So i’ve been using the fairbuds for about a month now.
I won’t comment much on the audio quality because there’s people out there that can do a much better job of that than me. For me it’s good. I don’t really care that much.
DISCLAIMER: I’m just making this ‘review’ to point out to Fairphone what they need to do to improve them. I LIKE THEM, AND I WANT TO LOVE THEM. I want to be able to recommend them with as few asterisks as possible. But it’d be lying if I said that currently they didn’t have a lot of problems.
My previous earbud experience: Samsung Galaxy buds2 (and a bunch of other buds from other companies that aren’t even worth mentioning-)
- Repairability: The biggest pro of the Fairbuds is obv that they’re actually repairable. That’s the main driver for me buying a product like this. And knowing it’s Fairphone who have a long trackrecord of supporting their products as long as possible, I’m very confident they’ll do the same with the buds.
- Size: They’re bigger than normal buds, both the buds themselves as well as the case. I put this in neutral cause it’s not a dealbreaker for me. This is just the result of having to make it repairable, so I’m not bothered by it. I do like small cases for buds because then I can easily put it in my pants pockets, now it’s… more of a backpack thing than a pocket thing.
- ANC: The ANC is not as good as the buds2. Don’t get me wrong: both are pretty bad when it comes to ANC during a bike ride for example (on both I just turn ANC off then). But It feels like during ‘office work’, the buds2 are noticeably better than the fairbuds at ANC.
- Staying in ears: Maybe because of the weight, I notice them being more likely to fall out after i’ve done a lot of jaw movements. The Buds2 didn’t have this problem probably because they just sit in my ear more than these do. But maybe having those silicone hooks that some buds have, would be a good addition on the fairbuds?
- The app: … needs a lot of work… As seen in App does not see battery/firmware status of Fairbuds [Android] - #20 by Beurt, the connectivity just doesn’t work for many people including myself. When the app does work, you can do firmware updates (basic functionality obv but yeah). The app provides an EQ, I personally never touch that but good that it’s there. I find it weird how the app doesn’t auto know the color of the buds, you have to manually set that in the app… weird. You can see the battery life of each bud which is nice, but you can’t see the battery life of the case in the app. Sure you can click the button in the case and see the light, which will give you an estimate of how much bat life you have depending on the led color. But it would be nice it showed it in the app. The app shows you tips and explains the modularity of the device, which is nice.
- Controls: related to the above point: the controls aren’t customizable as far as I can tell. In the Galaxy Buds2 app you can actually set what the controls are. For example changing the ANC modes on the buds on themselves. On the Buds2 you can go as far as saying “my left bud should switch between these modes and in this order. while if I hold down on my right bud it should do these modes and in this order”. Fairbuds doesn’t allow you to do any of this. Sure there’s only 3 modes. But it was such a nice thing, I had grown accustomed to never having to long press more than once. ‘I want ANC on mode, long press the right bud.’ ‘I want Transparancy mode, long press the left bud’.
- Another annoying thing is that you can’t turn off the buds controls. So with the Buds2, in the app you can actually turn off the touch controls on the buds. This is A MUST if you are riding your bike in the rain so you have a coathood touching the touch surface of the buds because it will constantly trigger them.
- Battery life: Good. I don’t need more. Have never really ran into empty battery (unless I’m dumb and forgot to charge the case in a while.)
- Bluetooth: I think it’s related to my laptop and not the buds themselves, but sometimes the connection drops out a lot when i’m connected both my laptop and my phone at the same time.
- Microphone: as with any earbud: it’s bad. This isn’t a nock against the Fairbuds, I’ve seen heard of a Bluetooth earbud that doesn’t have the microphone arm that goes to your mouth, have a good microphone, except the airpods. But doesn’t mean I don’t want it to be better.
- Small things:
- usb-c. I know it’s the standard now, but I’m glad it’s using usb-c
This review might appear negative, and yeah i’m pointing out a lot of negative things.
But in the end: They’re earbuds, they connect over Bluetooth, they play audio. A lot of basic things that they do, it does… so I kinda just have to point out the negative points instead.
EDIT: for clarification, this review was made before the V6.5 firmware update Software Update: Fairbuds App V2.1 (Android) / V2.0.4 (iOS)