Damn. The original fairbuds came with my fairphone and I was a big fan from the start. Zero issues with hardware or software, or sound quality. Sure glad I opened this thread to understand how lousy they actually are.
Guess there was a reason why they handed the old ones out
Sounds nice, though its over double the price of my current ones and the ones only held in place by being wedged inside your ear don’t really appeal to me, they can fall out easily. I use over ear ones instead as they allow you to hear a bit more of what is going on around you.
Just give me a fucking headphone jack. I’d buy one of these phones in a heartbeat for a headphone jack dude.
From their website:
Why newer Fairphone models do not have an audio jack
Removing the traditional 3.5mm audio jack gives us space inside the phone to make key hardware improvements. Without this opening, we can fit a larger battery, design a slimmer smartphone, and preserve room for repairable spare parts. Removing the port also helps seal the phone against water and dust, allowing modern models to reach IP ratings like IP55 on Fairphone 4 and IP68 on Fairphone 5. Moving audio to the USB-C port and Bluetooth connections lets us build a more durable phone that lasts as long as possible.
I still call Bullshit though. So annoying. And the PP NTS that the make are not even really true. Its not like you can’t do this things with a headphone jack.
Different usecases. Free hands vs. good sound.
People who also miss aux, could you share what you use it for?
I mean, for headphones.
I did buy the fairphone 6, and it does in fact work in the US (with some finagling).
The lack of a headphone port is a disappointment, but it’s fine as long as you get a GOOD dac. A shitty one will be the worst audio experience you’ll ever have. I use this: generic dac (sorry for the Amazon link, I’m sure they’re available other places.)
My everyday earbuds are essentially cheap studio monitors. I like these because the sound is great and if the cable breaks I can just replace the $10 cable and keep the high quality headphones. And there’s no battery to fuss with, you just plug them in and they work.
Lmao same 🥲
I literally had it in my shopping cart ready to buy when I discovered they removed the headphone jack.
I went with Motorola instead
I too just bought a Motorola. My pixel 8 developed a line in the screen. I missed the headphone jack so much I decided I care more about that than I do the privacy of grapheneos. I did put /e/os on it though.
What Motorola did you buy? I went with a moto 5g 2024.
I bought the original fairbuds at launch. I’m not gonna pretend they are good sound quality for music - bass especially is terrible - but they are fine for podcasts and the like.
I’ve had to have one bud - right iirc - replaced under warranty, no hassle beyond the obvious annoyance of it breaking.
When they break again, I’ll likely replace them with whatever version of fairbuds exist then. Ultimately I care more about how fairphone source their materials, the reparebility, and setting a precident, than if a pair of buds I use for maybe 3 hours a week are a bit crap.
Not a glowing review, but yknow.
AFAIK there’s an upper limit to how good can they sound anyway because Bluetooth is kinda crap for audio.
Bluetooth can support lossless.
Only if both your device and your earbuds both support aptX Lossless, which in practice means it almost never gets used because Samsung (holder of most of the market) does not pay for the licence or enable it in their phones, and the Chinese brands only do so for specific tiers and processors.
I’ve tried telling apart 256 kbps compressed music from uncompressed. I couldn’t do it using wired headphones
Most people cannot. Anyone using Spotify has probably never even gotten into the audio quality settings to change the bitrate as it defaults to Auto. Auto shifts the bitrate down unless you’re on WiFi and you’ve set it to max quality. If you’re on mobile data it goes way down. I’ve had friends who are listening and it sounds awful, you can hear the aub-mp3 quality compression. They never care when I point it out.
Depends upon the codecs supported by all hardware involved. If your sending device supports it, these new buds support decent quality.
The modern Bluetooth 6.0 chip is also intended to contribute to the improved sound, as it supports LC3 and the Sony LDAC hi-fi codec in addition to SBC and AAC.
I’m not arguing about what is technically possible. I’m arguing about what is practically possible: Samsung (biggest market share) supports LC3 for example, but they can also break it and replace it with their custom codecs to lock people into their ecosystem. Making Sony LDAC the only real choice, and there’s no telling when they will break that too. This means that in practice, only SBC and to a lesser extent AAC and SBC-XQ are the only codecs you know for certain will work.
The new Fairbuds sounds like (pun intended) it’s going to have a better audio quality.
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
Woh ! 1700 partners trackers to accept before viewing this page ? Seriously ?
Here is the official press release.
It didn’t take that long to find, I wish people would link primary sources more often.
Here you go my brother in tech: https://archive.ph/G8uCm
domain blocked in my country because of csam material 😭
I would like to talk to you about our Lord and Savior VPN
I know, it’s just not enough! They are really tightening their belts to give you that content. /s
if only they there was a wire between them where you could put usable buttons and extra battery
There are already products like this, why would they need to release one?
because there are no longer any products like this.
👀
Has anyone used these or the previous model who can comment on their lifespan? Since there isn’t a typical operating system to become unmaintained I’d hope they could last many times longer than a smartphone.
I have the old model that I bought because I am quite happy with my Fairphone 5 and also because I am a proud beta soyboy.
And oh boy, are they shit. I’m on the third pair, after returning 2 shortly after I got them because the right earbud stopped working in 2 slightly different ways.
My current pair recently started making a faint clicking noise in… You guessed it: The right earbud. After less than a year of light use. And people complain of poor sound quality when I use the mic on calls.
It’s great that you can replace the batteries and all and I have no issues recommending Fairphone, but I can’t recommend their earbuds.
I will likely look to Samsung when I grow tired of the clicking noises.
The new Sennheiser Momentums claim to have user-replaceable batteries fwiw.
I appreciate the reality check.
I’d say check on the new model once it drops and see if reviews are better after a year or so.
Fair
Is like to note that while the battery is replaceable and looks like a common battery, it’s actually priority. So if they stop making the battery, it’s over. I haven’t needed it yet but it irks me.
Your autocorrect made a booboo.
It entered priority instead of proprietary
Maybe proofread your comment before posting next time. This was hard to read.
I’d like to note that, while the battery is replaceable and looks like a common battery, it’s actually proprietary. So, if they stop making it, it’s over. I haven’t needed to replace mine yet, but it irks me.
Also sound quality and fit, that’s what I’m curious about
Can anyone tell you if it fits your ears?
Sound quality is mediocre, fit is good. The Bluetooth connection is rather short range. I got them with my Fairphone so I am OK with them but I also hope they are doing better with the new generation.
This was released on Tuesday and I ordered already.
Earbuds are generic bluetooth devices. Why is fairfphone getting into this market? Is it because people are stupid and think their earbuds have to match their phone?
Because they support right to repair and have replaceable batteries
Oh, that is a good reason! I thought for sure I was going to lose mine, but what happens is that they stop working, repeatedly, and even replacing something simple like a case is about half the price of a new set…
So I’ve downgraded to the cheapest set I can tolerate and my “repair” will be buying the same model (if it’s available) and replacing the part I need.
It’s not a great system.
Most earbuds are not repairable, and they don’t have replaceable batteries. Eventually the battery capacity drops to the point where you need to charge them too often. These use replaceable and generic batteries from what I heard, and they’re fairly repairable.
- this fits within their niche of ethical electronics supply chains and manufacturing
I’m considering a pair of these for when my current earbuds die, depending on the fit and quality.
I’ve been through three sets of ear buds, and they’ve all failed before the battery did… but if they’re offering replacement parts closer to cost, then it would be an improvement. I got an expensive pair of Sony Earbuds and they were absolutely fantastic, but I did warranty replacements on them twice and the last one had a case that started to melt from overheating… to replace the case was about half the price of a new set.
Finally a step in the right direction.
How do they sound? You can get a really good pair of wired IEMs for the asking price.
Iems with anc? Or regular ones?
I don’t doubt that anc capable wired iems exist, I’m just not sure they wouldn’t be absurdly expensive
Do they exist? They would need to connect via usb-C
Well, there’s wired over ears with anc, but they have a battery iirc.
Which I guess would be possible for iems too, just clunky as hell.
I went over to IEMs a month ago. Bought a solid Bluetooth 5.4 neckband for them, and now I have like 5 pairs of IEMs. BT neckband I can pop open and replace it’s battery as well (soldering required but non destructive). They sound a million times better than any of my TWS earbuds or neckbands and they are cheaper. To top it all off, because it’s 3 different parts, if something breaks I can replace just it and not have to deal with tossing the whole thing. I wish I had known about them years ago.
But you lose ANC that way
Anc for me doesn’t really matter (only other noise I battle against is farm animals or equipment), if you have a good seal on your IEMs, then you’re not going to hear anything but the music anyways. Using my farm equipment, it’s actually quieter with IEMs than it was with neckbands that had ANC anyways.
sounds cool, which brands? i have never heard about standalone bluetooth neckbands before
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256812758772320.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
5181pro, that uses the qcc5181 BT chip. Then I have mmcx to .78 2pin ear loops (you can find them for like $5). This allows me to swap out to other pin outs as well if I ever get IEMs with different pinouts than the most common (.78). The battery lasts me two days of 8-10 hour listening and they’re decently well built. Way way stronger than the single cord ones you can get for cheaper. There is a 8 core braided one that nutty on YT suggestes to get but he suggested it back when it was $80 now it’s $130ish and that was just way to much for my taste.
That looks great. I’m using iems with a simple USBC adapter. It works well, but a neckband might be a more convenient option, I just never found one I liked.
The issue I have with those is the wires going down my shirt and into my pocket. I have been thinking of looking for a clip on BT DAC/AMP to clip to my shirt neck and then a super short wire, but I can’t find super short wires for whatever reason (that aren’t priced at like $40). So I think I’m going to have to figure out how to make a pair.
Yeah, I actually also use a clip, an old pair of headphones came with a little wire clip and I just pulled it off and put it on these. It’s helpful for sure.
Check mate to all the major players.
Too bad they look ugly with the step
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