On October 14, 2020, Beijing time, Apple’s iPhone 12 series conference was successfully held online. At the conference, the iPhone product series will no longer come with a power adapter and EarPods wired headphoness. And shortly after the end of Apple’s new product launch, Apple’s Beats brand immediately released the new neck-mounted bluetooth headphones——Beats Flex.
Beats Flex adopts BeatsX’s flexible and convenient design in appearance. The U-shaped memory collar can be bent at will, magnetic eartips design, supports automatic pause/play function; the configuration is equipped with Apple W1 chip, which can be paired with various Apple products with one-click, seamless Fusion; the new drive unit brings strong sound performance; also supports fast charging technology, call noise reduction, etc.
52audio also teardown the BEATS SOLO PRO and Beats Powerbeats PRO true wireless sports headphoness. Let’s take a look at the internal structure of this product!
| BEATS FLEX sports headphones teardown
Coming to the disassembly part, first pry open the left earphone.
The earphone speaker unit is fixed in the cavity by a large amount of glue.
Take out all the components, the ring magnet used for magnetic attraction inside the cavity is also fixed by a large amount of glue.
Disassemble the left earphone.
A close-up of the back of the small board for detecting the magnetic attraction state, and the double-sided tape is attached to the ring magnet.
The wire on the back is welded, and there is a Hall element in the middle, which is reinforced and protected by glue.
The front of the speaker unit is covered with a cushion.
A close-up of the front of the loudspeaker unit by scraping the cushion.
Compared with the left ear, the inside of the right earphone cavity lacks components for detecting the magnetic attraction state.
Pry open the left wire control cover, the motherboard is located in it.
The inner structure of the left wire control cover.
The wires in the cavity are welded on the small board, and then connected with the main board through BTB, which is convenient for assembly and production.
Pick up the BTB and take out the motherboard unit.
A bluetooth antenna is also fixed in the cavity.
The bluetooth antenna is connected to the motherboard through solder joints.
Components on the front of the motherboard.
Components on the back of the motherboard.
The jog button on the side of the motherboard is used to reduce the volume.
Multi-function micro-action buttons on the motherboard.
Two solder joints on the motherboard connected to the bluetooth antenna.
The BTB connector is reinforced with glue.
Female BTB connector on the motherboard.
A close-up of the metal dome on the main board, which is connected to the conductive cloth of the cover to ground.
The other is a jog button for volume.
The Type-C charging interface is designed with a buffer pad to protect it from the shell.
Silkscreen 2DV1 IC.
A crystal oscillator that provides the clock for the bluetooth chip.
The memory IC of the silk screen 4AF.
The IC of silk screen E02 0524.
Apple’s self-developed W1 chip with silkscreen 343500132 is the same processor as the first generation of AirPods true wireless headphoness.
MAX 98730EWJ low-power stereo audio codec.
The MEMS silicon microphone of LaserDiao S2450 is used for voice calls.
ST STM32L072CZ has an ultra-low power Arm Cortex-M0 + MCU with 192 KB flash memory, 32 MHz CPU and USB.
With multiple analog functions, a 12-bit ADC with hardware oversampling function, two DACs, two ultra-low-power comparators, multiple timers, a low-power timer (LPTIM), four general-purpose 16-bit Timer and two basic timers, one RTC and one SysTick (can be used as a time base). It also has two watchdogs, a watchdog with independent clock and window functions, and a window watchdog based on the bus clock.
ST STM32L072CZ detailed data map.
TI TLV70733 low-noise regulator, output current 200mA.
TI BQ21062 500mA linear charging IC, with path management, built-in voltage regulator, input withstand voltage 20V.
TI BQ21062 details.
The IC of silk screen N9.
Maxim MAX17048 fuel gauge IC, used for single-cell battery fuel gauge, adopts ModelGauge™ algorithm, does not require current-sense resistance and capacity learning, and has a built-in processor for temperature compensation.
Silkscreen LCAE IC.
Bluetooth test interface.
Open the right cavity, inside is the battery unit.
The wires extending from the battery and the motherboard are also connected by BTB.
Pick up the BTB and take out the battery. The battery protection circuit board is wrapped with insulating tape.
The speaker wire is soldered on the small BTB board with full solder joints.
The power switch button and LED indicator are located on the side of the BTB board.
BTB connector.
The battery model is AHB390831N, with a capacity of 0.30Wh.
There are S-8211C battery protection IC and protection MOS tube on the battery protection board.
All components of BEATS FLEX neck-mounted bluetooth headphones.
| Summary
Beats Flex adopts a lightweight design in appearance, and the weight of the earphone is only 18.7g; U-shaped memory collar, small earphone with four pairs of eartips of different specifications, comfortable to wear; magnets are installed in the earphone, when not wearing Adsorption can avoid wearing shaking and loss. There are components in the left earphone for detecting the magnetic attraction state, which can automatically disconnect the music playback when the earphone is adsorbed, and the playback can be resumed when the earphone is disconnected.
In the internal structure, the main board and the battery are located in the left and right cavities respectively, and the different structures are connected by a small BTB board. The battery capacity is 0.30Wh, equipped with a circuit protection board. The battery protection board is equipped with S-8211C battery protection IC and protection MOS tube.
On the motherboard, Apple’s self-developed W1 main control chip with silk screen 343500132 is adopted; Maxim 98730EWJ low-power stereo audio codec and Maxim MAX17048 American letter fuel gauge IC; ST STM32L072CZ low-power Arm Cortex-M0 + MCU; TI BQ21062 500mA linear Charging IC etc.
In general, Beats Flex as a product sold simultaneously with Apple’s iPhone12 series, is also Apple’s most intimate new product, making up for the low-end market after the cancellation of standard headphoness. Apple also hopes to use Beats Flex to enable more users around the world to experience the Apple ecosystem. In the future, perhaps this series of earphones may become standard iPhone products.
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