Apple Just Made the AirPods 5 Way Easier to Repair
AirPods have never been known for being repair-friendly. For nearly 10 years, every AirPods generation scored by iFixit received a 0 out of 10 for repairability.
So when I decided to open the new AirPods 5 and see how difficult a battery replacement would be, I expected the same frustrating process as before.
What I didn’t expect was for Apple to change one of the most annoying parts of the repair.
Getting Inside the AirPods 5
Opening them is still difficult. The housing is tightly sealed, so I needed heat and a clamp to carefully work the AirPod apart without damaging it.
But once it finally opened, the repair started looking very different from what I was expecting.
The Battery Was Surprisingly Easy to Remove
There was less adhesive around the battery than I expected, and after applying some heat, it started lifting out almost immediately.
For a second, I thought I had broken something. Normally, removing a battery this quickly would mean tearing a cable or damaging a tiny connector. But underneath it was something much simpler.
The AirPods 5 battery makes contact using two small pogo pins. There is no delicate battery connector to unplug and no soldered connection to deal with during removal.
The battery simply presses against the contacts when installed. It sounds like a small change, but during a repair this tiny, removing one risky step makes a huge difference.
Putting It Back Together
Reassembly was also much easier than I expected. Once the battery was back in place, the housing could be closed up again without fighting with a fragile cable underneath.
After the repair, the AirPod still worked and from the outside, you couldn't really tell it had ever been opened.
Final Thoughts
I still wouldn't call an AirPods 5 battery replacement easy. Opening the housing takes skill, patience, and the right tools.
But compared to older AirPods, this feels far more realistic.
We've reached the point where experienced repair shops could actually offer AirPods battery replacements without the repair immediately feeling impossible.
