True Wireless Stereo Earbuds 🎧

[Incanus]

So I’m happy, that I cancelled my order. That’s not Fairphone like .

[Martin_Anderseck]

Well, recently I stumbled upon some discussion about the TWS on Reddit:

r/fairphone - Warning about the True Wireless Stereo Earbuds

Now it is at least clear to me that the development effort was probably not too big, however I still don’t understand the concept behind this. Is this just to have an excuse for the missing headphone jack? Would be interesting to see if the “original” headphones are just as friendly to their batteries as the Fairphone ones claim to be or if this - next to probably other materials - is a differentiator.

[Dosenheini]

Well, I think they just needed something (dont give a sh*t what) to compensate for the lack of a headphone jack.

Then I continue to use my many years old headphones or buy samsung earbuds. I never thought it would be like this again, but Samsung is better there.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Live Teardown

[anon9989719]

Even looking at the Samsung buds I’m not sure if I could repair it without too much concern and imagine 99% of users of the Samsung earbuds would bother even considering it.

So at least for 99% of users they can buy Fairtrade buds from Fairphone, which in the long run is a wider ethical choice.

Still I’ll be sticking to wired earphones, and over the ear where possible.

[Andreas_Schneider]

I haven’t seen a reply to the question @aidan asked, but this is the go/no-go one for me as well:
Can some share their experience from using them as “microphone devices”, i.e.

• to take a call? @urs_lesse made a statement about “radio communication sound” in this post . Have others who are using them more frequently to make calls observed that as well?
• to make a voice recording (when no call is active, as in a voice message)?
• to use them as a Bluetooth headset for a video conference connected to a PC?

Any insights greatly appreciated!

[Mixigodo]

Hi! I received mine yesterday. When I placed the order I had not yet seen the (really bad) iFixit repairability score, nor the Reddit discussion showing that they are probably a customization of a generic $33 earphone… in any case, they are now mine, and I hope they will be useful to me for a long time .

Replying to your doubts:

@aidan

Hi, does someone know if i’ll be able to use these earbuds to send voice messages on Whatsapp using a fairphone 4 ? i haven’t got either of these devices yet but considering both

• I have not been able to send voice messages through the microphone of the “True Wireless Stereo Earbuds” on WhatsApp or Telegram (the recording was done, but the sound was captured via the microphone of my Fairphone 3 and not from the earbuds mic)

@Andreas_Schneider

• to take a call? @urs_lesse made a statement about “radio communication sound” in this post . Have others who are using them more frequently to make calls observed that as well?
• to make a voice recording (when no call is active, as in a voice message)?
• to use them as a Bluetooth headset for a video conference connected to a PC?

• I have tried a couple of normal calls with a friend: the microphone used here is the one in the earbuds and not the one in the smartphone itself. According to my friend, it sounded nice and clear, but with a kind of noise filter, and echo when changing rooms. I guess it is normal for this kind of earphone microphone sound to be worse than the phone itself, since they are quite far from the audio source, the mouth. By the way, no problem answering or hanging up directly from the airbuds, not touching the phone at all.

• I have not been able to get my note recording app (Audio Recorder on Fairphone 3, from F-Droid) to use the airbuds microphone instead of the Fairphone 3’s own microphone.

• On my Windows 10 computer I could choose, through the audio settings configuration menu, to use the microphone of the Fairphone True Wireless Stereo Earbuds… so I guess you would have no problem using it in a video conference: I used it to send voice notes via WhatsApp web or to record directly in a dedicated app. In fact, I recorded an audio sample which I attach so you can see how it, the microphone of the True Wireless Steareo Earbuds sounds (sorry for my English! Haha). According to my friend, this is the same sound that he listeded in the phone call.

There might be a way to use them as a microphone in Android, but I haven’t found it at first. If you have any other questions maybe I can test them .

My opinion:

They sound fine to me. I’ll use them mainly for listening to music, and with the tests I’ve done at home I like the way they sound. I am not an expert, but I have had very cheap headphones with a lousy sound, and I like this one: for my taste they are balanced, it is a clear sound and the bass is present without being annoying. I find them very comfortable as well. I was afraid they would fall out of my ear, as I wear wired ones that always fall out, but these seem much more stable and comfortable for now.

I still need to try them on the street to see how the noise cancellation works and how good it is, since that’s what interests me most: being able to listen to music on the street without having to adjust the volume too high. They are my first wifi earphones and also my first ones with active noise cancellation, so let’s see how they do for me.

Hope it helps. Greetings!

[TrueCherry]

I can confirm @Mixigodo post concerning mic quality. I tried them on discord by calling my boyfriend: the sound file attached above is what I heard.
This week I tried to have a vocal group chat with people on discord with it and they said that the sound was horrible. I should try again.

It seems that they are okay for phone calls but not especially good (at least) when the quality could be better than what is needed for a phone call.

[Andreas_Schneider]

You rock! Thanks a lot. The sound quality is definitely good enough to give it a try.

[StevenHachel]

Hi there,

when I use both ANC modes, a noise can be heard on both earbuds. Ambient noise is still easy to hear. Is this normal behavior? I find it strange that they rustle slightly in the ANC mode.

---

Hallo,

wenn ich beide ANC Modies nutze, ist auf beiden Earbuds ein Rauschen zu hören. Umgebungsgeräusche sind immer noch leicht zu hören. Ist das ein normales Verhalten? Das die im ANC Modus leicht rauschen finde ich seltsam.

Steven

[StevenHachel]

Ok, just read something. The noise floor is normal when the ANC is active.
Great headphones.

Ok, habe mich gerade etwas belesen. Das Grundrauschen ist normal bei aktivem ANC.
Super Kopfhörer.

[GreenAndFair]

Must note that the right Erabud has a significantly shorter runtime than the left. After 35-90 minutes, loudness 50% or less comes the announced battery low. If I then recharge the right earbud and look for the battery level of the left, it still shows me 60-70%. is in the right erabud the battery smaller? And yes they charge when I put them in the charging case, the red LED is on. Use them mainly for training, 3 times a week and they have at least 1 1/2 days to charge until I use them again. That should be enough even with very slow charging.

[HYauser]

Undocumented feature…? With greetings from Bragi’s The Dash…

I used to own “The Dash” Earbuds (first real wireless headphones, “fitness tracker” and more)…
Since volume was controlled by swiping up or down on the right earbud I did so with my TWS.
Surprisingly it works kinda: swiping on the right earbud volume turns up, swiping on the left, the volume turns down.

I miss my Dash but it was end-of-life and end-of-company due to technical success… Nice to have this feature now fairly…

[TrueCherry]

@GreenAndFair :

Must note that the right Erabud has a significantly shorter runtime than the left

I don’t monitor how much time I use mine, but what you describe neither happened to me or my boyfriend… For him, both earbuds where announcing battery low only after a 4 hours of RPG session (!).

I think yours can have a defect. Try contacting fairphone support?

---

@HYauser :
Yes, some people discovered that on reddit too or maybe here! Indeed an interesting feature. I just want to add that you don’t even have to swipe: touching the sensitive area of the left or right earbud enough time (~less than a second) works too.

[urs_lesse]

@TrueCherry

I just want to add that you don’t even have to swipe: touching the sensitive area of the left or right earbud enough time (~less than a second) works too.

Volume control is now included in the Support article, too.

[BurhanBudak]

Fairphone should make SBC HD native. As its free and better then AptX, it doesn use that much computing power for encoding and has better quality.

[Johanna_Jackson]

Hi, earpods are working well for me so far but does anyone know if I can get a replacement silicone ear cap? I can’t even find the size to buy some non-Fairphone ones.
Thanks,
Jo

[urs_lesse]

Welcome to the Fairphone Community

If you are in urgent need, I would recommend to start a search topic in this forum’s unofficial marketplace. Specify which of the three sizes you need, my guess is that your chance will be better the smaller the cap you need

Other than that, @Martin_Anderseck already linked here in this topic to a Reddit discussion before that found the likely model that Fairphone based its TWS earbuds on. Maybe that can help your search for compatible caps. Other than that, I can only say that the discontinued Fairphone Modular Earphones’s caps do not fit, and neither do my old Sony MDR-EX15AP caps.

[Johanna_Jackson]

Great thanks, I’ll give the marketplace a go!

[luciechln]

Hi there,

I got the fairphone wireless earbuds for christmas and I really love them, they’re great for my day to day activity (listening to music, zoom call on my laptop)
But I have a problem that I haven’t read about in this discussion before. When I’m answering a call with the earbuds on my phone, the microphone isn’t activated unless I keep my finger on the left earbud. It’s not very practical to do so during the whole conversation, but otherwise the microphone doesn’t work : my caller says they can hear me from really far apart, the audio is very faint and difficult to understand. It clears up when I keep the finger on the left earbud, as i said before.
Myabe I should precise that my current phone is an Iphone 11 with IOS 15.0 on it. The other commands of the earbuds work perfectly, and when I keep my finger on the left earbud without calling anyone it activates Siri (so it activates the microphone).
Does any one has the same issue/ know how to make the microphone works when on a call on a iPhone ?
Thanks a million

[urs_lesse]

Update by Miquel Ballester with some relevant new information:

Taking it step by step: An update on the Fairphone True Wireless Earbuds

Originally published at: Taking it step by step: An update on the Fairphone True Wireless Earbuds - Fairphone Since day one, we’ve been leading the push to empower consumers with viable alternatives to the make-use-dispose trend in electronics. Keeping products in use longer decreases their environmental footprint, therefore easy repairability of products is essential. No surprise that Fairphone fully supports the Right to Repair. It’s a huge part of our mission to change the industry. In…

Most significantly in my eyes:

For instance, the batteries are not replaceable and the earbuds are not repairable.
In the spirit of transparency, we’ve added this information clearly to our product page because our customers might not be aware of the challenges this new category still brings us and we are working to offer the separated replacement parts in our webshop in the next few weeks.

Let’s hope that’s not just the silicone parts. {@UPPERCASE recently raised doubts whether a replacement individual earbud can be RE-paired with the remaining one at all.)

Other than that, the article specifies that the battery allows for 800 charging cycles. By the way, my own experience with its battery life is excellent so far. I think I only charged the case 3-4 times so far.