“If you got AirPods at launch in late 2016, you’re likely now only able to listen to them for less than half the time you did without recharging,” William Gallagher writes for AppleInsider. “If you’ve had your AirPods for a couple of years, then you’ve gotten used to how their initially brilliant battery life reduces over time. However, you’re unlikely to have ever got out a stopwatch to see the difference — so we did that for you. Those 2016 AirPods first gave us that baleful low battery sound after one hour and 19 minutes. We got a second at one hour and 59 minutes. Then at two hours, 6 minutes, they died.”
“That’s less than half Apple’s stated battery life for a new pair —and none of this is surprising,” Gallagher writes. “A source inside Apple who is not authorized to speak on behalf of the company, told AppleInsider that ‘Batteries aren’t forever, and the smaller they are, the less eternal they are. The batteries in each AirPods bud is something like 1 percent of the volume of an iPhone [battery].'”
“If you have an ailing battery, you could go to an Apple Store now —but maybe you should wait just a little longer,” Gallagher writes. “It’s great that Apple has any kind of service program for this, but it is not the bargain it can be with replacement iPhone batteries.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s just not very cost-effective to pay for replacement vs. buying a new pair of AirPods. Plus, we expect (hope!) a new AirPods generation will be released soon, so we early adopters of AirPods are all in the same boat, waiting for AirPods 2!
SEE ALSO:
Apple AirPods 2 said to deliver deeper bass, more sensors, higher price; AirPower to launch this spring – February 11, 2019
Apple’s early AirPods adopters are seeing battery life issues – January 28, 2019
Apple to release AirPods 2 with ‘health monitoring functions’ in first half of this year – January 23, 2019
I think this is one of those accessories that Apple should look seriously at offering at a much better price. The relatively short life-span due to the necessarily tiny batteries underlines this.
“Here’s what you can do about it”: absolutely nothing!! Just get new ones. The price we pay (and mind you, I LOVE my AirPods!!) for cutting edge technology that is beautiful…
Buy a set of AirPods when you get your iPhone and put them under AppleCare+ with the device.
Louis Rossman vidéo to appear any moment now.
What one can “do about it” is … go buy another product that lasts longer.
BTDT … and got the downvotes from the MDN fanboys for daring to say it.
First, find one. Find a product that “lasts longer.”
Second, disagreeing with you is not a sign of a “fanboy.” Your preemptive use of that term identifies you as a major tw@t. Using that term just makes me dismiss anything that you have to say because you are unworthy.
Third, those 2-year old AirPods still provided over two hours of talk time. Slap them back in the case for a quick recharge and you can get another two. And you can always hold your tw@t phone up to your tw@t ear if you want to talk longer…if you have the strength to actually raise your tw@t arm. Oh, did I forget to tell you that you are a total tw@t?
As I said, “Already done”. Bought them back in 2016 for $60 and their runtime is still as long as when they were brand new, because they didn’t employ a non-user-serviceable battery like Apple’s design chose to use.
Sorry, but when it is done a “shoot the messenger” because they obviously don’t like the message, it most certainly is.
YMMV on if 2 hours is adequate for your use case. Or even 19 hours with recharges from the AirPod’s case.
For my use case, it happens to include international flights (6-16 hours) so a product with a significantly longer runtime than what Apple was offering became for me a very strong contender, because even if it comes with other (different) design trade-offs, the fewer devices that I need to plug in every night to recharge, the better.
yup, dead at 2.1 years…
If you put your AirPods in the freezer and then warm them between your teabags, you’ll be giving your AirPods the hot and cold treatment.
It won’t do a damn thing for your battery life but you’ll get a real tingly feeling in your nether regions for a short while.