iFixit Tears Down Latest AirPods 4 and AirPods Max
Credit: iFIxit
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Last month, Apple unveiled two new models of its fourth-generation AirPods alongside a modestly refreshed version of its AirPods Max USB-C headphones. Now, repair site iFixit has taken them through its usual teardowns, revealing exactly what’s changed inside.
The AirPods Max
The short answer would appear to be “not much.” In particular, the AirPods Max are everything we’ve been expecting: new colors and the switch from a Lightning port to USB-C. If you were hoping Apple hid some surprises inside, iFixit has dashed those hopes by demonstrating that the port is the only thing that’s changed in the new model, unless you’re willing to count some additional glue inside as a “feature.”
There’s a fair bit of adhesive here, and it feels a little bit on the stretchy side. Disassembling the Lightning version didn’t seem to present nearly as much adhesive. Compared to the first version of the AirPods Max, there’s not much different here. Other than the obvious USB-C swap, the internals look near-identical. There are some visible tweaks to the board housing the charge port, but otherwise, nothing appears to have changed. iFixit
That’s been the narrative from the rumor mill for months now. Many (including us) had hoped those predictions were wrong and Apple would add its latest H2 chips or at least provide support for lossless digital audio over USB-C, but neither happened. In December, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman predicted only a basic refresh, noting that “the cans don’t sell well enough for the company to invest in entirely new hardware or software features. Looks like he was right.
In fact, the new AirPods Max have actually lost a feature that the first-generation Lightning version had, at least for now. Apple offered a 3.5mm-to-Lightning cable that could be used for wired listening on the original AirPods Max. That’s not an option for the USB-C version; standard USB-C audio cables don’t work, and Apple has yet to release a special cable for this purpose — and it’s unclear if it will.
The AirPods 4
Apple’s new AirPods 4 received a considerably more impressive upgrade. In this case, Apple added the H2 chip previously exclusive to the second-generation AirPods Pro, equipping them to handle new iOS 17 and iOS 18 features like adaptive audio and head gestures. Apple also released two versions, with a higher-end model that offers active noise cancellation (ANC) for the first time on a non-pro set of Apple earbuds.
iFixit found remarkable similarities between the ANC and non-ANC versions. Both have the same in-ear microphone, although the non-ANC model only uses it for Spatial Audio. The outward-facing microphone was “bigger and beefier” in the AirPods 4 ANC, but other than that, the two models were the same in every other way. iFixit didn’t bother tearing down the ANC version, but when it compared the two using a Lumafield Neptune scanner, it determined they were “99% identical.”
We can see how similar the two buds are with CTs provided by our Lumafield Neptune scanner. The buds are 99% identical, meaning that the difference between ANC and non-ANC models appears to be a $2 microphone.iFixit
Sadly, despite these upgrades, not much has changed in the overall design, and the AirPods 4 remain as hard to repair as ever. Five years ago, iFixit called the AirPods 2 “disappointingly disposable” and nothing’s changed. The AirPods 4 — with or without ANC — still get a flat zero for repairability.
So here we are again. Another year and another AirPods teardown that disappointed on the repairability front. It’s a shame, too; Apple has made some functionally amazing hardware with standout features that bring quality-of-life improvements but at the expense of creating a totally disposable device. iFixit
The AirPods Max fare slightly better, getting the same 6/10 for repairability as the original Lightning version, which isn’t surprising as they’re essentially unchanged other than the port; iFixit found the adhesive a bit stronger, but that’s not enough to change their score.
