I’m afraid no one of us here knows anything there. I would not expect it anytime soon, and frankly I don’t know if the earphones will be included again for free at all. When the earphones promotion and the recycling cashback program both expired on the same day, Fairphone only extended the latter, so I guess it was a conscious decision.
But if you are interested in a green protective case (a black one has just become available) for your future FP3, you might still want to wait a little longer as this is announced to become available (not for free) later this year (my wild guess: late summer?).
I’m considering purchasing these earphones. I need a stable, sturdy set that can be used for a long time, for listening and making calls (also via Skype, Skype for Business, Teams etc).
I have a few questions I hope can be answered here;
Can anything be said about the sound-quality and sound-clarity of these earphones when making calls? Where is the microphone located?
Does it work with a laptop? (audio and microphone)
Now how good it sounds is subjective, I get that, so I won’t ask about that, other than; it’s not one of super bass heavy earphones right?
I have a pair of wired earphones, that pick up sounds from when the cables dangles against anything (jacket or zipper). Do these earphones pick up any sounds like this?
I’ll just add what I haven’t dealt with already in my previous replies in this topic (see further above, mainly three replies that are a bit longer).
It’s on the back side of the remote control bar, like one third towards the bar’s lower end.
Cannot be generalized. I have used it with a Microsoft Surface 3 for Jitsi and Zoom sessions and have not experienced any issues that way. Both hearing and speaking were supported instantly.
While I have mentioned in one of my previous replies that I wished the highs would be stronger, I find the overall sound quite balanced and I think it is not super bass heavy.
That’s what I would say is a real plus of the Fairphone earphones. The overall make is quite sturdy (on the downside, the whole set feels a bit heavy to me) and especially the cable is made in a solid way that is not as vulnerable to “pick up sounds” as my flimsy tiny Sony earphones. This cable doesn’t get entangled at all and I would say it does not pick up the sounds you describe.
I did see most of your posts, and referred to one by mentioning how good sound is being subjective. What I didn’t read very clearly was the about the quality of calls, other than that they work.
With certain wired earphones with a microphone attached in the remote control bar, for example the Apple ones, the sound clarity can differ while on a call (and not just when moving about a lot). IWth the use of Skype and other programs, those Apple earphones where horrible; one had to speak directly into the mic on the remote control bar for the other person to hear them.
What is your experience in this matter?
You don’t have to speak directly into the control bar. I have used various videoconference apps on my phone and my laptop and the sound is fine when just leaving the control bar where it is. Of course, it did get disturbed when my neighbour went drilling into the wall while I had a Skype call last week but I don’t blame Fairphone for that.
About your question whether it would work on a laptop: I have used it on a Lenovo and a Dell, without any problem.
Of course I didn’t hear myself when using the Fairphone earphones on Jitsi and Zoom, but whenever I asked others if they could hear me well, they confirmed instantly and vehemently. And I never needed to pay attention to the microphone bar’s direction either.
Does anyone else have the problem that call partners complain about the volume being too low when you call using the FP earphones? I had this now with calls in several apps (phone app, Conversations, Fritz Fon) on my FP2 running LOS 17.1. With the built-in mic (and I believe with the cheapish other headset I had tried) I never had any issues. The Skype test call however is okay (do they do any custom amplification?).
Apart from that these earphones are my first in-ear headphones that I find comfortabel enough to wear longer than only a few minutes. The bicycle test however was not any better than my previous trials. They don’t fall off and I can still hear pretty much of the traffic but the wind noise is just too much - however it might be stronger than usually as I tend to cycle relatively fast most of the times…
Thanks for the reply!
I have a Lenovo laptop as well, so that’s good to know.
Curiously, my neighbours are drilling into walls as well, and wouldn’t blame FP either haha
The earphones are out of stock for a couple of days now. It is possible to sign up for notifications should they come back in stock, so I guess they have not been discontinued for the time being.
EDIT 16/09/2020: Back in stock for I don’t know how many days or weeks now.
While the FP3 earphones are out of stock, I did find the Dutch store Belsimpel still selling them.
I ordered them, tried them and returned them.
There are several things about these earphones that I found to be really good: they fit very well, the wires feel really sturdy, phonecalls were clear and Skype and Skype for Business calls were clear (and no, I couldn’t hear myself either, but I got it from feedback from those who I called with and Skype has an Echo/Test call service).
I found the controls to be difficult to sense: often having to keep feeling the control bar and pressing before finding the buttons.
The major downside is the sound: in my opinion it’s horrible and flat. The lower bass tones are fine and not super heavy, but the middle and high tones are far too low for it to have a well rounded sound. To me, it sounds like everything is coming through a tincan.
When using the VLC app, an equalizer can be used to balance it a bit, but for videos or streaming audio it just sounds aweful. Pity.
I got mine today and concur with everything MartinT wrote, except my perception of the sound is the opposite: highs to pronounced, bass too weak (and I’m anything but a basshead). Since I’ll use them almost exclusively for listening to podcasts, I’ll keep them though.
Oh, and one positive thing to add: the cables produce very little cable noise when rubbing against my clothes.
@uodalricus have you tried different earpads to test which one adapt the best to your ears? That impacts sound highs and bass on my ears ^^ The larger/deeper I use, the more bass I have. But I think that I can be using earpads from another set so maybe that explains my very bassy feeling with this set
I find that sometimes people struggle to figure out how these earphones are supposed to be worn. I uploaded a photo by Fairphone to an earlier post of mine that demonstrates this:
It seems that the Fairphone Modular Earphones are no longer available in the Fairphone Shop… or, at least, I can’t find them
Edit: I have just realized that the link to its page shows the “spare cable”, not the actual earphones (I found this link as “Modular Earphones” in the “Accesories” section in the Fairphone 3 product page… which is a mistake or something, I guess )
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