In tech community, the golden time is regarded as September to October, during which Apple held the fall event as scheduled, officially launching the iPhone 15 serie and Apple Watch series. At the same time, it also updated the AirPods Pro 2 and EarBuds with a new USB-C port, realizing the Lightning to USB-C conversion of the whole product line.
There are a number of upgrades in the new generation of AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C), in addition to the easy charging experience brought by the new USB-C port. In terms of appearance design, the materials without mercury, brominated flame retardant, PVC and beryllium, are adopted to pursue the eco-friendly concept of Apple; both the charging case and earbuds are upgraded with IP54 level dust, sweat and water resistance to ensure daily use.
In terms of functional features, AirPods Pro 2 now receives new Adaptive Audio, Adaptive Noise Control, Personalized Volume and Dialogue Awareness via the latest iOS 17 software update. Adaptive Noise Control can automatically adjust the noise reduction level according to the real-time external environment noise; Personalized Volume intelligently adjust the media volume according to the local environment; when the Dialogue Awareness is used to communicate with others, it can automatically switch to the transparent mode and reduce the media volume. The three new features further enhance the noise reduction comfort and convenience of use.
52audio have previously disassembled AirPods Max, AirPods Pro 2 (Lightning)、AirPods Pro, AirPods 3, AirPods 2, AirPods, HomePod mini, HomePod, EarPods (3.5mm), EarPods (Lightning), Lightning to 3.5mm audio adapter, and other audio products by Apple. This time, let's take a look at the difference in the internal structure configuratio between the Lightning version and USB-C version of AirPods Pro 2.
1. Unboxing the Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C)
The Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) box still has a compact and simple design, showing only the earbuds on the front.
The box is marked with the new version of the product name: AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with MagSafe Charging Case (USB-C), showing the charging case with a new USB-C port and a standard USB charging cable.
The side design of the packaging box shows the Apple logo and the product name: AirPods Pro.
Factory label information at the bottom of the box as above, indicates that the AirPods Pro 2 is compatible with iOS device, iPadOS device, Apple Watch, or Mac with the latest software.
The charging case of AirPods Pro 2 works with USB-C chargers, Apple Watch chargers, MagSafe chargers, and Qi-certified chargers.
The information of the sticker is as below:
Commodity Name: Wireless Headset,
Model No.: A3049;
Commodity Name: Earbud Case, Mobile Power Supply;
Model No.: A2968,
Input: 5V-1A, Output: 5V-1A,
Manufacturer: his product is manufactured under the authorization of Apple Inc. in the United States
Distributor: Apple Computer Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
The accessories inside the box include a charging cable, replaceable earbuds and a Quick Start Guide.
Three pairs silicone earplugs, with dust net, block large particles of foreign particles. A seprate pair of earplugs is also pre-installed on the AirPods Pro, a total of four sizes of XS/S/M/L is provided to meet the needs of different users.
The charging cable adopts USB-C to USB-C interface, and has a woven skin, which is more resistant to abrasion and enhance longevity.
Close-up of the internal contacts of the USB-C plug, not full pin.
The new Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) charging case adopts the same rounded square design as the previous generation, with a baked enamel finish, for a smooth and rounded texture. There is an indicator light on the front side of the body to show the Bluetooth pairing and charging status.
The back of the charging case uses a silver metal hinge and a Bluetooth paring button. In the middle prints "Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in China".
The bottom of the charging case is equipped with the USB-C port for charging, protected by a metal ring around the edge, which is very exquisite. An air pressure hole is set on the left side of the port, while the loudspeaker on the right side is used for the "Find" App features.
The sides of the charging case is designed with a hanging rope holes of metal structure to enhance portability.
Opening the charging case, the earbuds can be seen to be placed in symmetrical order, protruding from the cabin so that they can be easily placed and worn.
Inside of the charging case cover is the product information:
Model No.: A2968,
Apple,
Earbud case, Mobile power,
Made in China,
Input: 5V ⎓ 1A,
Output: 5V ⎓ 1A,
Rated capacity: 523mAh/1.997Wh.
A close-up of the charging contactor at the bottom of the earbud handle cabin is provided.
Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) overall appearance at a glance. The earbuds adopt a handle-shaped in-ear design. The overall appearance has no obviously difference from the Lightning version ones.
The outside of the earbuds is as above. A microphone acoustic net is covered with the same curve of the body to reduce the impact of wind noise.
The inside appearance of the earphone is as above. The body curve is round, with soft silicone earplugs. When wearing, it can comfortably fit the auricle. The inner side of the headset handle is designed with L/R, making it easy for users to quickly distinguish.
Close-up of the oval pressure relief hole on the top of the headset is as above. Similartly, it is protected by a metal mesh, which is used to maintain the air circulation in the cavity and balance internal and external pressure difference.
Close-up of the optical sensor window opening on the inside of the headset for the wear detection function.
Removing the earplugs, a close-up is as above. Protected by metal mesh, there is an inward microphone for pick-up from the ear canal; and a protrusion with fixed earplugs on both sides of the opening.
The pressure-up on the side of the handle has groove design for blind operation.
A close-up of the metal charging contact at the bottom of the handle, has an opening for call microphone pick-up.
Measured by 52audio, the weight of AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) is about 62.0g in its entirety. The volume has not been significantly changed compared with the previous generation.
The Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) MagSafe Charging Case weighs about 51.2g.
The earbuds, paired with pre-installed M earplugs, weigh about 10.6g.
52audio uses CHARGERLAB POWER-Z KM003C to take wired charging test for Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) . Its input power is about 1.54W.
Wireless charging test of Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) with CHARGERLAB POWER-Z KM003C. The input power is about 1.25W.
2. Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) Teardown
Through the unboxing, we have a detailed look of the appearance design of Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C), the following goes to the teardowns, to see the internal structure configuration and hardware information.
Charging Case Teardown
Take apart the charging case shell and take out the internal cockpit structure.
Inside of the cockpit and the interior structure of the charging box cavity is as above. The inside of the cockpit is fixed with a dual battery unit, one is cable for charging contacts, and the other is for motherboard. A USB wired input circuit, a wireless power input circuit, and a speaker unit are installed in the cavity.
The bottom structure of the charging box chamber is as above. The USB-C charging port and speaker are fixed through the metal bracket, and the metal bracket is fixed to the cavity through a hot melting column.
The wireless charging receiving coil and functional key structure on the cavity wall are as above. There are two square magnets on both sides for adsorption and fixation with the wireless charger.
The indicator light on the chamber wall on the other side of the cavity is as above, with a large area of graphene cooling stickers on the periphery.
The wires and the motherboard are all reinforced by BTB connector to improve the assembly convenience.
A look at AirPods Pro 2 after removing the motherboard unit by picking the BTB connector that connects to the battery. The motherboard is designed in a special shaped structure to better utilize the internal space.
A glance of the other side of the mainboard structure.
The wireless charging receiving circuitry is designed as a separate small board that connects to the motherboard via a wire and connector.
Remove the connector, and then take out the wireless charging and receiving small board.
A glance at the circuitry on one side of the wireless charging receiving small board.
The other side of the wireless charging receiving board is as above.
There is BROADCOM 59356A2KUBG wireless charging management IC, using BGA package.
Close-up of the resonant capacitor on the wireless charging receiver small board.
The circuit carries two ICs silkscreened with "5L2".
Separate the motherboard unit by picking off all connectors.
A glance at the circuitry on the motherboard side of the charging case.
The other side is as above.
Close-up of the transceiver on-board printed Bluetooth antenna used for wireless signaling.
Nordic nRF52832 Multi-protocol universal SoC, supports Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, ANT and 2.4GHz proprietary protocol. Its core is ARM Cortex M4 CPU running at 64 MHz, which can handle demanding applications and communication tasks in a short time, allowing the CPU to continue to handle more tasks or return to sleep mode, thus saving power consumption. nRF52832, as well as all SoCs in the nRF52 family, are flash-based and are ideally suited for device firmware upgrades (DFUs).
Nordic nRF52832 Details Fig.
3M7L Apple custom U1ultra-broadband chip (UWB) for close find function. Ultra-broadband chip has the characteristics of strong anti-interference ability, high positioning accuracy, transmission distance in about 10 meters. According to 52audio, ultra-broadband chips have been widely used in Apple's iPhone, HomePod Mini, and AirTags, which is an important part of Apple's future product ecosystem.
Peripheral circuits of the ultra-broadband chip.
Close-up of the metal contacts used for grounding at the end of the main board, connected to the USB-C charging port flex contacts.
An IC silkscreened "375208".
An IC silkscreened "36L8 HB0B".
An IC silkscreened "4CFJ D9D".
An IC silkscreened "8L11D0", and there is also one on the right. We presume its a synchronized boost voltage chip for charging the headphone battery.
An IC silkscreened "L5S LA".
An IC silkscreened "Q128J WKIQ".
An ST STMicroelectronics STM32L496WGY6P microcontroller.
The STM32L496xx family is based on a high-performance Arm Cortex-M4 32-bit RISC core operating at up to 80 MHz. The Cortex-M4 core features a floating-point unit (FPU) single-precision that supports all Arm single-precision data processing instructions and data types. It also implements a complete set of DSP instructions and a memory protection unit (MPU) for enhanced application security.
Detailed information diagram of the STMicroelectronics STM32L496xx family.
The Maxim Semiconductor MAX98357B Class D Audio Amplifier, silkscreened model number "+AKN", is used to drive the voice coil to produce sound, enabling the charging box to play the sound finder function.
Detailed information diagram for Maxim's Maxim Semiconductor MAX98357B.
An IC silkscreened "XO 57X".
An IC silkscreened "343S00562".
The dual battery cell structure at the bottom of the cockpit is as above. The dual battery design of AirPods Pro 2 makes better use of the interior space to provide more lasting battery life.
A glance at the built-in battery circuit of the charging case after removing the dual batteries.
The charging case has a built-in secondary lithium battery pack with the following information:
Model: A2798
Nominal Voltage: 3.82V
Charge Limiting Voltage: 4.35V
Nominal Capacity: 523mAh (total capacity)
Made in China
From Huizhou Desai Battery Co.
Silkscreen information on lithium battery cells.
The back of the small board where the battery line is connected to the motherboard is equipped with a shield protection.
Both batteries are equipped with independent circuit protection board, and the protection board is equipped with lithium battery protection IC, sealed through transparent hard glue.
Remove the earbuds cockpit structure from the charging case.
A view of the cockpit bottom structure. The bottom structure of the cockpit has a graphene heat dissipation sticker to enhance heat dissipation.
Close-up of the magnet at the bottom of the cockpit which hold the earbuds in place.
The magnet on the other side.
Close-up of the iron block used to hold the charging box lid in place. This iron block is used to transmit the magnetism of the lid magnet to the Hall element inside the box, which recognizes the opening and closing of the lid.
The frame bottom structure of the fixed components in the charging box is as above.
Close-up of the Hall component used to detect the state of the charging box switch cover.
Remove the bracket that holds the wireless charging coil and the function buttons.
Remove the cover plate, this is a close-up of the wireless charging receiving coil.
Close-up of functional key cap structure, with magnetic design.
Remove the components inside the charging case.
The inner opening structure of the speaker is as above. Protection is provided through a closely woven dust net.
The inside of the pressure hole, covered with waterproof breathable film.
All components inside the charging case disassembled at a glance, are modular in design and connected by connectors.
Wireless charging receiving coil and function button circuit is as above.
A glance at the wireless charging receiving coil and the circuit on the other side of the function button.
Close-up of the micro-motion keys used for Bluetooth pairing.
Thermal protection device from Bourns for wireless charging coil temperature detection.
A glance at the circuit on the side of the cable that connects the USB-C female connector, speaker, and indicator.
A glance at the circuit on the other side of the cable that connects the USB-C female connector, speaker, and indicator.
Charging case LED indicator light close-up, used for the feedback of Bluetooth pairing and charging status.
Close-up of the front of the speaker unit, oval diaphragm, used for "find" features.
Close-up of the back of the speaker.
Close-up of the metal structure of lard hole .
Close-up of the back of the lanyard hole structure, grounded to the USB-C port and the speaker mounting bracket.
Close-up of the metal frame for the fixed speaker.
Speaker fixing structure.
Front close-up of USB-C charging port structure, fixed with metal frame.
The USB-C female connector is connected to the row cable, and the back metal sheet is reinforced and fixed.
Close-up on the other back of the USB-C socket which use metal shell.
The USB-C socket tongue is connected to the cable and sealed by glue.
Close-up of the metal contact structure of the USB-C socket connected to the motherboard.
Close-up of the USB-C female connector and motherboard metal contacts motherboard connection point.
Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) charging box teardown is as above. The overall structure is quite complex, but the modular design make its circuit clear. A large number of components are sealed with glue to improve the waterproof performance.
Earbuds Teardown
Here comes to the earbuds teardown.
First, open the cavity along the mold closing line.
The interior structure of the rear cavity is as above, which is equipped with an Apple H2 chip and a magnet for fixation with the charging box.
The internal components of the front chamber are connected to the main board through the ZIF connector.
The interior structure of the cavity is as above and is sealed by a large amount of glue.
Open the connector and separate the cavity.
An integrated battery protection IC with a silkscreened QR code is posed on the internal flat wire of the front cavity.
The solder joints where the battery connects to the cable are coated with glue to seal them.
Melt the solder joints and remove the battery. Inside the earbuds is a steel cased button cell battery.
The headset has a built-in steel case button cell battery with the following information:
Model: A2729
Capacity: 49.7mAh 0.182Wh
Voltage: 3.66V
From Varta.
Removing the external label, the internal battery close-up is as above.
The interior structure of the front cavity is as above. The internal structure of the front chamber is provided with a transparent frame to fix the battery unit, while forming an inverted phase hole structure with the housing.
Remove the transparent frame.
The inner structure of the transparent frame is as above.
Outside the acoustic structure of the transparent frame.
Close-up of the vent on the speaker is above. It is protected by the silk screen to ensure the air circulation inside the sound chamber. The pathway for airflow is realized through slots on the side of the crescent-shaped transparent cover (see picture above).
The inside of the phase reversal hole of the earphone is as above. It corresponds to the acoustic structure of the transparent plastic frame, which act as low frequency sound wave expansion.
Disconnect the solder joints and remove the speaker unit.
Apple custom drive unit close-up is as above. With the H2 chip, it brings low distortion sound effects, deeper bass and a clearer high pitch performance at all volume levels.
Close-up of the back side of the speaker, with tuning holes on both sides of the frame.
Speaker compares to a coin.
52zudio measures that the size of speaker in Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) is about 11.00mm.
A glance at the front chamber's internal wiring circuits.
The ZIF connector on the FPC cable and the integrated battery protection IC silk-screened as "NRAM".
A metal sensor is set in the middle section of the row of wires, which is affixed with double-sided adhesive tape to fix it with the shell.
Optical in-ear detection sensors on the row of wires are used to fulfill the function of automatically pausing playback when taken off and automatically resuming playback when worn.
Close-up of the sensor in the earbuds chamber.
The end of the row of wires connects to attach an inward-facing microphone, which is held in place by a metal compression strip.
Close-up of the metal bar that holds the microphone in place, with plastic bumps on either side of it to hold the silicone earplugs in place.
A MEMS microphone with a silk-printing QR code. It is an inward microphone, used for function as active noise reduction, voice call, adaptive balance and vise versa.
Take out the Apple H2 chip inside the back chamber, then the internal structure is as above.
The headset has built-in counterweight iron block, which adopts a special shape design. While realizing the fixed function of the charging box magnet, it is also used to adjust the center of gravity of the headset, so that the center of gravity is in the center, so as to provide a more stable wearing experience.
Close-up view of the counterweight iron block.
The bottom structure of the rear chamber is as above. The wire is connected to the internal components of the earphone handle.
Remove the tail plug at the bottom of the headset handle and take out the internal bracket.
Pick the row of connectors, remove the tail plug and bracket, the headphone stem internal row of circuits as above.
The pressure sensing sensor module is shown above.
Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) earbuds teardown at a glance.
The inner structure of the earbuds handle.
Soldering point between the charging contact and the cable on the tail plug
Voice call microphone pickup hole on the inside of the tailpiece.
Pressure-sensing sensors.
On the other side of the pressure sensing sensor, its wiring connects to other components through the BTB connector.
Components silkscreened with "ASX".
The inner structure of the bracket, printed with a large area of LDS laser antenna, connected to the wiring through the coaxial antenna.
A close-up of the position of the fixed pressure sensor on the bracket, equipped with foam protection.
The noise-canceling microphone on the stand.
The other side of the stent structure.
The rear chamber and the internal wiring circuit of the earbuds handle have an integrated design.
The circuitry on the other side of the wire is as above, and the pickup holes for the two microphone positions are protected by a breathable waterproof membrane.
Apple H2 chip, with a System in Package (SiP) package.
An IC silkscreened "322041".
2 ICs, one silkscreened "062", the other silkscreened "4Y EFN XF7".
The MEMS microphone close-up of laser carved QR code, for noise reduction microphone, used for active noise reduction function to pick up external environmental noise.
The third MEMS microphone with a carved QR code, as a call microphone, is used for voice call function to pick up voice.
All the parts disassembled from the Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C).
Conclusion by 52audio
Apple AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C) adopts a rounded square charging case in its exterior design, which is compact and has a smooth, rounded texture. The new USB-C port continues the metal ring protection of the Lightning version, and the openings are very well done.
The body of the earbuds, on the other hand, is identical to that of the Lightning version, providing a comfortable and solid wearing experience thanks to the excellent ergonomic design and four pairs of soft silicone earplugs of different sizes.
In terms of internal structure, the overall internal structure of AirPods Pro 2 is quite complex, but the modular design improves the clarity of the circuits to a certain extent, while a large number of components are also sealed by glue to enhance the waterproof performance.
The charging case of the headset is set up with dual battery units from Desai Battery, with a total capacity of 523mA. The charging case supports wired and wireless charging for the built-in battery in two ways, wired charging through the USB-C interface input power, charging IC and Lightning interface program is different; wireless charging circuit is set up on an independent board, using the BROADCOM 59356A2KUBG wireless charging management IC.
For the "Find" feature, the charging case is equipped with a number of internal configurations to support it.
The charging case has speaker built-in, equipped with Maxim Maxim Semiconductor MAX98357B Class D audio amplifier driver, used to make sound for "Find" feature; at the same time, a Nordic nRF52832 multi-protocol general-purpose wireless SoC and an Apple's customized U1 Ultra Wide Band (UWB) chip are also equipped for long-distance and short-distance positioning features.
The motherboard of the charging case also adopts ST Microelectronics STM32L496WGY6P microcontroller for data processing and whole machine control.
The internal structure of the earbuds is identical to the Lightning version. The front chamber is equipped with Apple customized 11mm drive unit, inward microphone, optical in-ear detection sensor and 49.7mAh steel shell buckle battery from Valta; the rear chamber is equipped with the a SiP-packaged Apple H2 chip, and the wiring is connected to the noise reduction microphone, pressure induction sensor and Bluetooth antenna, which extends to the call microphone with the tail plug, and then the tail plug metal connector to realize charging with the charging case.
