Well the Bowers and Wilkins Pi8 finally got an update today. Firmware 4.01 (I believe). It says it fixed bugs, that’s it. What those bugs are, it doesn’t not list. The update takes about 5 minutes to run and then you are done. I’ve updated mine and am praying for the biggest thing I’ve ever complained about to be finally fixed, the battery drainage that happens even though the earphones are in the case. Basically if you don’t use them for 6-8 hours or so the battery that reaches 100% drops to 99, 98, 97, etc even though the case has plenty of battery life in it to recharge it, it never does. All it does is continue to drop and never recharges the longer it sits in the case.
I’ve pleaded with Bowers and Wilkins for months and months to take ownership of this only to be blamed for the issues or to be told that it’s working fine and the way it should as all earphones do this when they don’t. I’ve gotten exchanges from them after fighting for one for months, only to have the new one do the same thing. So I gave up and yet I could never convince myself to let go of them or stop using them even though I had moved on to others. All I did was pick them up again eventually. I dont think I had a more addicted earphone purchase ever in my life than the pi8’s. It’s like the bad girlfriend that you know will hurt you and yet you keep running back to her whenever she calls.
So this firmware might not solve my issue with the Pi8 at all. In fact, I wouldn’t beat a dime on it solving this issue because typically this type of issues is a design flaw not software fix. I believe it’s with the case itself, if I had to guess. So we will never see the answer or fix to this anytime in this generation, I’m guessing but I’m still willing to hope this firmware does fix the battery drain. Problem is right now I won’t know if it fixes it for hours if not a couple of days. As of right now I can find no info online about what specific bug fixes it gave. So I just how wait and see. But somehow if this firmware fixes the Battery drainage issues, I will be heading over heels back in love with these earphones.
So update after 8 hours….Shocker….
It still didn’t fix the battery drain. After 10 hours in the case my earbuds battery life was 99%, having already started the discharge cycle from 100%. So nope the discharge cycle is still present, unfortunately. Did I believe it would be better? Nope. Was I ready for a miracle? Yes. But unfortunately the firmware that took over 7 months to get hasn’t addressed any bug fixs that matter to me and the Bowers and Wilkins pi8 battery discharge remains.
Tech-N-Things 