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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

I didn’t get two years out of mine.

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

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.

Apple should design them to last.

Well, they should, but they won't.

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

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.

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

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

I got mine in 2019 and still going

Edit: mine are pro not reg

Anyone buying Apple products in 2024 is a sap.

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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.

#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.

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.

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

My nephew loses them way sooner than the battery will die

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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.

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.