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Bang & Olufsen announced back in November, showing among other things their batteries that can be changed “to continue” and to comply with the requirements of the EU to renew the equipment. But a The teardown describes the complex issue of replacing the batteries, describing the process of opening the case as “a tedious and difficult task…even for a trained technician.” And inside, the battery is attached to other components in ways that require heat to remove, which will not comply with the upcoming EU regulations. Considering all the work involved, the headphones scored a 1/10 on iFixit’s repair scorecard.
Bang & Olufsen said the design of the headphones “allows for the battery to be replaced during operation,” which, as iFixit points out, indicates that this is not a repair that you can do yourself at home. It turned out that it was possible to remove one of the earbuds without damaging the electronics inside, but the difficult dismantling made it doubtful that a possible – and permanent – battery replacement would be possible even if done at a B&O service center. After opening the case and finding a “plastic seal that covers the battery,” iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari writes movie that, “slowly, any battery replacement operation should discard the plastic housing completely.”
“I would love to see B&O’s way of replacing these batteries,” Mokhtari wrote on the blog. “I’m willing to bet it’s not cheap or trash-free but I’d rather be proven wrong.” The teardown also revealed the Beoplay Eleven to be a “carbon copy” of the 2022 Beoplay EX inside. “Even the headphone removal film on the back of each head says ‘Beoplay EX’ – not ‘Beoplay Eleven,'” wrote Mokhtari. No.
