iFixit today began disassembling Apple's new AirPods Max headphones for one of its traditional device teardowns, with the aim of determining whether the AirPods Max are repairable to any degree or an "e-waste disaster." The teardown is in progress and will be updated over the course of the next few days.
This is an early, partial disassembly that also includes a quick x-ray look inside the headphones. The x-ray view provides a glimpse at the battery cell in each ear cup, dual-ring speaker driver magnets, alignment magnets, brackets for microphones, and more.
iFixit did not find it easy to get into the AirPods Max and there was quite a bit of glue involved. There are two logic boards inside riddled with chips, which iFixit plans to identify later in more detail.
So far, there are no other details available on the AirPods Max as the teardown is ongoing, but iFixit says that it will be updated over the coming days and there's "lots more to come" including some surprises for headphone fans.
Tuesday March 24, 2026 11:41 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
AirPods Max 2 will be available for pre-order on Apple.com and in the Apple Store app starting this Wednesday, March 25 in the U.S. and more than 30 other countries and territories. Apple said the headphones will launch in early April, but it has yet to provide a specific release date. In the U.S., AirPods Max remain priced at $549.
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Wednesday March 25, 2026 6:01 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple is accepting pre-orders for the AirPods Max 2 headphones that were introduced on March 16, with a purchase option now available on the Apple.com website.
In the U.S., Apple's online store lists a delivery timeframe of April 1 to April 3.
Priced at $549, the AirPods Max 2 feature the same design as the original AirPods Max, but Apple updated the over-ear headphones with an H2 chip...
The $549 AirPods Max 2 are set to launch tomorrow, and ahead of the debut of the new over-ear headphones, Apple sent a pair for MacRumors videographer Dan Barbera to check out.
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With the new H2 chip in the AirPods Max, Apple says Active Noise Cancellation is 1.5x better than the ANC in the prior-generation model, and ANC is indeed...
All that space and they didn’t include even a little storage capacity? Imagine the capability of having some playlists/albums stored locally within the headset. That would have been convenient for some.
I agree, and at the same time, I'm not sure there is any over the ears headphone that would get a high score, and, would be interested if fixit has ever done a teardown on any over the ear headphone
What exactly do you mean by as usual? Low repair score in general or low repair score for things that should get a low repair score? I ask because Apple's most popular item -the iPhone- always gets a good repair score. Certain things don't get a good repair score because they aren't meant to be repaired.
Let me guess. It get’s a zero for repairability. Honestly, the clickbait with these guys...
Let me guess. You've never seen an iPhone repairability score. The clickbait. :rolleyes:
It all boils down to whether or not the battery is replaceable and if so, how difficult it is to replace it.
That’s it. That’s 95% of the repairability factor in regards to how long the product can last. The main issue with regular AirPods is that the battery can’t practically be replaced, so the entire headphones die. That’s what I’m hoping to see avoided here.
