We’ve bled for AirPods. We’ve sliced them, melted them, cursed at them. For ten years, Apple’s wireless earbuds have earned a well-deserved 0 out of 10 for repairability.

The AirPods 5 finally broke that streak. They’re the most repairable AirPods earbuds ever. Which isn’t saying much: they still earn just a 2 out of 10, and the charging case is as difficult to open as ever. But for the first time, we think skilled technicians and even intrepid DIYers will probably be able to replace AirPod batteries with a decent success rate.

There’s a little tiny seam there, just above the model printing. That’s our path in. You’ll be forgiven for not seeing it.

Apple’s new buds come in two flavors, with and without wireless charging built into the case. Both get active noise cancellation  and an IP57 dust and water resistance rating. Cool upgrades, but the one we’re most interested in is inside.

Pronged Batteries Are Back

Inside the AirPods 5, we found a design we saw in the AirPods 3 but not in last year’s model: pronged batteries are back, it would seem. That is, instead of tiny soldered leads, the battery comes with a nifty pair of prongs. If you know how to plug a lamp into a wall outlet, you already know how these work. They’re intuitive to unplug and infinitely reusable… if you can get to them.

When we took apart the AirPods 3, we found pronged batteries that, like these, popped out and seemed replaceable. But we couldn’t find a way to get there reliably without deforming or slicing open the earbud plastic. With a rework station, solvents, and a specialty jig to hold the pod in place, some superskilled third-party repair techs have been successfully replacing AirPods 3 batteries. But for a regular DIYer doing a repair at their kitchen table, there was essentially no chance of getting into a bud.

An opened AirPod 5, with the battery still in place.

The AirPods 5 opened surprisingly cleanly around the driver. We repeated the procedure on the other bud. Another very clean opening. With the strips of glue removed from either side of the battery, it popped out too.

That is something to be excited about. This battery design could at least give professionals and technicians a chance at saving these buds.

The Left and Right Batteries Are Different

Our battery-swap test initially looked less promising. We popped the battery from the left bud into the right bud and got nothing. The app showed the buds were charging, but the bud had no charge. Switching the batteries back showed a partial charge. Was Apple blocking the swap in software, with some sort of parts pairing?

Not quite. Looking closely, we could see the polarity on the batteries was reversed. The prongs were welded slightly off-center too. These batteries are physically ever so slightly different from left to right.

The battery comes out with its prongs attached. The left and right batteries are slightly different.

So a battery that pops out isn’t interchangeable with the one in the other bud. You can’t find batteries for these yet, but when they come on the market, make sure you’re getting the correct battery for the bud you’re trying to service.

A Hair Dryer and a Clamp Were Enough

Okay, so, there’s a path here for professionals. The million-dollar question was whether we could get inside without specialized tools. Third-party repair pros have created jigs that clamp and hold buds while they perform delicate surgery. Buying a whole jig isn’t a reasonable ask for somebody doing a single repair, and it doesn’t magically make the repair easy.

So we tried a hair dryer and a clamp. And… it worked! It actually worked! With the hair dryer on its lower heat setting, keeping some distance and moving the heat around to avoid melting the plastic, we managed another opening.

You hear it? The angels singing? People are more likely to have a hair dryer than a heat gun or hot air station. It also makes it a lot easier to avoid accidentally applying so much heat the plastic melts.

This is the sort of finding that really gets us going. Cheers of amazement throughout the office. Shock, disbelief. Demands to try again: could it be? Really? AirPods with a battery you could conceivably replace at your kitchen table? Yes. We tried again, and yes. Finally, after selling 80 million pieces of disposable AirPod trash every year for ten years, Apple has produced AirPods that can live longer than their batteries.

That doesn’t make this an easy home repair. Our first attempt at opening through the stem had already melted the plastic, and the successful approach still required careful heating and patient prying. But commonly available tools got us to the battery. After ten bloody years, that counts for something.

The Hardware Beyond the Battery

Deeper in the stem, we found the capacitive touch layer we’ve seen in the last two iterations of the AirPods Pro (Editor’s Note: this touch control is only present in the wireless charging version of the ‘Pods, not in the base model, a correction to our video). 

Under that sits the H2 system-in-package. This tiny chip is largely responsible for the active noise cancellation, using the three MEMS microphones located at the top and bottom of the stem and in the driver head.

The Case Is Still a Disaster

The charging case brought us right back to familiar territory. Its seams are tight, and even with a rework station we struggled to remove the inner layer without damaging the plastic. There was prying, cursing, cutting, more cursing, and an accidental stab wound. We’ve bled for AirPods. Again.

Reaching the case battery left the charging case destroyed.

By the time we reached the battery, the case was destroyed. Inside, plastic welds stood where screws could have made further disassembly possible.

Other manufacturers have already solved this engineering challenge. Fairphone’s Fairbuds show that battery replacement can be a priority in both the earbuds and their case. It simply shouldn’t be this hard to get to a battery.

Two Points After Ten Years

With no replacement parts or repair manuals offered by Apple, and a case battery we couldn’t reach without destroying the case, the AirPods 5 are still disappointing on many levels. Apple’s Self Service Repair program still doesn’t provide a repair path for these buds.

But they’re not as disappointing as they could have been. The earbud batteries are possible to remove, and skilled technicians now have a better chance of keeping a pair alive. That earns the AirPods 5 2 out of 10 on our repairability scorecard, the highest score we’ve given AirPods.

We’ll take the progress. Now give us the parts, the manuals, and a case we can open without bleeding on it.