Yes, your AirPods battery life is getting worse; here’s what you can do about it

“If you got AirPods at launch in late 2016, you’re likely now only able to listen to them for less than half the time you did without recharging,” William Gallagher writes for AppleInsider. “If you’ve had your AirPods for a couple of years, then you’ve gotten used to how their initially brilliant battery life reduces over time. However, you’re unlikely to have ever got out a stopwatch to see the difference — so we did that for you. Those 2016 AirPods first gave us that baleful low battery sound after one hour and 19 minutes. We got a second at one hour and 59 minutes. Then at two hours, 6 minutes, they died.”
“That’s less than half Apple’s stated battery life for a new pair —and none of this is surprising,” Gallagher writes. “A source inside Apple who is not authorized to speak on behalf of the company, told AppleInsider that ‘Batteries aren’t forever, and the smaller they are, the less eternal they are. The batteries in each AirPods bud is something like 1 percent of the volume of an iPhone [battery].'”
“If you have an ailing battery, you could go to an Apple Store now —but maybe you should wait just a little longer,” Gallagher writes. “It’s great that Apple has any kind of service program for this, but it is not the bargain it can be with replacement iPhone batteries.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s just not very cost-effective to pay for replacement vs. buying a new pair of AirPods. Plus, we expect (hope!) a new AirPods generation will be released soon, so we early adopters of AirPods are all in the same boat, waiting for AirPods 2!
SEE ALSO:
Apple AirPods 2 said to deliver deeper bass, more sensors, higher price; AirPower to launch this spring – February 11, 2019
Apple’s early AirPods adopters are seeing battery life issues – January 28, 2019
Apple to release AirPods 2 with ‘health monitoring functions’ in first half of this year – January 23, 2019