What's Actually Inside an AirPod - tech
(hx) 09:08 AM CEST - Sep,08 2026
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A RayPCB post treats an AirPods-style cutaway as a map of modern earbud engineering. That idea is right; the labeled picture is not a teardown. Apple’s current Pro buds put an H2 headphone chip in each earpiece and an Ultra Wideband chip in the MagSafe case, not in the bud.
H2 is the system-on-package that runs Bluetooth 5.3, pairs with iPhone, switches devices, and does the audio math. Active noise cancellation works as a tight loop: outward microphones hear the room, the chip builds an opposite waveform, and an inward-facing microphone checks what still reaches the ear canal. Apple says that loop updates tens of thousands of times per second.
Voice pickup is separate. Dual beamforming MEMS mics plus a speech-detecting accelerometer try to keep your voice and drop background noise. A motion accelerometer feeds head tracking for Spatial Audio. Skin-detect knows the bud is in an ear so playback does not start in a pocket.
Power is the hard constraint. Teardowns of AirPods Pro 2 found about 50 mAh in each bud and about 523 mAh in the case; Apple only publishes runtime: about six hours with ANC on the Pro 2, eight hours on Pro 3, and a full day when the case is counted. A custom driver and amplifier sit next to that cell, with vents so bass can move without making the seal pop.
The radio is 2.4 GHz Bluetooth in the SiP. USB-C Pro 2 buds also gained a 5 GHz path for lossless audio with Vision Pro. Find My for a lost case uses U1 (Pro 2) or second-generation UWB (Pro 3) plus a tiny speaker in the lid. Touch lives on the stem as a force or swipe sensor.
None of that needs a fantasy board with a UWB die glued onto the earpiece. The real product is a sealed stack of VLSI, MEMS, RF, and a coin of lithium that has to stay cool against skin.
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Updated:09:11 AM CEST Sep,08
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