Ambient and ANC mode are very, very wind sensitive. I have had different earbuds (real earbuds; Jabra Elite 75t) which do a much better job. Ambient mode does let wind through on my Jabra so I don’t use it while cycling, but the XL also generates wind noise even while walking in a supermarket or indoors in Ambient mode. That should not happen. In a supermarket I want to be aware of my surroundings. But if I hear wind while walking, then it becomes an annoyance and disable it, which isn’t great if people want to talk to you and you don’t see them.
The worst part may be that even with ANC mode I can hear this wind noise indoors when simply walking through rooms. Cycling in ANC mode is unusable. It’s suppose to cancel out noise, yet it generates a lot of noise. My Jabra in ANC mode doesn’t let wind through, even when cycling in very strong winds. Even if Fairphone doesn’t aim for ‘perfect’ ANC, simply walking indoors shouldn’t cause noise either. It should also be usable while walking outdoors.
Also when having calls indoors while walking causes a wind noise for the call participant. Of course this makes calls outdoors infeasible since indoors it’s already an issue.
I reported the issue and it was forwarded to the product team.