Can we get back the headphone jacks instead?
When I just bought a Fairphone a few weeks ago, I just barely missed the free fairbuds deal. I inquired about it and they gave me a $100 discount code for each phone. I held off buying them because I had a feeling there were about to drop new earbuds. Glad I did.
I wonder whether they are as shitty as the first ones and whether they allow to disable the annoying “battery low” warning.
How hard is it for them to include a DAC and aux port in their phones? They’re tiny! I tried using Bluetooth headphones with the OnePlus 5 but the poor sound quality and constant need to recharge and replace due to their batteries dying every few months was exhausting. That experience was enough to drive me back to the exceptional reliability of plug and play traditional headphones with a Galaxy Xcover 6 Pro.
I don’t care how easy it is to replace the batteries in Fairphone’s new headphones. Their ethos should compel them to include a jack for those who don’t want to waste rare earth metals.
Techbros have mastered their hardware enshittification skills with the headphone jack fiasco.
Agreed 100%. I’d buy a Fairphone instantly if it had a headphone jack.
I agree that phones should just come with an aux port, but I’ve also never experienced the issues with wireless earbuds that I see other people talk about.
In fact I think my original airpod pros lasted longer than any pair of wired earbuds I’ve owned. I had them for years and they were still working fine when I lost one. Currently I use wired earbuds to help keep track of them.
Elgin Rebels. You’re fucking welcome.
Those don’t look very repairable to me.
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
Seeing all the moderately negative reviews for the 1st gen earbuds they made, I just want to add, if you are in the market for over ear headphones, the fairbuds xl (I think that is what they are called), are pretty good in my opinion.
They also released a 2nd gen model of these like last year, I had mine since February or so, I really like them. I am no audiophile but they sound good to me.
The 1st gen model had some issues with stability of some plastic parts for some customers, I haven’t had any issues with these 2nd gen ones and I use them almost every day.
I love the build quality of my gen 2 XLs but the ANC is garbage.
Yeah, can confirm. It wasn’t something that was important for me so if it is for anyone, do not buy these.
For me it works well enough at work in the office. Doesn’t block out everything but enough that I can concentrate on what I am doing.
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.
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.
Connecting it to a mixing station and doing a sound check before the band.
Thanks. Have similar use, for that we’ve got an adapter, what sucks is than you need one for C one for lightning.
Different usecases. Free hands vs. good sound.
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.
Lmao my Pixel 8 also developed the line. I had the screen replaced once, but it happened again within a year and by then it was out of warranty.
I’ve had so many different Nexus/Pixel devices over the years, but Pixel 8 was a much worse experience than a Motorola and I had to pay 2x more for the privilege.
Now I’m on a Moto g power 2025.
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.
The new Fairbuds sounds like (pun intended) it’s going to have a better audio quality.
AFAIK there’s an upper limit to how good can they sound anyway because Bluetooth is kinda crap for audio.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Man I’d forgotten about the app it never worked for me!
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)
Bluetooth has a delay for most codecs. Do not ask me how it is exactly done but there is a feedback to the application so that it delays audio to match video for the bluetooth delay. Some years ago a new Linux audio subsystem was developed, and this thing did not work at start but they fixed it later. From that time is my memory.
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
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 got mine for “free” with the phone. They are terrible. Microphone is unusable (nobody can understand me). Additionally for some reason fairphone reworked the app, breaking it in the process, making the buds even worse (e.g. EQ not working). Also i have hiss in the left one. Definitely would not recommend.
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.
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.
What? I bought one in China the other day, they keep releasing random IEMs all the time
in ear monitors are a different thing entirely.
You want wireless, but with a wire?
yes. open bluetooth in-ears connected by a wire, so that you can’t lose one of them and so there’s somewhere to put a bigger battery and a beefier antenna. everyone used to make them, now there’s none left. i had to import a callcenter headset for my last pair. on the plus side i get 40+ hours of listening time.
They don’t support aptX LL, so they are useless for video. The high latency will cause the audio to be very noticeably out of sync with the video.
Am I slow or lucky? I have never encountered this issue since I started using wireless headphones.
Why is your video not syncing itself with your bluetooth?
I use headphones and a bluetooth transmitter that support aptX LL. The latency is less than 40 milliseconds, which is barely noticeable. With other codecs, the latency is hundreds of milliseconds, so you have to mess with sync settings in the video player.
Most video players or operating systems just handle that for you…
YouTube on Firefox doesn’t
What players and operating systems handle that automatically? I have to adjust it manually in VLC and Kodi. It’s usually around 500-600 ms on Android phones and FireTV sticks. Linux isn’t as bad, but it’s still around 100 ms.
I’ve never had to think about it on iOS, macOS, or Windows. The video just holds for a few frames until the audio buffer catches up to it and then it resumes playing the video frames.
I tried with my TV and at max latency adjustment it’s still desynced in Bluetooth. Also other sources of video like from games are not synced, especially like video call delays
aptX LL sounds like some made up gobbledygook. Or like sudo aptx -ll bluez-utils
Welcome to technology?
