After over 4 years of constant use, my old SnoozeBand was battered but serviceable until one speaker stopped working. It would be great if they held up for longer but they do get a lot of stick, the battery is going to be less strong and the padding will get squashed with time. As it worked so beautifully for so long and transformed my ability to sleep, I replaced with the same again. The new model has slightly more helpful voice prompts. E.g. I know now it is going to turn off in an hour if I've set that option. The addition of an App is fun, my only suggestion would be to add the ability to put tracks like "Rain and Birds" on repeat. It is only 18 mins long and that might not be enough for me to fall asleep to. So I have still been listening to calm audio books from Borrowbox, the public library offering in my area. There is no apparent downgrading of components on the SnoozeBand, if anything it seems sturdier. The controls seem to be the same and are more reliable. I am glad I chose to go with this model from SnoozeBand again.