When Bang & Olufsen launched its Beoplay Eleven earbuds last November, no small amount of coverage was given to the fact the battery was replaceable.
In terms of cost and the environment, this was a positive move.
But, unlike some other buds on the market, when the Beoplay’s battery was done, it was not to be messed with by the garden variety consumer.
“This product contains a battery that can only be replaced by professionals,” B&O said. “Contact your B&O Retailer for replacement or go to on.beo.com/repair.”
ChannelNews spent time at the above URL, and other Bang & Olufsen web pages, and they sent us around and around in circles.
A virtual assistant offered to help. No thanks. A link to “Replace and Repair” provided plenty of information about how much play time you get, and what levels you should charge to, but no guidance about what to do when the battery dies.
The Beoplay Elevens, which cost A$910, have been savaged in a review by IFixIt, and given 1/10 on the website’s repairability scorecard.
The headline – Did Bang & Olufsen Finally Make Repairable Earbuds? Not Even Close – gave a taste of where the story was heading.
“Wireless earbuds are one of our least favourite device categories,” it began. “The plastic shell of most earbuds are glued shut, with batteries glued or soldered in, meaning after a few hundred cycles the buds are utterly useless and non-serviceable.”
The phrase “replaceable battery” had the reporter “pretty excited” and “hopeful that these earbuds might join the slim ‘repairable earbuds’ ranks. I’m not sure how they did it, but B&O have managed to disappoint me in every conceivable way”.
IFixIt “retained hope” that an “intrepid at-home repairer could figure it out”.
“Sadly, the battery removal process is very similar to the Apple AirPods,” the website said. “We had to slot it into an AirPods jig, in fact, to keep it steady enough for the rounds of heating and prying we needed to carry out to get inside.
“Once we finally cracked the case, we could see the battery—but it still was stuck firmly to the bottom case. When we looked closer, we realised there was actually a little spot weld holding the battery in on one side. On the other side, it’s soldered to a circuit board. Safe to say even the bravest DIY repairer would hesitate here.”
Having peered at the buds’ guts, IFixIt described Beoplay Eleven as “an exact copy of the three year-old, $400 Beoplay EX!”.
“There are some key software changes and the microphones have been upgraded to better deliver ANC performance – but that’s it. Everything else inside these buds is a carbon copy. Even the peel-away film on the rear of each earbud says ‘Beoplay EX’—not ‘Beoplay Eleven’. Hmm.”
