Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by dougmwne on Friday December 11, 2020 @10:53AM (#25387067)

Counterpoint: My iPhone that was out of warranty and had the screen cracked after taking it in for third-party battery replacement. The official battery replacement was more than the resale value of the phone. Unlike a phone, high-end headphones are not inherently disposable. They can last many decades of regular use. This is a disposable product in a product category that is not usually disposable.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by seanmcdirmid on Friday December 11, 2020 @11:11AM (#25387323)

$79 to replace the battery on an AirPod Max isn’t that bad if you just have to do it every few years. I’m sort of tired of my churn through AAA’s on my Bose QuietComforts.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by lkxijlewlf on Friday December 11, 2020 @01:12PM (#25388744)

Assuming they last 10 years (Apple stops selling them after 3 years and stops supporting 7 after that), you replace the battery ($79) and ear pads ($69) at the 5 year mark, that's (550+79+69)/120 months = ~$5.80/month or about $.20 per day.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by rglullis on Friday December 11, 2020 @11:58AM (#25387879)

How much would you pay for replaceable AAA batteries? How long will they last?

$79 is pretty bad.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by seanmcdirmid on Friday December 11, 2020 @01:00PM (#25388616)

AAA aren't cheap. More importantly, they are annoying to replace all the time.

$79 every few years on a $500 set of headphones sounds plausible, the battery alone would probably be $40-$50 retail anyways; I'm just getting someone at an Apple store to replace it for me.

More concerning is that a set of new ear muffs costs $69. I've already replaced the ones on my QuietComforts two times ($20 using clones on Amazon), so that is going to add up a bit.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by rglullis on Friday December 11, 2020 @04:41PM (#25391446)

I said replaceable AAA batteries. I should've said rechargeable.

You can buy a pack of 12 rechargeable AAA for less than $10. A charger is $5.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by seanmcdirmid on Friday December 11, 2020 @08:07PM (#25394101)

Ya, I tried going this route for toys. Frankly i gave up after a few months because they didn’t last as long as the real pain is battery replacement (which requires a screw driver these days because....rules).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by dragonwriter on Friday December 11, 2020 @12:08PM (#25388004)

Alkaline AAA batteries in Bose QCs old enough to have them have a claimed life of up to 35 hours. (Newer Bose QCs have glued-in rechargeable batteries just like the AirPods Max, because very few people actually prefer replacing batteries every “up to 35” hours to needing to plug in to recharge every “up to 20” hours)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by toast0 on Friday December 11, 2020 @12:39PM (#25388365)

You could use rechargable AAAs with an integrated charger, and when those wear out, swap them. I had some wireless headphones like that, and the charger was a nice stand to rest them on.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by otterley on Friday December 11, 2020 @12:06PM (#25387973)

You're implicitly assuming that the AirPods Max could also run on one or two AAA batteries -- an assumption that may well be false depending on the energy consumption and voltage required.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by rglullis on Friday December 11, 2020 @04:53PM (#25391680)

You can run laptop cpus today on 1.2V, I doubt that would have too much of an issue powering over-ear headphones with 2.4V-3V of two AAAs in series.

Plus, it doesn't really matter the type of battery. You can find pretty much any of rechargeable battery (3.7V, 7.4V, nickel, Li-ion) for less than $15, retail. It's mind boggling to think that people on Hacker News (of all places) think that is sensible to subject yourself to something as anti-consumer and as environment-unfriendly as what Apple offers.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by ksec on Friday December 11, 2020 @12:30PM (#25388256)

We will have to wait to see if they are really servicing ( replacing battery ) or just give you a new pair for $79.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by otterley on Friday December 11, 2020 @11:06AM (#25387271)

We just don’t know that yet. They just started shipping, what, today?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Heavy is the Head that wears the AirPods Max by snypher on Friday December 11, 2020 @12:00PM (#25387905)

Don't know what? It's engineered trash from a trash company.

[ Parent | on HN ]