AirPods are the most popular headphones on the planet, but since their release they’ve been plagued by a technical issue that causes them to die faster than users expect and it has everything to do with their batteries .
They’re lithium-ion, like most other rechargeable products, except that their small size causes a big problem. all lithium-ion batteries eventually wear out, and no longer hold a charge.
Although the amount of time this takes depends on a variety of factors, if you typically keep the battery level between 40 and 80% it’ll prevent unnecessary wear, but using the product with a full battery until it reaches 10% or less is called a deep discharge which puts more stress on the lithium-ion cells and shortens their overall lifespan.
Another battery term you may have heard is “cycles”, if you completely drain a battery then recharge it to full, Apple counts that as a 1 cycle, but not all cycles are the same. for example if you only use half of the battery, charge it back up and use half again the next day that would still count as one cycle. Except it was less harmful to the batteries overall health since there were no deep discharges. Now consider the AirPods, they’re automatically charged to 100% while in the case, and used to for hours at a time, often until we hear the low battery chime at 10%, at which point they’re placed back in the case and recharge to 100%,
which doesn’t take long since the batteries are so small, then the cycle continues. This is why AirPods die so fast, they have a great battery life at first but quickly deplete because of the deep discharge cycles that happen once or even twice a day, and because the AirPods batteries are so small, degradation is much more noticeable than on iPhone and iPad.After just one year, daily AirPods users notice they’re getting much less battery life than before , and after two years they typically only last 40 to 60 minutes before dying. This has been the product’s greatest weakness, and it isn’t likely to change until major improvements are made to battery technology.
This article is inspired by a video in Apple Explained YouTube channel.
