Zac Hall, 9to5Mac:

Batteries are consumable, we all know so well now, and that’s proven true for the tiny batteries inside AirPods after two years of daily use. Battery life that once exceeded five hours now struggles to power AirPods through three hours of continuous usage at the same volume.

And:

In practice, I used to never hear the low battery alert during usage. I rarely listened to audio with AirPods for five straight hours before charging in the carrying case without thought. More recently, I’ve heard the bloop sound much more regularly, frequently followed by AirPods dying before I’m ready to recharge.

Yup. I’ve had my AirPods for about two years, and the loss of battery life is noticeable. And, as Zac points out, though I do feel the tug to buy a new set for fresh batteries, a product refresh is rumored to be on the horizon.

I wish Apple offered an inexpensive battery replacement program. Or a trade-in program, replacing aging AirPods with a new set, for a fee. I’d absolutely go for that.

UPDATE: To be clear [H/T, Gabriel Jordan], Apple does have an official AirPods battery replacement program. The cost seems to be $49 per AirPod. So $98 for a battery refresh. Plus tax and shipping. Though there’s an out-of-warranty fee of $69 per. Going to assume that’s for non-battery repair.

No matter, $98+ to refresh the battery is incentive for me to wait and apply that money to the next generation. Just hope it comes soon.