The New Fairbuds: Nine things you need to know

[Juan.Bianchi]

Hello @sakloui
AptX is a Qualcomm proprietary codec, and the Fairbuds use a different chipset.
In order to avoid proprietary issues we decided to go with AAC, but we are open to testing and trying different options in the future.

JC

[gcnr]

Is there a reason for the support app to not be open source?

[Pyrukar]

I hoped so much for a open source App for those … I use Fairphone mainly because i want an de-googled Android without having to flash it myself … therefore i use F-Droid as my appstore.

I won’t sideload any dumb apps just to get the devices to work properly. You guys did so well with Fairphone Open on FP2 and i also love my new FP 5 (with eos) but if there isn’t an open source app for it i will stick with my wired In ears until someone creates in ears with an open source or no app ( I know that the App is not strictly needed but i don’t pay 150€ to not get the whole experience and possibly any firmware updates). Please be those people I’d love to support your efforts but i won’t buy anything bound to a closed source app.

[sakloui]

Hi Juan,
Thanks for the answer! Looking forward to see the posibilities of other options or codecs. If you need a beta tester I’m happy to help.

[jazzforlife]

Yeah important parts of the experience being proprietary is becoming a trend unfortunately, see For a Better Camera on deGoogled Operating Systems

Hope we’ll hear something official on this soon.

[Zenith]

I hate to be “that guy”, but how do they sound? What is their frequency response like? Heavy bass? Tinny treble? Monitor quality flat?

[Pyrukar]

Well if there where any closed source things in the equalizer app than maybe just get the Firmware Update part into open source … with that alone you could make a step in the right direction and would get feedback (ex how many use this FOSS) as a benchmark to see if it is wanted enough to allocate developement resources into it.

[mndrix]

What is the firmware update policy on Fairbuds? That is, for how many years do you plan to continuing updating the firmware as Bluetooth codecs, etc change over time.

[KarlKl]

Why not reuse some battery form factors? Each product (FP3, FP4, FP5, Fairbuds) has its own battery. For example, the charging case and the Fairbuds XL battery could fit together, at least in terms of size (XL battery is 12mm bigger).

Nevertheless, nice thing to try the ear-bud thing a third time. Never give up.

[Ganth]

EDIT : I was advised to add a tl;dr so the rest can be skipped. So:

tl;dr: I hope the fairbuds will be re-programmable. I use the tws-earbuds (the old version) a lot and would really like some features to be changeable. e.g. the functions like the “auto-pause”. What the presses do. The voice that talks. The charge levels and charge speed.
FInally, I hate capacitive buttons, but that’s maybe not everyone.
Otherwise the tws-earbuds do their job. Today I would probably buy the new fairbuds if I was confident all those annoyances could be avoided.
Please make the firmware or at least the control-app FOSS damnit.
Thanks for reading

The full post:
Hi, I’m a very regular user of the tws-earbuds since September on my still barely running FP2, fairphone’s “test-earbuds” before those (see this page for reference: TWS Earbuds | Fairphone ).
I’m very intersested by the new fairbuds, and was planning to give feedback on the tws-earbuds at one stage, but hey, time flies, I’ve had other fish to fry, and the fairbuds are now out.

My tws-earbuds work in a satisfactory way (they basically saved my FP2), but there are some feature that give me literal hate vibes every time I use them. I expect those things to be customisable on the new fairbuds, and if they’re not, nor the control app FOSS (is it confirmed ?), I think you’re missing a great opportunity.

Here’s a more or less exhaustive list of things wrong:

• Those stupid touch capacitive all surface buttons. Once every 3 times I manipulate the buds, it triggers a “click” of some kind. If this isn’t annoying enough, I can’t press them consistently when they’re in my ears, because I can’t see them, and I can’t just try to find the surface to press with my fingers because if I accidentely touch the surface anywhere it just triggers a press! (annoying e.g. when I sometimes want a long one and not a short one). And then, it’s so slow to trigger ! I have to sometimes spend several seconds just to get the action I want done!!
  So my main question/point is: Why can’t we have regular buttons ? I could aim before pressing. I could press fast. I would not press them by mistake. I could press them with any kind of gloves/handprotection. So, just, whyyyyyy those stupid capacitive surfaces? (note: it’s the first time I ever use something like this, so maybe the design on the new fairbuds is so much better. But I’m not sure I’d believe it.)
  And don’t make me believe the reason is waterproofing, siliconed-waterproof buttons have existed for ages.
• Not being able to re-configure the presses is really annoying (here for reference: https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/8502264489105 ). I don’t need noise cancelling for example (plus it doesn’t seem to change much) so I’d like to be able to cycle between “normal” and “voice-through” only. And disable the voice-assistant function, and instead have a “skip forward 30 seconds” and “skip backwards 10 seconds” option for podcasts on each side, etc. I have tons of ideas to improve the things.
• Disable the “auto-pause when removed”. Sometimes it’s useful, but 90% of the time it triggers when I don’t want it. I’d much rather have a “pause” button on each earbud, instead of only on the right side.
• Disable the talking voice altogether! I don’t need my whole listening experience dimmed by this voice, when a few mild “dup” or “dup dup” could convey the same amount of information to me.
• Better control of charge levels and speed. If I want to make those last, I’ll want to limit charge at 80% (but maybe you do that already ?), set charge min/max levels, and even further reduce li-ion charge voltage (to make it last much much longer, for a “maximum capacity reduction” I wouldn’t mind. See: BU-808b: What Causes Li-ion to Die? - Battery University “NASA reports that once Li-ion passes the 8 year mark after having delivered about 40,000 cycles in a satellite, cell deterioration […] progresses quickly. Charging to 3.92V/cell appears to provide the best compromise in term of maximum longevity, but this reduces the capacity to only about 60 percent” → I be fine with that for earbuds for basically infinite battery duration), etc.

Now I do realise I’m not the only one, see for example:

Fairphone True Wireless Stereo (TWS) Earbuds: how to enable Voice Through in calls

It seems that the Voice Through option only works when listening to music, but I can’t use the 2-second tap while in a phone call or in any other way using the microphone. Is there a way to do this? I thought the voice through is actually used for usage during calls. Having a call without voice through is really annoying as you can’t hear yourself talk, which is currently an issue I have when using the earbuds.

FP TWS earbuds experience/feedback

Hi all, I’ve been using the FP TWS earbuds for a few days since my other set got a loose connection. A few things I’ve found frustrating: There’s no way to turn the earbuds off without the case. If I put them in my pocket it’s likely that the random touching will trigger various controls on the earbuds. Whilst in my ear they will occasionally randomly start and stop the track I’m listening to, presumably because of phantom touches from my ear being interpreted as finger touches They fall out …

TWS Earbuds: How to Keep Them Partially Charged?

Hi Everyone! I feel bad having the earbuds’ Li-ion cells at 100% all the time. I’d like to keep them around the usual 40-80% - how can I do this? Is there a way to turn them off / stop them from trying to pair while they’re out of the charging case? Can I just put them in a pouch or drawer and assume they’ll power down after a time? Many thanks!

Accidental calls with Fairphone True Wireless Stereo Earbuds

Welcome to the Community Forum. I’m not sure, but might this be due to an activated Voice Assistant? If so, press-holding the LEFT earbud for 2 seconds should turn it on/off, see the " Music/podcasts/audio" section here:

So I hope I’m not hijacking too much this fairbuds thread, don’t hesitate to move this post elsewhere. But I thought it was a nice opportunity to bring up those issues and push to have them avoided for the fairbuds. I understand for the physical buttons it may be a bit late, but for all the rest please at least just make this app/firmware open-source and let people play with all those options, if you can’t/don’t want to support this level of customisation.

As a conclusion, the tws-earbuds have been mostly usable for me, and done their job. But I now wouldn’t go for another model unless I can test it first, or have enough guarantees that the annoyances above aren’t present.

[_Chris]

The Fairbuds page says there is an Android or iOS app for customizing the settings of the Fairbuds. I don’t use Android anymore (and neither iOS). My current phone runs a Debian based OS. Is there a way (API) to adjust the settings without using the provided app?

[urs_lesse]

I struggle to find any information about any charging level indicator (like the four small LEDs on the TWS earbuds) on the case. Anyone with more success there?

Perhaps the white spot next to the USB-C port here?

[grunge_fox]

Yes, the white spot on the side of the case is the battery indicator. In the Getting Started with Your Fairbuds video on YouTube, it was explained that if you press the button inside the charging case, the light should turn green if it has between 100-60% battery left, orange if it’s between 60-30%, red if below 30%, and it will blink red if it’s 10% or below. Although, charging status wasn’t explained, I’m guessing that it works in reverse, by changing the colour of the light depending on how much it’s charged (still not sure if it would stay green when 100% charged, only turn green at 100%, or maybe turn the light off when fully charged)

Also, on a similar topic, does anyone know how long does it actually take to charge them? On the product page, it says “Charging time: ~2 hours (case + earbuds)”, but I’m sort of confused as to what that means. Is this how long it takes to charge the case and charge the earbuds at the same time? Well, 2h sounds quite fast for 26h of total battery life. And how long does it take to charge just the earbuds (with case fully charged), and how long does it take to charge just the case (without the buds inside)?

[Juan.Bianchi]

Hello @grunge_fox
It takes 2h to charge the charging case, and I haven’t measured the earbuds themselves but I would estimate 45 m to get a full charge.
I’ll run some tests with mine and come back to you I haven’t asked myself these questions

[yvmuell]

German reviews say with a 10min charge of the buds in the case you gain 1.5 hours of use…

[Mangemongen]

Is it possible to completely inactivate the touch controls?

I live in northern Sweden so I have to be able to use them underneath a beanie without the touch controls activating from a combination of hat material and moisture.

If you ever make an updated pair of Fairbuds, please do real buttons. They are so much better. Can be used with gloves and won’t
activate by accident from a plethora of reasons as touch controls do.

With that said, these seem very well made and I really appreciate what you’re doing! Thank you.

[yvmuell]

How big would such buttons be? Cant imagine that this works well. Agree a beanie should not cause a touch though. This is possible in general, at least my other brand inears seem to not easily take action by a none skin touch. beanies are btw not only used in Sweden😉

[urs_lesse]

I have sometimes wished for a LOCK functionaility on my current Fairphone TWS earbuds (the first incarnation), too. And even more often: some way to check which ANC mode is currently on (without having to switch through all three modes anew just to find out …).

However, the only ways I can think of to realize such functionality would probably be either through the source device (read: my Fairphone) or a voice assistant taking my commands.

[Mangemongen]

The logo on the Beats Fit Pro is a physical button.

The only functionality you (might) lose is the ability to change the volume via the earbuds themselves, if you only have one physical button. But play/pause/play previous/play next surely has to be the most used and most important functions.