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.
Apple is preparing to release a new pair of over-ear Beats headphones that will have a similar design as the AirPods Max, according to teaser images.
Spanish soccer star Lamine Yamal was spotted wearing unreleased Beats in a series of photos he shared on Instagram a few months ago. The over-ear headphones have a unique design with some similarities to AirPods Max, including telescoping...
While the AirPods Max were updated with an H2 chip in March, the over-ear headphones could receive another update next year, if a previous rumor is still accurate.
In May 2025, Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that he expected lighter-weight AirPods Max to enter mass production in 2027.
All versions of the AirPods Max ever released weigh 0.85 pounds, excluding the charging...
Tuesday August 11, 2026 3:53 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Sonos is working on an upgraded version of its Ace headphones that will support AI, reports Bloomberg. The Sonos Ace Ultra showed up in an FCC filing earlier this week, with the product likely set to debut in September.
Sonos debuted the original Sonos Ace in 2024. Reviews praised the sound quality and active noise cancellation, but the headphone market is crowded, and Sonos' product...
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.
Apple's first foldable iPhone, with a book-style design featuring a ~5.5-inch outer display and a ~7.8-inch inner display with a minimal crease down the middle.
