Huawei FreeBuds Pro Teardown

ID: 139758

Description: Huawei released the FreeBuds Pro in September....

Steps:

1. Data cable, Charging Case, earbuds

2. In this teardown, we are examining the right FreeBuds Pro earbud. Our measurements show the single earbud weighs 6.2 g, which is 17% heavier than the 5.3 g AirPods Pro.

3. The FreeBuds Pro housing consists of 3 plastic parts. These parts are held together with hot melt adhesive. We will start the Teardown from the earphone stem. Use a heat gun to apply heat, then gently separate the stem housing from the earphone body using a blade. The circuitry between the two is connected via a BTB connector.

4. The motherboard, force sensitive squeeze button, and Bluetooth antenna are all arranged on the housing of the ear stem.
5. Disconnect the BTB connector between the force sensitive squeeze button and the motherboard.
6. Then, remove the motherboard; you can see the Bluetooth antenna contacts on the housing. Each earphone is configured with 2 Bluetooth antennas. The housing is designed with 2 wind-resistant conduits. The motherboard consists of two layers of PCB connected by an FPC in the middle. Two microphones are arranged on the motherboard at positions corresponding to the wind-resistant conduits to detect external ambient noise and call audio. The microphones and wearable chip are both arranged between the two layers of PCB.

7. Next, remove the force sensitive squeeze button from the handle housing. This force sensitive squeeze button is attached directly to the headphone handle housing using double-sided adhesive tape, which is very convenient for the assembly process. In the image, the force sensitive squeeze button is secured with black double-sided adhesive tape.
8. The front of the force sensitive squeeze button features 8 varistors. When the headphone handle housing is pressed from the outside, the handle housing undergoes slight deformation. This deformation is transmitted to the varistors on the force sensitive squeeze button via the double-sided adhesive tape on its back. The characteristic of the varistors is that their resistance changes when they are deformed, which in turn converts the physical information of the entire system's structural deformation into electrical signals for processing by the chip.
9. The FreeBuds Pro buttons not only support press operations, but also support capacitive sliding operations. Both the force sensitive and capacitive functions are integrated into one module, a design that is very convenient for the manufacturer's subsequent production and assembly. On the back of the force sensitive module are 3 capacitive copper pads.

10. Next, we begin the teardown of the earbud housing. The two plastic housing pieces are glued together with hot melt adhesive. Use a heat gun to heat and open them. Inside is the battery and speaker module, which is secured to the inner wall of the earbud housing with hot melt adhesive.
11. The battery capacity is 55 mAh, with a nominal voltage of 3.82 V. On one side of the battery is the speaker, and the dynamic driver unit emits anti-noise sound waves for precise noise cancellation, achieving a maximum noise reduction of 40 dB. On the other side is an FPC reinforced with a steel plate, with components attached to the FPC. The entire module connects to the motherboard via a cable with a BTB connector.
12. The yellow metal component is the inward-facing microphone, which detects excess noise inside the ear canal. There are a total of 3 microphones per earbud: 2 outward-facing and 1 inward-facing.