Fairphone Fairbuds: Flawed but Fair

[@outermarker5801]

It's insane for a feature rich, great sounding pair of earbuds to be e-waste in a year or two because one battery in one bud died. 😖 LOVE this architecture and company philosophy. Hope this is indeed the way forward.

[@shonen84]

13:12 it’s great to hear the devs being very honest. I think we have a real chance to exact change on the market. If we accept the baseline is a Sony XM5 or AirPods Pro 2 with great quality but zero repairability - and shun these, then *we* made that choice. Based on what Fairphone represent in the market, and you guys’ *fair* review, I’ve happily placed an order with them. Thanks guys!

[@Morboxx]

Don't single out Sony. While the repairability is zero, at least their tech is usually relatively sturdy. Though I do not know about their buds.

[@josephhughes1498]

@@Morboxx the old Sony HDR-100 over ears have very good repairability and durability & so do the XM3’s but it seems like they have moved away from this and my XM4 in ears just died after a year and a half with very similar reports from other people

[@kvnrphl]

Amazing Video. Very much a Sound Guy and Tech Enthusiast here. Found out about these just an hour ago and came across this channel. I feared the sound will be an issue.. but the repairability and the message those send to the tech space.. I really wanna support it. Definitely will look at some more of your Videos! Great Stuff!

[@DHRME]

Cheers!

[@BrianHartman]

It's an interesting idea, but i think it has the same problem as the FairPhone and the Framework laptop: You're paying a premium for the sustainability, but that sustainability is dependent on the company surviving and/or the architecture spreading. It won't help you that the earbuds are repairable or the batteries are replaceable if you can't get the parts.

[@andrewsallee6044]

I like the Fairphone philosophy, but in all honesty, the usual demise of earbuds for me takes place via my losing the blinking things.

[@GuitarSlayer136]

Yknow something funny? I had earbuds in the early days and never lost a single bud over the course of several years. I just lost a QC2 bud and a Galaxy 2 pro bud in just the last 5 months. Wana know the ONLY difference driving that change? Buds used to have batteries that could do 12 hours of uninterrupted play. They could sit outside of the case sometimes for DAYS on half a batteries charge. These new buds miss the case at supper time and they might as well turn into pebbles.

[@Jehty_]

well, at least with Fairbuds you can buy one replacement for 1/3 of the price.

[@Proteus1902]

Thanks for the solid review. It kind of confirms my expectations towards the product and it will not stop me from placing an order for these devices. Repairability is a big deal for me. I have been using my Fairphone 3 for more than 5 years now. I have upgraded the camera and replaced the battery and I guess I will be able to continue using it for another couple of years. In comparison with my last set of earbuds stopped working after less than 2 years because one of the non replaceable battery has died. From my experience FP actually does a really good job in releasing improvements to their deployed products. This is part of their mission for sustainability and they are pretty serious about it. Still in case I really really don't like the fairbuds I still can return them within 14 days, so I'll definitely give it a try.

[@studynowPH]

there should be a "fair"/"fairly" word counter

[@DHRME]

Fair enough.

[@Berlin2Best]

Finally someone (i.e. you) made a full review on those! I wish they made them more "premium" and I wouldn't mind paying more considering that they ahould last long. Hopefully repairable earbuds will become a thing but I am not too optimistic about it unfortunately.

[@Snipick]

Hey guys. I've never heard of your channel before this week. I haven't had to research headphones in the past 5+ years, and when my girl expressed a need for having music on the go, but also being able to hear the doorbell or something while at her job, I started researching bone conduction headphones. Your Shokz OpenRun Pro review came up in my search, and I really enjoyed your video style. I'm a frequent watcher of MKBHD, Linus Tech Tips, and Mr. Mobile for my tech videos. Especially appreciated the "ice ice icicle" mic demos. I ended up picking up the OpenRun Pro Mini for her birthday and she loved it. I had never tried bone conduction headphones before so my mind was blown when she let me give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised. on a phone call, they performed really similar to how your video showed it and I was pleased. I also appreciate your segment duration Overlay as well, so if I was scrubbing through, I could see which spots were of interest to me. I had been searching for a channel to replace the JimsReviewRoom shaped hole in my channel subscriptions and you guys earned it! Keep it up gentlemen, Cheers from Canada! 🇨🇦

[@DHRME]

Thank you so much! It IS true that Canadians are amongst the nicest!

[@LunaRoseManor]

I have just lost my second pair of flagship Sony earbuds to that ravenous demon known as my washing machine. I am 100% OK with taking a dip in audio quality if I can just fix the bloody things instead of buying a new set at full price.

[@newfnshow031]

the Beats solo 4 are amazing... they are super loud and vocals are very clear.

[@AG-oi3rq]

To shairly compare, you should also include the category reparibility and or sustainability for all of the other products. Those are also important aspects, that should be considered and might even rate down other products in relation to this fairbuds. It's unfair to neglect those aspects!

[@blackiechan6078]

@@AG-oi3rq he did speak on that though. Literally in the video he did cover all aspects concerning it

[@AG-oi3rq]

@@blackiechan6078 Yes that I understand. But in consequence all other products should be rated down due to their lack of reparibility. I just would like to have the categorie reperability included in any review just like sound quality and so on.

[@atifsultan_mech]

Hey DHRME, waiting eagerly for the OnePlus Buds 3 review. I buy hearing devices after you review them

[@GuitarSlayer136]

For future Ear bud reviews I would appreciate coverage of the buds "Find me" features and options. Does the software have find me features? Does the find me feature WORK? How well? If your bud is lost in another room or in a pocket, how easily can you locate them? If left out of the case, how long does it take before the phone can no longer connect and help you locate a lost bud? Reviewers spend so much time ostensibly reading the back of the packaging while the things people ACTUALLY need a reviewer to report on get slid under the carpet. Finding out my 300CAD QC2 buds CANNOT be located by any sofware as well as Bose preventing audio from being played outside the ear (for bootleg ecco location) was a HUGE shock and would have 100% changed my purchase decision. No review I could find covered this GLARING anti consumer omission... (yours included) I hope DHRME takes this feedback because out of all the reviewers in this space I genuinely think this channel cares the most about honest, objective and useable reviews.

[@DHRME]

Thanks. Will definitely take it on board.

[@ZotmundSzele]

Slightly off-topic (or not related to the Fairbuds): I've just realized by Galaxy S23+ supports AuraCast streaming. Not sure if this is new, I did not know to expect this. Maybe you could do a round-up on bluetooth LE buds and AuraCast, if that's a thing, a gimmick, future or present.

[@mcguolo]

Thank you guys! I understand the sound is not comparable to earbuds from other companies in the same price tag, but can you tell some similar-sounding earbuds, to understand how much more FairBuds cost? Just to understand if we are buying 99$ or 49$ sound quality.

[@erikmeek2576]

I use your measurements for AutoEQ and was wondering what equipment you use to measure earbuds. Can you shed some light on this?

[@DHRME]

A 711 GRAS-equivalent coupler.

[@erikmeek2576]

@@DHRME Thank you! I'm trying to get best sound out of these things using eq and different eartips. I must say that I already have a lot of improvement but cymbals still need some improvement as they sound a bit 'unclear'.

[@DHRME]

@@erikmeek2576 That might be just the hardware tbh.

[@stephenknox2346]

These have been absolute garbage for me. ANC does nothing, random disconnects all the time, and the firmware update process is a disaster. I so wanted to like these, but they are just absolute trash.

[@Zak-47]

@@stephenknox2346 completely agree!

[@b.n2350]

Ty!!!

[@Imthefake]

like most things from fairphone these seem like a repairable product, but not a good product, i will continue using my wired earphones for as long as i can buy phones with an audio jack

[@lcwpg]

just get a dongle dac..better quality audio and can buy any phone you like

[@CanIHasThisName]

Not just repairable, but also fairly manufactured. Things turn a lot more expensive when they're not made by exploited workers.

[@pisderata]

some of these compamies get rip off with the people they hire tune the sound lol

[@zackh7450]

DHMRE- im pretty sure we've exhausted all words😂

[@DHRME]

Give it a try!

[@zackh7450]

@@DHRME- Despicable Hearing Men Really Exited

[@DHRME]

@zackh7450 See it’s not exhausted!

[@zoide-777]

Eerste!

[@igorwurm1419]

Honesty... I have my own problems with Fairphone products but it angers me that I hear in every review "You can get the same for less". You can not! There is literally NO other company that offers this kind of repair ability! You can get the same performance for less, yes but you will play more on the long run because it lasts you shorter!

[@SaHaRaSquad]

Exactly. And the excuse of "those things are too small to be repairable" is an obvious lie when over-ear bluetooth headphones aren't repairable either.

[@michaelcorcoran8768]

This is an awesome achievement in engineering, even if it's presumably a pretty lousy consumer product. Frankly now that the proof of concept is here, regulators should set a date where these are requirements. Not just for true wireless either but you probably be a requirement for any Bluetooth headphone at all. That said, I have mixed feelings about fairphone. Them removing the headphone jack before they release their older pair of earbuds was just a ridiculous slap in the face. The same stupid excuses that Apple and Samsung used ... Once that happened I just couldn't take this company seriously anymore. Just seems like such a toned deaf decision given that the kind of people that want a fair phone are the people that are genuinely and understandably irritated at the direction of modern phones. Yeah the fairphone is relatively underpowered and dated looking (neither of which I care that much about)... But it's starting to come with some of the baggage of modern flagships like no 3.5 port. There's some other issues with them not making your schematics publicly available in some cases according to Louis Rossman.

[@Avioto]

Great review! Did you do a bike wind test? I would use these on the bike in the Dutch mountains💨

[@AMacProOwner]

As ears are extremely different. For me the earbuds work great on the bike with a bunch of caveats. With active noise cancelling on, they're removing the loudness from cars and such, however high notes are very audible (studded tires against the ground and such). I prefer to have noise cancelling off instead and turbulence from the wind is not really distracting. The ambient mode on the bike however... It doubles the wind sound and blasts high notes into your ears. I would want to turn ambient/transparent mode off but the order is On/Off/Ambient.

[@Avioto]

@@AMacProOwner Thank you so much for letting us know! 👍

[@SaHaRaSquad]

I really hope those will improve a lot over time. I don't need both the best ANC and sound, but they should be solid in at least one of the areas imho

[@zaheersadat5]

How can we get in India??

[@shapelessed]

@@zaheersadat5 You can't. They operate solely in EU. You either import it yourself of live without them.

[@legatollp]

Does DHRME know about PoE speakers ?

[@DHRME]

No they don’t.

[@seefeel2043]

Great review as always! I think it would be a good idea to revisit them, say, at the end of the year to see what future updates bring to the table.

[@DHRME]

Definitely!

[@petermurage8685]

They sound fairly boring