Bang & Olufsen’s new earbuds with “replaceable batteries” don’t seem to be very repairable

Bang & Olufsen announced this back in November, praised, among other things, their replaceable batteries “for sustainability” and adaptation to the upcoming EU requirements for the repairability of devices. But one Teardown tells a more complicated story about the actual replacement of these batteries, describing the process of opening the case as “a very tedious and labor-intensive task… even for a trained technician.” And inside, the battery is attached to other components in a way that requires heat to remove it, which in itself would not comply with upcoming EU regulations. Given the work involved, the earbuds scored a miserable 1/10 on iFixit’s repairability scorecard.

Bang & Olufsen said the earbuds’ design “allows for service-based battery replacement,” which, as iFixit notes, suggests that this isn’t a repair you can do yourself at home. It ultimately turned out that it was possible to take one of the earbuds apart without damaging the electronics inside, but the laborious disassembly calls into question how feasible – and sustainable – a battery replacement would be, even if done at a B&O service center would be carried out. After opening the case and finding “a plastic weld mark blocking access to the battery,” notes iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari video that “any battery replacement service would have to completely dispose of at least the plastic casing.”

“I would like to see B&O replace these batteries,” Mokhtari wrote in the blog post. “I’m willing to bet it’s neither cheap nor waste-free, but I’d like to be proven wrong.” The teardown also revealed that the Beoplay Eleven is internally a “copy” of the 2022 Beoplay EX. “Even the peel-off film on the back of each earbud says ‘Beoplay EX’ – not ‘Beoplay Eleven,'” Mokhtari wrote. Yikes.