These are great!
I love my these earbuds. They are sleek, well designed, and I can’t tell a difference between the sound qualities of these and my apple earbuds. Yay! I’m so grateful to have found a solid set of good, repairable earbuds.
Simply doesn’t work
The headphones are nice but I need to update firmware and the firmware update option in the app settings just has release notes, no option to update.
EQ is broken and has fewer bands than shown in screenshots
I recently purchased some Fairbuds and was excited to have a new set of earbuds with a replaceable battery. I saw the reviews about the sound quality, but I figured I could EQ it to an acceptable level.
To start, the sound quality is so much worse than I thought it would be. Maybe I’m spoiled, but I can’t remember the last time I heard an off the shelf product that was this bad. I’m trying to not be disrespectful because engineering is hard, and getting this kind of thing right is challenging, but oh dear, I genuinely am surprised the Fairbuds were shipped with such a poor level of quality.
On to the EQ. It doesn’t apply. No matter how many times I uninstall and reinstall the app, factory reset the headset, apply firmware updates, the eq simply does not function, so I cannot eq away the sound issues.
Also, the eq in v3 of the app has 2 fewer bands than screenshots show, so even if the eq did work, I wouldn’t be able to fix it with the same amount of precision that I had been led to believe.
I’m extremely upset and disappointed because I believe in fairphone’s mission and the work they’re putting in, but delivering such a poor quality product in both hardware and software, only serves to reinforce the idea that repairable electronics are of inherently lower quality, which does far more harm to their mission, than releasing the product in the first place. I genuinely believe that not releasing the Fairbuds in this state would have been overall better for Fairphone’s mission.
To start, the sound quality is so much worse than I thought it would be. Maybe I’m spoiled, but I can’t remember the last time I heard an off the shelf product that was this bad. I’m trying to not be disrespectful because engineering is hard, and getting this kind of thing right is challenging, but oh dear, I genuinely am surprised the Fairbuds were shipped with such a poor level of quality.
On to the EQ. It doesn’t apply. No matter how many times I uninstall and reinstall the app, factory reset the headset, apply firmware updates, the eq simply does not function, so I cannot eq away the sound issues.
Also, the eq in v3 of the app has 2 fewer bands than screenshots show, so even if the eq did work, I wouldn’t be able to fix it with the same amount of precision that I had been led to believe.
I’m extremely upset and disappointed because I believe in fairphone’s mission and the work they’re putting in, but delivering such a poor quality product in both hardware and software, only serves to reinforce the idea that repairable electronics are of inherently lower quality, which does far more harm to their mission, than releasing the product in the first place. I genuinely believe that not releasing the Fairbuds in this state would have been overall better for Fairphone’s mission.
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Still broken, doesn’t connect
I can’t believe this app is this bad for this long. It doesn’t connect to my Fairbuds, even though I know they are connected to my phone because I can use them to listen to music. The app has one job and it is an absolute failure. I would recommend people DO NOT BUY FAIRBUDS because of this app.
App just doesn’t work
Well, I said it in the title. The app just doesn’t work. It was hard enough for the app to pick up that my fairbuds were connected to my phone, or to select the colour of the buds. Once I got past those two bits eventually it wouldn’t go any further. The app kept jumping back to the beginning. Hoping it works for some of you 🤷♀️
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App needs serious work
I use the app with the basic Fairbuds, it’s a real experience. Sometimes the app just connects to my paired earbuds and that’s great. The majority of the time I have to go through a fun mini-game of opening the app, being told there’s nothing connected (whilst I’m using the Fairbuds to listen to music) then choosing the colour (why is this even a thing related to the app?!) then I’ve found it’s best to go back a step because the “Continue” button doesn’t work. So then you choose your Fairbuds colour again and hey presto! Either you get to access you Fairbuds or you’re told you need to update to version 0….or occasionally version 65 of the Fairbuds firmware. Neither of these work so it’s time to close the app again and start over. Minutes of fun just to check battery percentage - thanks Fairphone.
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Won’t update
It’s impossible to update the firmware from the app: tapping the ‘Update Now’ button does nothing.
update firmware button is not doing anything
i just bought the fairbuds XL and they’re great but i try and update the firmware, and the little red dot is there asking me to update it, but tapping on the button does nothing
Nice hardware let down by poor software
I’ve purchased both the regular Fairbuds and Fairbuds XL, and while I’m thrilled to have repairable and battery replaceable hardware, this app is a real letdown, particularly with the Fairbuds, going into the Equaliser and trying to adjust the levels repeatedly causes the Fairbuds to crash, it’s really disappointing.
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Not Fully Working
App had issues connecting to my Fairbuds. Would occasionally connect after multiple forced app closures. Tried to complete firmware update but process never got past 33% before freezing. Went into settings and noticed that there were two Fairbuds listed as connected. App was able to connect consistently after I disconnected one of them. However, still can’t update firmware. The Update Now button in the app settings does nothing when pressed. Love the hardware, crossing fingers that the software catches up.
Update: was able to update the Fairbuds firmware to the latest version. Seems that the buds need to be in the charging case with the door open to update.
Main issue now since the firmware update is call quality issues. I can hear others fine but people complain that they are having difficulty hearing me. The problem comes and goes throughout the same call and happens with noise ANC on and off. Pretty bummed since using these for work was my primary reason for purchase. Unusable for calls as is. Really hoping for a software fix.
Update: was able to update the Fairbuds firmware to the latest version. Seems that the buds need to be in the charging case with the door open to update.
Main issue now since the firmware update is call quality issues. I can hear others fine but people complain that they are having difficulty hearing me. The problem comes and goes throughout the same call and happens with noise ANC on and off. Pretty bummed since using these for work was my primary reason for purchase. Unusable for calls as is. Really hoping for a software fix.
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Can't update firmware
App looks fine and works for eq but the firmware update button doesn't work. App crashes quite a lot too.
Not Fully Working
App had issues connecting to my Fairbuds. Would occasionally connect after multiple forced app closures. Tried to complete firmware update but process never got past 33% before freezing.
Went into settings and noticed that there were two Fairbuds listed as connected. App was able to connect consistently after I disconnected one of them. However, still can’t update firmware. The Update Now button in the app settings does nothing when pressed.
Love the hardware, crossing fingers that the software catches up.
Went into settings and noticed that there were two Fairbuds listed as connected. App was able to connect consistently after I disconnected one of them. However, still can’t update firmware. The Update Now button in the app settings does nothing when pressed.
Love the hardware, crossing fingers that the software catches up.
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Crashes. Won’t connect. Terrible instructions.
Finally got the buds paired and this app won’t even recognize they are connected. Even though music is playing. After many restarts the app is now connected. Then it insists I must update the firmware but “don’t turn off the earbuds!” OK, but do I just keep them in my ears with music playing? Put them in the box? Can I close the lid of the box or does that count as “turning them off”? Do I have to keep the app open? Worst instructions ever. Update stayed at 0%. Starting again. App won’t pair. I may be sending these buds back.
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iOS support probably an afterthought
Useful to set equalizer settings and (with some reservations) battery (my iphone shows fully charged as 70%, my fairphone android shows it as 100%, but both correctly shows depletion). Shows there's a firmware update to my headphones, but hitting update doesn't seem to do anything (I can update using my android). Has problems connecting to the headphones if they're not on when the app is opened, it usually needs to be killed and reopened then. Other than that, very fine, good interface and a good accessory to an amazing headphone.
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crashes on launch
App uses to work fine when I purchased my Fairbuds XL around July 2023. Four months later, I cannot launch the app. I’ve tried re-installing to no avail. No complaints about the headphones themselves.
