Fairbuds 2 Teardown Reveals Little Glue, Straightforward Battery Swap

In a global community the place wi-fi earbuds are more and more seen as gadgets that you simply toss into the e-waste bin as quickly as they cease working, it’s heartening to see corporations take the alternative method with their designs. In a recent teardown of the new Fairbuds 2 by [iFixit] we get a blow-by-blow report of disassembling one in all these gadgets, attending to its rechargeable LIR1054 coin cell, in addition to the very accessible PCB ought to you must exchange a shorted capacitor or related subject.

Much like with the primary model, the three.6 V lithium-ion coin cell will be extracted just by pulling on the battery door, which leverages it out of the enclosure. Despite this easy accessibility methodology and no glue these earbuds are nonetheless IP54 rated, in order that they’re secure to put on once you’re dashing for shelter in a sudden downpour.

To get additional into the machine, you must overcome the plastic clips that maintain the enclosure collectively, together with what seems to be just a few dabs of glue. Inside it you discover the PCB containing the center, together with the Airoha AB1577S, Cortex-M4F-based IC that gives the Bluetooth Low Energy capabilities in addition to enabling the contact management and different options.

Below the PCB is the coin cell holder, adopted by the one half that noticed actual glue utilization, particularly the motive force part. Presumably that is the compromise to maintain issues like sweat out of the machine. Even so, after disassembly [iFixit] managed to reassemble the machine and the earbud remained in working situation.

The case for the earbuds is even simpler to disassemble, utilizing just a few bolts to unfasten. The USB-C port is soldered to the PCB which [iFixit] dinged them on, however nonetheless gave it a ten/10 on their repairability rating.

Compared to Apple’s AirPods that is clearly an entire completely different global community, though not too long ago [iFixit] was somewhat pleased with the newest AirPods era being barely extra repairable, with non-destructive entry for a battery swap a minimum of considerably possible.