Bang & Olufsen announced , back in November, they revealed among other things that their batteries are replaceable “for further sustainability” and to align with the upcoming EU requirements for repairing the device. But the teardown tells a complicated story about the replacement of those batteries, describing the process of just opening the case as “a difficult and laborious task… And inside, the battery is attached to other parts in ways that require heat to remove it, which in itself will not comply with the upcoming EU regulations. Given all the work involved, the earbuds scored an abysmal 1/10 on iFixit’s repairability scorecard.
Bang & Olufsen said the design of the earbuds “allows for serviceable battery replacement,” which, as iFixit notes, suggests this isn’t intended as a do-it-yourself repair. In the end it was possible to separate one of the earbuds without damaging any of the electronics inside, but the worrisome collapse calls into question how possible – and stable – the battery replacement can be or is done at a B&O service center. After opening the case and finding “a plastic weld seal that prevents access to the battery,” iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari notes in the video that, “at the very least, any battery replacement service will need to ditch the plastic housing entirely.”
“I would like to see B&O’s process for replacing these batteries,” Mokhtari wrote in a blog post. “I’m willing to bet it’s not cheap and it doesn’t cost anything but I’d like to be proven wrong.” The teardown also reveals the Beoplay Eleven as a “carbon copy” of the 2022 Beoplay EX on the inside. “Even the film on the back of each earbud says ‘Beoplay EX’ – not ‘Beoplay Eleven,'” Mokhtari wrote. Yes.