These Look Repairable… Until You Try Replacing the Battery

People are calling Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 4 better than AirPods. But there’s one big criticism of Apple’s earbuds: AirPods are almost impossible to repair. Their batteries are glued in place, and opening them usually damages the housing.

So the real question is… Are Samsung’s Galaxy Buds4 Pro any better? To find out, we opened them up.

Opening the Case

The teardown starts with the charging case.

At first glance, things look hopeful. The case is pried open, but the process is surprisingly straightforward, and there’s literally nothing that seems easy to break while doing it. The internal layout also looks fairly simple.

Inside sits the battery, which initially appears easy to replace. It looks like it only requires removing three screws, something that usually signals a repair-friendly design.

But once those screws are removed, the situation becomes more complicated.

The Battery Isn’t As Easy As It Looks

Although the battery appears simple to remove at first, it’s actually soldered directly to the circuit board with two wires. That means you can’t just unplug it and swap in a new battery.

The wires need to be desoldered first. To make things even more complicated, the battery is covered by a plastic shield that adds another layer of difficulty during the removal process. After several attempts of prying and removing, the battery came off. But by that point it’s clear the process is much harder than it first looked.

Opening the Earbuds

Opening the earbuds themselves is surprisingly manageable. The outer shell can be separated without completely destroying the housing, which is already an improvement over many fully glued designs.

However, the difficulty increases once you reach the internal components.

To access the battery, a large portion of the internal structure has to be removed. Several components must come out before the battery is even visible, and once again the battery is soldered in place.

So while the earbuds technically can be opened, replacing the battery requires deep disassembly and careful soldering.

The Repairability Reality

At first glance, the Galaxy Buds4 Pro seem like they might be easier to repair than most wireless earbuds. Opening the case isn’t particularly difficult, and the battery initially looks simple to replace. But once you go deeper, things change.

The battery is soldered directly to the board, and accessing it requires removing multiple internal components. That means replacing it involves careful disassembly and soldering, making the repair far more complicated than it first appears. And that leads to an unexpected comparison.

Apple’s AirPods are often criticized for being extremely difficult to repair. But despite being easier to open, the Galaxy Buds4 Pro still require significant effort to replace the battery. And after going through the teardown, it’s hard not to reach a surprising conclusion.

The AirPods Pro 3 may actually be easier to repair than these.

Final Thoughts

The Galaxy Buds4 Pro aren’t impossible to repair, but they’re far from repair-friendly. The case battery looks simple at first, yet still requires soldering to replace. The earbuds themselves require deep disassembly just to reach the battery.

For a device whose lifespan is heavily tied to battery health, that’s disappointing. Because when the battery eventually wears out, most people won’t repair them. They’ll replace them.

And that means more electronic waste.

See you in the next article!