[HN Gopher] Fairbuds: In-ear with replaceable batteries
___________________________________________________________________
Fairbuds: In-ear with replaceable batteries
Author : pfooti
Score : 252 points
Date : 2024-04-09 17:09 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (shop.fairphone.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (shop.fairphone.com)
| skadamat wrote:
| These look pretty compelling. I'm looking forward to the iFixIt
| teardown
| UniverseHacker wrote:
| Very cool! I am curious if it takes standard batteries, or
| something custom from them that will be unobtainable in a few
| years?
|
| I'm also curious if the noise cancelling is any good... I'm tired
| of being locked into overpriced low quality Bose products, but
| historically they have been the only ones with truly good noise
| cancelling. As I have ADHD I need really good noise cancelling to
| do my job in an open work environment.
|
| Lastly, I'm wondering what the deal is with the earbud tips, as
| I've found I often need a custom or weird sized one to get things
| to stay in my ear. The Bose ones generally work for me, as they
| come with a large array of sizes, but the photos make this look
| like just a single size.
|
| I'll keep an eye on these- if I can answer these 3
| questions/issues I'll buy a set.
| blackeyeblitzar wrote:
| I don't think they're standard batteries given the specialized
| form factor (size/shape/weight). On the spare parts page for
| the Fairbuds (https://shop.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-
| parts-4?categ...) there is nothing mentioned about the battery
| specifications, so I assume it's proprietary. That said, the
| parts are cheap - less than 10 euros for replacement earbud
| batteries is very reasonable.
|
| For earbud tips - you can get aftermarket replacements of many
| sizes and shapes for cheap. Look on Amazon or Alibaba, but some
| brands are more well known like Spinfit.
|
| As for active noise cancellation - my experience has been that
| anything outside of Bose or Sony is only OK at best. I doubt
| these are any better than the average set out there. But with
| the right aftermarket tips you can improve the quality of
| isolation on cheaper earbuds significantly.
|
| EDIT: others have pointed out that the batteries are indeed
| standardized.
| Ringz wrote:
| They have standard batteries:
| https://www.eemb.com/product-241
| morsch wrote:
| I can't find this on the product webpage (why?!), but
| reportedly the battery _is_ standard, it 's a LIR1054.
|
| https://www.heise.de/news/Fairphone-Fairbuds-In-Ears-mit-Wec...
| pge wrote:
| The battery looks like a standard hearing aid battery
| ssl-3 wrote:
| Fantastic! The best part about hearing aid battery standards
| is that there are so many of them to pick from!
| mitthrowaway2 wrote:
| Do consumer standard lithium-ion batteries exist yet? (Aside
| from 18650s, which might barely count).
|
| It's 2024; how come companies like Sony, Panasonic, Energizer
| and Duracell haven't jumped on offering one or two standard
| replaceable lithium-ion cells, with integrated circuit
| protection and slim enough for modern consumer electronics,
| that people can buy off-the-shelf in drug stores? Many devices
| are still running on alkaline batteries these days, like smoke
| detectors and kitchen scales.
|
| It didn't take that long in the old days for standards like AA
| and AAA batteries to hit the market, and they didn't worry too
| much about applying them to new chemistries with differing
| voltages. And with efficient DC-DC converters that are cheap
| enough to introduce into consumer electronics, battery voltage
| hardly even matters that much nowadays.
| criddell wrote:
| Do these count:
|
| https://energizer.com/batteries/energizer-ultimate-
| lithium-b...
| colinng wrote:
| They're really light and last a long time, but are not
| rechargeable.
| criddell wrote:
| I think you are moving the goalposts. The batteries I
| linked to are consumer standard lithium chemistry
| batteries that people can buy off-the-shelf in drug
| stores and be used in smoke detectors and kitchen scales.
| UniverseHacker wrote:
| No we're talking about rechargeable batteries here...
| disposable lithium are too expensive and wasteful for
| frequently used high drain devices. I love them for
| emergency equipment like spot trackers and emergency
| strobe lights
| mitthrowaway2 wrote:
| When I said lithium-ion I was indeed referring to
| secondary (rechargeable) batteries. Apologies for not
| making that clear.
|
| AA and AAA Nickel-metal-hydride rechargeable batteries
| exist, but it doesn't seem anyone ever made a li-ion
| equivalent.
| UniverseHacker wrote:
| Kind-of, you can typically get rechargeable lithium versions
| of the same form factor as alkaline batteries, as well as the
| fact that many "proprietary" batteries like digital camera
| batteries are actually pretty common and standard, or widely
| available. For example, if you design a device to take
| standard gopro batteries, that will be easy to get for a long
| time. Standard button cells, which have been lithium for a
| long time, can be obtained in rechargeable versions.
|
| However a major issue is that the charging
| circuitry/method/design is not standard for rechargeable
| versions of non-rechargeable standard batteries. So you often
| need to remove it and charge it with a charging system from
| the battery manufacturer instead of charging in place.
| morsch wrote:
| I've had a few gadgets -- for example, an Instax bluetooth
| instant photo printer -- that ran off of batteries originally
| introduced by Nokia for phones around 2000 (BLC-1/2),
| including charging them. I doubt many people buy them for
| their Nokia 3310 these days, but they're readily available
| from many manufacturers[1]. I think some old Canon DSLR
| battery form factor is used similarily.
|
| [1] Many manufacturers, possibly a single factory somewhere
| in China.
| j16sdiz wrote:
| The wikipedia page list a full pages of li ion battery sizes
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes
| mattkevan wrote:
| I bought a set of AA lithium from Amazon not too long ago,
| hoping to solve the problem of disposable batteries. They had
| a micro USB port in the side for recharging and everything.
|
| Sadly, they were crap and stopped working after one charge.
| More e-waste.
| maxglute wrote:
| These look great, hope ANC performance competitive. Lack voice
| pass through though.
|
| Should have fairphone branded on the the case insetad of fairbud.
| blackeyeblitzar wrote:
| Repairability is good and will reduce waste, but I am not sure
| this is going to actually attract customers unless they're
| already fans of Fairphone for other reasons (like ethics or
| sustainability or privacy or independence from big companies or
| whatever). To attract new customers, they need something else to
| stand out from a very crowded space, where there are many good
| choices as far as sound quality, mic quality, noise cancellation,
| etc. I am skeptical that these will be any better than the
| competition on those facets. And keep in mind, 150 Euros means it
| is competing with everything from budget sub-50 products on
| Amazon to AirPods.
| j16sdiz wrote:
| Do they need new customers?
|
| All they need are existing customers buy in these new product
| lines
| whazor wrote:
| Assuming there is a maintainability premium, EUR150 seems too
| little for great earbuds.
|
| I got attached to my AirPods Max. They allow me to have
| meetings next to people who are also in meetings. Even if they
| are in the same meeting.
| e12e wrote:
| > have meetings next to people who are also in meetings. Even
| if they are in the same meeting.
|
| I know what you mean, but still had to laugh :)
| dingnuts wrote:
| I'm interested to hear how the AirPods solved the problem of
| everyone around me hearing me speak to my computer,
| definitely causing them annoyance and possibly violating my
| NDA, depending on where I am for that meeting.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| > I am not sure this is going to actually attract customers
|
| What's worse is that if/when the market demands replaceable
| batteries, it's an easy feature for everyone else to clone.
| blackbeans wrote:
| Sure, it's possible to make the battery removable, but why
| would they do that? It was the manufacturers (e.g. Apple) who
| decided to make the battery non-removeable in the first
| place, as it allows for a more compact design and more
| revenue.
|
| Also the batteries would have to be ordered as a spare part
| years after the product launched, and most cheap
| manufacturers are horrible with sustained support.
| nolongerthere wrote:
| I'm most curious about if the connection issues have been
| resolved for non-AirPod earbuds, I have AirPod pros that I'm
| looking to replace, but last time I looked at all the
| alternatives it was really annoying to switch between devices.
| talldayo wrote:
| Multipoint Bluetooth (which these feature) covers my use case
| 95% of the time. The gist is that certain headphones can
| connect to 2 Bluetooth endpoints and switch between whichever
| one is actively sending audio. If you step away from your
| desktop and start playing something on your phone, it will grab
| the phone's input and take over from there.
|
| It's not a carbon-copy of Apple's approach, but I've had issues
| with iCloud switching too so I'm rather glad it's not. Plus,
| the Multipoint approach works with all my weird stuff like my
| Switch and smart TV.
| lloeki wrote:
| > The gist is that certain headphones can connect to 2
| Bluetooth endpoints and switch between whichever one is
| actively sending audio
|
| I hate multipoint bluetooth. It only seems to work in the
| most basic of scenarios and nobody appears to have been
| testing the damn thing out of that in real life. Yes Bose I'm
| looking at you.
|
| Good <deity> that is stupid hellhole of having audio stolen
| from you because some audio happened to play on the second
| device because you (or an unattended browser autoupdate)
| (re)opened some youtube tab, or constant nags about "foo
| disconnected / foo connected" when at range limit, or you
| took a call on your computer and moved and got out of range
| and sure enough it swaps to your phone which decides "oh sure
| you probably want to enjoy some loud music" and helpfully
| proceeds to blow your eardrums.
|
| <Deity> forbids you have more than two regularly used devices
| in which case it's completely useless anyway.
|
| Meanwhile my Beyerdynamic is not multipoint, it merely
| remembers what it has been paired to (I'm up to six devices
| now) and just connects to the last one on power up. If I want
| to use them from another previous one I just pop in bluetooth
| quick settings and choose "connect to FreeBYRD" which
| disconnects them from the other one, y'know, like we used to
| do when there were actual wires plugged into actual physical
| plugs, which BT is a glorified copperless version of anyway.
| talldayo wrote:
| I'm not steelmanning Bluetooth as a whole, or wireless
| audio as a sterling concept. Multipoint Bluetooth is better
| than iCloud switching, in my experience. In the rare
| situation where I'm juggling three devices at once, I turn
| off Bluetooth on whatever I'm not using and keep on
| rolling.
|
| I can believe that some manufacturers dropped the ball on
| it, but none of my headsets are really that finnecky.
| Jabra, Sony, JBL, Samsung and even Skullcandy all seem to
| have good implementations from what I've seen.
| Fundamentally, any protocol-level solution is better than
| playing Monkey in the Middle with Bluetooth MAC addresses
| online.
| fragmede wrote:
| > In the rare situation where I'm juggling three devices
| at once
|
| If you're not running into that situation very often,
| then you're not going to consider problems with it a
| problem. Personally, between my personal phone and
| laptop, and my work phone and laptop, turning off
| Bluetooth isn't a good enough solution, especially
| because I also have a Bluetooth keyboard, and mouse in
| the mix as well.
| talldayo wrote:
| When I do carry two computers, they're not going to both
| feature iCloud syncing. Multipoint is still the more
| seamless option for me, but I guess you could pass the
| point of utility if you own 3+ iDevices with nothing else
| to sync.
| lloeki wrote:
| Oh I'm not using any iCloud switching either, just
| straight up Bluetooth connection requests from previously
| paired devices.
|
| It just turns out that two clicks/taps when I want my
| headphones _from the device I 'm currently using_ is a
| mindboggingly more simple, consistent, and reliable
| solution than whatever a headphone's vendor firmware
| tries to intuit about what I actually want to do from the
| fact that it's receiving audio.
| amelius wrote:
| Speaking of bluetooth, does anyone know of a USB bluetooth
| dongle that is Linux compatible and has a range of like 30
| meters? Asking because my headphones always lose connection
| when I walk to the kitchen.
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| USB-C is a plus. No wireless charging is a bummer.
|
| Something built to last for ten years would be intriguing. I'm
| still using my Samsung Galaxy Buds+ from 2020 as my daily driver.
| I prefer the capsule case to the box design of later models, and
| all of the internals are still "good enough" that I haven't
| really felt the need to upgrade. Even the lack of ANC hasn't been
| a dealbreaker--the passive noise cancellation just from having a
| solid seal around the ear has been enough to happily use on a
| plane.
| barbazoo wrote:
| > Old batteries should never be the end of your earbuds. That's
| why we designed the Fairbuds with replaceable batteries - in the
| charging case and both buds!
|
| This is awesome. At first I thought they cheated and only made
| the case battery replaceable.
| nicoty wrote:
| Would've been nicer if they made the batteries hot-swappable
| like on these: https://pqearbuds.com/products/longest-lasting-
| interchangeab...
| koinedad wrote:
| I really like the idea of this since I've been through a few
| pairs of AirPods. I'm not digging the shape as much but love the
| idea.
| bdcravens wrote:
| I haven't replaced a pair of AirPods other than wanting
| upgraded models.
| VyseofArcadia wrote:
| And of course they don't ship to the US. I'll be picking these up
| as soon as I can find a way to buy them. Maybe Murena will sell
| them soon, like they do the Fairphone.
| segasaturn wrote:
| Notably Fairphone removed the headphone jack on their phones so
| that they could sell us these wireless earbuds. I appreciate that
| the battery is replacable on these buds, but not worth it imo!
| After all, wired earbuds don't even need batteries. :(
| nebalee wrote:
| Wired USB-C earbuds exist.
| user_7832 wrote:
| Batteries are just one of the many issues when headphone
| jacks are removed. (Also you can totally use wireless/usb-c
| headphones with phones with jacks, but that's something
| hopefully people realize.)
| ssl-3 wrote:
| They do exist, but USC-C headphones include _an entire USB
| sound card_ instead of -- you know -- just some headphone
| electromagnetic bits.
| aeyes wrote:
| So use any of the ~10$ USB-C to headphone dongles with your
| favorite headphones. For example the Apple or Google
| adapters work fine.
| 8zah6q7 wrote:
| The Apple USB-C to 3.5 mm TRS adapter in particular is a
| great value. https://www.audioreviews.org/apple-audio-
| adapter-review/
| Kirby64 wrote:
| "an entire USB sound card" is literally a single piece of
| silicon (plus some passive components like resistors and
| capacitors) that can cost less than 10 cents to
| manufacture. Not exactly a huge burden here.
|
| Additionally, unlike a 3.5mm jack, you don't need to deal
| with a 'sound card' that can handle almost anything you can
| plug into it. You get to tailor your headphone/headset
| drivers specifically to your attached devices. The general-
| purpose device that can handle anything you can throw at it
| costs much more.
| TylerE wrote:
| You know the wireless earbuds have the exact same circuitry
| built in, right?
| user_7832 wrote:
| I was wondering/hoping someone would raise this point.
|
| Wireless earbuds being repairable is great, but you don't need
| to remove the jack for that.
| petsfed wrote:
| Counterpoint:
|
| The material and monetary cost of the number of wired
| headphones I've destroyed in the 6 years before I got wireless
| head phones (because there was no realistic way to stow the
| cabling for the activity I was involved in) probably approaches
| the cost of the 2 pairs of wireless headphones I've owned in
| the last 6 years.
|
| I don't think they cut the headphone jack _just_ to sell these
| headphones. While it is true that you can make a headphone jack
| as water-resistant as the rest of the phone, every hole you put
| in the phone adds to the design and assembly cost to maintain
| the same IP rating. And each hole _significantly_ adds to the
| complexity of repairing that phone in such a way that it
| maintains that IP rating after the repair.
| gibolt wrote:
| Same. I've been using a tiny pair of wireless headphones for
| ~5 years. If anything were to break, it is fairly easy to
| order replacements on Ebay which causes nothing new to be
| manufactured.
|
| A set of small wireless headphones uses far less material
| than a large pair of wired headphones. Not saying it is a
| direct replacement, just that everything has some
| environmental impact, and fretting over one tiny device
| misses the forest for the trees.
| hyperpl wrote:
| Counterpoint:
|
| I've lost either the earbuds or case of so many wireless
| earbuds during the past 4 years that I could have afforded
| 2-3 much higher quality wired earbuds.
| markhahn wrote:
| do you also lose phones themselves? keys? pens?
|
| I probably outed myself as an old with the latter question
| ;)
| jszymborski wrote:
| It's way easier for me to lose something the size and
| weight of a nickel than a phone. Not to mention ear buds
| do on occasion come lose and fall. With wired headphones,
| they dangle, but wireless buds fall into all manner of
| nooks, drains, and bottomless caverns.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| If my phone hung off my ears and weighed so little that I
| could miss it, then I would be very nervous about it.
| vundercind wrote:
| Phones: if not for Find My, oh god yes.
|
| Keys: All the time. Now I have a tile on them.
|
| Pens: lol yes, it's why I've never tried to get into
| very-nice pens.
|
| I'd have lost my AirPods several times without find my.
| I'm certain I'd not have managed to keep both buds more
| than a couple months if I weren't very diligent about
| putting them back in the case when I'm not actively using
| them.
| ponorin wrote:
| people seem to forget that having a headphone jack doesn't
| preclude one from using wireless earbuds. if you grind thru
| many wired earphones for some reason, great, you do you. for
| others, they will hang onto it much longer and it will be
| more sustainable _and_ cheaper.
| petsfed wrote:
| And I'm not speaking to the fact that you can use wireless
| headphones with a phone with a 3.5mm jack.
|
| I'm saying that for the objectives Fair set out for
| themselves, dropping the headphone jack is low-hanging
| fruit. Its one more piece that fails, it fails as a
| consequence of normal use (there's no way to baby the
| headphone jack, or the power jack, in such a way that it
| doesn't eventually fail from repeated usage. Indeed,
| they're explicitly rated for number of cycles (typically
| around 5000 for a headphone jack, which is consistent with
| daily usage for 3 years, well below their 5 year warranty.
| By comparison, I'm seeing 20k cycles for a cheap usb-c
| port, which is a lot more defensible for a 5 year
| warranty)), and it makes maintaining their IP rating after
| a repair much harder (doubly so, given that they want users
| to be able to repair their phones).
|
| All for a feature that, given the price point, won't even
| be used by the majority of users.
| hughesjj wrote:
| Wait, can you not just replace the wire?
|
| Don't get me wrong the replacement cables can often run like
| $50 but still, it's not exactly breaking the headphone
|
| I love my wxm4s but I'm on my third pair due to battery life.
| Wish they had user replaceable batteries... Heck at least for
| the case
| RockRobotRock wrote:
| You could always buy a dongle which doesn't seem like the end
| of the world to me
| segasaturn wrote:
| Even Apple has given up on the "just use a USB-C dongle"
| approach to peripherals.
| nickthegreek wrote:
| by given up, you mean actively sale.
|
| https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MU7E2AM/A/usb-c-
| to-35-mm-...
| MildlySerious wrote:
| Plugging into a USB-C port in the center of the bottom side
| feels a lot less sturdy than plugging into the audio port
| closer to the side. Decreased the lifetime of the wires by a
| lot as well, it felt like. I've tried for a while before
| finally giving up and getting bluetooth earbuds.
| mafuyu wrote:
| The industry seems to have settled on USB-C dongles as the
| solution for wired headphones. They're a little clunkier, but
| they do work pretty well, and you get options for the DAC.
|
| Headphone jacks were a major wear item on older smartphones,
| and waterproofing them is very annoying as well, requiring a
| ton of adhesives. I had to take the back glass off my old
| Xperia Z2C three times over its life to replace the headphone
| jack, and the waterproofing was totally shot after doing so. At
| the end of the day, I honestly don't mind the trade off,
| although I can see how it can be annoying for others.
| jszymborski wrote:
| > Headphone jacks were a major wear item on older smartphones
|
| I've had the area around jacks get scratched over the years,
| but I've never had them fail due to mechanical wear. Is this
| common for others?
|
| I've certainly had the micro and mini USB ports fail on me
| over the years though.
| Semaphor wrote:
| Yeah, never had headphone jack issues, it was always the
| USB port, including with type C now. Sounds like a
| ridiculous assertion to me, but maybe I use my phone
| differently.
| mafuyu wrote:
| I think it varies a lot from product to product, and much
| of it is the mechanical design of the phone housing, and
| the durability of the jack they selected. Plus it's really
| easy to accidentally put a lot of mechanical strain on it
| when the cable gets tugged.
|
| MiniUSB was a busted connector design from the start, which
| is why the industry moved to Micro USB so quickly. Many
| MiniUSB receptacles in the wild were failing after
| thousands or even hundreds(!) of insertions.
| vundercind wrote:
| It was a constant problem in my PC & Android days. They'd
| stop making good contact before long. Sometimes, they never
| would.
|
| Not a problem (like, never) once I switched to Apple... but
| then they removed the jacks.
| dathery wrote:
| My experience has been that it's really easy to damage your
| USB-C port like this if you keep your phone in your pocket
| while walking/running. I always end up with the port loose
| and making poor connections.
|
| I ended up buying a small battery-powered Bluetooth-to-3.5mm
| receiver that I keep in my left pocket, and then send
| Bluetooth audio to it from my phone in my right pocket. It's
| a pretty ridiculous setup.
| atoav wrote:
| I have been running (sports) 16km each week with my Fairphone
| 3 in my pocket and wires headphones, for roughly 3 years now
| on top of that less harsh daily use during commutes -- still
| no issues.
|
| As an electronics guy the jack is rarely the issue, a TRS
| jack has spring contacts inside, so wear should not be an
| issue unless they use the shittiest of connectors or you
| actually damage the bonding between connector and PCB. It is
| 100 times more likely for the plug to fail and a 1000 times
| more likely for the cable to fail.
| cameronh90 wrote:
| The bonding between connector and PCB seems to fail a LOT
| in certain devices. I've been seeing a near 100% failure
| rate on the USB C connectors over a few years in some
| Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop generations.
|
| I've not seen the same failure in TRS connectors in a long
| time now, but I think that's mainly because few people
| actually use them.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| Hmm, the headphone jack on my iphone 6s is working fine after
| years of almost daily use.
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| Yeah, if only there were some kind of connector which would
| deliver the current to the earbuds. Then you wouldn't need
| batteries at all. Perhaps some manner of universal connector
| which would work with the earbuds everyone already has. But
| that seems too far fetched, we just don't have the technology
| for such a thing.
| craftkiller wrote:
| > some manner of universal connector
|
| Sounds like you want usb type c! In addition to Audio Adapter
| Accessory Mode which allows it to drive a couple pins with
| analog audio exactly like the 3.5mm jacks (and therefore
| enabling completely passive adapters to support devices with
| 3.5mm jacks), usb type c also supports charging, high speed
| data, and video. That's a lot more universal than some silly
| jack that can only support audio.
|
| Unfortunately it looks like at least the fairphone 4 didn't
| support Audio Adapter Accessory Mode and I haven't found
| information on whether the fairphone 5 supports it.
| Definitely a mark against the company if they don't support
| Audio Adapter Accessory Mode.
| k8svet wrote:
| How does "dual point" compare to "multipoint" advertised in some
| newer (even some decent/cheap) ones?
|
| I'm looking to "upgrade" but only because the batteries in my
| current pair are shot. It feels so bad to have things like this
| just go into a landfill when they're perfectly fine other than
| the battery.
|
| edit: oh, these are also 5x as expensive as the $30 earbuds I
| bought 2 years ago that have a really decent sound profile.
| Oooof. Sustainable, at a 5x premium? :/
| nulld3v wrote:
| The "dual point" they advertise is identical to "multipoint"
| offered by other earbuds on the market. Pretty much all earbuds
| that advertise "multipoint" only support max 2 devices.
| The_Colonel wrote:
| There are many other aspects of good headphones than just sound
| quality.
|
| Like your cheap ones certainly don't have ANC which can be a
| dealbreaker. Other important things are responsive touch
| control, good set of microphones, app with equalizer, ear
| detection, wearing comfort...
|
| For my main use case (podcasts), the sound quality is actually
| the least important aspect of headphones.
| k8svet wrote:
| Well the pair I have have quite decent ANC. Frankly, earbuds
| are in the consumer device category where a loooot of people
| fall for brands and hype.
|
| The only criticism that holds is that these have touchy touch
| controls, but for a cost savings of $120, and that being the
| only compromise for me, it's a no-brainer.
|
| This blog is invaluable. I bought a number of the sub-$50
| pairs a couple years back, and compared them against my
| favorite wired IEMs. They're not the same of course, but damn
| good for the money. https://www.scarbir.com/guide/best-
| sounding-wireless-earphon... I wear them 6+ hours a day, or
| did when the battery was in better health.
|
| If you skim the reviews, you'll see that there are a number
| of them that have good frequency response, comfort, multi-
| point. ANC is more or less table stakes, from what I can
| tell. Etc. Things change fast, you really don't have to spend
| $100 to get decent earbuds. Hell, even the Galaxy Buds FE,
| which are very well reviewed can be had for $70USD.
|
| EDIT: Actually, the very latest blog post is pretty
| descriptive of this: https://www.scarbir.com/tws/cheapest-
| airpods-like-earbuds-al... (One of the top on the list the
| successor to the pair I've been rocking since 2022.)
| ivandenysov wrote:
| I'm comparing these to my galaxy buds plus, which I bough because
| of theoretically replaceable batteries:
|
| - pro: 10 EUR for a pair of replacement batteries for the earbuds
| vs ~20 EUR for a pair of VARTA batteries with shipping from
| Germany
|
| - pro: 13 EUR for a new battery for the case. I need to go to
| aliexpress to find a replacement battery for the galaxy buds plus
| case
|
| - pro: replacement process seems to be way easier because it was
| designed to be replaceable unlike galaxy buds plus
|
| - pro: lighter than the buds: ~5g vs 6.3g
|
| - pro: ANC
|
| - con: more expensive. I paid half the price for the buds. But
| that was in 2020 money.
|
| - con: they are bigger: 28.7 x 24.6 x 21mm vs 17.5 x 22.5 x
| 19.2mm
| stronglikedan wrote:
| Considering every new generation of Samsung buds (along the
| same product line) sounds magnitudes better than the last, I
| don't see why I would ever need to replace a battery. The
| batteries in my buds plus lasted me until buds pro were
| released, and my buds pro batteries lasted me until buds2 pro
| were released, so I have no reason to doubt my buds2 pro
| batteries will degrade before buds3 pros come out. And of
| course they will be the best sounding buds on the market so
| I'll buy them, because why even own buds if not for the sound
| quality.
| morsch wrote:
| If every release has improved SQ by that much, the first
| iteration must have sounded just awful.
| The_Colonel wrote:
| No offense, but you sound like the perfect consumerist. I'm
| pretty sure you're going to hit diminishing returns pretty
| soon, esp. if your claim that every new gen is "magnitudes
| better" than the old one is true.
|
| Personally, I was completely happy with the sound quality of
| my first TWS (FreeBuds 3). The only reason I felt I needed
| new ones was a failing battery in one of the buds.
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| The frequency response graph of the buds2 pro is only a
| little bit flatter than the buds pro [1]. In fact, it seems
| worse in the treble region. How else are you comparing?
|
| [1] https://www.rtings.com/headphones/graph/23318/frequency-
| resp...
| thereddaikon wrote:
| I can't wear earbuds that stick inside your ear canal. They just
| don't fit me and are extremely uncomfortable. I have two pair of
| galaxy buds live for this reason. I've even swapped the batteries
| on both pair to keep them going as well. I'm not switching until
| someone comes out with a better alternative.
| thih9 wrote:
| Same. In my case I'm very happy that airpods are a thing, I'm
| not considering airpods pro for that reason.
| ProfessorLayton wrote:
| I'm the opposite, I can't use regular airpods since they
| won't stay in my ears, but airpods pro do so just fine. I
| think it's just one of those cases where multiple types will
| be necessary due to physical differences in ears.
| thereddaikon wrote:
| Definitely true. People are shaped different so there's
| room for more than one type on the market. I just wish
| there was more options for me other than the galaxy live
| and the original airpods.
| ryukafalz wrote:
| Yep, I'm the same way. I wish I could since they seem more
| comfortable in some ways, but they just fall right out!
| Izkata wrote:
| Within the past year, on Amazon there was a rather sudden
| influx of earbuds in a variety of designs that wrap around or
| clip onto the ear instead of going in it. The key term to
| search for is "open-ear" earbuds.
| andrepew wrote:
| I'm the same and fixed the issue by getting some custom eartips
| made. They aren't cheap but have made my AirPods Pro usable.
|
| On-ear headphones hurt my earlobes and over-ear headphones make
| my head get hot so I can't seem to find happiness anywhere. The
| custom eartips I think have gotten me the closest though!
| jmole wrote:
| where did you get custom tips for airpods pro? I feel the
| same way about the stock tips - great sound quality, but I
| couldn't wear them for more than 5 minutes.
| andrepew wrote:
| This is who I used. Went to a local audiologist for the ear
| impression and mailed them over.
|
| https://eartune.com/products/eartune-fidelity-a-pro
|
| Edit: Note that these DO NOT fit inside the Airpods case,
| you'll need to remove them each time.
| The_Colonel wrote:
| Have you tried the vanilla AirPods? I have the Huawei
| equivalent, and they are very comfortable to the point it's
| easy to forget I wear them. Recently, new designs (like
| Huawei Clip) started to appear which are apparently even more
| comfortable.
| andrepew wrote:
| I've tried the vanilla Earpods which are pretty much the
| wired version of that. Those ones at least stay in my ear,
| but my ear starts to hurt after 30 mins or so.
| twobitshifter wrote:
| These are new https://www.bose.com/p/earbuds/bose-ultra-open-
| earbuds/ULT-H...
| ponorin wrote:
| So they finally seemed to have come up with their original design
| after 3 years of selling non-repairable TWS earbuds, great. I
| genuinely appreciate that they are trying to give users more
| sustainable options. Perhaps they can walk back the decision to
| remove the headphone jack as well so that people can use wired
| headphones directly which doesn't use battery in the first place.
| orthecreedence wrote:
| I don't really consider new devices that don't have headphone
| jacks. This wireless-everything craze is so obnoxious.
| hinkley wrote:
| I don't think we've cracked the design yet for no wire
| between the device and the earphones. I have the Shure BT2
| set and I would list my relationship as "I tolerate them". It
| dangles, and if I wear a coat with a metal zipper it has
| connection issues when my phone is in my pocket.
|
| I'm not convinced the new separate ones are better. Behind
| the head may still be the better option, and sliding them
| down around your neck when you need to be social ticks a lot
| of checkboxes for me as well.
| wilg wrote:
| You may not be in the market for wireless headphones then!
| doug_durham wrote:
| Craze??? Wireless has been the standard for portable
| electronics for almost 20 years. It's the norm. I could never
| go back to wired. Too bulky, unreliable, and fragile.
| Grazester wrote:
| Unreliable compared to wireless? ... right.
| bmicraft wrote:
| Nope, I've had plenty of unreliable wired in-ear
| headphones. When used like the wireless ones of today
| they lasted a couple of years at most before the cable
| inevitable breaks (usually near the 3.5mm connector) from
| always moving
| hollandheese wrote:
| That's why you get IEMs with replaceable cables.
| cameronh90 wrote:
| I've had to replace my wired headphone cable 3 times in
| the last 5 years due to wear, unexpectedly each time. I
| still use them because my current AirPods don't last a
| full work day, but I'll probably switch to AirPods Max
| next refresh.
|
| I suspect my particular penchant for wearing through
| cables isn't super common, but at least for me
| personally, I find wireless more reliable for that
| reason.
| LunaSea wrote:
| > I've had to replace my wired headphone cable 3 times in
| the last 5 years due to wear, unexpectedly each time. I
| still use them because my current AirPods don't last a
| full work day, but I'll probably switch to AirPods Max
| next refresh.
|
| How many cables are you able to buy for the price of a
| pair of air pods with broken batteries?
| Fnoord wrote:
| The standard, lol.
|
| Go watch any live broadcast of a band past 20 years. You'll
| notice they use wired, not wireless. Why would they do
| that? Because the latency is lower, the sound quality is
| higher, and the bandwidth is higher.
|
| Don't use wireless unless you absolutely need to. And you
| probably do not.
|
| That being said, I like wireless for a simple reason. No
| wire near the head is very practical with regards to
| movement, and I used to destroy 3.5 mm headset wires
| multiple times a year when I was at school. But those days
| are long gone.
|
| How do they solve that in live performances (also in
| talkshows)? They use mics there, and they use some tape or
| way to attach the mic to clothes.
| zer00eyz wrote:
| Please can we get jacks back.
|
| The audio quality on these battery powered blue tooth
| headphones is fucking awful. IM not a purist by any stretch,
| but a decent pair of head phones is a whole other world of
| music vs anything AirPods like.
| Mo3 wrote:
| Hm. I have Sennheiser and Bose Bluetooth headphones and found
| AAC and AptX HD codecs on highest quality settings (on
| Android in dev tools) to be really good and almost
| indistinguishable from wired connections.
|
| I wouldn't call myself an audiophile, but my hearing is
| pretty good and I'm sensitive to quality loss
| atoav wrote:
| Not the parent, but wvwn if quality was decent. I have
| wired headphones. Good ones. And I just want to use them.
| Sure there are USB-C DACs you can add to your phone but
| meh.
| hollandheese wrote:
| Get a bluetooth DAC like the Qudelix 5k or Fiio BTR
| series.
| zer00eyz wrote:
| >> Bose Bluetooth headphones ... AAC
|
| Funny that you picked these, I have had 5 different people
| tell me to try them, and I own a pair.
|
| I have some pretty broad musical tastes. If I throw on some
| modern, electronic music, or anything pop, these do a
| pretty good job.
|
| The moment I dip into jazz, into anything where the range
| between the quiet parts and the loud parts (read pre 1990)
| is large they just dont perform any more. No amount of EQ
| is going to make up for that missing range.
|
| The best example of this that I can give is Caltrains A
| Love Supreme. On something good there is a looming
| undercurrent in the track, the humming is alive. The track
| is lifeless on every bluetooth headphone I have heard. Hell
| even my Sonos speakers in the kitchen do a better job.
| fathyb wrote:
| A piece of music so beautiful it created a real religious
| movement might not be the best track to test bluetooth
| headphones!
|
| FWIW I find it's still sounds beautiful and full of life
| on AirPods Pro and Sony XM3 without ANC (goosebumps every
| single time), but not really comparable to a basic Hi-Fi
| system, just like Hi-Fi never beats live.
| wilg wrote:
| What do you mean "back"? You can buy a plethora of wired
| headphones.
| wisemang wrote:
| Not much use of there isn't a plethora of devices with
| jacks to plug them into (which is what GP asked for)
| LeonenTheDK wrote:
| Back on phones.
| maven29 wrote:
| If only they weren't also so insistent on also obsoleting
| analog outputs and thus 75 years worth of headphones.
|
| Even worse, considering that they have to include DACs for
| speakers anyway, they still refuse to route analog audio
| out to the type-c connector - just to ensure that cheap
| passive adapters will not impede their shameless grift.
| Kirby64 wrote:
| That "cheap passive adapter" has a ridiculous amount of
| complexity (both in the dongle, and in the chip you would
| have to connect it to to make it functional) that you're
| overlooking. You can't just 'route the DAC in the speaker
| to the Type-C connector'. That's not how these systems
| are built at all, and certainly not something that would
| be functional even if you could just route the speaker
| DAC to a 3.5mm connector or Type-C connector.
| maven29 wrote:
| The USB standard has provision for analog output through
| the MUX, and all compliant MUX/controller chips will have
| implemented this.
|
| https://www.anandtech.com/show/10719/usbif-publishes-
| audio-o...
|
| If this is so non-trivial, Chinese OEMs like Huawei have
| in fact succeeded in analog output. This is despite the
| fact that their receptacles are on a 50mm long flex PCB,
| you don't need another 2 signal layers or an extra
| daughterboard.
|
| The laws of physics are the same everywhere across the
| world. Just because Apple is incompetent, it does not
| imply everyone else is.
| Kirby64 wrote:
| You're talking to someone who works with folks on the
| USB-IF committee. Analog output through the DP/DN/SBU
| pins is not standard these days. A mux isn't even
| necessary in many implementations. Also, this
| functionality in USB Type-C is straight up deprecated.
| Just because it's technically possible (and sure, I
| agree, it is technically possible) doesn't mean it isn't
| more costly, less efficient, and wasteful vs. just
| putting the codec directly in the USB-C to 3.5mm dongle.
|
| Here's the rationale than USB-IF gave in the ECN: >> Few
| hosts support analog audio accessory. Those that might
| could be confused when connected to a device supporting
| corrosion mitigation, but no detrimental behavior should
| be seen. This should be a corner case of a corner case so
| likely zero to very low ppm of this condition. Note, any
| compliant host that supports analog audio accessory today
| is also required to support digital audio accessories, so
| there should be no impact to users."
| craftkiller wrote:
| > That "cheap passive adapter" has a ridiculous amount of
| complexity (both in the dongle,[...]
|
| I believe they are referring to Audio adapter accessory
| mode. What is so complex about two resistors on the CC1
| and CC2 pins?
| Kirby64 wrote:
| Sure, if you use the audio adapter accessory mode, you
| can just get CC1/CC2 resistors. But then you just push a
| ton of complexity (even more-so than the standard codec
| for headsets) into the device. You need additional analog
| muxes above and beyond the codec, which aren't free.
| Nobody implements this anymore, cause it's much easier to
| just shove the codec into the dongle itself. Also, it's
| deprecated as of the latest USB-C specifications
| (precisely because nobody uses it now).
| conaclos wrote:
| Just use/buy an "old" phone with a jack? It is easy to find
| used phones (2021 or earlier) with headphone jacks. I have a
| 2017 phone and plan to upgrade to a 2020 phone.
| naikrovek wrote:
| That makes a lot of sense until you realize those are no
| longer made and are not updated with security fixes, in
| many cases.
|
| It makes very little sense to buy a network-connected
| device which can't be updated. And if you say "put Linux on
| it" it could be argued that you don't know what tools like
| phones are for.
| Pannoniae wrote:
| well, what are they for? and why is saying "put linux on
| it" misdirected?
| squarefoot wrote:
| Running all sort of apps that wouldn't exist native on
| Linux (banking, whatsapp, ...) or whose equivalents
| although better and safer on Linux aren't compatible with
| what the mass uses. I finally settled with a phone (Nokia
| 8110 4G) that does just the phone, the hotspot and the
| occasional low quality photo, then a Thinkpad for serious
| stuff, and don't miss at all a smartphone. But I have no
| use for social media etc. most people mileage will vary.
| Actually I would be interested in Graphene OS, but it
| only supports devices that are either too old or too
| costly for a mere curiosity, therefore I will wait.
| chainingsolid wrote:
| As someone writing this on a pinephone the primary issue
| with the statement is the lack of context. You 'put linux
| on it' and get OSS, and control of your own device. But
| most of the time lose 90% access to the abilities of
| ios/android installs... I can sudo pacman -S dub & ldc2 +
| fav editor of the week. But had to spend hours getting an
| android emulator working to sign up to use the telegram
| install that came with most/all of the distros I've
| tried!
|
| TLDR: you get a pocket laptop instead of a phone, despite
| owning a "phone"
| conaclos wrote:
| I only buy phones with great support for LineageOS [0],
| which is basically the open source version of Android
| with some adaptations... Even if I bought a 2024 phone, I
| would install LineageOS to make sure there are no
| backdoors on my phone.
|
| [0] https://lineageos.org/
| jordigh wrote:
| Aren't the backdoors gonna be in the baseband firmware
| that no phone allows you to modify?
|
| I always felt that we basically "lost" with open source:
| Intel did the Management Engine and phones stuck
| everything in the baseband.
|
| There's no real possibility of having fully software-
| hackable hardware. Someone else ultimately has control of
| all hardware, if they want to exercise that control.
| carlob wrote:
| Pretty much all Motorola phones still have a headphone jack
| Fnoord wrote:
| You can get it back with a USB-C to 3.5 mm adapter.
| kornhole wrote:
| They only cost a couple bucks and can stay connected to
| headphones. One of mine has a microphone block that I
| generally keep plugged into my untrusted work laptop to
| ensure it isn't listening to me.
| jraph wrote:
| How does plugging something help with blocking a
| microphone? The laptop still has its internal one.
|
| One Linux you can still select the internal microphone
| even with something plugged in the jack port and the mic
| is still usable.
| jraph wrote:
| but you can't plug your phone to charge at the same time,
| can you?
| Fnoord wrote:
| Yeah, you can, as you have connectors which allow USB-C
| pass-through on top of the 3.5 mm.
|
| Another alternative is 3.5 mm to Bluetooth adapter from
| your headset. Though those are usually (?) male, and
| hence only work on a female 3.5 mm.
|
| You can buy these for a couple of EUR/USD on Amazon from
| any Chinese brand. Fairphone themselves also sell a 3.5
| mm to USB-C adapter. But this does not have USB-C pass-
| through.
|
| These all do have a disadvantage: physical bloat /
| potentially making device less comfortable.
| sudosysgen wrote:
| Good TWS headphones are better than the vast majority of
| wired headphones.
|
| For example, Sony's headphones have lossless Bluetooth, and
| so do Samsung's, and the quality of the headphones themselves
| is quite good, even by audiophile standards, for in-ears.
|
| You can also get bluetooth adapters for traditional IEMs,
| Fiio and KZ sell good ones.
|
| At the end of the day, there really is no technical reason
| why bluetooth headphones have to sound any worse than wired
| headphones.
| hollandheese wrote:
| > Good TWS headphones are better than the vast majority of
| wired headphones.
|
| Maybe, but there are no high end TWS headphones. None of
| them stand up to even $200 wired IEMs.
|
| >You can also get bluetooth adapters for traditional IEMs,
| Fiio and KZ sell good ones.
|
| I wouldn't call any of the TWS adapters for IEMs good. I
| have the Fiio ones, they are a pain in the ass to use and
| connect. And everyone I've heard from says the KZ are worse
| than the Fiio ones, so I'm not going to try them.
|
| Get a Bluetooth DAC instead like the Qudelix 5k or Fiio BTR
| series.
|
| > At the end of the day, there really is no technical
| reason why bluetooth headphones have to sound any worse
| than wired headphones.
|
| True, true. I just wish they'd make good bluetooth
| headphones. I'm sick and tired of dealing with adapters,
| even the bluetooth ones.
| latentcall wrote:
| I have a decent hi-fi system in my home and listen to a lot
| of vinyl and tapes, and my pair of Technics EAH-AZ80's sound
| pretty damn good using music streamed from Roon ARC (FLAC,
| some 320 MP3's).
|
| I have heard a lot in the past few years of people praising
| cheap IEM's (I still don't get the difference between IEM's
| and a pair of wired headphones) and am curious to refresh my
| iPod Classic to use with some but I wouldn't know where to
| begin.
| karaterobot wrote:
| I used to feel this way too. I don't care so much about sound
| quality, as I'm mostly listening to podcasts and audiobooks,
| but I didn't want to be reliant on teeny little batteries
| that have to be recharged every couple of hours.
|
| As it turns out, the unexpected benefit of not having wires
| is that the cord doesn't get caught on everything all the
| time, and that's good enough to overcome the poor battery
| life for me.
| brewtide wrote:
| As someone who wears headphones basically all day at work
| (painter...) I 100% agree. It's a whole different
| experience, in a different dynamic.
|
| On a similar note, 80% of the time I'm wearing my Sony
| linkbuds -- the ones with the "they have a hole in them"
| passthrough, even though they have the shortest battery
| life of the multiple sets I own.
|
| Realistically, beyond the (not dismissing) "they are trash
| when the batteries die" aspect of things, taking your
| headphones out for 10-20 minutes every 4 ish hours... Is
| probably a good thing for our ears and minds alike.
| woogley wrote:
| I can't believe there's another linkbuds fan in the
| world. No other earbud feels so transparent and light to
| me.
|
| I actually bought a few pairs of these because I'm afraid
| they will discontinue them. Their newer model does not
| have the hole.
| atombender wrote:
| Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless are really, really good.
| A significant upgrade from AirPods.
|
| The first two generations were notorious for connectivity
| glitches, but the TW3s appear to have fixed everything by.
| Great ANC, battery life, ear fit.
|
| They even added multipoint through a free software update
| that came out about a year after launch.
| wilg wrote:
| We don't know if this is more sustainable than AirPods without
| an actual supply chain analysis.
| Lio wrote:
| Quite right. Hopefully they're canny enough to provide that.
|
| I love my AirPod Pros.
|
| They may not have the best sound but having noise cancelling
| headphones I can keep my pocket is transformative.
|
| I love that there's no cable to pick up mechanical noise as
| it catches on things.
|
| What I don't love is buying more Apple stuff or knowing their
| batteries can't be replaced.
|
| When my AirPods break I'll be in the market for these.
| Rinzler89 wrote:
| You need a analysis to tell you that products with user
| replaceable batteries are more sustainable than those with
| glued in batteries?
| ccppurcell wrote:
| I didn't realise the fairphone didn't have a jack input. I had
| a fair phone 2. I'm slowly starting to think the company is a
| scam. My fairphone could have lasted quite a while longer but
| they stopped making the part I needed. I mean we need more
| things like this in the market place so there could be 3rd
| party but there wasn't any option (this was a couple of years
| ago now)
| raffraffraff wrote:
| I'm still rocking an FP3, but the biggest issue is Android
| 13. It's great that they still provide these updates but 13
| alsolutely _blows_ on this device compared to 12. Everything
| is slow. I 'd try Lineage OS but I have a feeling my banking
| app won't work, and tbh I'm done with all that messing
| around.
|
| I'll likely upgrade once the EU finally forces all phone
| companies to release phones with user replaceable batteries,
| and someone produces a phone that isn't gigantic. There
| aren't any medium sized phones any more. Everything's half a
| foot long.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| My android phone will use any USB headsets which also don't
| need batteries. Does that not work on the fairphone?
| jamesrr39 wrote:
| You can get/buy a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter. Annoying that there
| isn't a 3.5mm port on the phone itself but in the grand
| scheme of things not a huge inconvenience & life goes on.
|
| (I have a Fairphone 4)
| kemayo wrote:
| It's easy and cheap to get USB-C to headphone jack adaptors, so
| anyone who wants to use wired headphones can do so. (The
| _Apple_ one is $9, and we know how they like to gouge on
| accessories.) I 've also seen simultaneous headphone-and-
| charging variants for under $10.
|
| Personally, I could never stand using wired headphones with my
| phone, so I wouldn't want to do it. But the option's there.
| lawlessone wrote:
| This is better than a phone I think which requires constant
| updates and support.
| summm wrote:
| > Codec: SBC & AAC No LC3? No LE Audio? So, still HFP/SBC
| telephony with crappy microphone quality and in mono? For that
| price, in 2024?
| blackbeans wrote:
| It's their first iteration and I applaud their effort. It takes
| at least a year to develop something like this and the sales
| quantities will be lower compared to the big brands, so the
| price is understandable.
|
| You seem to belong to group of consumers that wants to
| compromise lifespan and sustainability in favor of features and
| price. That's fine, but it simply means you are not their
| target audience for this product.
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| Isn't more advanced codecs just software? The hardware
| support should be there, given its bluetooth 5.3. Is it just
| a case of them not licensing the advanced codecs?
| petsfed wrote:
| Think about the device that is performing the decoding.
|
| At its core, It's an ultra-low-power microcontroller, and
| the low-power requirements to hit the battery life
| specification while maintaining audio quality may or may
| not allow the kind of software abstractions that make these
| codecs "just software". Once you've licensed the codec, you
| then have to implement it on the micro's architecture, in a
| way that's actually performant. Which in turn may or may
| not require actual Assembly work.
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| Thanks for explaining.
| ipsum2 wrote:
| Airpods Pro v2 was released in 2022/2023 also uses AAC.
| hollandheese wrote:
| AAC is a perfectly fine audio codec.
| markhahn wrote:
| wake me when the firmware is replaceable too.
| ebiester wrote:
| I think the key differentiator here for audiophiles is that they
| are allowing EQ from their app. I think if Resolve, Crinacle or
| similar gets their hands on it (though Crin has his own
| competition in the wired space) and creates a good EQ profile and
| it's competitive, I think this could carve out an important
| niche.
| dsr_ wrote:
| It's not clear to me whether they allow arbitrary equalization
| of enough points (say, 10 parametric or 40+ fixed bands) or
| just a selection among their presets.
|
| Anyone know?
| WheatMillington wrote:
| I've never had airbuds for long enough that the battery degraded
| before I lost or broke the buds. I'm not sure this is solving
| much of a real problem.
| plufz wrote:
| Maybe not for you, definitely for me.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| People are different. I don't do the "true wireless" thing at
| all because I would lose them in under a month. My wife just
| upgraded her Airpods from late 2017 only because the battery
| life had degraded to about 20 minutes.
| INTPenis wrote:
| Maybe I'm crazy here but I think it would be better to have a
| recycling process for earbuds than trying to develop ones with
| replaceable batteries.
|
| It just seems like a lot of overhead for something nobody is
| going to use in practice.
| samtheprogram wrote:
| I have two pairs of perfectly good wireless headphones I don't
| use anymore because the batteries are screwed. No replacement
| method, it's just ewaste. Basically $200+ destroyed.
|
| I have since bought a phone with a headphone jack and stopped
| buying wireless headphones.
|
| Old generation, wired Bose in-ear go for under $50 on eBay.
| Sound quality is better too.
|
| The wire interfering with my jacket took some getting used to
| again.
|
| EDIT: oh yeah, the batteries don't die while you're using wired
| headphones, either. No more 1-ear'ing so there's always a bud
| with battery.
| ipsum2 wrote:
| I'd use them. I got my Airpods Pro v1 replaced once already
| because of the battery life. The v2 has no significant benefits
| to shell out $250 after only using the v1s for 2 years.
| markstos wrote:
| Recycling e-waste starts with de-manufacturing. The same
| features that make tech repairable are the same details that
| make them recyclable.
|
| One of the first steps to recycle an earbud would be to remove
| the battery and handle that separately from the plastic and
| metal.
| robocat wrote:
| They look like custom batteries.
|
| Why did they not use a standard battery like a 18350 or 16340 for
| the case? Other advantages too (easy to find alternative chargers
| and can keep a charged spare).
|
| I presume size constraints would make it difficult to find a
| commodity battery size for the earbuds?
| nutrie wrote:
| I just don't get how they're still around. I'd never spend EUR
| 700 for an android phone. It's sad, but iOS is so much better.
| rvense wrote:
| I've got one a 3+, had a 2 for six or so years before. It's an
| adequate phone, does what I need. I'm far from a heavy phone
| user, though, so it's not so important to me that I could've
| got better specs for the same money elsewhere, I'd rather
| companies have Fairphone's focus than Samsung's focus, so I
| chose to buy from them.
|
| (I also quite like that they only have one model so it's easy
| to decide which one to get)
| lock-the-spock wrote:
| I guess you miss the selling point(s) as you see the phone only
| as its final product and the direct benefits to you. That has
| never been the ambition. Here's why _I_ bought Fairphones for
| my family:
|
| * Fair supply chains. This was their original selling point and
| is still an incredible unique feature. They changed cobalt and
| copper supply chains and established tracing mechanisms that
| now other manufacturers can also use.
|
| * Self-repairable. I switched two screens so far, probably not
| a huge cost difference to the neighbourhood dirty phone repair
| shop, but I feel better about it.
|
| * Social enterprise, giving back to the community
|
| * Nice to know my funds go mostly to a good cause and everyone
| in the supply and production chain is treated well (they even
| pay a premium to manufacturers so workers at the assembly line
| get paid a fair wage).
|
| I am well aware it's not the best phone. It's rather clunky,
| camera used to be weak (got much better with the latest
| update), and I had some small issues. But overall a solid
| phone, I support a de kind of ecosystem that really improves
| things down the line and I don't need to feed Sony or Apple
| execs money.
| opeon wrote:
| Advocate of the devil, but I've never replaced my earbuds /
| headphones because of the battery life. Usually one of them gets
| lost, or actually crushed and breaks.
| voxgen wrote:
| I've had 2 sets of AirPods die because of the batteries aging
| and losing their ability to hold a charge. Though to be fair,
| their microphones failed much earlier then their batteries, and
| noise cancelling gets some really annoying failure modes when
| the microphone has issues. I should have replaced them sooner.
| I also should find a brand that doesn't have consistent
| manufacturing quality issues...
| code_runner wrote:
| microphones have failed for me in the past as well, though to
| be fair, apple gave me a free repair for one issue on their
| end.
| gnicholas wrote:
| I have not yet had this issue because the ANC has improved
| enough with each generation that I wanted to move up before the
| batteries became unusable in my old pair. But I could see this
| changing in the future, as ANC levels out. Also, it's easier to
| avoid losing AirPods these days thanks to Find My, which can
| also now find in-case AirPods.
| wbkang wrote:
| Sony WF-1000XM3,4 had fairly easily replaceable batteries, but
| they regressed with the latest XM5. iFixedIt covered it here
| https://www.ifixit.com/News/79140/sony-just-nerfed-their-mos...
|
| I am still using the XM3 - both the earbud and case batteries are
| repleacable.
| Fnoord wrote:
| I have owned WF-1000XM3, 4, and (currently) 5. I got the 5 with
| discount as replacement for the 4 since the battery of one
| earbud was dead due to a firmware bug.
|
| The noise cancelling gets slightly better each iteration.
| There's another thing the 3 and 4 are better at than the 5:
| easier to get out of the charging case.
|
| Also, while you could replace the batteries in each of these
| versions, the IP rating would be in practice regressed.
| allenap wrote:
| Small thing / pet peeve: the website sets language based on my
| location rather than on what my browser is telling it is my
| language of choice in every single HTTP request.
| carom wrote:
| If these had pass-through audio I would buy them instantly.
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