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Fairbuds are Fairphone’s proof that we really could make better tiny gadgets (arstechnica.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

206 comments fedilink hide all child comments

But of course we all know that the big manufacturers don't do this not because they can't but because they don't want to. Planned obsolescence is still very much the name of the game, despite all the bullshit they spout about sustainability.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Biggest complaints I've seen aren't with sound quality, it's with the noise cancelling being bad and the shape of the ear cups (the latter could have just been the shape of that user's ears were the problem).

Mind you, these were reviews from Fairbud XLs released about a year ago. Things could have improved or gotten worse in that time, in any way. I can't tell you for sure.

That said, I don't think it makes sense to correlate focusing on repairability and quality of the product going down. I actually went out and found the reviews I'm referencing simply because the concept is absurd and I needed to know for sure.

Always keep in mind what you say online, Poe's law is forever in effect.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

Nah I wasn't being sarcastic.

As I understand it, in engineering these types of mobile space constrained devices you essentially have a "budget" of space. Every hardware feature you include generally eats into this budget and if you want things to be user accessible or repairable it eats into this budget majorly.

That budget has to come from somewhere, so you can pay it with things like reducing the size of your battery or reducing the size of your drivers which in turn represents a reduction in sound quality.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

I am not a huge sound nerd, but I own a pair of these buds and had to take them out at a busy railway station because it was weirdly quiet and couldn't hear the trains. I think the noise-cancelling is great.

I also own an XL pair, and I have two complaints:

I have a big head, and it puts some pressure on the thing as clamps on my head, I've broken two of the little plastic parts between the pads and the top arch so far. It was from material exhaustion, they snapped. Silver lining was it was super easy to swap out, literally 20 seconds with only a screwdriver and a single screw, and I got their customer support to send me a replacement part in a week both times.

I hear odd noises when I try to use it when plugged in and charging. I suspect it might have to do with Windows, but still. It's barely usable, but the charge lasts long enough to make me not care.