Two More Sony WF-1000XM4 Battery Failures
It looks like we have two more battery failures in the Sony WF-1000XM4. Two users posted photos of what appears to be coin cell battery failures in their earbuds. In one case, it is the left side and in the other, the right side. I have already posted about 2 earlier incidents, here and here.
The first incident is from user afterchaos, who mentioned they also had the dreaded battery drain issue with their unit. A week earlier their left earbud started overheating and then finally popped. The affected earbud can be seen below. I was going to post this earlier but the blog was locked, so adding it to this post.
Unfortunately there is not much more information, like what kind of charger was used or when they bought them. The user contacted Sony and was promised a replacement, but then for some reason, Sony retracted their statement. Now Sony is asking for a safety evaluation and any repairs might be billed to the user (uh?).
I am not sure why Sony is asking for this evaluation, are they suspecting this is user error? I feel Sony should be fronting any repair and shipping costs here in order to determine why this happened. Thankfully this user was not wearing them, but who knows, maybe someone in the future will be wearing the earbuds when this occurs. Rather than post about it, there might be a lawsuit.
The second incident is from user Hippopaulamus. Like the first user, they also have experienced the dreaded battery drain issues. The earbuds were being recharged when one of them popped open. This is similar to the first incident I posted in February.
The user stated they they per-ordered day 1, so these are definitely from the first initial production run.
So far we have 4 recorded incidents, it may not sound like a lot, especially if Sony shipped 100,000s or more units, but there is clearly something wrong. It would make sense this would be related to the battery drain issues users are experiencing. If you have seen additional incidents, post them in the comments.
The working theory right now is faulty batteries in the first production run and when firmware 1.4.2 was released, this started degrading the batteries even more. But then, if this is the case, why is only one side affected and not both earbuds? Does anyone have any ideas or explanations here?
I find it odd that car companies do full recalls of models for the smallest things, recalling sometimes millions of cars, yet we have not heard anything directly from Sony about this battery issue. And no, that 1.6.1 firmware update for the battery drain is not an admission of the bigger issue.
I am sure someone from Sony (Sony US or Sony Japan), reads the blog, so my question is, what is going on here? Your customers deserve an explanation why this is happening, and assurance this will not happen again with other models. These affected users will unlikely be returning to Sony as a customer and will move on to another brand. Why not just admit there is an issue, fix it and move on?
If this issue starts happening in another model or even the upcoming WF-1000XM5 in the future, Sony’s presence in the wireless earbuds market will cease to exist.
