I daily the OG fairbuds, and while I love the repairability, I can honestly say they’re some of the worst earbuds I’ve ever used.
They have connection problems
they fail to charge when placed in the case half the time
The. touch controls are finicky and often miss taps, but somehow they can be activated by a single strand of hair landing on the case.
The app just doesn’t work, I have never been able to get it to connect to the earbuds.
I’ve reported all of these issues to Fairphone, and I’ve recieved little in the way of helpful responses. Hopefully they have managed to make their second gen product more usable, because I do genuinely think a repairable earbuds is a phenomenal idea. And yeah, despite all the issues I still use them everyday.
That’s really disappointing to hear (pun not intended). I’ve been looking for a pair of these earphones that are actually worth the money, because I got sick of paying for airpods only for them to fail within 2 years like clockwork.
Just throwing these things away is horrendous and I was hoping that fairbuds would be good.
As another user of the og Fairbuds, the issue with charging is actually due to the rubber they use to make the battery compartment a little sweat resistant. If it moves it can stick out a hair enough to visibly keep the case from closing all the way. Grab the rubber and rotate it back to where it should be (there’s a notch) and it’ll charge just fine.
As far as daily use, audio isn’t amazing, it’s also not terrible. I’ve had worse earbuds in quality come with iPhones. Touch controls were a bit finicky but have gotten easier as I’ve adjusted to using them. It seems like people expect pro-audio speaker level of quality out of Bluetooth earbuds nowadays and that isn’t what they’re getting with any of these between the quality loss of the Bluetooth codec and the tiny speakers in the earbuds. Maybe I’m crazy but earbuds just need to play music acceptably while traveling, they’re not a replacement for good headphones or good speakers…
This is pretty much my experience so far, audio quality is mid but better than I’d expect from earbuds. I wish they’d just charge when they are in their slot instead of needing to close the case, it’s just weird requiring that the case be closed. The app is pretty terrible, but it isn’t required and doesn’t do much anyway. Touch controls are similar to what I’ve experienced with all the other touch control buds I’ve used, with better control over volume. The noise canceling works, but isn’t amazing. I’d like a little more battery life, but I’m happy to sacrifice that for being able to replace the battery when I need to rather than throwing them out. I wish they had a zero delay mode as I can notice it when watching videos, but it’s not a big of a delay as others with a delay.
As its a first gen product from a pretty green hardware company, it wasn’t super surprising to me they had serious issues. The real test will be to see if the second generation fixes those issues without adding a bunch more.
I got the Earfun Air Pro 4 about a year or so ago on sale (I think about 45 dollars) and have never looked back. The app works without having to create an account or sign in, they sound great (for sub-100 dollars earbuds, but I’ve never paid more than that so have nothing to compare to), the noise cancelling is brilliant too.
The only issue I’m having over the last couple of months is that the battery on the earphones (but not on the case) seem to be draining a bit faster now. I’m guessing that’s to be expected, as I use them all the time, but thought it was worth mentioning.
Don’t forget that the Bluetooth is outdated to the point that it doesn’t sync with video properly so can only really be used for listening to music. Insane.
Source(also a daily driver)
I haven’t had that issue fortunately, I use mine to watch video all the time and have had no synchronization issues. Maybe later batches updated the BT modem?
I daily the OG fairbuds, and while I love the repairability, I can honestly say they’re some of the worst earbuds I’ve ever used.
They have connection problems
they fail to charge when placed in the case half the time
The. touch controls are finicky and often miss taps, but somehow they can be activated by a single strand of hair landing on the case.
The app just doesn’t work, I have never been able to get it to connect to the earbuds.
I’ve reported all of these issues to Fairphone, and I’ve recieved little in the way of helpful responses. Hopefully they have managed to make their second gen product more usable, because I do genuinely think a repairable earbuds is a phenomenal idea. And yeah, despite all the issues I still use them everyday.
Good of you to share your experience, any idea if this is general consensus or more your specific unit?
Not ideal, but hopefully you just selflessly funded their beta and V2 is stable
That’s really disappointing to hear (pun not intended). I’ve been looking for a pair of these earphones that are actually worth the money, because I got sick of paying for airpods only for them to fail within 2 years like clockwork.
Just throwing these things away is horrendous and I was hoping that fairbuds would be good.
As another user of the og Fairbuds, the issue with charging is actually due to the rubber they use to make the battery compartment a little sweat resistant. If it moves it can stick out a hair enough to visibly keep the case from closing all the way. Grab the rubber and rotate it back to where it should be (there’s a notch) and it’ll charge just fine.
As far as daily use, audio isn’t amazing, it’s also not terrible. I’ve had worse earbuds in quality come with iPhones. Touch controls were a bit finicky but have gotten easier as I’ve adjusted to using them. It seems like people expect pro-audio speaker level of quality out of Bluetooth earbuds nowadays and that isn’t what they’re getting with any of these between the quality loss of the Bluetooth codec and the tiny speakers in the earbuds. Maybe I’m crazy but earbuds just need to play music acceptably while traveling, they’re not a replacement for good headphones or good speakers…
This is pretty much my experience so far, audio quality is mid but better than I’d expect from earbuds. I wish they’d just charge when they are in their slot instead of needing to close the case, it’s just weird requiring that the case be closed. The app is pretty terrible, but it isn’t required and doesn’t do much anyway. Touch controls are similar to what I’ve experienced with all the other touch control buds I’ve used, with better control over volume. The noise canceling works, but isn’t amazing. I’d like a little more battery life, but I’m happy to sacrifice that for being able to replace the battery when I need to rather than throwing them out. I wish they had a zero delay mode as I can notice it when watching videos, but it’s not a big of a delay as others with a delay.
As its a first gen product from a pretty green hardware company, it wasn’t super surprising to me they had serious issues. The real test will be to see if the second generation fixes those issues without adding a bunch more.
I got the Earfun Air Pro 4 about a year or so ago on sale (I think about 45 dollars) and have never looked back. The app works without having to create an account or sign in, they sound great (for sub-100 dollars earbuds, but I’ve never paid more than that so have nothing to compare to), the noise cancelling is brilliant too.
The only issue I’m having over the last couple of months is that the battery on the earphones (but not on the case) seem to be draining a bit faster now. I’m guessing that’s to be expected, as I use them all the time, but thought it was worth mentioning.
Thanks, I’ll have a look at them!
Don’t forget that the Bluetooth is outdated to the point that it doesn’t sync with video properly so can only really be used for listening to music. Insane. Source(also a daily driver)
that’s not true, i use bluetooth headphones regularly to watch videos.
They’re talking about fairphone earbuds… how did you fail to understand that?
I haven’t had that issue fortunately, I use mine to watch video all the time and have had no synchronization issues. Maybe later batches updated the BT modem?
Uff