This fancy dental floss looks very familiar, but according to Apple it's worth $40 more than its predecessor. Here's the story the spec sheet tells:

Two AirPods weighing in at 0.14 oz (4 g) each, with a 1.41 oz (40 g) charging case

Each AirPod measures 0.65" × 0.71" × 1.59" (16.5 mm × 18.0 mm × 40.5 mm) while the charging case measures 1.74" × 0.84" × 2.11" (44.3 mm × 21.3 mm × 53.5 mm)

New H1 chip featuring Bluetooth 5

Wireless charging case

"Hey Siri" support

We start our examination with these curious markings on the boxes. We're seeing multiple references to something called "AirPower" ... ?

Next we X-ray the box to confirm if it's safe to open. Oh, who are we kidding—we're opening it regardless. Safety third, we always say.

While you may not think of two-year-old products as ancient, reports say these first-gen AirPods (left) are aging fast.

The new case (right) looks shinier, but that might just be due to wear on the Gen 1.

We also note a relocated pairing button, and a newly placed external LED charging indicator.

On the other end of the wireless earbud arena, we have the new Samsung Galaxy Buds—which we recently tore down and found to be surprisingly repairable! The ball is in your court, AirPods.

We have some real gripes with the AirPods' design priorities, but there's no denying the engineering talent that goes into them. Peer into this X-ray and you can pick out batteries, microphones, antennas, speaker drivers, circuit boards—all in something that fits in your ear.

Inside the flip top, we find a new model number, A1938—with the same indicated 398 mAh battery capacity for the case.

What should you do with them, then? Good question.

Okay, enough talk! On to the good stuff. Having been down this road before, we start with some heat to soften the adhesive. Does it help? Honestly ... maybe.

Next, some careful blade work.

After slicing open the buds, we give them a nice relaxing isopropyl alcohol bath in hopes that they will let their (adhesive) guards down a bit.

While the alcohol helped us get one foot in the door, we caught our tweezers in the jamb. A good firm pry opens up the driver for inspection.

Sweat beads as we make an incision down this AirPod's belly using an ultrasonic scalpel knife, slicing the shell without damaging the battery underneath ... mostly.

Flex cables, antennas, and microphones are all carefully folded together like origami and cemented in place with glue. We cut away as much of the outer casing as we dare, and painstakingly scoop out the rest with a fine dental pick.

Our badges say Teardown Engineer, but today we feel more like surgeons, or paleontologists. Paleosurgeons?

With these delicate fossils extracted, it's time to examine the brains:

Apple 343S00289 (likely Apple's new H1 chip)

Dialog Semiconductor (Formerly Adesto) AT25SL128 128 Mb serial flash memory

Apple 338S00420 (likely a low-power stereo audio codec)

T 8 36 (likely STMicroelectronics inertial sensor)

Bosch Sensortec BMA280 3-axis accelerometer (likely)

Turning our attention to the brawn, we find the familiar 93 milliwatt hour battery in each bud.

We learned last time around that the AirPods case is a tough nut to crack, so this time (with some guidance from a community member) we turn to something with a bit more clamping force.

The vise deforms the outer shell just enough for us to wedge a blade into the seam, slicing through the adhesive underneath and freeing up the AirPod docking tubes.

Next, we spudger away the status LED, which is nestled between the AirPod tubes at the front of the case.

This machined metal hinge looks sturdier compared to the last generation's, and it definitely has the adhesive to match.

We go for the battery next, but the battery's adhesive has other ideas. Against our better judgement, we crank the heat to eleven, watch for swelling, and cross our fingers that the battery doesn't go Galaxy Note 7 on us.

Despite the effort, one spudger still can't lever this battery out. Fortunately, we found some more.

As the battery comes free, it's clear there is simply no comparison between this battery and its predecessor ... because they are exactly the same.

Model A1596—running at 3.81 V and 398 mAh, for 1.52 Wh.

We're starting to see a trend here. Getting the next layer out of this case requires—you guessed it—heaps of heat, a plethora of prying, and a pair of pliers.

We immediately notice that this generation's logic board is more ... goopier ... than the board that emerged from the wreckage of the first AirPod fiasco—probably to help with water resistance.

Finally, a beacon in the darkness—there's still a modular charging port!

... although if you tunnel this far into the case, there's a good chance you now have more broken parts than just the charging port.

Beneath that shiny liquid-resistant coating, we make out some chips:

Broadcom BCM59356A2KUBG wireless charging module

STMicroelectronics STM32L476MG 32-Bit ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller w/ 1 Mb flash

TI 87A6FP

Reaching into the almost-empty case, we fish out the slightly modified (compared to last time) sync button—now with two additional solder points for the ends of the wireless charging coil.

Finally, the thing we came all this way for: the new wireless charging coil, and a thermal pad to keep it cool under pressure.

... which, despite our best efforts, refuses to come out intact.

Teardown complete! Let's put these back together and sync them up for some tunes.

Just kidding! These are toast.

That said, the construction isn't entirely unimproved—this set might survive an extra trip through the washing machine. It's just, we know Apple can do better.

If you like wallpapers, here are some bonus X-rays you can print out and skin your AirPods case with!