Sony WF-XB700 Teardown by 52Audio.com

I generally check 52Audio's teardown's often but somehow missed this one, so putting it up now. The WF-XB700 is a mid-tier device, offering good quality sound, water and dust protection and a decent price. check out the Soundguys review here. You can check out Aaron is Loud and Wireless video review below.

Ok now for the teardown. The full teardown can be found in the link at the end of the post, I will not be posting all the photos, just a selection of ones I found interesting. If anyone wants to see a comparison to the WF-1000XM3, check it out here.

                   

I will not be posting the case teardown, there is not much inside the case, apart from one PCB, battery and the charging pins. In order to open the case, the sticker on the bottom will have to be removed to reach the screws.

Source: www.52audio.com

Here is the battery information, the model is 621733, there are some results on Aliexpress, but it shows it as 260mAh rather than 300mAh. The same battery is used in the WF-H800 case as seen in the teardown. I do wonder if one could install a larger battery, say 400mAh or 500mAh? Anyone know if such a thing would be possible? Or would it not work?

Source: www.52audio.com

Source: www.52audio.com

Next up is the microphone for voice calls. Both earbuds have one microphone each, which is used  for voice calls and interacting with your phone's assistant (Google, Siri). Not sure if they also help reduce noise during calls. In addition on the left side we can see the white rubber seal that surrounds the cover which includes the Bluetooth antenna. The seal is vital to keep dust and water out.

Source: www.52audio.com

The hole for the microphone does not appear to be above the mic, but rather beside it, not sure how that would affect call quality, but the WF-1000XM3 mic for calls is directly under the mic hole. Below is a closeup of the microphone.

Click for larger size - Source: www.52audio.com

The internal battery is again the same as before, Varta CP1254 A3. The battery is affixed to the case using double sided tape. If you are able to open up the earbuds, replacing the battery will be quite easy. You can find replacements on Ebay, Amazon or Aliexpress.

Click for larger size - Source: www.52audio.com

Something missing in the WF-1000XM3 is water and dust protection. The charging pins for example on the WF-XB700 have rubber seals around them. Would be great to see this in the upcoming WF-1000XM4.

Source: www.52audio.com

I suspect we will see something similar in the WF-SP800N around its charging pins. Hopefully a teardown of the SP800N will appear soon online. In the meantime, check out the FCC teardown I posted.

Source: www.52audio.com

Like the first section of the earbud where the outer cover attaches, the lower portion with the ear tips also has a rubber seal where the connection is. Although the lack of rubber seal in that one portion seen above has me wondering if this unit would have ended up failing with the broken seal.

Next up is the Bluetooth chip, more of a SoC now, rather than just a simple Bluetooth chip.

Source: www.52audio.com

A surprise from the teardown was the Bluetooth chip , not the Mediatek MT2811S but rather an Airoha AB1552. Details of the chip can be found here, but are some quick facts:

• ARM® Cortex®-M4 and Maximum speed 156MHz
• Tensilica HiFi mini Audio Engine DSP and Maximum speed: 312MHz
• Embedded 4MB flash
• Support 24-bit 192KHz HD Audio and Hi-resolution codec
• Noise suppression and echo cancellation
• Multiband Programmable EQ and Dynamic Range Control
• Ambient sound
• TWS Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation 
• Feedforward ANC
• Feedback ANC
  

It is quite a capable SoC, and supposedly the Mediatek MT2811S is just a variant of the AB155x family. From the Bluetooth certification, I was expecting to see the MT2811S, bet it seems Sony has opted for the Airoha version instead here, but I suspect that the chips are one and the same, even though the MT2811S and AB1552 are separate BT certifications. So far contacting Airoha/Mediatek has resulted in no replies, no surprise there.

Some differences versus the WF-1000XM3 and WF-H800 is lack of onboard memory, the Q128FWY, and the Mediatek MT6388P, which is a power management chip. In the WF-H800 teardown, I assumed we would see both in the WF-XB700 and WF-SP800N, but seems that is not the case. I guess since the WF-XB700 is a mid-tier device, it has no need for the memory and the AB1552 has "Integrated Li-ion battery charger supports over-discharging protection". Who knows if the WF-SP800N will follow the WF-XB700 route or will go the WF-1000XM3/H800 direction for parts.

Source: www.52audio.com

Finally let us look at the 12mm driver. The larger driver is a nice touch, would love to see this on a future WF-1000XM4, but not sure if there is enough space in such a model. The driver is sealed with glue (red stuff?), which prevents any moisture from getting inside the earbuds. Again something missing from the WF-1000XM3. Would be great to see some sort of IPX protection on future WF-1000XM4 earbuds.

Source: www.52audio.com

One final photo from the teardown, measurement of the 12mm driver, which shows 12mm. The rest of the teardown can be found in the link at the end of this post for those interesting in seeing more. There were some surprises in the teardown, like the Airoha chip instead of Mediatek, identical case battery to WF-H800.

                   

I am looking forward to a WF-SP800N teardown, from the FCC teardown it seems that model is more closer to the WF-1000XM3 and WF-H800.

Source: 52Audio