has lasted over 4 years lol.
- Downvotes shall list better headphones.
  
  I myself have not found a better solution.
  
  I like apple headphones and i settled on similar shaped non-apple brand at a fraction af the price, but it is lower in quality compared to apple. Microphone is crap and I stopped trying to use it. Headphones level is good at low level and high level sound reproduction, but it is not as accurate as apple.
  
  In the end the trade off is worth it to me for the price, but i will not claim at is better.
  
  So, bring on your alternative and price of it.

No shit. And get this - The iPhone 7 did have enough space for a headphone jack.

I'm so angry that the 3.5 jack is gone... same with microsd slots....its such BS.
- There's still phones that have them, like Sony phones
- There was no reason to get rid of the headphone jack. Funny enough, the microSD cards are designed to fail. When you're using them in dash cams, cameras and drones they know they have to reach a certain bit rate and when they see that not happening they tell you that it's time to format and/or replace. But using them as a supplemental file system in the phone is dicey. The difference between underperforming and being a problem is a line in the sand that Android has a mastered. Google even tried a series of tactics to make them less dodgy. They tried to make it where you can't install apps out there. But even just putting media and other stuff out there when the operating system goes to check the storage driver can cause hiccups and lags and weird problems.
  
  If SD cards weren't almost all disposable trash we might be able to use them in our phones without creating any performance or support nightmares.

I’ve got the 3rd gen and it’s lasted at least 3 years now.

It’s really nice to see what this community has to offer on lemmy. I quit Reddit because I refuse to use the Reddit app. I really do like the comments more than Reddit, and I’m a wannabe techno savvy Linux pro but I’m still working on basic motivation. Therapy included.

I’ve got Linux on Debian cause I needed the stability to handle my instability, I’ve read through the Linux command line and fell in love with emacs, and all I do on my pc is write, now. And pay bills, but that’s just Firefox. “Just the internet,” lol. It’s hard to try to contain, so I write.

Hope I don’t get banned for irrelevance. No hate here. Just rambling through.

This is how to comment effectively on Lemmy.

If you post about an Apple product working reasonably, in order to counteract the confirmation bias downvotes, you are required to supply two paragraphs praising Linux.
- Hahaha true.
  
  I also like the Airpods Pro :) I even rebought them, when I lost them. Only apple item I ever owned. But the fit is awesome and they never hurt. I could wear them all day. And battery lifetime is probably as long as the one of a smartphone battery.
- I laughed inappropriately loud at this comment.
- I downvoted for mostly irrelevance but then read your comment and you're right. Upvotes for both of you.
We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological irrelevance to our own. Your irrelevance will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

anything without standardized replaceable batteries is designed to fail without recourse eventually. batteries are consumables goddamit!

Mine are still working after 5 years. I probably average 1-2 hours a day on them though which may be less than normal.

You're using them and not discharging fully which is ideal for the battery.
Five on mine too. Many days charging from dead, many days charging from 50% or so. Would love to be able to replace the batteries, but if I get seven year out of em? Eh whatever
Mine lasted for years as far as battery is concerned.

Unfortunately the loudness level has dropped significantly. I went to Apple store and they acknowledged this as that’s what happens to them.

Eventually I gave up and replaced with alternative lower cost similar style headphones. The sound level is plenty, but microphone is terrible. I tried several and found I found similar problems. It is acceptable for much lower cost, but doesn’t compare.
I’ve got 4yrs on mine, I use them for meetings at work and regularly do 3hr meetings with them, probably averaging about 3 hrs a day, 5 days a week. They ran out for me the other day after a 3.5hr meeting, but luckily just one did, so I had it charge while I was using the other and made it through the 5hr outage call.

Not ideal, but the 4 other head sets (2 bt and two wired I got from the company) sounded terrible (either the microphone or the speaker or both) so they’re my go to pair.

I do wish you could swap the battery, but if I make It to 5 yrs it’d probably be fine considering how much I use them. I’d even be okay if they’d just make that a pro feature. At least give us the choice.
- You could just use the wired Apple ones. Does the microphone sound better than just using the phone as a microphone?

Surprised the title didn't say, "Apple slammed for ear pods that are designed to die".

Gluing components together so it's not easy/impossible to repair is different to 'designing to die'. In my opinion designed to die suggests the ear pods will die prematurely due to intentional design decisions. Gluing components together just means that when the ear pods die, then they cannot be brought back to life and you have to replace them.

For every article not containing the word slammed, there's a comment that mentions the lack of the word slammed. This way, we'll never get rid of it
- Lemming SLAMMED for commenting on lack of this one weird word in article title (editors hate him)
Gluing components together so it's not easy/impossible to repair is different to 'designing to die'. In my opinion designed to die suggests the ear pods will die prematurely due to intentional design decisions. Gluing components together just means that when the ear pods die, then they cannot be brought back to life and you have to replace them.

But they’re designed with the knowledge that the small battery has a brief usability period. Which is like putting a time bomb in there knowing the people will probably buy more of their products. Putting something inside that can’t be removed and that has a short lifespan is designing a product to die. In other words, it’s designed to die with plenty of good parts left inside when the part that’s quickest to die can’t be replaced. They’re turning a bunch of long lifespan stuff into disposable. That’s an intentional design decision that makes the product die prematurely.

As they said in the article, they could easily make this a replaceable part. But they glue it in so that’s near impossible. Not to mention how long apple fought right to repair legislation. They know exactly what they’re doing.
Kinda off-topic but their charging cables are actually designed to die. Not that people care..
- Source?

The headline could have been Apple make Apple product.

Stuff like the Fairphone Buds seems like a good alternative.

Like other commenters here, I got something like three years out of my AirPods until they wouldn't hold a charge.

Gen 1 AirPods = Trash batteries that become miserable after 2 years. Good luck making it through a 1 hour call if you use them a lot. These things beg for the landfill by year 3.

Gen 3 AirPods or AirPods Pro’s = surprisingly good battery longevity. Expect these to be solid after 2 years.

I have the og regular. They still work but the battery dies after 30 minutes.

I feel like they're 7 years old.
Five year old second Gen AirBuds: working amazing
I honestly never noticed any battery degradation on my OG pros. Like I’m sure they degraded, but they always lasted long enough for me to not care.

That’s because the components inside each little white stick are glued together. Apple could use screws and latches to hold together the components. That way, if something needed to be repaired or replaced, you could easily get inside the device in order to fix it. But Apple doesn’t do this.

So as usual, they purposefully do this. This reminds me of the time with the iPhone battery 'scandal' Apple Batterygate.

I really like their Airpods Pro (1st gen), have them for about 4 years now. However not without problems. I had to replace them 5 times because of crackling sounds, muffled sound and broke-bass sounds. This even happend after my 2 years warranty but luckily (and thankfully) the Apple employees are nice people at times. When it happened (twice) outside my warranty, they told me, if I showed them my receipt - They can and will give me a new pair of Airpods Pros.

They told me ''many do not know but there's a law that forces companies (even Apple) to give a 'decent product' to the customer''.

Not sure if I will get their Airpods Pro 2 (or 3) though after all the hassle.

EDIT: As I'm not sure if this law is also outside my country, here's the official government website with their explanation of it. It is in the Dutch language though: Rijksoverheid deugdelijk product

Each to their own, but I personally can't imagine having to replace a faulty product 5 times and still wanting to use it
- I think I did that with an Xbox 360 but it really pissed me off.
That's highly fucked up if you replaced them 5 times within 4 years.

My Jabra 85h Elite ANC probably isnt as good as thr Airpods ANC but only had to replace them once within 4 years of having them. First replacement was within warranty and I was given new headphones but also could keep the old ones.
Used them for as long as they could still run. Very satisfied with the service from Jabra. Just the ANC is lacking.
- Agreed! Though, I asked one of the employees that worked there and was told that the 1st gen AirPods Pro had a very known issue with all the three issues I had. Especially the crackling sound.
  
  And apparently Apple refuses to fix the entire issue with the 1st gen and rather replace them continuously (I suppose?).
  
  I’m only so glued to the AirPods Pro at the moment for the NC. I got Tinnitus, hear damage and with loud sound I will get Hyperacusis. The NC allows me to have very low sound on, avoid the noise from outside but still capable of hearing other sounds a bit.
  
  Great service of Jabra though, I’m surprised they allowed you to keep the old ones.
What key feature has you going back to the airpods? There's very likely a good alternative, but it depends on what is keeping you using them.
- None. I stick to the AirPods Pro at the moment because, they work right now and Apple keeps replacing them anyway.
  
  That and don’t have time (yet) to do research for new in-earbuds that are good quality with real good NC. Noise cancelling is a must though.
Only an apple zombie would be loyal to a product that crappy 5 times? My $30 Sesh earbuds work like a champ after several years. Then I got the $100 pixel A buds for free with a new phone and have been using those for years with no problems. Since they were so cheap I use the Sesh buds in the shower to listen to music or podcasts and they still work fine. I abuse cheaper products and they last longer than luxury brand crap.
- I mean, if you don’t understand that I only paid once and that Apple replaced them freely even out of warranty. And that, that’s why I keep using the AirPods Pro (1st gen) for now.
  
  I don’t know what else to tell you. You can call me an “Apple zombie” if that satisfies yourself. But it doesn’t make sense.
  
  I’m not going to explain myself to a stranger that soft-insult and can’t even give an good argument as to why I should not keep using them while Apple replaces them for free until I decide to purchase different in-earbuds.
- Haha no shit. It's like 1000 worth of air pods.
  
  Customers like this deserve to be ripped off imo.
If you'd wanted better sound quality you could have got literally any headphones including the cheap ones you get from gas stations. They really do not have good sound quality, they're fine, but they are only fine.

I didn’t get two years out of mine.

Regardless, they shouldn’t be manufacturing these like they’re disposable.

IMHO, the first generation was pretty bad. Those things went to shit after 2 years. I couldn’t get through an hour call with them.

But the new Pros are pretty good. I’ve had a pair for 2 years, and I’m still on 3-4 hour calls with them, with ANC on.

I don’t know what black magic is happening, but these things are doing way better than my first ones.
I’m on five years with my gen2 pair, and they’re still doing great.
Question..

Why did you purchase them in the first place then?

Hype? Advertising? Apple ecosystem? Lack of foresight that the batteries aren't replaceable?

Edit: Downvoters too upset to answer the question. They actually have adapters to use wired headphones on iPhones ya know.
- I bought them for the meme and ended up loving them, and never want to go back to wired headphones on my phone.
  
  After buying AirPods I only once used the 3.5mm jack/dongle either my phone.
- Trust that it works well and it does. However, first gen was not as good as after it.
  
  Good microphone quality. Not true for first gen after some time in my experience
  
  Reliable connection. True most of the time.
  
  Apple ecosystem, yes to a small degree. Ability to see battery level is nice.
  
  Fast recharge times
  
  Endless usage time if using one headphone at a time. It is my preference usage method.
  
  Cons: high price. After several years I expect to find comparable competition. It exists, and i use it, but i lost: 1, 2, 3 from my list. And usability is crap: accidentally touching headphone turns it off.
- You dare question an Apple product purchase? you've angered the cult.
  
  FYI You should know fanboys and their anecdotes beat studies critical to Apple every time.

My aunt gave me a pair despite me being an Android person, I used them simply because they were free, and they died like a year later. I got some JBLs which are excellent thus far.

Any product that is a portable electronic and does not have an easily replaceable battery is considered disposable, a commodity. Every single one.

Here is what you should know: never ever buy a shit product

10-4, i will continue to stay in my basement and not order things because I'm broke.

In less than two years, the rechargeable lithium-ion battery found in your AirPods is due to die an untimely death.

Bullshit. I got four years out of each of my pairs and I used them several hours a day. Also replacing the battery when it does wear out is is something like 50 bucks. Sure, you can't do it yourself but Apple will give you a refurbished pair, and they will recycle your old battery.

And they provide free recycling for all their products — you're basically paying for it to be recycled when you buy AirPods and any that go into landfill that's entirely the customer's fault.

No wired headphones I've ever owned lasted even close to that long - the cable eventually fails with several hours per day of swinging around and being packed tightly into your pocket.

That said, I've switched to bone conduction headphones now, and will probably never own another pair of airpods unless they go down the same path.

This reads so much like Apple marketing talk. Just call any criticism bullshit and let the anectodes and fanboys circlejerk. Add "Apple also gives cuddly gifts to kids sometimes", and you're golden.

🤢
- The recycling plug is a little silly, but they are correct about AirPods lasting longer than that article claims.
  
  The first gen AirPods were absolutely ready for hospice after 2 years. But the new ones are much better. Anyone that’s used some Pro 2s or Gen 3s knows what I’m talking about.
  
  This article’s claims are kind of outdated and they feel like they were written by someone who hasn’t used one of the models made during the last 5 years.
- It's not marketing talk if you know 5+ people and noone has problems with their battery after two years.
Mine are two years and they’re working really really well. I’ve noticed a capacity drop, but it’s far more than enough for my needs.

The batteries definitely need to be replaceable. This would be trivially easy.

With that said, I’m not so convinced they are designed to fail in less than two years either. Article strikes me as sensationalist with a grain of truth.

PS: mine even come with a feature to reduce battery aging by delaying full charge until the device is expected to be used. Why bother if planned obsolescence is your explicit goal?
- I found one of mine developed a crackle after a year. It would eventually go away if I put it in the case and took it out a few times which seemed kind of silly.
- How would you compare capacity at purchase vs now?
Lithium iOS is inherently unstable and that instability goes both ways. They designed it to only last 2 years, but there will be plenty that go beyond that, just as there will be plenty that die in , <2 years. The majority will die at about 2 years, as designed.

That being said,

bone conduction headphones

What's that? I'm intrigued lmao

Edit: ion* lmao typo stays tho
- bone conduction headphones
  
  What’s that? I’m intrigued lmao
  
  Sound is vibration. We typically think of it as vibration transmitted through air (to get to your auditory canal), but it doesn't have to be. Sound vibration can be conducted through your bones (which your auditory canal is enclosed in) so you can hear without something being in your ears because the sound gets inside you through a different medium.
  
  Do you have an electric toothbrush? Turn it on and bite down with your teeth on it. Notice how it gets MUCH louder? Thats the sound traveling through your jawbone (and skull) to get to your auditory canal.
- I have a pair originally purchased for running but they've turned out to be useful in numerous situations where I wanted to listen to something without losing awareness of my surroundings.
I'm looking at waterproof bone conduction headphones to use in the hot tub, clearly you like yours, are they waterproof too?
- I find it funny that people seek special overpriced "bone conducting" earbuds when they already normally do that when sounds vibrate your fucking ear drums.
$50 bucks? I bought two batteries for $4 each from China and they came with sealant to recreate the waterproof seal.

This only works when you can open the earphones and the battery is not soldered (my hands are not so steady not to fuck anything up)
Replacing a single earbud is $49, and the case is another $49, so replacing all three batteries is $147, which at least for the regular model is close to buying new AirPods. It's pretty much a given that the repair costs more than the product is worth after a new model launches.

Apple also doesn't swap the batteries, they replace the earbuds completely, "recycling" otherwise fully intact earphones. Not sure about the case.

You're right that they probably last more than two years (that depends on a lot of factors though), and while features like adaptive charging hints that Apple doesn't want them to die quite as quickly, they still aren't designed to last and certainly aren't designed to be repairable.
I had to return my bone conduction headphones because it tickled my ears too much when I turned it up so loud that I could hear it over my bike machine. My wired headphones kept dying from my sweat, so I just ended up getting some waterproof-ish JBL in-ear headphones so I don't have to worry about destroying any of my wireless headphones.
My Gen 2s are 2 years old and I use them all day for meetings with a short charge around lunch. I don’t really pay attention to the battery and I’m using them for calls for about 6-8 hours.

Then I usually sleep with one in my ear and fall asleep to a podcast. I usually get a battery warning beep sometime between 3 and 6 am, and I go to bed at 10pm.

All in all, I treat these things like shit, I they’re in use for half the day, I leave the case on a hot ass MagSafe puck at night, and they’re still in really good shape. I just used them from a flight from CA to NY with no problems.

Like many, my first Gen vanilla AirPods were struggling after 2 years, but Apple seems to have figured out how to prolong these little batteries.

Apple should design them to last.

Well, they should, but they won't.

Right. This goes for every company, ever. No company is going to do what they should do if it's not profitable or beneficial to them in some way. It makes sense if you think about it, but that's also why regulation exists. So that they don't become too unhinged.

Since the release of the first AirPods in 2016, countless other companies have replicated their wireless and rechargeable design.

Fuck Apple’s e-waste and all, but the trend to glue batteries inside Bluetooth headphones was well underway before AirPods came to the market.

I sent quite a few pairs of lanyard buds to the grave before AirPods came out. Batteries couldn't be repaired they couldn’t work wired. BT only.

The batteries in my awesome 49 bucks LG HBS 800 are still alive and kicking like 10 hours per day after what, 5 years now? Too bad this particular one was discontinued, but at least I have 2.

I also had 300 dollar sony buds, half the Audio quality with batteries that lasted 6 months, now I have 5 minutes of shitty audio quality before they die, yay!

Fuck these design to fail products, they should be outlawed

Charging patterns can make a big difference FWIW

I don't think there's that much variance in lithium battery quality.
- The ollbly difference in charging patterns is that the LG headset already lasted 10 hours from the start where the Sony only lasted 5. I couldn't get a full day of work out of the Sony's

Tbf almost all products nowadays are made to last short periods. That’s what people are trying to change to avoid so much waste.

Apple has always been rabidly proprietary. Only in europe has any authority been able to force them to put their customers first

fuck the and their proprietary bullshit.

yeah I care as a tech nerd, that's real.

but as someone who wants a planet in 50 years: apple needs to fucking burn. right alongside Exxon.
- Nah, burning would release even more toxins. We need to find an environmentally friendly (or at least minimally harmful) way to dispose of them.
- Amen

Anyone buying Apple products in 2024 is a sap.

They're the only semi-decent (sound quality) company I'm aware of that make earbuds without the little buttplug tips. I seemingly need to stretch out my tight earholes, but I'd prefer if ANY company could make earbuds that aren't just skullcandy+ please.

Taking suggestions if anyone knows of one.
- Get IEMs and get foam tips.
- Possibly Huawei if you're not in the US. Sony open backs? Or maybe just some xiaomi model, but I can't vouch for sound there.
  
  I'm in the same boat and use the regular airpods 2. The 3rd gen would be ideal too unless Huawei entices me to switch over.

I got mine in 2019 and still going

Edit: mine are pro not reg

The battery lasts shorter than when you got them
- No shit. So does every battery. But 5 years in they’re still going. Not the 2 the article says. But apple should design them to be swapped or longer for environment.
- Regular 2019 still last more than six hours so that’s a thing

Yet another reason to avoid Apple hardware.

I invested so much into this stupid ecosystem. Feels silly now after realizing how abusive this company is and the lengths it will go to keep you walled in.

Apple products are crap, but pretty much all wireless earbuds have the same problem. Even if the batteries are easily replaceable, the ear buds are likely to get lost since there is no cord to catch them when they fall out of your ears.

#surprisedNoOne

Unfortunately that's true for all but the Fairphone ones. I have multiple. All other true wireless and also most with one wire behind the neck are not worth fixing. Non-Apple brands are cheaper though. Philips ones are like 50 €, for example. If they die after years that's less bad.

I have earphones that are 15-20 years old (UE Triple-fi 10s and Yuin PK2s, the first wave of Chi-fi products), 2-3 year (or even 5) lifespan for audio products is insane.

Over-ear studio headphones, yeah, I expect those to last for a long ass time. But in-ear? Battery or not, a lot of those just get beat to shit after years. Even if you’re buying some nice IEMs. Been this way for as long as I can remember.
- That's just a you thing, the two I mentioned are earbuds.
- Put them in a case with a silica packet? What's wrong with your IEMs?
Sure, I’ve got a few pairs of circumaural cans that are 20+ years old, but they’re wired. There’s no way I’d assume a super tiny rechargeable battery is going to last that long. Or anything made as microscopic as in ear pods (even wired ones I’ve had don’t last more than 3-5yrs imho).

Apple fans wouldn't care anyway.

In other news, the sky is blue, water is wet, and the earth is round.

All that and they didn’t give one example of wireless earbuds that have user swappable batteries.

Fairphone Fairbuds?

https://shop.fairphone.com/fairbuds
- I wish, my problem is those doohickeys on the end there hurt my ears, and the only half-decent company that isn't a walmart airpod knockoff that also isn't skullcandy shaped like those is airpods themselves. Can ANYONE good please make earbuds that don't have the buttplug on them?
Fairbuds, according to iFixit.

My nephew loses them way sooner than the battery will die

My AirPods are still going strong after getting them in 2018. 🤷‍♂️ obviously doesn’t discount the stories for those who they didn’t work for. I also had to do a warranty exchange on them after a week from my original pair because they just randomly unpaired and wouldn’t pair to any device any more so that points to some QC issues for sure

It always makes me laugh when articles like this are posted. I get to read all the smug anti-[SUBJECT OF ARTICLE] comments that are posted directly from their [COMPETITOR TO SUBJECT OF ARTICLE] devices that are always guilty of the exact same thing.

Tbf they can't exactly make something with batteries that is designed to last forever can they?

Unless of course, they make the batteries consumer replaceable. But that's not going to happen.

https://shop.fairphone.com/fairbuds Repairable, replaceable earbuds exist. Apple has no excuse. And I say that as an Apple user.
- Yeah I'm aware of fairbuds. Apple aren't an outlier in this regard, nobody has any excuse. We need more companies to start offering replacement parts like Fairphone do!!
- Not available in US 😭
I replaced the batteries in my Samsung earbuds. It wasn't super easy but it was tool-less.

And water is transparent.

Pre-built PCs are designed to die as well, and so are phones in general (incl. everything without a removable battery actually), as well as electric vehicles, not only cars.

Same with Windows, Mac and any other closed source piece of software but thanks to piracy and hacking its not such a big problem...yet.

Tomorrow will be visible outside during the day, but not so much during the night.