Sony WI-1000XM2 Teardown by 52Audio.com

52Audio.com has posted up their WI-1000XM2 teardown, check it out here. Thanks to the WI-1000XM2 certification earlier this year, most of the internals were already known, like the Mediatek MT2811 and the QN1. But it is always great to see the internal photos in higher resolution and quality. So time to dive in.

I will not be posting all the photos from the 52Audio.com article but only a selection, so do check out the link for the rest of the teardown. One can also check out my previous posts about the certification teardown and a comparison between the WI-1000X and WI-1000XM2 below.

1. Certification teardown
2. WI-1000X vs WI-1000XM2

I will start with the Bluetooth chip first, the MT2811from Mediatek. If we compare this chip in the WI-1000XM2 to the one from the WF-1000XM3, they are identical of course but their numbering is different.

The WI-1000XM2 has 1934-AMSH, where as the WF-1000XM3 has 1848-AMSH. While I am not 100% sure on this, these might be the production date codes, with the first number repressing the year and the second the week.

So the WI-1000XM2 BT chip was manufactured this year, week 34. This corresponds to August 19-25 2019. The WF-1000XM3 date would be 2018, week 48, or November 26 to December 2nd, 2018. Interesting enough the WI-1000XM2 from the leaked certification has the same production date as the WF-1000XM3, 1848. Of course I could be wrong, and the numbers might not even correspond to the production date and might be something else.

Next up is the WiFi antenna. There is not much information here but we can compare it to the prototype from the certification to see what has changed.

WI-1000XM2 certification photo

The internal code HDX-2928 has now changed to WI-1000XM2, and the X03 to A01. Perhaps the X is for pre-production/prototype, and the A for production but this is only a guess. Not sure what the second line would be, but the third line looks to be the production date. The difference between pre-production and production appears to be about 3 months. I am not sure if this particular WI-1000XM2 retail unit was purchased from the first production run but if it was, then it appears that Sony started full scale final production after the IFA 2019 reveal. I would imagine individual parts were manufactured earlier.

While odd, this lines up with the Xperia rumours, where Sony starts production only after the press reveal in order to minimize any leaks from the factory. This late production start might also explain the significantly delayed availability after IFA 2019 for most of the products unveiled at the show, including the new Walkmans. Funny enough this would also explain why in the past devices went on sale many months after their reveal.

Next up is the battery capacity, 290mAh. I cannot compare it to the WI-1000X but I suspect the new model has a slightly decreased capacity versus the previous model due to the decreased weight but since the Bluetooth chip and other chips are more efficient, the battery life is more or less the same as the previous model. But until I can find the WI-1000X battery capacity yet, so this idea is only a guess on my part.

Now for a look at the entire main board with Bluetooth chip and the QN1. In the corner of the board, there appears to be another production code, 260819, so August 26th 2019. So it seems that the various boards were made at different times with final production perhaps after the IFA reveal.

On the other side of the main board are 2 other chips, the Q128FWY and another Mediatek chip, the MT6388P. The Q128FWY is the same memory chip as seen in the WF-1000XM3 and WF-H800. It would not surprise me if Sony would use it in their other wireless headphones like the WH-H910N and the new model coming up next year. Perhaps the code below the name is the production date again, 2019, 35th week. The WF-1000XM3's code was 2018, 50th week and the pre-production WI-1000XM2 was 2018, 51st week. Or it could be something else.

The Mediatek MT6388P is the same power management chip that is in the WF-1000XM3 and the WF-H800 (h.ear 3 truly wireless). Looking at the FCC teardown of the WH-H910N, there also appears to be a small chip that matches the shape and size of this one, so I would imagine Sony is using it in all of their new wireless headphones.

Finally the QN1, the CXD90050. I suspect the bottom code is the production date or run but I am not able to decipher. I am curious if Sony will use the QN1 in the WH-1000XM4. Maybe they will have an updated version of maybe a QN2, who knows.

For those interested in the rest of the teardown, please check out the full teardown at 52Audio.com. Anyone familiar with electronics and/or electronic engineering, if you find anything interesting or useful please leave a comment below. Thanks.