I don’t usually write about products but I’m so fed up with the BeatsX earphones that I need to tell others about it. In the one and a half years that I’ve owned them, they’ve broken three times. Luckily I haven’t had to pay for a single repair, but the process of exchanging it is starting to become time consuming and really annoying.

I purchased my BeatsX back in February 2017. I fell in love with them right away; the wirelessness meant I didn’t have to deal with tangling cords, and because they were in-ear I could listen to podcasts even on loud commutes.

Little did I know how fragile they were. Let me tell you about my BeatsX woes…

Incident #1: November 2017

The first time my BeatsX broke was when I was in Japan. All of a sudden it stopped connecting to any of my devices. I later found out that this was a common issue, as I saw multiple threads on Reddit and Apple Support forum posts about it. On this same trip both my iPhone (camera stopped working) and Macbook (battery stopped charging) had broken so I was already pretty pissed off.

I couldn’t take them for repairs anywhere in Naha so I had to wait until I got home to Montreal before I could do anything. I also refused to buy one of those overpriced 3.5mm-to-Lightning adapters. All of this made for an extremely boring plane ride back to Montreal.

Incident #2: March 2018

Several months had gone by and I had almost forgotten about the first incident, when suddenly the right earbud started to crackle. Shortly after the right earbud stopped working entirely, and I had to make yet another trip to the Apple Store.

Thankfully, the Apple staff replaced my headphones free of charge because I’d just gotten them replaced in November.

Incident #3: July 2018

The third incident happened again while I was traveling, this time in Toronto. Once again, the right earbud started crackling and lost output.

I called Apple support and luckily the Apple support staff was super understanding. He offered to send me a new pair even though mine were out of warranty by a long shot. The silver lining in all of this is that Apple’s support is awesome.

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I’m so disappointed with the quality of the BeatsX. They are awesome when they work but it really sucks having to get them replaced so often. For ~$200 CAD I shouldn’t have to worry about them breaking all the time.

If you’re considering buying a pair of BeatsX earphones, I’d think twice. They are fragile as hell and break even with regular use.

Update: October 11, 2018

Welp. The replacement that I got in July just broke. The left channel stopped working. I called Apple Support and they said it’ll be $79 to replace. 

At this point I’m done with these pieces of shit. If anybody has recommendations for good wireless headphones, please let me know.