See what's inside the new Apple EarPods

Apple has been bullish about the sound quality of the new EarPods earphones that come bundled with the iPhone 5 so it's interesting to take a look at what's inside with this Apple EarPods teardown.

Read our full iPhone 5 review

Repair webiste iFixit has taken the EarPods apart and taken plenty of pictures of the parts, while also putting them alongside earlier incarnations of Apple earphones so you can see the difference.

Initially obvious in the EarPods teardown is the change in casing style and shape, three small air vents and the inclusion of an in-line microphone.

The new EarPods have a "paper-based speaker cone" for the first time and have some "drastic changes in internal construction and speaker design" according to the site.

The picture above (all the pictures are from iFixit teardown) shows previous generations of the Apple earphones up against the new EarPods (bottom).

iFixit also reckons that the line-in remote control is now better sealed against possible water damage, while pointing out should you damage them, they were as hard to repair as ever – we're not sure too many people would want to try and repair a £25 pair of headphones, however.

Traditionally, Apple's free buds have been pretty disappointing: poor sound quality, average build and terrible at leaking sound.

Apple claims the new EarPods, which feature a new design, will "rival high-end headphones that cost hundreds of dollars more".

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Joe Cox
Content Director

Joe is the Content Director for What Hi-Fi? and Future’s Product Testing, having previously been the Global Editor-in-Chief of What Hi-Fi?. He has worked on What Hi-Fi? across the print magazine and website for almost 20 years, writing news, reviews and features on everything from turntables to TVs, headphones to hi-fi separates. He has covered product launch events across the world, from Apple to Technics, Sony and Samsung; reported from CES, the Bristol Show, and Munich High End for many years; and written for sites such as the BBC, Stuff, and the Guardian. In his spare time, he enjoys expanding his vinyl collection and cycling (not at the same time).