Fairbuds XL

About Fairbuds XL

Fairbuds XL are over-ear wireless headphones, and the interesting thing about them is not how they sound. It is that you can take them apart at the kitchen table with one screwdriver, and buy the parts you broke.

That sounds like a small distinction and it is not. Almost every pair of wireless headphones sold is glued or clipped shut around a battery that will lose capacity in a few years, at which point the drivers, the ear cups, the electronics and the headband are all thrown away because of the one part that wore out. Fairphone builds the opposite case: the battery lives in the left ear cup and comes out, and around nine of the parts can be ordered as spares.

This page covers the line rather than a particular pair, because there is now more than one generation of it and the numbers moved between them. What did not move is the argument, which is the part worth reading about before you spend anything.

What actually makes these different?

They come apart, and the parts are sold to you rather than to a repair centre.

The construction is modular, in the region of eleven pieces, and the whole thing separates with a standard screwdriver rather than a heat gun and a guitar pick. Ear cushions, the part that wears out first on any headphone, pull off without tools at all. Up to nine components can be ordered as spares.

The battery is the one that matters most, and it sits in the left ear cup where you can reach it. On a normal pair that battery is the end of the product. Here it is a part.

The design is certified under the LONGTIME mark, which assesses longevity, durability and whether a product can genuinely be repaired. Fairphone's audio range is unusual in carrying it, and iFixit publishes a repair guide for the headphones, which is a reasonable independent signal that the repairability is real rather than a claim on a box.

Why does a replaceable battery matter more than it sounds?

Because it is how wireless headphones die, and it is almost never how they are compared.

Reviews measure sound, noise cancelling and comfort, all of which are fair, and all of which describe the product on the day it arrives. The way a pair of wireless headphones actually leaves your life three or four years later is that a charge stops lasting the afternoon. The drivers are fine. The headband is fine. The battery is not, and on most designs it is not reachable without destroying the thing around it.

A pair you can rebattery is a pair with a different lifespan, and that changes the arithmetic of what it costs. A more expensive product you keep for eight years can be cheaper than a mid-priced one you replace twice, and the comparison nobody runs is the one that would show it.

This is the whole Fairphone argument, applied to headphones rather than to phones. Whether it is worth paying for depends entirely on whether you are the sort of person who would actually order the part and change it, which is a question about you rather than about the product.

How does this sit against the rest of the range?

Fairphone makes three things that all make the same argument in different categories, and Fairbuds XL is the over-ear one.

Beside it sits Fairbuds, the in-ear pair, which carries the idea further in one respect: the batteries are replaceable in the earbuds themselves as well as in the charging case, which is harder to do in something that small. It is also the pair the reviews are hardest on, for reasons covered below.

Behind both is the phone line, which is where the company started and where the modularity is most complete. If you are weighing the headphones because you like what the company is doing, the phone is a bigger commitment and a stronger version of the same idea.

Between the two audio lines, the choice is the ordinary one. Over-ear gives you battery life, comfort over hours and better passive isolation. In-ear gives you a pair you can put in a pocket. The repairability argument applies to both, so it should not be the thing that decides between them.

Who should buy something else?

Plenty of people, and it is worth being direct about it.

Anyone buying purely on sound or noise cancelling at the price. The reviews of the in-ear pair in this range are consistent that noise cancelling, transparency and battery life do what they claim while sound quality and microphone clarity are middling for the class, and mainstream rivals from the large audio brands are the stronger buy on those measures alone. If a repairable product is not something you value, you are paying for an argument you do not want.

Anyone who takes calls all day. Microphone quality is the weakest part of the range's reputation, and a pair whose sound you like but whose microphone frustrates the people you speak to is a daily irritation.

Anyone in a country where Fairphone does not sell directly. The in-ear pair in particular is not stocked at retail in the United States, so buyers there import from the maker. That also means a warranty claim or a spare part crosses a border, which undercuts the reason for buying it.

And anyone honest with themselves about never opening it. The premium here is for a capability. If the pair will be replaced rather than repaired whatever happens, a cheaper pair does the same job.

What should you check before buying?

Three things, none of which is on a specification sheet.

Which generation you are being sold. There is more than one, and the later one is reported to have changed drivers, noise cancelling and battery while keeping the modular design. Listings do not always make it obvious, and the difference is real.

Whether spare parts ship to your address. The entire premise collapses if the battery you will need in three years cannot be delivered to you. Check that before the purchase rather than after, because it is the one thing that decides whether this product is what it claims to be for you specifically.

Whether you can hear them first. The repairability is measurable and the sound is a matter of taste, and this is a range where the second is more contested than the first.