2y ago

Fairphone Fairbuds launch with replaceable batteries, titanium drivers and ANC

www.notebookcheck.net Fairphone Fairbuds launch with replaceable batteries, titanium drivers and ANC

With completely wireless earbuds, the rule is: when the battery fails, they have to be disposed of. Not so with the Fairbuds, that allow you to replace batteries in just a few seconds. Combined with a repairable design, the earbuds should therefore have an extremely long lifetime.

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367 comments

Let's not forget this here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRdL0StldJM
Wired headphones do not have the need for replaceable batteries.
- And get caught on everything.
  I can't be bothered with the inconvenience of wires. Bluetooth quality is good enough for what I need it for, and the convenience of simply putting them on gives me sound is hard to beat.
  I have a pair of noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones (not buds) from 2008 that still work. Battery life isn't what it was, but whatever - they work fine for how I use them (as one pair of several). I could replace the battery if I felt like it, just not worth the effort.
  But I get that some people prefer the wired for their use-case.
  
  The simple point is, no one forces you to use wires. Bluetooth has been a thing for decades.
  But basically every (yes some exceptions) company that makes phones forced you to use wireless ones.
  And in the case of Fairphone it is just simply hypocritical.
  
  Strange how I've been using wired headphones with my phones until two years ago, even though I haven't had a phone with a headphone jack since 2017...
  
  You can get 3.5mm to (whatever usb port) that will as far as I know work in every phone. Just because it doesn't have a dedicated port doesn't mean you can't wire in your headphones.
  I much prefer it this way, if you want to wire you can, if you don't you don't have to have an extra useless port on your device.
  Edit
  Lol, bring on your down votes. I bet if you surveyed a hundred random people on the street if they really want a headphone port on your phone and are committed to using it you'd get less than ten people. It's not realistic to support every legacy hardware function on a modern device because a few tech enthusiasts want it, especially when there's a very easy way to support it.
  
  Or the port could exist and you just don't use it, then we don't need adapters!
  
  It's not just a hole, you need to reserve the space to house the inserted jack, you need to source or build the housing and build something to convert the signal to digital. That costs money and space for a feature hardly anyone uses. These resources are simply better used elsewhere.
  
  It's a very small amount of space. When it was first removed the space was still there just empty. There's phones that do exist that have SD card slots and headphone jacks. The hardware required is very very cheap, especially at scale, so cost is a non-factor. For such minimal resources, who wouldn't want the option of more features? There's plenty of features of smartphones that most people don't use, it doesn't mean we should remove them to the detriment of the people who do.
  
  You can get 3.5mm to (whatever usb port) that will as far as I know work in every phone. Just because it doesn’t have a dedicated port doesn’t mean you can’t wire in your headphones.
  not if you want to charge it as well.
  Lol, bring on your down votes. I bet if you surveyed a hundred random people on the street if they really want a headphone port on your phone and are committed to using it you’d get less than ten people, definitely less than 20. It’s not realistic to support every legacy hardware function on a modern device because a few tech enthusiasts want it, especially when there’s a very easy way to support it.
  If you're the only option with a headphone jack that's a guaranteed 10% of the market buying your device. More if you also include other things tech enthusiasts want that are no longer widely available.
  
  Yes you can: https://a.co/d/dvX8HjP
  That's the beauty of usb, it's capable of expanding to suit your needs
  Simply put, if companies determined the market need for 3.5mm port was valuable enough they'd leave it on there. They want to sell product and 3.5mm is not a feature enough customers care about to justify it's existence. If you really want it, you have USB options or some phone models that support it: https://www.phonearena.com/news/Best-phones-with-a-headphone-jack-Google-Pixel-Samsung-Galaxy-LG-and-more_id124459
  
  Simply put, if companies determined the market need for 3.5mm port was valuable enough they’d leave it on there.
  The reason it's not "valuable" is that they want to force people to buy expensive earbuds every year when they crap out. This is demonstrated by the fact that none of these phones that have removed it have added anything new in it's place and they've only gotten more expensive. Practically every phone on the market is just a copycat phone, camera, social media browsing device. Maybe a few have a stylus. The only thing that differentiates them is specs. My 6 year old phone has more features than anything available today and I dread finally reaching the point where my work apps stop functioning due to it's age and I have to downgrade to some garbage that can't do half the things I used to.
  
  If you buy crappy headphones they might crap out every year. I've got the same pair of Jabra 65t that I bought in 2018 and they work amazing 6 years later. If Apple or Samsung or Google forced you to use their buds I'd agree with your position of being forced but they don't and saying all buds die in a year is absurd.
  
  You’re supposing every tech/audio enthusiast here wants the same shitty setup as the masses? The fact is there is basically one brand still offering headphone jacks in a flagship that you can unlock … where the point of Android was all the delicious innovations of each OEM. But they saw how profitable selling branded earbuds could be so now you have next to 0 options.
  
  No one's disputing the utility of wireless. But it's not harming anyone to have a device with both mini-jack and bluetooth; the way it was for nearly 2 decades without any complaint.
- A follow-up video "Why I was wrong about fairphone" by Louis Rossmann: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAogtqyN22M
  Still critical of lack of audio jack but praises FairPhone for including list of all components and board view of where each part is located and a complete schematic. In comparison to other phones manufacturers that's night and day of repair-ability.
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  https://www.piped.video/watch?v=EAogtqyN22M
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
- I have yet to use a USB-C to 3.5mm dongle for my phone that hasn't gone bust in my pocket in a few months. Probably time to see about a cable for the earphones that terminates in USB-C on the phone end, but that was difficult to search for.
  I love my wired ones, and have been nursing some BT earbuds for years, but it's hard to use wired and not to move to BT anymore without buying a phone specifically for the 3.5mm jack.
  
  Get a portable dac amp so you can connect your wired headphone over usb-c and upgrading its sound quality at the same time.
  
  Hyperbole aside, I'd still be worried that any cable physically connected to my phone would break the port over time - mostly because that has happened to me in the past with multiple devices.
  
  I guess there is no way to escape the extra stress to the port. Maybe using this kind of detachable magnetic adapter can help with reducing the strain? They don't conform with usb specification though, so while it may reduce strain to your port, it may carry another risk like making it easier to accidentally shorting some exposed pins.
  
  Nice, I did not know such a connector existed - that will be useful for completely different and unrelated use cases.
  While I had toyed with the idea of a portable, Japanese - made DAC for a while, I switched to Bluetooth headphones years ago. Started out with a cheap Philips headset for $50, later on got the Bose QC 35 II (still my daily driver when outside) and finally worked my way up to the Sony WH-1000XM5.
  I did not realize how nice active noise cancelation is. Plus, the frequency reproduction of the XM5 with LDAC enabled is absolutely fine.
  On the cons side, you're walking around with $300 - $400 on your head, which is an absolutely luxury, plus you'll get headphones that perform equally well in the sound department (minus the excellent ANC and freedom from cables) for a lot less.
  
  Actually, get one with more pins. The one above is for charging only.
  
  I'm the same, those dongles don't last, and are annoying to use. I picked up one of these cables from aliexpress to use with my iems and it works a treat. There's better quality cables out there, but for 10 bucks these are solid.
- People keep whining about this but honestly people who listen to music with wired headphonea are a small fraction of a 1%. And they probably have this data from their telemetry.
  
  They are now a small fraction cause this trend is already 8 years old.
  
  Don't wanna be a whiner but wireless in ears never last long enough for me. I'm forced to stop using them after a while because they need to be charged. Even a 2 and a half hour phone call is enough to deplete them. This is a non existing problem with wired ones
- But also see:
  https://piped.video/watch?v=EAogtqyN22M
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  https://www.piped.video/watch?v=bRdL0StldJM
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
- Yep. I refuse to buy a FairPhone for this simple reason: I hate bluetooth. It means I have to buy a new expensive device to get audio quality that's worse than before and requires batteries again. Fuck that.
  I also find it ridiculous that they call themselves "fair" but making bluetooth buds probably increases pain and suffering, because more materials have to be used to make them than a simple jack headphone.
  
  I don't know about the fairness of this particular company but by that rationale nothing can ever be fair, just by existing we increase the suffering. Its how the world is.
  Think headphones jacks don't cause suffering at some point in the chain?
  Not that I'm disagreeing, just not sure how things would get named under this specific scheme.
  Does it assume that it's generally understood that everything is a little harmful in some way, so as long as you don't claim otherwise, it's cool or would everything need to be measured on some sort of average harmfulness scale and then include the rating in the title.
  Like "Horrendously harmful Apple" or "Mildly harmful Colgate"
  A bit hyperbolic perhaps.
  Genuinely not trying to start a fight, actually interested in what you think would be a good way of doing this, as I've occasionally pondered it myself and never come up with a good answer.
  Incidentally, this is one of the core plotlines to later seasons of "The good place"
  
  Incidentally, this is one of the core plotlines to later seasons of “The good place”
  Aaaay! Was going to say that too 👍
  My only point is that we can work to minimize suffering. Making it necessary to purchase a new accessory adds more suffering than using an old accessory.
  
  That's reasonable
  
  if you hate bluetooth. USB C dongle earbuds are quite impressive nowadays like JBL or anker. no pairing
  
  That'll have to be the middle ground should I ever be forced to buy a phone without an audio jack.
- I wouldn't trade my wireless stuff for wired ones at this point. Wireless earbuds have gotten so good that dealing with a wire would be a downgrade in most cases. When I work with mixing I always use my monitors with a wire, for obvious reasons.
  Also as an aside; any company that claims to do anything "green" is profiteering off of greenwashing. Of course making stuff environmentally friendly would become trendy in the cringe corpo world. I think the most egregious example is Apple's autumn 2023 iPhone event. Just thinking back on it is making me cringe.
  The "greenest" product is the one that is never made to begin with.
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  Apple's autumn 2023 iPhone event
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
- You just need replaceable wires that are bound to get replaced more often and more expensive instead
- Why the fuck use wireless phones? Just use a classic wall phone you fucking dummies! Why use SSDs? Just use good ole floppies!
  Fuck sakes man, pull your head out of your ass. It’s called modernity and it’s okay
  
  Bluetooth headphones are not modernity, they should of course be an option, but increasingly they are the only game in town. Wired is still king for loads of things, not the least of which is reliability.
  You wanna know how many times my wired Sennheiser's have been unable to put music in my ear holes? Never. They always work. Care to guess how many wireless headphones have been able to provide sound every time I've wanted it without delay or failure? None. I've owned more than 2 dozen wireless this, that, and the other, headphones & earbuds, and none of them have been even a shadow of the reliability offered by my old wired headphones. Which is to say nothing of the fact that the wired experience usually sounds better (Still don't think you can get any comfortable phat 600ohm monster cans that don't have a wire) and has no issues with making sound when you're in a space that is saturating the 2.4Ghz band (my Costco is usually so full of idiots on Bluetooth that you can't get a reliable experience for anything from any wireless audio device.)
  You seem to think it's "backwards rhetoric" to want a feature that will never be offered in a wireless setup, and that's just fucked man. There are a wealth of reasons why wireless does not fully replace wired. It's why anything that doesn't have to move generally gets a fixed connection, it's just more reliable and often more efficient. That's not backwards, it's just a priority that you don't value above others. If landlines or floppy disks offered any advantages over anything else they'd still be around today (and arguably they are in some limited niches,) but the replacements for those technologies have had no downsides against their replacements while wireless tech still has some significant downsides (again, maybe you don't weight the pros and cons the same, so this may not apply to you) against the technology they are meant to replace, and will likely never see 100% capture of their role as a result.
  TL;DR: Stop trying to frame this as some sort of crusade against the future, there are legit cases where wired is just better than wireless.
  
  I hope you enjoyed typing all that out because I’m not reading it
  
  I like wired headphones it has nothing to do with modernity but the functionality I prefer. I dislike dealing with battery life. Same reason I have a wired keyboard. Also I've been in power outages that lasted long enough I wished I had a wall phone to do things like let my family know I hadn't frozen to death or to call into work to update them so I was less likely to be fired. Me wanting a company to sell wired devices doesn't affect your ability to buy wireless devices this isn't a zero sum game, no need to be hostile.
  
  Fair enough. Im just tired of all the backwards rhetoric on Lemmy, wasn’t fair to direct at you. I swear this place is stuck in a time warp sometime in the 90s or early 2000s. It’s frustrating.

367 comments