{"id":1697,"date":"2020-12-10T09:21:30","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T09:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/?p=1331127"},"modified":"2020-12-10T09:21:30","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T09:21:30","slug":"no-replacing-the-airpods-max-battery-in-the-uk-wont-cost-309","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=1697","title":{"rendered":"No, replacing the AirPods Max battery in the UK won\u2019t cost \u00a3309"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s not much going on in my life right now. That\u2019s probably why these past few days have morphed into my personal AirPods Max week. We had the announcement on Tuesday<\/a>, some analysis about its case yesterday<\/a>, and today? Well, it\u2019s all about the AirPods Max battery, girl.<\/p>\n

Yeah, I\u2019m fine? Why are you asking?<\/p>\n

So, the AirPods Max battery. One of the biggest discussion points around Apple\u2019s upcoming over-ear headphones is price. They\u2019re selling for $550, which is roughly $250 more than many comparable headphones, like the Bose QuietComfort 35 II ($270),  the Sony WH-1000XM4 ($280), or the <\/span>Sennheiser Momentum 3<\/a> ($350).<\/span><\/p>\n

There have been some interesting takes<\/a> on why<\/em> the AirPods Max will cost this much, but I\u2019m more intrigued about the value you get from spending so much on gear. Specifically, about the battery life of the headphones.<\/p>\n

This topic was first brought to my attention by all around Good Egg Matthew Hughes, current Register reporter and TNW alumni.<\/p>\n

\n

Anyone else curious about the lifespan of the AirPods Max?<\/p>\n

They\u2019re going to use a lithium battery for power. These fail over time. Will punters be able to fix them?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Matthew Hughes (@matthewhughes) December 9, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, the answer to the question of \u201cwill punters be able to fix them?\u201d is almost definitely not. Apple simply doesn\u2019t make repairable or upgradeable products these days. In fact, iFixit gave the AirPods Pro its lowest possible repairability score<\/a> \u2014 and I expect the AirPods Max will have a build and design that leads to this same result.<\/p>\n

The issue here then is how long will the AirPods Max battery hold up? Realistically, you\u2019d want a $550 set of headphones to last at least<\/em> five years. And, to be honest, there\u2019s little chance of any battery \u2014 let alone the lithium-ion ones Apple\u2019s bound to use \u2014 maintaining solid performance over that time period without serious degradation.<\/p>\n

If users won\u2019t be able to replace their own AirPods Max battery, then they have to go to Apple. Which is exactly what the company wants. A quick check on its website showed that this could be done without AppleCare+ in the US for $79<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"AirPods<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Honestly? As much as I wish it was cheaper (in the way that I wish everything was cheaper), $79 for an AirPods Max battery replacement is reasonable. Well, as long as Apple doesn\u2019t stop doing it four years after release, but that\u2019s another issue for another day.<\/p>\n

This didn\u2019t appear to be the case in the UK though. Yesterday, the same part of Apple\u2019s UK website stated that replacing the AirPods Max battery would cost \u00a3309<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"AirPods<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

At the time there was a lot of discussion<\/a> over how this could possible be the case. Some thought it was price gouging, others that it was the impact of impending Brexit. Thankfully though, it appears it was simply a typo.<\/p>\n

Apple updated its UK website<\/a> over the night, and it now shows the AirPods Max battery replacement costing \u00a375. Thank fuck for that.<\/p>\n

\"NEW<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got to love a little bit of low level drama: 2020 has had far too much intense stuff going on for my liking. It might not be all over (there\u2019s lots of drama in India, where the AirPods Max cost $815 and battery replacement isn\u2019t covered under AppleCare+<\/a>), but at least this little mystery has been solved.<\/p>\n

There might still be a lot of unanswered questions about the AirPods Max, but at least we know that replacing the battery won\u2019t be one of them. Well, unless Apple discontinues the headphones and you\u2019re stuck with a $550 set of cans that only last for a couple of hours \u2014 but that\u2019s an issue for another day.<\/p>\n

Did you know we have a newsletter all about consumer tech? It\u2019s called Plugged In \u2013 and you can subscribe to it right here<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n

Published December 10, 2020 \u2014 09:21 UTC <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s not much going on in my life right now. That\u2019s probably why these past few days have morphed into my personal AirPods Max week. We had the announcement on Tuesday, some…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}