With the screws removed, the drivers flip right out, revealing a pair of repair-friendly spring contacts directly underneath. Neat!

That provides enough clearance to remove our next target: the battery. As shown in the X-ray, both battery cells live in the right ear cup, tethered together by a single cable.

To our relief, both cells are fastened with screws, not adhesive. Even better, they provide power via a single, iPhone-style pop connector—no solder here.

That was surprisingly painless, particularly for an AirPods product. Were it not for the glue-y opening procedure, you could almost say it was easy. Imagine that—easily replacing a consumable component, instead of throwing the whole device away.

Made by Sunwoda, the two cells are wired in parallel, with a total capacity of 664 mAh and 2.53 Wh total energy at 4.35 V. Each cell measures approximately 5.7 x 20 x 28 mm.

This is right in line with the 2.39 Wh cell in the Bose NC 700 wireless headphones, which also promise around 20 hours of listening time. Sony WH-1000XM4s offer a longer, 30 hour listening time, with a correspondingly larger 4.1 Wh battery driving them.