I went shopping for a new mobile phone this year. Excluded anything that did not include 3.5mm headphone jack.
I don't own wireless headphones, and while I grant it does solve the various problem of wires it clearly introduces the problem of batteries and charging.
(Can you even replace batteries in wireless headphones that aren't holding charge anymore? Never mind, don't answer that, I can guess).
Anecdotally I feel like wired headphones run the battery down less than bluetooth broadcast.
I bought a Motorola something or other. Works fine.
I got a set of Fairbuds XL at work because it made sense to buy something that could last a long time and be repaired and I really wanted to support Fairphone's basic premise — repairable gadgets with long support. Here's my experience with them that nobody asked for.
First of all, the sound is fine. Nothing exceptional but certainly not bad. I'd say they compare pretty well to my Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80 Ohm) or my old Sennheiser Urbanite XL. They also sit pretty well on my head for extended periods of time, which is nice, but will obviously vary from person to person. They don't have any fancy Teams-integration, which is a plus for me but a deal-breaker to others. They hold battery very well. I haven't tested it in depth but I've used them for maybe 3 full workdays without charging them, so maybe around 24 hours of active use and they still had some juice left.
But the firmware... What a disappointment. The headphones have 3 settings, ANC, ambient and "normal". I personally prefer "normal" but the headphones don't remember the setting across restarts, so every time I turn them on I have to sit through the boot sound (because system sounds can't be interrupted), wait for the audio feedback to finish saying "connected", and if a second device is connected, "second device connected", then click a physical button, wait for it to finish saying "ambient sounds", and finally click a third time to hear it say: "noise cancelling off", and _then_ I can start using them. It's OK the first 5-10 times but then it just gets really, really annoying.
I went to their forums about a year ago to suggest it as a feature but learned that Fairphone actually don't interact with the forums, it's just user-to-user interaction, so suggestions don't really make it further from there. That's fair, so I contacted their support about it instead. They suggested that I contact the store that my workplace bought the headphones from. (I didn't think that was really going to solve the issue, so I chose to just ignore that.)
They've released 2 firmware updates since then, but no storing mode across reboots. They did however manage to glitch out the boot sound in one firmware update, so it played 2/3 of the audio only to interrupt itself and play the second half of the sound again. The last firmware update fixed that at least.
And before someone suggests that there might be no place to store aforementioned setting, they can store bluetooth pairings and EQ presets on the headphones. The noise cancellation preference could be stored in less than a byte. Unfortunately the firmware isn't OSS so I can't even fix it myself.
Wait, the firmware isn't OSS? Did they ever mention why? I completely understand that they can't open source stuff like a phone's modem firmware, but I don't get it here. Was it written in house or did they use some off the shelf solution (would explain why they can't open source it).
I mean, I know that fairphone doesn't market themselves as OSS centric (like purism does for example), but you'd think that it would fit their ewaste reduction goal in this case.
I agree. Making it OSS would definitely fit the spirit of their business, IMO, but the best we can do for now is to suggest that they open source it and hope.
I want to love these but at the price point you can basically buy 3-4 sets of (likely) technically comparable wireless earbuds that will (likely) last a year or two. How long can I expect fairbuds to last? I can't imagine it would be close to a decade even with replacing batteries
I guess that's also kinda my poorly made point -- I imagine that these earbuds are like any other electronic device in the fact that they'll break in a handful of years and end up being irreparable in some way that results in just replacing them. I'm not sure what the answer is to any of this of course
I used to be on the wired only train until I got bone conducting headphones (shokz). Those became 90% of my usage. I don’t really have problems with battery life or charging now that I’ve switched.
I had a pair of those and loved them until I charged them over night once. I forgot that you're not supposed to do that (or never read the notice, idk) and they were dead in the morning. Severely disappointed now. It's just such a basic feature that you can forget about devices on the charger.
They do compete with external sound. If there’s noise you want to drown out you can do it by turning up the volume. You can also plug your ears or wear ear plugs which I will do on occasion, like when grinding coffee while listening to a podcast.
Likewise if you want to be able to hear the outside world you have to turn down the headphones. On the quieter side you can hear what people are saying to you but you probably want to pause to talk. Medium volume i can hear people talking to me but cant make out what they’re saying. Louder volume they gotta be close or shouting.
They’re mostly used in situations where you want to hear your surroundings. On a plane I use airpods with anc. Around the house or on a run I use shokz. I can wear them all day unlike airpods which I hate the sensation of having the world dulled and something in my ear.
Probably the single best piece of tech I’ve found since getting a smartphone. I wear the all the time, if they break I’m buying a new pair same day. They kinda suck for music but i would never use anything else for spoken word unless I was on a plane or something.
Since they lack noise isolation over ear or tight fitting buds this can be a problem. I have the OpenSwim Pro and they are fine outside except for really high noise. But while on a treadmill in the Gym they could not overwhelm the background noise.
I have been using my current Beyerdynamics for about 8-9 years now, still going strong. I changed out the velour pads and they feel like new. I've lugged them around across the world and commuted with them day in day out.
They have no place in this world of planned obsolescence but I'm still more than happy with them.
Didn't realise motorola's made 3.5mm phones. I have been bound to Asus and Xperias who made smaller phones with water resistance and a 3.5mm jack. Now I think I'm back to Xperia again because Asus have vacated the small phone segment
I finally had to update from a phone with a jack to a phone without and it sucks as much as I expected...
The three first dongles I bought produced static noise in the background, the only that works is the apple usb-c to jack but it's super flimsy and doesn't allow full volume on android.
For the same reason as you I will never buy wireless headphones, it's the epitome of disposable tech, at best you'd get 3-5 years of use, then you'd have to trash them because there is no easy way to replace the batteries
Charging is barely an issue these days.
I use nothing ear 2a earphones. They last 7/8 hours on a charge but I've never noticed this as they charge when I put them in the case (the case has 40 hours charge I believe). I think, since April, I've plugged them in twice.
I switch between these and Sennheiser headphones, which I've probably charged 3 times in the same period.
Some of the other brands have wireless charging for the case too, so if you've set up the charger somewhere convenient that the case is used, honestly I don't think you'd notice it has a battery.
I changed the batteries in my Sony WF-1000XM3 earbuds without too much trouble. Unfortunately I don't think you can easily replace the battery in the case, so I still had to charge the case pretty often.
I'm sure you'd like my (over-ear) Sennheisers. A battery lasts around 20h (2-3x that on newer models), I can just insert a 3.5mm cable and they work, and I have successfully replaced the battery and the earpads. Been using the same pair since around 2017.
The only reason I'm seriously considering it's time for an upgrade is that they charge via a micro-B cable, which was quite frankly unacceptable for a "premium" brand even back in 2017. The question I keep asking myself for the past two or so years is: is that enough of a nuisance to spend another €400?
I don't own wireless headphones, and while I grant it does solve the various problem of wires it clearly introduces the problem of batteries and charging.
(Can you even replace batteries in wireless headphones that aren't holding charge anymore? Never mind, don't answer that, I can guess).
Anecdotally I feel like wired headphones run the battery down less than bluetooth broadcast.
I bought a Motorola something or other. Works fine.