This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Just give me a fucking headphone jack. I'd buy one of these phones in a heartbeat for a headphone jack dude.
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.
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.
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.
Don't forget that the Bluetooth is outdated to the point that it doesn't sync with video properly so can only really be used for listening to music.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.
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?
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…
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.
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 know, it’s just not enough! They are really tightening their belts to give you that content. /s
This was released on Tuesday and I ordered already.
if only they there was a wire between them where you could put usable buttons and extra battery
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.
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.
AptX LL sounds like some made up gobbledygook. Or like sudo aptx -ll bluez-utils
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…
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
Check mate to all the major players.
